Page 23 - Fujifilm Exposure_36 Living The Dream_ok

those great vistas, you’d see such detail, the leaves and so on.” Among the Cumbrian locations was the cot- tage at Lingholm, by Derwentwater, where the Potter family holidayed nine times and which was the inspiration for many of her garden drawings.
Added Dunn: “One of the best sequences in the film is the Bluebell Railway, which stands in for Euston. It was really cold and we had to create rain. Trains in the rain always look good and the Fujifilm stock worked beautifully for that.”
The schedule wasn’t without its problems. “If there was a bit of a night- mare, it was having to go straight from London to the Isle of Man without really having time to pre-light. Mind you, I like to think on my feet; it gets the adrenalin going.” Dunn was also re-united with operator Gerry Vasbenter with whom he has now done five British films since Stage Beauty in 2004. “We used two cam- eras - we don’t call them A or B. Gerry does one and I do the other. Towards the end of this shoot, I took much more of a back seat because I trust him so much and, of course, he had become so much more experienced.”
A key part of the film is what Dunn describes in a rather low-key way as “quite a lot of digital work with animals.” These are scenes where Potter’s famous creations come to life “almost like her alter ego. We are not talking Roger Rabbit or Babe but tradi- tional two-dimensional animation. One of the things Chris was extremely clear about from our earliest meetings was that the creatures should remain on the page because that’s where she created them.
“Chris was keen for me to be involved early on in ‘prep’ with the effects house and was gracious enough to take what advice I could offer. On the days of shooting, it was a question of creating the right environ- ment for the director. Although the animation side was going to be taken in hand by someone else, I was still able to be part of that collaborative process.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Miss Potter, which is released in the UK on January 5, was originated on 35mm Eterna 500T 8573, Eterna 250D 8563 and Reala 500D 8592
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 21