Page 4 - Fujifilm Exposure_48 Tamara Drewe_ok

LOOKINGGOODINSHORTS
THE BUSINESS TRIP AND NATIVE SON SCOOP THIS YEAR’S FUJIFILM SHORTS COMPETITION AWARDS
”...WE NEEDED THE
ETERNA 500T
BECAUSE WE WERE
USING PRACTICAL
LIGHTS WITH THE
ODD KINOFLOW.”
WINNER BEST FILM
THE BUSINESS TRIP
Photos l-r: Guillaume Canetin in The Business Trip; Jerry Deeney, Director Sean Ellis and DP Angus Hudson; Jerry Deeney with DP Yoliswa Gärtig; Sean Harris in Native Son far right: scenes from three other finalists (l-r) Freedom Day, Behind The Door and Fanatic
The idea that eyes that see a scene most clearly belong to someone who comes to it afresh is borne out by the winners of the 2010 Fujifilm Shorts Competition.
The Best Cinematography award went to German DP Yoliswa Gärtig for her efforts in painting for Native Son a tough view of humanity in the Scottish lowlands.
The prize for Best Film, mean- while, went to the Paris-based The Business Trip (Voyages D’Affaires) which was directed and shot by a pair of Englishmen.
For director and acclaimed stills photographer Sean Ellis, the decision to reunite with Angus Hudson, who had lit his features Cashback and The Broken, was as important as challenging them both with a perfectly formed 10-minute tale. This, they decided, would be
shot on the same stock as they had used on their most recent film.
“We did a lot of tests before we shot The Broken,” Ellis explains. “There was just something about the grain structure on the ETERNA 500T, and the way that we were lighting with practicals gave a slight bite to what we were doing.
“After that, I wanted to go and make this little short as an experiment to see whether I could direct a film in a language I don’t speak, using the same stock and lighting it in pretty much the same way.”
In contrast to the moody atmosphere of the feature, Ellis and Hudson were charged on this occasion with bringing to life a story with a delicious twist, taking place between just two characters – played by Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet – filmed largely in
the single location of a hotel room in the French capital.
“We shot it in two afternoons,” Hudson recalls. “There was very little art direction; we just took things out more than putting them in. We weren’t shooting high speed but we needed the exposure, we needed the ETERNA 500T because we were using practical lights with the odd kinoflow - little small lamps coming off local power, just to enhance the practical lights.
“We changed a few bulbs in the hotel’s fittings, made them a bit brighter, corrected the colour, blacked out the rooms and we were away. All but one shot of the film was done on Steadicam.”
In their story, businessman Jean Paul (Canet) seeks distraction from the heartache of being dumped by the sensual pleasures promised on a Polaroid photo he finds under his
2 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE