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IN PRODUCTION
TESTINGTIMES
EIGHT CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF A NEW JOB ON THE SET WITH EXAM
he parallels are compelling: Tbutterflies the night before,
nerves on the day and any chance of success riding on how well you do under the
most intense pressure.
Independent filmmaking is never
easy, but at least the makers of Exam could empathise with the eight char- acters in their single-set psychologi- cal thriller, who find themselves in increasingly desperate straits as they struggle to find out what ex- actly is behind the bizarre job selec- tion process they have submitted themselves to.
“We thought of an Apprentice style environment where a lot of am- bitious, gifted individuals were going for a prestigious job in a big corpo- ration,” explains writer-director Stu- art Hazeldine, who developed the idea with friend Simon Garrity. “It all came down to this test, a surreal test, where they all turn over the exam paper and it’s simply just a completely blank sheet.”
The ensuing drama sees the candidates co-operate and compete in an effort to understand what they have to do to impress their unseen prospective employers.
Filmed over 26 days at Elstree Studios, Exam was originated on the ETERNA 500T by DP Tim Wooster, using Primo lenses and an 11-1 zoom on Panavision cameras, shooting in a spherical Super 35, 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
Having worked his way up through the grades, gaining plenty of experience shooting second unit, and even before that spend- ing time on set with his BAFTA win- ning father Arthur, Wooster fils was unfazed by the pressure of shoot- ing a low budget film in a single lo- cation, despite the many challenges that posed.
“I was 2nd unit DP on 1408 much of which was also set in one room,” he recalls, “but we had mul- tiple sets of that room with various different lighting sequences, plus water, fire and snow. On Exam, we were all in one room on one set, and we had to change our lighting as we went along.”
No small task then, but the cus- tom built set was duly constructed, before undergoing four distinctive lighting phases – respectively white, ultra violet, red and then white again – and gradually flooded and de- stroyed as the characters try to find meaning to their perplexing conun- drum. This was methodically planned, and labour intensive on each lighting change with scores of bulbs being swapped each time. But that wasn’t all.
“The ultra violet can really get in the eyes of the actors and the crew,” notes Wooster. “You can’t really use too much of it, so we put Congo Blue gel on the lamps, which knocks about 70% of the power, so you need a lot of light. But once you do that it looks like ultra violet coming out of it.”
From the normality of the open- ing sequence, overseen by an invigi- lator (Colin Salmon) who gives the candidates (including Luke Mably and Jimi Mistry) their instructions, this office bound Lord of the Flies scenario unfolds.
For Hazeldine, a successful screenwriter whose credits include the forthcoming version of The Day The Earth Stood Still and Nicolas Cage vehicle Knowing, the opportu- nities posed by his first feature were many and daunting. He had directed a short, Christian, previously and his 1st AD on that was Gareth Unwin, who produces Exam.
“Stuart’s learning curve on Christian was almost vertical,” Unwin explains. “This time he felt a lot more comfortable in the position and felt he had the authority and the breadth of knowledge that he could now lead a team of very qualified crew members.”
A previous collaborator for both Hazeldine and Wooster, it was Unwin’s suggestion that his director meet the DP with a view to collabo- rating together on Exam.
“I knew that Tim’s attitude would bed in well with Stuart’s. Tim is so enthusiastic, full of boundless energy and they seemed to hit it off straight away really. I think the con- sideration that Tim put in to how to affect the different lighting states within the room just so closely mir- rored what Stuart was hoping for that there was a level of trust that built from quite an early stage.” ANWAR BRETT
Exam was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573
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