Page 29 - Fujifilm Exposure_19 Spider_ok

BUTTERFLY MAN Cinematographer Mark Duffield on assignment in Thailand
I was once asked what is it that excites me about being a direc- tor of photography and my response was that in searching for a cinematic image I get to
travel and meet a lot of different people. This happened recently when I was working on the British feature Butterfly
“Man for De Warrenne Pictures. Directed by Kaprice Kea (The Hurting, his feature debut on which I
ASA daylight was used for daylight interi- or and exteriors.
Although Thailand is usually sunny, I decided to use the 250D instead of the obvious 64D daylight for exteriors, but using neutral density and polarisers to get the stop I wanted.
The main difficulty shooting in sunny exteriors is dealing with harsh shadows created by the sun, especially on actors’ faces. Bounce boards helped reduce the contrasts. You have to struc-
Although this was a British film, the production team was made up of British and Thai cast and crew working side by side. I decided to have a totally Thai crew around the camera and lighting as I felt their experience and talent would guide me through the unknown territory.
Focus puller Precha ‘Ga Ga’ Kakeaw was excellent in supporting me and showing a high professional standard. Unit gaffer ‘Dop’ demonstrated an amaz- ingly resourceful approach to lighting the difficult locations using a Thai power supply that was unpredictable,
especially on the island. The main source of lights used was tungsten, but on
location we were sur- rounded by fluorescent tube lighting, the standard
illumination in Thailand. I was concerned
about the flicker and vari- ants in colour tempera- ture that occur with
fluorescents but after a few tests I was able to use them as practicals
in the scenes. In some locations I would mix fluorescents, tungsten
and daylight in the same shot.
Filming in Thailand gave us a variety of impressive
natural locations, including a 200ft
waterfall, golden beaches, red dirt roads in the north and
the busy night life of the famous Kao San Road in Bangkok.
Although most of the film was shot on location, intimate scenes in the mas- sage parlour and bungalow were shot on
a stage. A large, traditional Thai wooden house was transformed into a sound stage where several sets were built by production designer Fay Garrett.
When Kaprice and Tom first approached me about filming in Thailand, I imagined a difficult shoot, being aware of all the bad publicity sur- rounding The Beach. Our experience proved to be quite the opposite.
One of the conditions of filming there is that the production has to obtain permission from the Thai Film Board. They check the script first and if you fit the right criteria you get approval. Two
Film Board Officials were with us on set every day throughout
the shoot and, despite some of the risque
aspects of the story, they supported us
completely.
But the really
pleasant surprise proved to be the people of Thailand
who were very willing to help out, from acting in supporting roles to being extras. During the filming in Kohputsa, the whole village, including the monks, appeared in the film and provided us with a variety of cinematic faces.
But the biggest surprise was still to come. Having had difficulty casting the lead Thai actress through the usual agen- cies, Kaprice and Tom approached a girl they saw on the Kao San Road who they felt had the ‘right look.’ They discovered that she had modelled and had just fin- ished working on a feature film.
So after working with ‘Mahmee’ for four weeks on the island, we returned to Bangkok to see huge billboard dis- plays with her image advertising her new Thai film, MaeBia, which was about to be released. She adorned the covers of several fashion magazines and was featured heavily in the
Thai media.
We quickly realised that we had been working with a new talented actress who is current- ly taking Thailand by storm.” ■
Butterfly Man, The Hurting and South West Nine were originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture negative
also worked) and produced by Tom Waller (Monk Dawson),
Butterfly Man is the
story of a young back-
packer, Adam (Stuart Laing from South West Nine), who finds himself on a decadent island in the gulf of Thailand.
There he meets a
beautiful Thai girl, Em
(Napakpapha ‘Mahmee’
Nakprasit) but discovers
that she is controlled by
Joey (Francis Magee), an
ex-pat who runs a dubi-
ous massage parlour. Adam, now in love with Em, is unaware that she has been forced to drug him so Joey can steal his money. When Adam then dis- covers that Em is going to be unwitting- ly sold into prostitution, he plans to escape with her.
Filmed over six weeks entirely in Thailand, Butterfly Man is a love story that travels the length of the country. We spent four weeks filming on the exotic island of Koh Samui where the main story takes place, then to Koh Phangan to cap- ture a full moon beach rave. From there, it was an 18 hour drive north to the vil- lage of Kohputsa in the Nakhon Sawan province, before finishing off in Bangkok.
It was a new experience for me to shoot a feature in a hot country so I researched as much as I could. The cho- sen camera was an Arri 35mm BL4s, a workhorse camera I trusted would get us through the difficult locations and tropi- cal weather conditions.
Fuji was the chosen stock because my research told me that it would hold up to the various temperature changes and lengthy period of storage during the shoot. Fuji 500 ASA tungsten was used for night interiors and exteriors; 250D
ture the shooting schedule around the position of the sun. Large silks are sometimes used to shade off the sunlight which help maintain a visual continuity in a scene.
EXPOSURE • 27
Photos: Stuart Laing and Napakpapha ‘Mahmee’ Nakprasit in Butterfly Man; main: DP Mark Duffield on location in Koh Samui, Thailand
Butterfly Man crew l-r: Focus Puller Precha Kakeaw, DP Mark Duffield, Writer/Director Kaprice Kea, Producer Tom Waller, ‘Mahmee’, First AD Gareth Unwin and Gaffer ‘Dop’
feature
”