Page 19 - Fujifilm Exposure_44 Damned United_ok

LAUGHINGINTHEDARK
DP MAGNI AGUSTSSON ON THE FIRST SERIES OF FREE AGENTS, CHANNEL FOUR’S NEWLATE-NIGHT COMEDY SET IN AND AROUND THE WORLD OF SHOWBIZ
Initially the idea was to shoot Free Agents on High Definition but in our pre-pro- duction talk, the director,
“James Griffiths, and I, weighed up the pros and cons of shooting on HD versus film and de- cided that film was the way to go. The next step was to convince the production company that this was a better option as well as decide whether to shoot on Super 16mm or 35mm. In the end we decided to go 35mm and 3-perf, as we felt it was the most efficient and economical way to shoot the series.
It was also evident early on in pre-production that the series would be a tough shoot, with a lot to cover in short days (our lead actor was doing theatre at night). Therefore there was pressure on us to get everything done within a very tight timeframe and sometimes less time to light than I would have preferred. So, I almost instinctively chose the tool I knew I could definitely rely on: the Fujifilm stock. I say ‘instinctively’ because having already shot three feature films on Fujifilm, two in freez- ing Arctic conditions and one in the North Atlantic, the stock has never let me down. Therefore, I was confi- dent it would be a very safe choice in central London.
on very sunny days -and those aren’t really a guarantee! I used the 250D for the day exteriors and 250T for the day interiors
and conse- quently the 500T for night-time - both interiors and exteriors.
On occasion,
I really relied on
the stock, such
as when we
were shooting a
long two-shot
which took the
actors from one
street to another
through a dimly-
lit side street. I
shot that on the
250D and as it
happens this
was a sunny day
so the side
street was in shadow. The actors would start the scene in full-blown sunshine, move into the shadow, and also end the scene in the sun.
cember and shoppers needed to get their Christmas shopping done with-
out some film crew
disturbing them. To add to our troubles, we learned that we couldn’t get per- mission for our cherry pickers - our big lights - on the streets.
My gaffer, the wonderful Perry Evans, suggested that we should use a helium bal- loon to light up the street, and we ended up using the bal- loons and kinof- los to light our big exteriors night scenes. We went ‘ballsy’, like
FIRST PERSON
Perry said. It was amazing to see how much of the details the 500T picked up yet still allowed the blacks to go black.
Free Agents, originally piloted for C4’s 25th anniversary Comedy Showcase series, is a six-part comedy series starring Stephen Mangan. It aired Feb 13 to Mar 20. Recently nominated for Best Situation Comedy at the Rose d'Or Television Festival (2 - 5 May 2009). It was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573, ETERNA 250D 8563, ETERNA 250T 8553 and Super 64-D 8522
Magni Ágústsson has been shooting commercials and promos for the past decade. He also has a number of feature films to his credit includ- ing Eleven Men Out, The Last Winter and Undercurrent, as well as several award-winning shorts, including the Oscar-nominated The Last Farm. His music documentary, Heima - Sigur Rós, was award-nominated in his native Iceland. Photo inset centre: DP Magni Ágústsson and top right: Stephan Mangan and Sharon Horgan in Free Agents
winter in England didn’t allow a great deal of use of that stock except
don, it was hard to get streets locked off as we were shooting in mid-De-
nated for Best Situation Com- edy at the Rose d'Or Festival.
This was supposed to be a single take within the scene. I decided to do an iris pull on the lens almost a full four stops, but it had to be done very subtly, by my focus puller, so the viewer wouldn’t notice it so much and feel the change of lumi- nosity in the background, on top of the scene, as well as at the end of the scene. I was surprised to see the dailies afterwards because you al- most couldn’t see it unless you knew what we had done: the latitude re- ally helped us do the stunt without the viewer realising the cheat.
I think one of the many factors that made my work easy and al- lowed me to concentrate on telling the story through lighting and cam- era work was how well the Fujifilm stocks performed. I was extremely pleased with their performance on this project. It allowed me to be adaptable using only available and practical lights, but still the film kept its high performance. The
stocks really have beautiful
and controllable latitude,
which gives you the confi-
dence to go to the edge of the
With my previous experience of
using Fujifilm, I knew the restrictions
of the film stocks, and combined
with the limited time to light scenes
I was confident the stocks would
perform. I used several different
types: ETERNA 250T, ETERNA 250D
as well as ETERNA 500T. Plus, I shot
a few day exteriors on Super F-64D,
but shooting in late autumn/early For night shoots in central Lon- spectrum.Recently nomi- ”
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