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used the F-64D 8522. For about 90 per cent of the film, I would guess. It was absolutely beautiful. The flesh tones and the contrast in those lighting con- ditions were stunning,” said Imi.
As well as idyllic weather, they also needed one big storm. “We shot that fairly tight with engines from the boats going left, right and centre. As we couldn’t afford a wind machine, we used a hose-pipe with lots of spray going out while the propellers worked up the waves,” he recalled.
Then, it was back to the Delux studios in the tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg for a week of crucial inte- riors, including various boat sets, as well as a desert island hut and footage of a crucial voodoo character,
who will eventually be seen intercut throughout the film.
A little over a month later, Imi was back on the set of another, albeit slightly larger, ensemble piece re-cre- ating another nightmarish world, this time mostly drug-induced. Victims, directed by Josef Ruznak
(The Thirteenth Floor), mixing a British and American cast (Jesse Bradford, Sienna Guillory), was an extraordinari- ly cosmopolitan blend behind the camera, reported Imi.
As well as a German director and focus puller, Imi was supported by an Italian operator, a Greek loader, a Dutch gaffer and a Belgian grip – “naturally everyone spoke perfect English,” smiled Imi.
“The idea is that much of the film is meant to be like a drug trip – three-quarters of the stuff we see never actually happens. It was a very interesting photographic challenge. I’ve never taken drugs in my life so
I just sort of made it up as I went along. We didn’t want a trippy ‘look’ or funny colours. It’s the story that’s hallucinatory, not the ‘look’.”
Backed by British, Italian, and Luxembourg money, Victims is meant to be set in the US and England. They actually used the Grand Duchy - this time Carousel’s studios (a disused steel mill) - and a seaside villa 60 miles south of Rome to double for the California coast.
Imi - whose next film will be Blind Guy, directed in Canada by James Keach and starring Keach’s wife Jane Seymour - hinted that both films had some serious logistical problems at various stages of production.
As with work generally, “it’s a bit like Alcoholics Anonymous – you just have to take each day as it comes,” Imi added, philosophically. ■ QUENTIN FALK
Three and Victims were both originated on 35mm Fujicolor F-64D 8522, F-500 8572 and F-250 8552 Motion Picture Negative
CROSSING CONTINENTS
“Because of the light out there, which is great all day long,
I mostly used the F-64D 8522... It was absolutely beautiful...
The flesh tones and the contrast in those lighting conditions were stunning.”
Photo main: Kelly Brook in School For Seduction; Above: Shots of Tony Imi on location and, centre, a scene from Victims (photo Etienne Braun)
24 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video