BEN SAFFER INTERVIEW
POOLS OF LIGHT “The kids are playing in this kind of tent or den in the first and last scenes. The immediate thought was to shoot it like a John Lewis Christmas advert, with cosy, warm tungsten light. But that was the opposite of what Caitlin wanted.” Production designer Liz Simpson devised a way of making the scene feel cold and distant using functional props from around the farm. Saffer did a similar job with the lighting, using sufficient light to navigate the space and just enough darkness to evoke a slight emotional disconnect with their surroundings. Panalux supplied most fixtures, including a selection of LiteMats, VELVET KOSMOS 400 LED, NANLUX Evoke 1200 and Dedo hard lights. “In another situation, I would probably use more panels, but we wanted quite a lot of control, especially for the central hallway in the house where a lot of the action takes place. “Rather than lighting the hallway itself, we could throw light through the bedroom doors, which automatically created those pools of light, giving us interesting silhouettes to play with.” For a kitchen scene where the children are having dinner, the initial
OUR RECIPE WAS TO START WITH a sharp centre and lots of resolution, AND THEN WORK BACKWARDS TO soften the image ”
look like rather than anything inherent in the camera itself. “Assuming a camera has the latitude to produce a certain quality of negative, then I’m looking at the usability of the camera for the project, its ergonomics and how I can work with it on-set. Size, layout, accessories and whether my AC will kill me are all factored in when making that decision! “That was my interest with the URSA Cine 12K LF. We tested it and quickly realised it was at least on par with other high-end cine cameras like the ARRI ALEXA and Sony VENICE. I also wanted to shoot in large format for this project to better capture the landscapes, which was key to the choice of camera.” Another reason is Saffer’s familiarity with the Blackmagic workflow. “I came up as a dailies colourist and on-set DIT (on shows including The Peripheral and Bridgerton ), so I’ve used DaVinci Resolve software almost every day of my career for a decade. “I’ve also used Blackmagic cameras since the launch of its original cinema camera. And I tend to have a Pocket Cinema Camera 6K as a crash and B cam with whatever primary camera I use to shoot.”
temptation was to light the table and fix underlighting around the cupboards, but McLeod preferred having the image fall off into the darkness. “So when the mum comes in and puts food down for them, we feel – without seeing – her presence. It’s all focused on the kids in the centre.” The light pools gave Saffer a structure around which the rest of the visuals could be built. This included choosing to shoot with the Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF, a somewhat counterintuitive choice given that their starting point was 16mm. “It captures an enormous amount of resolution, which, in theory, is the opposite of what we were looking for aesthetically,” admits Saffer. “Our recipe was to start with a sharp centre and lots of resolution, and then to work backwards to soften the image and help the children’s faces come through.” COLOUR SCIENCE A camera’s numerical resolution is far less relevant to the DOP than the perceived sharpness obtained from the sensor. “The colour processing pipeline is much more interesting and important to me. With Raw files and log profiles, the colour science dictates what the images
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