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SHOOT STORY THE WOMAN IN WHITE
MODERN FILMMAKING Eben ended up using references from other filmmakers and not so much individual movies or programmes. “Other references were the director Fincher in terms of modern filmmaking and how he is so deliberate with his choices. We also kept coming back to Polanski. His old films are so psychological: we looked at The Tenant , Rosemary’s Baby . He loves the psychology of shooting and in a lot of his films he only used three lenses, something that we did on The Woman In White . We used Leica Summicron lenses which are very modern and very sharp, great in low light wide open. We pretty much lived on a 21mm, 29mm and 40 or 50mm which on a normal drama would be
a medium lens, not a telephoto. We were using a 29mm in people’s faces for close-up, literally like a foot from people and we were using a 21mm for wides or anything we really wanted to exaggerate. We pretty much could have got away with those three lenses only really, although we had the swing tilt lenses for psychological effect. “That informed everything and made every decision very particular and we never shot coverage as in ‘let’s do a wide, some mids and some close-ups and move on’. It was always psychologically what’s happening in this scene, wouldn’t it be great if at this moment this person is here doing this. The blocking and the camera were always hand in hand.” The Leica lenses were really outstanding in this drama and were producing a kind of 3D effect on the faces which was Eben’s intention. “I was after a kind of medium format feel so you have a big face there in the middle of the frame, but the world beyond them was massive, rather than the telephoto feeling of the head floating in the middle of nowhere. We always wanted a faint sense of the room behind them and being right
up and close to them. The Leicas just don’t distort the way a vintage lens would have. There is some distortion but it corrects and accounts for that in some way; you’re left with this interesting feel with a sense of space and separation.” FOCUS When you and the director hatch a shooting plan that has actor’s faces not more than one foot away from the mattebox you need a cast that is supportive of the vision, which this one was. But you also need a cast that hit their marks. “The hardest thing
TOP Eben shot most of the drama with three Leica Summicron lenses. ABOVE Eben on the set of The Woman in White.
WEUSEDLEICASUMMICRON LENSESWHICHAREVERY MODERNANDVERYSHARP
DEFINITION JULY 2018
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