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“I TRY TO BE AS SPECIFIC WITH COLOURS AND EXPOSURE AS I CAN WHILE WE ARE SHOOTING. ITHINKOFTHEDIASA
COLOUR TIMING SESSION AND NOT A FIX-IT SESSION.”
A double was used on some wide-angle shots with face replacements done in post. What Conrad Hall ASC would have called a ‘happy accident’ occurred during the filming of a scene where the characters were rehearsing for the final act of Swan Lake.
“My intention was to use a front row of floodlights to create multiple shadows of Nina as a visual metaphor for the shifts in her personality,” Libatique says. “When I saw the final rehearsal of choreography, I realised the other ballet dancers were in between the footlights and Nina. They were casting shadows that surrounded her. I realized that was 10 times better than what I had planned. Nina was the only person who wasn’t masked in those shadows.”
There was no video assist. Libatique and Aronofsky were always close to the camera with handheld monitors, which enabled them to see composition.
“Darren likes to be close to where the action is going to end,” Libatique says. “There were times when I had to hide behind something so I wasn’t in backgrounds of shots. There are dramatic scenes in the apartment where Nina lives with her mother. Our approach was to keep the film look as naturalistic and atmospheric as possible. We used soft light, including a lot of practicals as they moved around
the apartment.”
The only time the camera was on a dolly was in a shot in the third act. Portman and the camera were on a
tripod that was riding on a dolly being pushed on about a 100ft-long track. At the end of the track, the actress falls on the mattress
in slow motion. The New York Times critic described that shot as
“a mystical touch.”
Libatique refers to scenes like that as visual metaphors where images speak like words. There is a scene where the ballet director criticises Nina for being too perfect, because she doesn’t let herself go on an emotional level and transition into a darker character.
Front-end lab work was done at Technicolor, in New York. “Their feedback helped me set my strategy for exposing the negative,” Libatique says. Sam Daley timed dailies. Final touches were put on the look during digital intermediate (DI) timing at Technicolor in New York. The DI colourist was Tim Stipan who timed The Wrestler. Black Swan was his first collaboration with Libatique.
“I don’t think about the DI when I’m shooting a film,” Libatique says. “I know it’s looming, but I try to be as specific with colours and exposure as I can while we are shooting.
I think of the DI as a colour timing session and not a fix-it session.”
The film was scanned at 3K resolution to get nuanced details in colours, resolution, light, darkness, contrast and skin tones off the negative. It was down-rezzed to
2K for DI timing.
“In our first discussion, Matty said that it’s a dark, moody, psychological thriller with main
characters who are beautiful people,” Stipend says. “He stressed that
it was critical to get their skin tones, expressions of their faces and the unspoken words seen in their
eyes right.”
Libatique was shooting Cowboys
And Aliens in New Mexico when Black Swan was edited and ready for DI timing. He flew to Los Angeles on weekends. Libatique was in a suite at Technicolor and Stipan was in New York. They communicated by speakerphone while Libatique watched images projected onto a screen via satellite.
“We used a high-speed data
link (T-VIPS) to project images on a large screen,” Stipan says. “There were more than 300 visual effects, including some replacements of faces. We wanted to be sure that we were being true to Matty’s vision, because the audience reads images as though they are words. Nuances reveal emotions and thoughts that augment words.”
This is an edited version of an article that first appeared in the January issue of British Cinematographer, reproduced with kind permission.
Black Swan was originated on 16mm Fujicolor ETERNA Vivid 500T 8647 and ETERNA Vivid 160T 8643
Matthew Libatique, 42, the New York-born son of Filipino parents, studied at the American Film Institute where he earned a MFA in Cinematography. As well as his long collaboration with Darren Aronofsky, he has also worked regularly with Jon Favreau on Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Cowboys And Aliens, and Joel Schumacher (Tigerland, Phone Booth).
Photos left and top: Black Swan; above l-r: some of Libatique's work - Inside Man, Phone Booth and Iron Man; Libatique with Aronofsky on the set of Black Swan
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