Page 37 - Fujifilm Exposure_44 Damned United_ok

n 1975, 17-year-old Alistair Little, Ia member of the UVF murdered a
19-year-old Catholic, Jim Griffin, in Lurgan. He was arrested two weeks later, along with three oth-
ers involved in the shooting, and convicted. Jim’s murder was wit- nessed by his 11-year-old brother, Joe Griffin.
Winner of two awards at Sun- dance ’09, Five Minutes Of Heaven, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) and written by Guy Hib- bert (Omagh) is inspired by real peo- ple and events.
Working closely with both men - who have never met - Hibbert’s screenplay moves from a powerful re-enactment of these tragic events to a fictional interpretation of what might happen should these two men ever come face-to-face. The film - with Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt as, respectively, the adult Little and Griffin - explores the impact of the legacy of violence on both men.
It was photographed in and around Belfast by Irish cinematogra- pher Ruairi O’Brien, who recalls: “I was called by Stephen Wright of BBC Northern Ireland to meet Oliver Hirschbiegel. During the interview he asked how many sparks I had working with me on one of the pieces of my reel.
“When I said ‘four’ he said that was too many. ‘On Downfall we only had three!’ I asked him ‘What about those big night exteriors?’ He claimed, “only three”, so I coun- tered: ‘Was that because so much of the light came from all the flames, which were placed by a dozen spe- cial effects guys?’. That got a laugh and I think was the moment the ice was broken.
“We hoped to shoot 2-perf 35mm but for various reasons that didn’t happen, however Oliver insisted that no matter what format we wound up with he wanted to shoot on Fujifilm as that was what he had used on both Downfall and Das Experiment.
“Working on such a tight sched- ule and budget made the whole film a lot like being back in film school (but mostly in a good way). I remem- ber driving along with Oliver and Jimmy Nesbitt in the back seat I was in the front passenger seat, balanc- ing the camera on the back of the seat shooting Jimmy.
“I had my light meter in my hand and was taking light readings on the fly and adjusting the stop as the camera rolled while driving through changing light. Unfortunately there was no room for Conor Hammond, the focus puller, so I was stuck doing that too...
“We were filming car interiors, the light was fading and due to some unforeseen complication, we did not have the lights we were going to use to film in the back of a dark car. We worked out how long it was going to take to get the lights there and the answer was ‘too long’.
“I pulled my phone out of my pocket, lashed off a quick shot of Jimmy Nesbitt in the back of the car and showed it to Oliver saying, ‘Well, at worst it will look like this”. He looked at the photo on the phone, laughed and said: ‘Man! You’re so new school! Let’s do it.’
“The film was screened in Febru- ary on Ireland’s largest screen at the Savoy in Dublin. I worried about how a negative the size of my thumbnail would hold up to that kind of scrutiny. Between the cleanliness of modern stocks and the care taken by Dave Hughes at Windmill Lane in the grade (graded on a Baselight), I was really pleased with the clarity of the image.”
Five Minutes Of Heaven, which aired on BBC Two on April 5, was originated on 16mm Fujicolor ETERNA 250D 8663 and ETERNA Vivid 160T 8622
Photo top: Liam Neeson; above: a scene from Five Minutes Of Heaven
LETTHERIGHTONEIN
FESTIVALS & EVENTS
FIVEMINUTESOFHEAVEN
L
et The Right One In - a truly
gence behind the camera,” in his re- view on the Ciematical website.
This fascinating film, shot on 35mm ETERNA 250T, 250D and 500T, is poetic in its description of horror and coming-of-age anxieties; it will certainly enrich the vampire genre and assume a leading position in the list of cult films.
Let The Right One In will be released in the UK on April 10 and was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 250T 8553, ETERNA 250D 8563 and ETERNA 500T 8573
Photo above: A still from Let The Right One In
exceptional vampire-horror film
that transcends the genre - has
been awarded the Nordic Film
Award and Prize for Best Cine-
matography at this year’s Gothen- burg International Film Festival. It has also received the Critic’s Prize at the Natfilm Festival in Copenhagen and the main prize at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival from festival co-founder Robert De Niro.
Although the story line of the movie, which is set in a Stockholm suburb, centers on two teenage outsiders, this film is not for chil- dren! John Lindqvist wrote the screenplay based on his own award-winning novel and Tomas Alfredson provides strong direction with stunning performances by the two leading actors, Kare Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson.
In reviewing the film, Variety commented, “Exquisitely detailed lensing by Dutch-Swedish DOP Hoyte van Hoytema adds dimen- sions to the multilayered story while using snow-white and blood-red as leitmotifs.” And film critic Scott Weinberg states “That’s not just good filmmaking; that’s real intelli-
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