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Recent Productions Shot On Fujifilm
A LOT LIKE LOVE
J
ohn de Borman writes: “It was a fun shoot in LA last year. The basic idea was to bring a European look and sensibility to an American romantic
comedy. In other words avoiding the glossy brightly lit look that tends to be prevalent in these films.
“We tried to create a mood through colour and lighting. For instance, we constructed a scene where Amanda Peet and Ashton Kutcher go back to his place after a party that has had its electricity cut off. We decided to light
it was coming from the sodium street lights from outside, making it moody but also comical.
“I often let things go into silhou- ette and tried to avoid the brightly - lit comedy approach throughout the film. A lot of our inspiration came from French cinema like early Truffaut and Godard and we [British director Nigel Cole, with whom de Borman had
deceptive as Ken Loach, who will be 70 next year, directs his latest film about the Irish war of independence
against the British from 1919-21 and the civil war that followed.
Shot on Fuji, The Wind That Shakes The Barley, co-starring Cillian Murphy and Liam Cunningham,
Photo right: “The Flying Column” in Ken Loach’s latest film
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
previously lit Saving Grace] tried to emulate the naturalness of their films.
“My inspiration came also from a fantastic American crew. My focus puller was Andy Harris who is Roger Deakins’s regular; he was superb and always on the button. My key grip was Jimmy Kwiatkowski, who seems to do all Spielberg’s films. He showed me how to do things on a big scale. He softened a garden drenched in sun- light all day with two 60x30 silks with two cherry pickers and rigged them in a few hours.
“He also constructed a 60x60 bounce off a cherry picker inside our studio when I was trying to get a very soft moonlight. He was incredibly fast and allowed me to have the ultimate for any DP -a huge soft source. It made everything look so subtle and natural. “On top of this Mike Bauman was my Gaffer who had just finished lighting Ray, a very enthusiastic and talented man. So all in all, it was a real treat working in the States.” ■
A Lot Like Love, currently on general release, was originated on 35mm Fujicolor F-500T and F-250T
Photo top: Director Nigel Cole talks with Ashton Kutcher and Amanda Peet on the set of A Lot Like Love; above: DP John de Borman
re-unites Loach with his regular cine- matographer, Barry Ackroyd BSC. ■
ATHE DESCENT
fter the rampaging werewolves of Dog Soldiers, his feature film debut in 2002, Neil Marshall and his
regular DP Sam McCurdy turned their attention in The Descent to an all-women caving expedition that goes horribly wrong.
“It was stuff that Sam and I discussed long before we actually
got on to making the film. After I wrote the script I gave it to Sam and explained I wanted to make a film set in a cave where the only light source is what the characters take with them. It can only be torches, lamps, flares, snap lights – anything that they can carry with them. But otherwise the cave should be pitch black. And with the exception of one brief scene where we had to cheat slightly, that’s the way we shot the whole film.”
McCurdy’s reaction to this task was characteristically enthusiastic – “it’s not for nothing we nicknamed him ‘The Prince of Darkness’,” Marshall
Outstanding Stills
f it’s true that every picture tells a story, there are quite literally hundreds of stories in a stunning collection of stills from behind the camera.
This large format book is a unique working history of the British film industry and, in particular, the British Society of Cinematographers formed in 1949 “to promote and encourage the highest standards possible in the art and craft of motion picture photog- raphy and the exchange of ideas.”
The great stars and directors are here but the main focus is on the men and women who, as someone once said, “paint with light”.
Handily compiled in alphabetical order, from Remi Adefarasin BSC to Freddie Young BSC, Outstanding Stills finally puts faces to several genera- tions of stellar British cinematographic talent at work in studios and on exotic
chuckles – making the final image darker still in the grading process.
“I wouldn’t want to do a film with- out Sam,” adds Marshall, “we’ve got a great working relationship. We’ve got so many ideas to explore and films to make together, and we never want to do the same thing twice.” ■
The Descent, currently on general release, was originated on 35mm Reala 500D 8592
Photo top: Alex Reid, Nora Jane Noon and Shauna Macdonald star in The Descent; above: Neil Marshall and first unit with Sam McCurdy and camera
locations around the world across more than 70 years of film-making.
You can get more information about the book, compiled and edited by Alex Thomson BSC, and how to order it direct from the BSC on
www.BSCine.com ■
interior as if
the whole
I
THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY
he idyllic rural setting is was filmed in County Cork and
T
36 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture