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MOTION PICTURE & PRO-VIDEO
feature in focus
TIGER, TIGER BURNING BRIGHT
The challenge of cub reporting with Two Brothers
I t’s fair to say that French direc- tor Jean-Jacques Annaud likes a
challenge. This is the man who once made Quest For Fire, a pre- historic tale without conven- tional dialogue, and The Name Of The Rose, a medieval mys-
tery so authentic you could smell it. Then there was The Bear, an award winning film that depicted the relation-
ship between an orphaned cub and an adultKodiak. Hislatestfilm,Two Brothers, marks a successful return to the wildlife arena.
“It’s such a rewarding experience,” he explains. “It’s very humbling to be reminded that we are not so far away these creatures. In fact I think they’re much closer to us than we think.”
A tale of tiger siblings separated in south east Asia in the early 20th cen- tury, this is a family adventure, star- ring Guy Pearce, with a subtly-applied, environmentally friendly message.
Shot on location in Cambodia and Thailand, Jean-Marie Dreujou AFC lit the film following past successes on L’homme du train, Strange Gardens and
Balzac & The Little Chinese Seamstress. Here he was working with a combina- tion of HD and Fuji 35mm stock.
“It made a huge difference shoot- ing with the tigers on HD,” says Annaud, whose films also include The Lover and Seven Years In Tibet. “When I shot The Bear on 35mm we had to change the film magazine every 12 minutes. The moment the bears start- ed to do something interesting was always the moment when we had to stop and reload.
“With HD we can run for 50 min- utes without stopping and you can reload in less than five seconds, silent- ly, sometimes during a shot.”
Some scenes, though, were best served by 35mm.
“Tigers have fascinating eyes and fascinating expressions,” Annaud con- tinues, “and in order to capture the look in the eyes, it is often necessary to work in 120 frames per second. Another characteristic of the 35mm cameras is that they are equipped with a viewfinder which is bigger, square, and leaves margins above and
below the elongated rectangle of the scope image.
“I’d learned on The Bear that it’s a good idea to have those margins when the animal suddenly rises and the camera operator doesn’t have the time to follow him. By using what is in the margin, the image can be re- centred into the frame.
“For the same reason, I also filmed fixed camera shots where I wanted to pan or zoom later, according to the
unforeseen and improvised move- ments of the tigers.”
In the end the skill of the director on a film like this is establishing the
parameters of animal behaviour and recreating them for his ‘stars’.
“With tigers either they do what you want or they tear you to pieces,” Annaud chuckles. “Basically it’s the same with any star, but here it’s literal.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Two Brothers, currently on release in the UK, was predominantly originated on 35mm Fujicolor F-500 8572 Motion Picture Negative
Photos top: The tiger cubs; above: scenes from Two Brothers starring Guy Pearce
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 11