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fter seeing Black Swan at the ATelluride Film Festival, a New
York Times critic enthusiastically described it as a “supernatural thriller filmed against a ballet
world backdrop”.
It can also be thought of it as a
hybrid cross between The Red Shoes, which Jack Cardiff BSC created visual magic for in 1948, and a dark, character-driven mystery directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
This year’s multi-award winning Black Swan is the fourth co-venture for Matthew Libatique and director Darren Aronofsky on a longform narrative film, following in the wake of Pi (1998), Requiem For A Dream (2000) and The Fountain (2006). They met and collaborated on two short films during the dawns of their careers as students at the American Film Institute during the early 1990s.
“Darren told me about his idea for Black Swan around 10 years ago,” Libatique says. “The script was originally called The Understudy and it was set in the live theatre. Somewhere along the way, Darren became fascinated by ballet and switched the focus to that world.
He felt strongly that dramatically
and visually, ballet would provide a much better canvas for the drama.” “Darren has liked the Super 16mm format as long as I’ve known
him,” Libatique says. The Wrestler, which Aronofsky produced on Super 16mm, earned two well deserved Oscar nominations.
Nominated for an Oscar, BAFTA and ASC award, Libatique says that the decision to shoot Black Swan on Super 16mm enabled them to cover scenes with a handheld camera that moved in tune with ballet dancers while capturing an organic film look, including visual nuances in contrast and colours.
Black Swan was primarily produced at practical locations in and around New York City. Lincoln Center, in Manhattan, provided the inspiration for spaces where they filmed rehearsals, scenes in corridors and dressing rooms. An apartment in Brooklyn served as the home Nina (played by Natalie Portman) shares with her mother (Barbara Hershey).
Libatique estimates that they spent 75 percent of the 42-day production schedule at those locations. Ballet scenes were filmed
on location at SUNY Purchase. Pre-production planning included studying ballet documentaries.
“Theresa DePrez (production designer) met with Natalie and Barbara to discuss colours that were right for their characters in different scenes in the apartment they shared,” Libatique says. “Darren also made his intentions clear about the atmospheres he envisioned.”
Libatique went to rehearsals of dance scenes and recorded every move with a Canon 5D DSLR camera. That gave him both mental and physical pictures of what to anticipate.
“Darren worked closely with the actors and he is very focused,” Libatique says. “What you see on the screen is what he intended from the beginning, though he gave the cast room to shape their characters in nuanced ways and embraced their contributions.” With the exception of one scene, Libatique covered everything from ballet rehearsals and performances to dramatic sequences with a single ARRI 416 camera mounted with Cooke
prime lenses.
The sole exception was a scene
where Vincent Cassel, as theatre
director Thomas Leroy, meets members of the dance company as they file into a large rehearsal hall and begin to warm up. Libatique, who used ETERNA Vivid 500T and ETERNA Vivid 160T colour negative film for his palette, and Aronofsky chose to cover that particular scene with two cameras from different perspectives.
The audience gets to study how the dancers move during two rehearsal sequences before they perform in front of an audience at the Lincoln Center. The choreographer for dance sequences was Benjamin Millepied, who plays the same real world role with a ballet company in New York City.
Dance performances were illuminated with four spotlights and CYC strip lights with different coloured gels. Dimmers were used to mix colours of light in tune with performances.
“Natalie did a phenomenal job dancing,” Libatique says. “She trained and rehearsed for three months, which is clearly not enough time to become a ballerina, but she made big strides. Her performances, both dancing and dramatic,
were fantastic.”
FILM STOCK FOR AWARD WINNERS
LAUDINGTHE DANCE
ANINTERVIEWWITH
MATTHEWLIBATIQUEASC
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