Page 19 - Fujifilm Exposure_34 Curse Of The Were-Rabbit_ok

CRYING
Loach on Ackroyd
feature in focus
lanterns, keeping a very low level, under- exposing the film, taking the latitude of the film to its limit but still being able to get a good image from that.
“I’m going through a digital route on my latest film [United 93, about the fourth plane in the 9/11 disaster], but when you’re working with Ken, every- thing’s shot on film, cut on film, and printed out without any digital effects – well, maybe just a couple to get rid of modern buildings or traffic. You have to rely on your knowledge of film stock to get the best from it especially when you want to push it right to the limit, which is what I was doing on occasion to get very grainy, soft, almost colourless kind of images for, say, the cells.”
“The Irish weather is of course what really affects the light, which is very soft with lots of cloud and humidity in the air, and it was usually either raining or very damp.
“When we had reasonably sunny weather, the sunshine was never strong – so it kept the look within the soft tones. It somehow worked out that those warmer days suited the scenes we were doing, and at other times the endless drizzle gave the right mood for the more dramatic scenes.
“Whenever we had to shoot over a day or more on a scene, we had consis- tently rainy weather – so that was lucky! Certainly the way Ken works you’ve got to have a degree of luck – because it’s not a question of trying to control the elements, or trying to beat nature. It’s more to try and go with nature. If it rains, it never stops us from filming.
“The techniques we use stay pretty much the same even on a larger, more action driven story. Whereas other films would have been story-boarded, for example on the whole ambush sequence, and would have the camera changing for every movement, with Ken it all flows from the simple positioning of the camera.
“The shots are usually very long. He looks for the logic of where the action takes place and subsequently where the camera should be, very precisely. Actually the military advisors on the film commented on the precision with which Ken was choosing certain locations. Of course, that is a basic principal of filming – both action and non-action–once you’ve found the right place to put the camera, it never stops telling the story.
“There’s always a beauty to reality, and I think it’s fair to say that none of us on a Ken film would ever try to alter things to make them look more beautiful than they actually are. There’s nothing like the real beauty. There’s the odd shot of the landscape that is spectacularly beautiful. But these shots are always full of story, and it’s not the whole land- scape, it’s just a tiny part of it.
“I hope you’ll come out from the film thinking you’ve seen much more of the landscape than you actually have, which works if you’ve got the right shot in the right place. We’ve done things using the mist and the light that give a feel for the place, that you wouldn’t get unless you were there, that are specific to this place. That’s the benefit of sticking to one region – you can see it and feel it.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
The Wind That Shakes The Barley, which opens in the UK on June 23, was originated on 35mm Fujicolor Eterna 500T 8573 and Eterna 250D 8563
What you have to try and do is to try and develop a common taste and a common sensibility so that your way of working becomes something you both
contribute to. For me, it draws a lot of what I learnt from Chris Menges and which Barry independently shared as
“well: a kind of real appreciation of natu- ral light, looking at how light falls with- out trying to do studio lighting that is separate from reality, then to work with it in such a way that it actually enhances the content of the shot.
The range of lenses that we use is to try to view what’s in the shot in a sympa- thetic, observational way so that it’s not manipulative, with some understanding of the people rather than just treating them as objects. That dictates a certain range of lenses. One of the guiding principles has been to shoot in such a way so the actors in the film have some freedom to develop the scenes but still be framed in a way that can be pleasing and sympathetic.
We always shoot in sequence. This means that the cameraman like everyone else follows the development of the story so, in a sense, every scene is an explo- ration. If you work together a lot you can be more adventurous because you know you are both in agreement on the basics.
One of Barry’s great strengths is his operating; we can arrange what’s going to happen in the scene and if I find the right position I know Barry will cover it and go to find the right frame for that moment in the action in quite a free way. That sense of fluidity is in a way a part of the style we’ve developed.
We talk mainly when we go round the locations, for that’s when you’re really confronted by the reality of what you’re going to do. That’s when we talk about everything. One film develops from the previous one. If you’ve got a good partnership going you want to develop it and keep extending it. I don’t really like the idea of changing the team around all the time. The work is very much based on all the other work we’ve done and developed out of it.
A key part of the work is creating a sense of enjoyment and a kind of laugh- ter around the place, also responding to the actors and everyone around. That is as important a part of the work as any- thing else. You could have a cameraman who’s academically brilliant but casts a pall of despair over everyone else – yes, it has been known. That would kill it.
Part of Barry’s strength, as was Chris’s, is just enjoying the perform- ances and work of everyone
else and communicating it so everyone feels confident and appreciated. That’s central to
our work. ■
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 17 ”