Page 36 - Fujifilm Exposure_39 Stardust_ok

THE GARDEN OF EDEN
“When I heard about the Reala 500D, I knew I could achieve the look I was after in these period movies without having to mess around with grading, or changing the colour of my lamps.”
continued from previous page
the shared experience of having cut their teeth professionally at the BBC. “John’s got a very strong person-
ality; he always knows what he wants and he’s very precise about it. We’ve got a relatively short schedule on this film, but he comes in totally prepared every day. I think a lot of people might be daunted by the fact that he knows exactly what he wants.
“But, because I’ve worked with him before, I know him and sometimes I can suggest other angles maybe. He’s very open to suggestions. We can adapt things occasionally to suit the best light or anything else that comes up. He comes from a documentary background so he’s very quick on his feet.”
Most of the location shooting on Garden Of Eden takes places at the Long House, a specially constructed exterior on a beautiful headland in the Costa Brava. As home to the increas- ingly conflicted David and Catherine, it is a stunning creation with an equally impressive Mediterranean view. Once again first appearances can be decep- tive, for this idyllic spot, this other Eden, is Spain doubling for France.
“All the plants here have been rented,” says Rowe pointing to the assorted vegetation. “There are olive trees dotted around, dug into the ground to help hide our unit base.”
For his stocks on this sun kissed location Rowe chose the 35mm Reala 500D as well as Super F-64D and ETER- NA 500T for flashback sequences that recall the earlier, happier days in David and Catherine’s marriage.
“I can use HMI for moonlight,” continues Rowe, “which will give me a white moonlight rather than the typi- cal theatrical, blue moonlight. But the great thing about that the 500D stock is that all the candlelight will come out really warm and rich.
“I’d always tried to get warm can- dles and when I used other stocks, the only way to do that was to use cold light to illuminate the actors’ faces
THE DP VIEW
ASHLEY ROWE BSC
ohn and I sat down and chat- ted about how to use camera angles and lenses to enhance the story. We came up with the idea that, at the beginning of
the film the two main characters – David and Catherine – are in love and everything is rosy.
Whenever we shot a close up of David we would always include some part of Catherine, a shoulder or some- thing. And vice versa, just to show their connectivity.
When Marita comes onto the scene we did all her shots clean, alone in the frame. But as Marita gets more involved we then started to introduce pieces of David and Catherine into her shots, as she became involved in the relationship.
Then as things fall apart and David starts to fall in love with Marita, Catherine becomes more of an out- sider and we isolated her by shooting her on her own and having David and Marita linked in shot.
I think that’s an interesting and subtle way of doing it by using the camera. Similarly, at the beginning of the film, most of our shots are fairly static, but as the story progresses the camera starts to move with the char- acters more and we start to use longer lenses to isolate characters from the backgrounds and from each other. So we’re really using camera movement to enhance the story as well. ■
then get the lab to grade the blue out. When I heard about the Reala 500D,
I knew I could achieve the look I was after in these period movies without having to mess around with grading, or changing the colour of my lamps.
“For all our exteriors I’m using the slower 64 daylight balanced stock. We’re filming in a very hot, bright, sunny location and the stock is fantas- tic for that. The colours are so rich, and being slow obviously helps, it means I don’t have to put so much neutral density on the camera.
“In the main location here, I’ve decided to use a Gold 1 filter, which basically warms things up very slightly. I’m also using a Schneider Classic Soft filter to help soften the skin tones.”
Studio interiors are being shot at Ciudad de la Luz – literally, City of Light – a state of the art facility in nearby Alicante that offers tremen- dous benefits for the filmmakers.
“When I clapped eyes on the stu- dio I was, frankly, gob-smacked,” booms Irvin, “with the structure and all the wonderful things they have. My favourite is a device which, when I call action, jams all the mobile phone signals.”
The emotional paradise lost by the young lovers in the story has plen- ty of scope for a compelling drama, and producer Tim Lewiston – nephew
of DP-and-director Dennis – believes that this kind of grown up storytelling is all too rare on our screens. “I think a lot of cinema has been positioned for a very young audience,” he affirms in the shade of the Long House set. “But the audience for this goes all the way through the ages; it has a very broad appeal.”
Irvin, ever mindful of what Papa Hemingway might think of his efforts, is equally convinced that for all the genteel detail the turbulent emotion portrayed in the film is as violent as anything the great man wrote.
“I think more so,” Irvin notes. “That’s one of the reasons I found the story so compelling. Like a lot of good intentions, which end in vio- lence, a lot of love affairs end in acri- mony and hatred.
“What starts as bright and love- ly often turns into something dark and dangerous. The keynote of the book, and maybe the film, is that this paradise is not a freehold, it’s a leasehold.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Garden Of Eden was originated on 35mm Fujicolor Reala 500D 8592, Super F-64D 8522 and ETERNA 500T 8573
J
Photo top: Caterina Murino; above left: Director John Irvin and scenes from The Garden Of Eden
34 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture