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SEAMUS MCGARVEY ASC BSC
“I WAS SO IMPRESSED BY A HIGH SPEED STOCK WITH SUCH INCREDIBLY FINE GRAIN I WAS ABLE TO CONVINCE THE PRODUCERS THAT WE COULD USE JUST THE ONE STOCK FOR THE WHOLE MOVIE.”
➤ he used the old 400 stock for the film’s flashbacks with, he laughs, “a 10 denier Christian Dior stocking over the lens; an old Hitchcock technique.
“Here we were shooting end of winter going into spring. I knew we’d have a lot of interiors, a lot
of nights but also some days. Previously I would probably have used slower speed stocks for day exteriors and sunlight but I really loved the look of the new ETERNA Vivid 500T, which had only just been introduced and we were among the first to shoot on it.
“The Vivid 500T has a very definite look which was part of the film. There have been a number of recent stocks that have lacked an inherent personality although they might be quite malleable in telecine and DI.
“Here was something that had teeth from the get-go, a contrast and colour saturation, depth in the blacks, which all looked so rich. I was so impressed by a high speed stock with such incredibly fine grain I was able to convince the producers that we could use just the one stock for the whole movie.”
With Bertolucci’s The Spider Stratagem and The Conformist, not to mention 2001 – “for its electricity and portentousness in some frames” – and even the close-up intensity of Dreyer’s silent Passion Of Joan Of Arc as filmic inspirations various, they put into place a very different structure from the book, with its epistolary ‘first person narrative’ form.
“What Lynne did with it was, however, was still to create a sense of being in a world that was the mind of Eva. The camera takes on a very subjective hue and we tried to explore the idea with all sorts of techniques – from depth of field and colour to point-of-view - which stitch an audience into thinking they’re seeing something through a particular character’s eyes. We also shot some sequences on the little Canon 5D Mark II SLR which provided its own attributes and texture; charging down the street in
New York shooting Tilda in the constantly pissing rain was, for instance, quite exhilarating.
“I think this is very different to Lynne’s other films which have a very poetic lyricism. We weren’t going for self-consciously extravagant imagery or even imagery which envelopes you in its beauty; we were going instead for something a little more brittle.”
Then, of course, there was the matter of the story’s pivotal moment: the actual massacre. At the time of writing, ahead of its festival showing and subsequent cinema release, McGarvey remained justifiably discreet.
“It was tough,” he says. “In line with treating the subject with a psychological resonance and also realising that the most horrific imagery is what’s not seen, that was our approach here. This isn’t a gorefest and the thing’s dealt with in a very oblique way but is no less compelling for all that. We devised a way of doing it that is respectful but that’s also very challenging and will, we hope, ultimately ring longer in the viewer’s mind.”
Armagh-born McGarvey – currently in New Mexico shooting a $260m Marvel Comics’ extravaganza, The Avengers – including the characters of Thor, Captain America, Iron Man and Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow – has at, 43, come a long way for the kid who first got his film break when as a student at the local Christian Brothers school, he was given a Super 8 camera by an inspirational teacher.
After three years of a film and TV course at the old Polytechnic of Central London, he stayed on in London hoping to break swiftly into the business but about the nearest he got to cinema was as an usher at the ICA. Work finally did arrive when he was given his first break as a trainee on Thaddeus O’Sullivan’s The December Bride, photographed by Bruno de Keyzer BSC, whom he credits along with focus puller Kenny Byrne, grip Malcolm Huse and loader
Brendan Galvin as early mentors. Three years later he shot his first short, Marooned, on 35mm with Robert Carlyle as a station porter who finds out about people’s lives by investigating their luggage. Now, he, Carlyle and Kevin’s Tilda Swinton have ‘graduated’ to being Patrons together of their beloved Edinburgh International Film festival.
In the interim McGarvey’s credits have spanned a huge range of subject matter from The War Zone and High Fidelity to Charlotte’s Web and World Trade Center. His career has also enjoyed what he describes as ”the most enduring collaboration I’ve had”, across 13 years with artist Sam Taylor-Wood encompassing several notable installations, the Turner-nominated Atlantic among them – and her first feature, Nowhere Boy, about the young
John Lennon
The awards have come thick and fast, too. Sahara and Atonement, as well as its Academy Award nominations, earned him IFTA awards, while The Hours snared the Evening Standard Award for Best Sty- listic and Technical Achievement.
But can any other cinematographer also boast perhaps the ultimate accolade – a civic reception and presentation from the mayor in your own home city “for the exceptional achievement in world cinema of an esteemed local artist”.
McGarvey remembers it well. “My mum was over the moon. The mayor gave this speech in which he said, ‘we’re so proud of Armagh’s top stenographer’. I replied that I wished I could light as fast as a stenographer can type!” QUENTIN FALK
We Need To Talk About Kevin
was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA Vivid 500T 8547
Photo main: Tilda Swinton and John C. Reilly in a scene from We Need To Talk About Kevin;
Below l-r: Director Oliver Stone and DP Seamus McGarvey on the set of World Trade Center; Lynne Ramsay, director of We Need To Talk About Kevin; Tilda Swinton in We Need To Talk About Kevin; scenes from The Hours, Atonement and The War Zone
FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 17