SHOOT STORY | COLD WAR
It was such a collaborative effort and everybody on set worked together to offer ideas and input
look so interesting. The art directors and the set decorators were incredible. What a wonderful experience this was for us all. Judyta Pieprzyk and Anna Wołoszczuk, the set designers, did outstanding work and we all shared and enhanced each other’s ideas.” AESTHETIC The production set out to make the look of Cold War different to Ida . “Pawel wasn’t able to shoot consecutively, so he shot the movie in pieces. When we would take a break from filming, Pawel would go into the cutting room to assemble it,” explains Zal. “He treats the script like a piece of paper, like a story he is carrying inside of him. In the cutting room, he is looking at what works and what doesn’t and then changes it as the film develops. Cold War starts off like a documentary, then phases into a more stylised narrative film and, in the end, becomes something magical and spiritual. “Early on, we chose the 4:3 aspect ratio, 1X 1.37. At the beginning of the film in Poland, the frame
ABOVE Director Pawel Pawlikowski and cinematographer Lukasz Zal check the monitor.
FILM OR DIGITAL? Knowing it would be too expensive and impractical to shoot on film, Zal did camera tests with two cameras side by side: a 35mm film camera, and an Alexa with the same lenses. “We developed the 35mm negative and Michal Herman, the colourist, created two LUTS, one for day and one for night. We found the look we wanted on the 35mm print and discovered exactly how to get that same look on a digital camera. “We did the camera tests on a set using the actors in their costumes and make up, using different types of lighting. This is where we learned that on the costumes we saw different shades of grey and different shades of black that almost blended, so we knew we needed to select costumes with bright yellows, dark greens and strong hues of purple, because those colours registered better. We were constantly looking for a contrast in production design, costume and lighting. The colourist, Herman, says: “Grading the movie, we were looking for as rich picture as possible. The aim was to add details in every piece of the curve, both
used as a function and it moves when it needs to move and we felt the light design should come from the actual location. “For instance, when we were in Poland during the winter, it had a bleached, grey look and when we were in Paris in the summer, we used the sun as we wanted a high contrast look. We were increasing the contrast and introducing grain into the image. We went to Paris with the gaffer and the production designers, and made detailed sketches of which street lamps we’d use and which ones we would not by turning them off. “I’ve always used a lot of backlight, side light, rim light, but this is the first film in my career where I am using a beauty light, like Helmut Newton, where you put a front light directly on the actor close to camera. We were lighting the scene with one source. Most days, I watched rushes alone while Pawel was sending me his newest version of the cut and inviting me into the editing room.”
is fairly static and we use wide shots and fixed prime lenses. When we meet Zula, we introduce movement, energy, singing and dancing, which motivates the camera to follow her. We get closer to our two protagonists and focus on their relationship. Using
DID YOU KNOW? Cold War is Poland’s entry to 2019’s Academy Awards as Best Film in a Foreign language.
different lenses, they become distanced or separated from the background, which is now blurry or soft focus because of the shallow depth-of-field. It was funny; the producers complained that it ‘cost so much to film in Paris and we don’t see anything!’ “We wanted to keep the look for this film as simple as possible. The camera is
38 DEF I N I T ION | NOVEMBER 20 1 8
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