Page 5 - Fujifilm Exposure_48 Tamara Drewe_ok

“I REALLY ENJOY SHOOTING ON FILM. I LIKE THE TEXTURE, THE GRAIN AND THE COLOUR.” WINNER BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY NATIVE SON DP YOLISWA GARTIG
hotel bed. A simple, yet crucial shot involving the chance discovery of this picture, was the biggest single challenge for Ellis and Hudson.
“That was a bit of a thankless task, really,” Ellis notes. “It’s one of the shots that people don’t really notice. The challenge was how do you get the camera three feet under the floor to get that kind of POV from under the bed?
“Sean just said ‘why don’t we use a mirror?’,” recalls Hudson, “which solved lots of problems we had to do with flipping and reversing in post.”
In contrast to this comically inclined, interior tale, Scott Graham’s 19-minute drama Native Son takes place outdoors, often at night, and deals with darker aspects of the human condition.
Berlin-based Yoliswa Gärtig’s task was to craft a rugged landscape on screen that informs and effects the tough lives of the people who
live within it. For inspiration they looked toward Jules Breton’s painting ‘The Gleaners’, which captured the stark beauty of nature while recording the hardscrabble lives supported by it.
In the story John (Sean Harris) appears to be an outsider in his own community. His arduous existence is clear and his troubled back-story is implied, as the entire the narrative builds to the tragic event that will define his existence.
“Our intention was to show how John is struggling,” Gärtig explains. “I think it’s important that the audience can understand why he’s pushed in his direction, why he goes so far. It was interesting that people could still follow the character and not feel any sympathy for him but can still understand.”
Although she has worked in a wide range of countries, Gärtig was unprepared for the rugged beauty of
the Scottish countryside near Annan, location for Native Son’s five-day shoot.
“I was surprised,” she agrees, “but it was also very difficult at times because the weather changes every hour. We have a chase scene at the end of the story, and we shot that over four or five hours, but there was a lunch break in between and of course the weather was different when we came back. So you always had to be prepared to improvise or be creative when the weather demanded it.”
Above all, Gärtig and Graham, were determined to create a cinematic look for their film, shooting on 35mm, and selecting, primarily, the ETERNA 400T to achieve that aim. “I really enjoy shooting on film,” Gärtig continues. “I like the texture, the grain and the colour. Shooting on film is totally different to shooting on digital and,
of course, when you go through grading it’s something different again. Somehow it’s more alive.” ANWAR BRETT
The Business Trip and Native Son were originated on, respectively, 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573 and ETERNA 400T 8583
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