SHOOT STORY | COLD WAR
the deepest blacks and highest highlights. The negative was our determinant. It gives you the feeling there is so much going on in every part of the image. We tried to achieve that, but lose all of the downsides of analogue, like high noise and low sharpness. We put many power windows in the shadow areas, making it brighter and more contrasted, simultaneously lowering the contrast in high tones. All of that was supposed to build micro-contrasts. Fortunately, Alexa has a very organic look, when pushed opening quite noisy, but controllable picture. After some grain and sharpening management, the frames finally created a shiny, silver-looking picture. “The camera was set at ISO 800, but for night exteriors with very low light, we pushed it to ASA 1600, and used ultra primes at T2,” he says. “To check the light levels, I judged with my eye, while also watching the monitor and I also used a Sekonic spot meter to check the light levels and areas of the frame on the close ups. I was shaping the light with flags, making little dots and was bouncing and cutting the light. We were painting a picture. Each frame is like a little story on a micro level. “To plan to have the best possible sunlight when shooting exteriors, I had to anticipate how long Pawel would need to be ready in terms of the acting, so very often we would set up two or three hours in advance to be safe. Everyone remembers the scene in the grass by the river, because it is a pivotal moment in the film and in the couple’s relationship. I had to take into consideration how long Pawel would take to develop the shot with the actors and where the sun would be in the sky, so we set up about one and a half hours ahead. “Many people respond to the final scene of the film with the tree and the wind. It looks great now, but it was a bit crazy to film as I had no lighting, not even a reflector, and it was dark. I pushed it up to ISO 1600 so it was underexposed and we needed to remove the noise. We were shooting take after take. Pawel knew we were highly underexposed, but he asked, ‘Lukasz, can we do one more?’ As it was the last shot, I said OK, but please do it quickly. I was stressed beyond belief, because we were losing what little light we did have. In the end, when it became pitch black, we had got something out of it. “Even though Pawel does many takes, we don’t work long hours. We had 56 shooting days for an 83-minute film. That is a lot of time to get things right.”
CREW & GEAR
CREW • Producers:
Ewa Puszczynska, Tanya Seghatchian
• Director: Pawel Pawlikowski • Cinematography: Łukasz Żal • Production Designers: Katarzyna Sobańska, Marcel Sławiński • Sound Engineer: Mirosław Makowski • Editor: Jarosław Kamiński • Camera Operator: Ernest Wilczyński • Steadicam Operator: Jarosław Wierzbicki • Focus Puller: Radosław Kokot • Gaffer: Przemysław Sosnowski • Key Grip: Tomasz Sternicki • DIT: Łukasz Brzozowy • Colourist: Michal Herman EQUIPMENT • Camera: Arri Alexa • Optics: Zeiss Ultra Prime series, Angénieux Optimo zooms 24- 290mm, 19.5-90mm and 45-120 Lightweight
TOP Cinematographer Lukasz Zal looking for framing with a member of Mazowsze folk ensemble in the foreground.
We were underexposed, but then Pawel says, Lukasz, can we do one more?
40 DEF I N I T ION | NOVEMBER 20 1 8
Powered by FlippingBook