TRAIN DREAMS PRODUCTION
everyday existence of men like Grainier, focusing on the emotional demands of manual labour as much as the physical ones. In his youth, Grainier witnesses the casual murder of a Chinese immigrant; and this guilt envelops him as he waits for karmic retribution. It eventually comes when his wife and young daughter die in a forest fire, destroying the home they built and all that Grainier has to live for. “Sometimes it can be hard to connect with characters that lived in a different age or environment from you,” Veloso admits. “How can we be immersed in this character’s feelings? How can we be close to him and make the audience feel what he’s feeling throughout his life?” IMMERSING THE AUDIENCE To make the film feel more relatable, Veloso – who previously worked with Bentley and screenwriter Greg Kwedar on Jockey (2021) – took a naturalistic approach, staying faithful to the land and the lighting as much as possible. “99% of the movie was shot on location,” he explains, with most of that taking place in Western Washington. “The cabin set was built by our amazing production designer, Alex Schaller, and we only filmed one scene on a volume.” “Besides that,” Veloso continues, “we embraced everything we could in terms of lighting and weather. If it was raining, we would embrace the rain; if it was sunny, we would embrace the sun.” While he and the crew planned what they could in advance, they also made spontaneous decisions when the moment called for it. “It’s always great to take advantage of weather, nature,
WILD TRAILS Humanity’s relationship with nature is a key subject of the film, which was shot on location using natural lighting
S et around the turn of the 20th century, Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams follows Robert Grainier, an American logger and railroad labourer who lives an ordinary life. In fact, it’s much like the life of a cinematographer. “Grainier goes to a place to work and spends a few months there, completely disconnected,” begins DOP Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP. “You live very intensely and then you come back. You almost feel like your life is more the life you live away from home.” Adapted from Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella, Train Dreams documents the
29
DEFINITIONMAGS
Powered by FlippingBook