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THE SKY’S THE LIMIT
“Even with a precise storyboard, planning these
two weeks was incredibly difficult because nobody had done what
we were trying to do with a hot air balloon.”
continued from previous page
Michell, whose glittering career encompassing stage and screen was briefly interrupted by an untimely heart attack following his biggest hit, Notting Hill, has since bounced back with his US debut, Changing Lanes and, of course, The Mother, which was a Cannes 2003 invitee and specially showcased in this year’s London Film Festival.
Was it the book’s opening which first attracted Michell to the material? “No. I think it probably put me off the material at first because I knew it would be so hard to do.
“Joe and I went through the book together then evolved a mind of vague outline which was really just for our benefit. We did about eight outlines in all before even getting round to a first draft. There have been about 16 drafts since then.
“The way it’s finally structured is, I think, truly collaborative. The first half of the book is followed quite closely, the second half very inexactly. However I do believe the spirit of the book is intensely alive and vivid in our script.”
Whatever his concerns about the book’s memorable opening, Michell knew it had to be tackled head on: “The first thing I did was to write a couple of pages which was just the story of the balloon and what’s hap- pening in the field. Then I sat down with a storyboard artist and started to divide it up into shots.
“The script really just says, ‘the balloon takes off...’ This way you can tell everyone this is what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it. Each day’s work is defined in some way; you have a proper plan.”
The actual logistics of this crucial part of the shoot, before cast and crew return to locations in London, have been as carefully planned as pos- sible given the vagaries of English weather. But it’s clear that the produc- er still finds it all a bit fretful.
“Hot air balloons [not the helium vari- ety as detailed in McEwan’s book] are huge, difficult and unpredictable. They tend to fly two hours after dawn and two hours before sunset – which isn’t particu- larly helpful for a film-making day.
“Even with a precise storyboard, planning these two weeks was incred- ibly difficult because nobody had done what we were trying to do with a hot air balloon. Even the pilot and the aerial co-ordinator were learning as we went along. We also had to plan for the possibility of Hurricane Isabel sweeping in and washing us out for a week [happily, it didn’t] so we were carefully checking ten-year weather retrospectives.”
The sooner they could return to what he described as ‘our normal way of working – our Michell/Loader Dogme, I call it’, the better. This, he explained, was perfected on The
Mother: “We are light on our feet, very flexible, don’t have a generator, try to manoeuvre very quickly and don’t have the loads of trailers, dining buses and general nonsense that seems to surround most film crews these days.
“We wanted,” says Loader, “a young DP who was willing to play that game, someone who was likely to be young, interesting and keen. Roger also wanted to work with, and give a break to, a young cameraman who was up for exploration.”
The DP in question is 34-year-old, Cyprus-born Haris Zambarloukos, a graduate of the St Martin’s School of Art and The American Film Institute. His credits include the US-set Camera Obscura, Oh Marbella and the award-winning London under- world thriller, Mr In-Between, which was released in the UK a couple of months ago. He describes the £6m Enduring Love as “definitely my biggest break.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Enduring Love was partially originated on 35mm Fujicolor Reala 500D 8592
ITHE DP VIEW HARIS ZAMBARLOUKOS
feel very fortunate to be work- ing with Roger Michell on Enduring Love. What would I say, he inquired when we first met, if he was to ask me to
make a film without a generator and the cumbersome equipment that usually comes with motion picture photography.
It sparked a fantastic discussion about the beauty of naturalistic light- ing and about how to create a truly believable scene. The first decision made was that it should be shot on Super 35mm and I didn’t want to have to force process so I chose Fujicolor Reala 500D for my daylight stock.
Although we wanted to shoot with natural light as much as possi- ble I have used whatever device is necessary to create a natural atmos- phere when natural light isn’t avail- able or appropriate.
That has meant using the very smallest lights to the very biggest lights available and planning our shooting direction according to the sun’s path. We spent an entire day shooting at the restaurant of the Tate Modern and we didn’t turn on a single light, not even a practical!
Next week, however, I have a day- time interior location scene and I have booked the biggest light I could find which is a 100K Soft Sun. I took Roger’s request at our initial meet- ings very literally and it has been very liberating. ■
36 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video