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MARCELLA 2 SHOOT STORY
n the second of our ‘homegrown’ production stories we look at the Scandi noir-inspired Marcella , another detective with a secret but a brilliant gift for detection. Kate Reid, took on the role of DOP for the first three episodes of the new series. “The brief for Series 1 had been to ensure that it didn't look like the established Nordic dramas: they wanted it to have a distinct London identity and a colourful palette was part of this,” she says. “Because Series 1 (shot by Ula Pontikos, BSC) was so successful they obviously didn’t want to change a winning formula for Series 2.” However, the Series 1 director Charles Martin also made a return for Series 2 so there was more of a licence to modify and take the look further. “Charles wanted to push the thriller aspect; it’s a dark story so that allowed me to go a bit darker with the look. But there is still a strong sense of colour in line with Series 1.” Kate also had to keep in mind that Series 2 would be shot in summer, autumn and early winter while the drama’s time arc was only 18 days. “In a way the fact that we have such mixed weather in London actually helps to downplay any season shift. Also a lot of our exterior work was scripted for daytime because of the long summer days, but the moody dark feel was still needed. Wherever possible I tried to create a bright exterior that meant I could have shadow inside the room to give this moodier feel. Even if it was sunny outside you still had the darkness inside.” IN THE CUT REFERENCE Kate luckily had recently re-seen the 2003 Jane Campion film In The Cut ( DOP Dion Beebe ACS, ASC ), which gave her the reference she needed. “It’s an interesting film as it’s a thriller
set in a very hot New York summer,” she explains. “It’s got great colour and texture with strong highlights outside and really dark shadows when you go inside. I watched it thinking that this could be the way we approached Marcella in the summer. As it’s London there’s only so far you can make this idea work whilst still ensuring lighting continuity on overcast exteriors, but that had been the general idea. I would embellish the light from outside with 4K and 6K HMIs to give the suggestion of a sunny day outside. I obviously had to temper this if the matching exterior was overcast. “There were certain spaces – like the morgue for example – where we only had established a small corridor window for the light to come in, so narratively this space wasn't affected by ambient light levels. I could then go to town with the moodiness and pushing the colour.”
MOVING THE CAMERA The playbook from Series 1 wasn’t locked down too much so Kate could follow the narrative and adjust accordingly. “In a way that’s the best thing about having the same director who established the first series,” she says. “He knew the show inside out and what the world of Marcella was. As Charles was keen to push the thriller aspect more than had been established in Series One, he was very interested in slow-moving tracks and a kind of creeping camera so you could really play up that drama. My impression was that we did more of this in Series 2 than had been established in the first series; I think there was probably a bit more handheld in that series too. Generally we didn’t do much handheld unless there was a specific reason for it. Most of our work was done with track and dolly. We used a crane for some establishing shots in episode one where the first body is discovered but that’s all. We used Steadicam as well but obviously that’s quite a different movement and was primarily used for following characters, rather than
TOP DOP Kate Reid and Panasonic Varicam 35 camera. ABOVE Anna Friel as the troubled but talented detective Marcella.
LEFT Nigel Planer and Keith Allen on the Marcella set.
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MAY 2018 DEFINITION
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