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FEATURE IN FOCUS
KEEPINGONESTEP
GOING INTO THE FOREST WITH FESTIVAL FAVOURITE DO ELEPHANTS PRAY?
aul Hills’ latest film seems a Pvery long way from the Stevenage setting of his
autobiographical breakthrough
Boston Kickout back in 1995, yet the intriguingly titled Do Elephants Pray? well represents his latest, and most garlanded, feature film to date.
It also marks a reunion with his long-time friend and key collaborator, DP Roger Bonnici, following Boston Kickout and The Poet as well as the shorts f2point8 and Secrets.
This time, though, the autobio- graphical aspect of the story does not come from Hills but his leading man, actor-writer Jonnie Hurn.
“I was in Cannes a couple of years ago,” Hills recalls, “and Jonnie was relating to me his experiences with the woman who is now his wife. While he finished I told him there was a film in that and he said, funnily enough, he’d just written
a script.”
Once he had read it, Hills resolved to make this his next feature, and he quickly secured the services of key ally Bonnici. “If I have to shoot something and Roger’s not available it’s a very sad day for me,” Hills confirms. “He is the best.”
The affinity between the men clearly translates into an efficient shorthand on set, which was useful in a tightly structured, 29-day production that would depict one man’s mid life crisis through a journey from his London home to self discovery in a magical Brittany forest, accompanied by beautiful French girl Malika (Julie Dray).
“We said we’d like to shoot it on Super 16,” Bonnici recalls, “because I just knew that those forest colours would work together perfectly with the Fujifilm stock. Then we came up with the idea of shooting it widescreen because we wanted to make it look cinematic.
“We looked at the possibilities of maybe framing it at 2.35:1 and I thought that would make it such a small negative area. I was a little bit concerned having not shot anything like this before but we did some tests and were very, very impressed with the results.”
Selecting the ETERNA 500T as the sole shooting stock Bonnici was delighted with the range of options it afforded him.
Bonnici is keen to praise his camera crew, particularly focus puller Katharine Higgs, clapper loader Matt King and gaffer José Ruiz, who helped the developing palette of the film change subtly in reaction to leading man Callum (Hurn) as he turns his life around.
The French forest scenes were shot in Brocéliande in Brittany, and these help to convey the life- changing magic that gives impetus to Callum’s journey, which is in stark contrast to the more prosaic cityscapes of his London home.
While Do Elephants Pray? has yet to secure UK distribution it has, to date, met with tremendous success on the festival circuit, playing at five and picking up an award at each.
The curious thing about it is that this is not your archetypal British film; it’s a human tale with a far more European sensibility and is – in
Hills’ view – all the better for that. But above all it is the latest fruitful collaboration between a director and a DP who continue to thrive in each other’s company, as well as operating on precisely the exact same wavelength.
“Apart from being wonderful with lighting Roger has an amazing ability to be positive,” Paul Hills affirms. “You can never get him down. Even if I’m shooting in a field at five in the morning and it’s pouring with rain and freezing cold, Roger is, without doubt, positive and very forward-thinking.
“On Do Elephants Pray?, we worked together planning the film intimately: every lens, every shot, every camera move was worked out beforehand. Then, when we got to the forest one day, and we had prepared to shoot the first shot on a 50mm lens, Roger started setting up as I was walking away to talk with the actors.
“It was then I realised we should be slightly wider there because we had framed out a tree.
“After half an hour I got back to the camera and I said ‘Roger, I’m sorry to change my mind but it’s a 40,’. He looked at me and said: ‘don’t worry, I’ve already changed it.’ He’s always ahead of me and that’s amazing.” ANWAR BRETT
Do Elephants Pray? was originated on 16mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8673
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