Page 9 - Fujifilm Exposure_34 Curse Of The Were-Rabbit_ok

physical effects instead of CGI and with that in mind I decided to shoot the transition from present day to 1958 with an on-set motion control rig and plenty of elbow grease.
It was a risky move, as we were essentially creating one of the film’s main set pieces ‘in camera’. Another decision we made very early on was to try to exclude the colour red from the film, apart from the Red Kebaya of the title. This was an attempt to focus the audience’s attention to the significance of the Kebaya, which, in the context of our story, is a device to link present to past but is also a gift of passion used to symbolise the love John Reynolds (Bob Mercer) and Azizah (Vanidah Imran) discover for each other.
A Kebaya, incidentally, is a tradi- tional Malay garment worn by women for special occasions. Keeping reds out of the film is easy to do when you’re deep in the jungle where greens of every imaginable hue prevail, but
virtually impossible when you’re shooting wide exteriors in bustling Georgetown, Penang.
Shooting in the rainforests was probably my favourite part; however I could have done without the snakes, scorpions, spiders and mosquitoes. It is next to impossible not to get a great shot in the Malaysian rainforests. The place is just so lush and green and big.
Whilst we scouted for forest loca- tions in preproduction, we happened upon an isolated glade. It turned out to be a magical place for me. I knew if the weather was right, if the sunshine was just at the right angle and if we could be ready just at the right moment, we would commit something to film that would be unique.
On the day, it worked like magic. As if we planted every single tree just in the right position, like the wind made our smoke drift and clear just at the right moment. It was magical and we got it. It was one of those spine-tin-
gling moments that you get so rarely at isolated exterior locations where you have control of very little but everything just works perfectly. The cast and crew felt it as well, as
the spontaneous applause indicated.
Did I mention about those ‘Bomohs’? ■
The Red Kebaya was originated on 35mm Fujicolor
“We found
from our
tests that the
Eterna stocks
worked
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 7
Eterna 500T 8573, Super F-125T 8532, Reala 500D 8592 and Super F-64D 8522. More info: www.theredkebaya.com
” extremely
well dealing with varied skin tones.”