Page 22 - Fujifilm Exposure_36 Living The Dream_ok

MISS POTTER
“Trains in the rain always look good and the Fujifilm stock worked beautifully for that.”
continued from page 18
abandon any doubts very quickly. Anyway, I think she’s probably been accepted now as an honorary Brit.”
According to Andrew Dunn, Zellweger’s absorption in the role was almost total. “From the day I met her in hair and make-up to the very last scene in the film, she spoke with noth- ing but an English accent. However, for the last scene we shot in which she was sitting by a roaring fire, writ- ing a letter with a
dog by her side –
there was no
dialogue – she
suddenly came in
speaking her
normal broad
Texan. Of course,
everybody’s jaw
just dropped to the
floor as one.”
The multi- award-winning
Dunn, whose recent
credits include Mrs
Henderson Presents
and The History
Boys, doesn’t think,
though, he was first
choice for Miss
Potter but was
clearly delighted to come on board – “It’s a terrific story waiting to be told”. When first approached, his mind went back a decade, to a cinema in Massachusetts where he and director Nicholas Hytner – they were making The Crucible at the time - saw Babe. “It was such a fresh, original piece. It had an almost naïve approach but the beauty of it was somehow that naivety.
“If you were to imagine the kind of person who directed Babe then you’d probably come up with Chris - a wonderful, sweet-natured, no-side sort of man. He also has a natural flair for finding the kernel of what the story’s about and bringing it out.
“However, meeting a director for the first time is a bit like a first date before you embark on a very intense relationship for the next four months or so. Our meeting was for about half an hour, and rather more like speed- dating. We appeared to click but I think I wondered a bit at the time why we’d just wasted each other’s time. So I was rather amazed when they phoned the next day and asked if I’d like to do the film.
“It wasn’t as if I didn’t like Chris and, more importantly, I was desper- ate to do the film. Mind you, for the
latest film I’ve done, Hot Rod [in Canada] - which I did back-to-back with Miss Potter - I didn’t actually meet the director [Akiva Schaefer] until I arrived in Vancouver. We’d just had a couple of conference calls with the two producers also on the line.
“The reason I do what I do is, for me, a means of storytelling. Words don’t come easily to me; telling a story through the camera is more nat-
ural, I find. Beatrix Potter related to the world telling stories with her pictures before putting them down on paper in the way a DP tries to put images on camera.”
Dunn first met up with
Noonan in January and by February, “we were doing a scout at East Grinstead for the Bluebell Railway. I remember that as we also got a new
dog that day. All in all, it was a very quick preparation and we actually started shooting in March,” he said. The ultra convenient London locations included St Peter’s Square, Hammersmith and, “The Butts in Brentford, a little enclave of wonderful Georgian houses.”
Then it was off to a cowshed on the Isle of Man for crucial interiors. “Cinemagoers don’t miss what they can’t see but it’s the filmmaker’s obli- gation to give them more than they’d ever expect. The places we went to on the Isle of Man were somewhat limit- ing but I always like to make a virtue of necessity.
“Look, every hour of our 16-hour days is, to some extent, a compromise. One of the joys of doing what I do is cheating circumstance, situations, God ... whatever. Within the confines and limitations of working in a farmer’s cowshed, you still do the best you can with skill, knowledge, imagination, energy and speed – all the things one’s learned over the years.”
Following The History Boys, Dunn decided to shoot again on Fujifilm. “We also went anamorphic and it worked very well. I was thrilled, actually. Some of the scenes in the Lake District, with
Photo previous page: Renée Zellweger as Beatrix Potter;
inset above left: DP Andrew Dunn BSC; top main: Ewan McGregor and Renée Zellweger; above: scenes from Miss Potter; far right: DP Andrew Dunn (left)
and Director Chris Noonan (in wooly hat) on the set with cast and crew
20 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture