ICG APRIL Paula Huidobro filming Tallulah in NYC / Photo by David Newsom

Transcription

1 Paula Huidobro filming Tallulah in NYC / Photo by David Newsom 72

2 ladies Choice Sundance 2016 trumpets The Year of the Woman. Maybe so, but where were all the female cinematographers? by David Geffner & Valentina Valentini Much was made at Sundance this year about women filmmakers storming the gates (ski racks?) of Park City to leave indelible footprints in Utah s dry and fairytale-like powder. Certainly the numbers backed up the gender euphoria, with reportedly more than 40 percent of festival offerings directed by women. Projects ran the gamut from Wall Street investment bankers acting about as macho and warlike as any man ever has in that culture (Equity, shot by Eric Lin) to a female college frosh falling end-over-end into cocaine and crime debasement in White Girl (lensed by Michael Simmonds). No doubt Sundance 2016 did offer one of the most satisfyingly diverse menus of stories by and about women ever presented at the festival. The only thing missing (in s proudly biased opinion) were women behind the camera. That s right. Out of the many dozens of womenfocused films, three were shot by Local 600 female DP s (with Polly Morgan Holy Hell and The Intervention accounting for two of the three). Of course diversity by any other name still means more opportunities for Local 600 members, which is why we at Magazine saw Sundance as a glass half-full, speaking with several director/dp pairings to probe their festival experiences and the stories they chose to tell. Tallulah: This story, about a homeless young woman (Ellen Page) who impersonates a new mom, features beautifully fluid and non-intrusive handheld camera from a rising young Guild DP, Paula Huidobro. Written and directed by Sian Heder (a longtime writer on Orange is the New Black), and based upon Heder s own real-life experiences as a Beverly Hills nanny, streaming rights were snapped up by Netflix pre-festival. Here s hoping a theatrical deal is not far away. : This project had a long gestation fill in the details. Sian Heder: I made a short at AFI in 2006 called Mother, and Paula, who was a recent AFI graduate at the time, and who had won the Student Academy Award, was my cinematographer. We made another short film together three years ago called Dog Eat Dog. It was wonderful that we got to go off and build our careers on our own, before reuniting for this feature. Was there any consensus on using a more experienced DP? Heder: Yes, there actually was some pressure [from financial backers] to use an older, male DP, which buys into the stereotype that if you re a first-time director you should be paired with a veteran, who is obviously a man. But Paula and I have built up creative shorthand, and we know what we both like, aesthetically. Also, Paula had enough of a résumé to ease any nervous feelings, so it wasn t a fight or anything. Either way, I knew she was right for this film. 73

3 Much of Tallulah was shot handheld. How much freedom did you give Paula regarding framing, composition, and camera movement? Heder: Paula has a very lyrical eye. Her approach, particularly her camerawork, is intimate and emotional, and I trusted her implicitly to tap into these characters during some very challenging scenes. Although most of the film is handheld, as you say, we did storyboard the magical realism sequences. [Early in the film, Tallulah imagines herself rising away from the van she s living in, and later, Allison Janney s character floats above a tree in Central Park.] What were some of the main photographic challenges? Huidobro: Having a baby in so many scenes was difficult as we had to work fast before she faded out. We used two cameras most of the time, which meant there would be areas lighting-wise for which I would have to make compromises. We only had a generator for seven days and were working with a very small grip truck and crew. [Laughs.] Also a tiny budget and not much time to shoot. And you had people floating in the air, diving into the Hudson River, and running around New York City with a baby. Heder: [Laughs.] There s a reason why most indie films are two people talking in a room. Listen, I knew this was an ambitious project from the start, including wanting to do those magical-realism scenes in camera. Allison Janney really needed to fly 50 feet in the air, so we had a camera up on a crane with a jib arm and Condor. We had camera boats in the Hudson River when Ellen jumps in. Huidobro: We also had a ten-page scene when Tallulah goes into the hotel room and ends up leaving with the baby. We had to shoot all of that in one day before the sun went down. It s an incredible piece of filmmaking, all set in a hotel room with huge windows, during the day. Heder: That scene is the same in the short film, but in the short we had five days to shoot, and here we had one. We basically broke the scene into musical movements, with key images representing each movement. However, we still had a baby wandering naked around the room, so we obviously had to be very flexible. Huidobro: We were quite high up in a real hotel, so we could not light from outside the room, meaning we had to block and shoot according to where the sun was during the day. We didn t want traditional coverage, as the dynamics in the scene change a lot. Heder: The power shifts back and forth [between Tallulah and the baby s mother, who mistakes her for being a nanny employed by the hotel]. Sometimes we are in Lu s POV, sometimes we re not. This movie begins with Tallulah but passes the baton of perspective to two other characters. Lu s restless energy begins to infect and change the baby s mother and Lu s boyfriend s mom [Allison Janney], so we wanted to reflect that in the camerawork. The movie sort of hinges on the believability of that moment when Tallulah takes the baby from the hotel. How did you approach it photographically? Heder: For me, it was always a physical response by Tallulah to the baby screaming and crying. It s not intellectual or rational, it s just, Go help this child in distress. Later, when Lu s alone in the van, she comes to terms with her actions, in a sense. But we knew the moment had to be done in one or two takes, as you can t put a screaming child through that for very long, and yet the coverage still had to capture a genuine moment on-screen. Huidobro: There s another scene where the baby and Ellen are sleeping on the bed, and Allison comes in to watch them, that we had to completely pre-light. While we were shooting another scene, the parents brought the baby into the room when she was ready for her nap. Heder: After the parents put her down on the bed, Paula and her camera crew, along with the actors, had to tiptoe into the room and speak in whispers so as not to wake her up. People see the sleeping baby with Lu on the bed and think, How lovely and beautiful. But 74 Guild DP Paula Huidobro and Director Sian Heder in New York City apartment location for Tallulah

4 Out of the many dozens of womenfocused films, three were shot by Local 600 female DP s (with Polly Morgan Holy Hell and The Intervention accounting for two of the three). Polly Morgan photographed by Nicola Goode at s Snowdance 2016 party in Park City, UT 75

5 Paula Huidobro/ Park City, UT January 2016 / Photo by Nicola Goode they have no idea what the filmmakers went through to film a baby sleeping. I ve never heard a quieter set. [Laughs.] How did you maintain the naturalistic quality to those moments or scenes that pushed beyond the naturalistic? Heder: The great thing about Paula s cinematography in this film is that it has a luminous quality there are lovely splashes of color, and beautiful, poetic frames, but [the photography] never shouts for attention. The camera always lets the characters breathe and live in the frame in a natural way. The scene when Tallulah sees [her boyfriend] Nico in Central Park is a moment when the audience doesn t know we re in a flashback, at least not right away. We wanted to hint at this time-space change without going into something visually drastic. Implementing a strong dolly move that we hadn t ever done before was a subtle way to clue the audience that something has shifted, without getting really surreal or strange. Is working with a female DP different than working with a man? Or is that just a silly question? Heder: [Pause.] I come from television, and a show that s all about women, and we would never say: Oh, we worked with a male DP, or a male director, and it didn t work out, so we won t go there again. In fact, on that show we see so many women directors, it s never about gender. The ones we don t invite back are strictly for creative reasons. Huidobro: People have an image in their mind of what a DP should look like, but it only takes a moment when they see me to realize they are getting something different. And we shot Tallulah on the Alexa, which is not a tiny camera to hand-hold. Speaking of which, you ve shot many movies handheld, and, as Sian noted, that was a big key to Tallulah s look. Huidobro: I love the intimate connection you get with the actor. They feed off and respond to the camera s energy, so you are really present in the scene, more so than when you are standing off looking at the lighting in a tent or on a monitor. Heder: Going back to your question about working with a female DP, I would say that having three women at the center of this movie and having Paula, who has a very easy presence and is never disruptive, was really lovely. If that s unique to working with a woman, so be it. But I think it probably says more about Paula than the broader conversation about gender. So a movie all about women, with women at the creative core, is not impacted by gender? Heder: Well, I don t think people truly realize how much gender bias is ingrained in this industry, and our film certainly stood that on its head. Our gaffer was this tiny woman, who was more than capable bossing around a lot of dudes. [Laughs.] And I was six months pregnant during shooting. Our film didn t look like most movies, or at least what Hollywood s standards have been, which, hopefully are changing. Paula, where does your career go after having a critically acclaimed feature at Sundance? Huidobro: My passion is really telling stories that I care about and connect with. I want to continue 76

6 Frames within frames was a motif Morgan and Duvall used for the large ensemble cast of The Intervention / Frame Grab courtesy of Polly Morgan to collaborate with people like Sian, a writer/director who had such an emotional stake in this project. Now, if someone offers me the next Marvel movie, I would certainly say yes. But whatever great story comes along, that is the next place I m headed. Heder: I think Paula follows in a long line of talented DP s from Mexico, who look at filmmaking in a unique way. She s been mentored by some incredible people [Chivo, Rodrigo Prieto], and there s no reason she can t be just as celebrated. Huidobro: [Laughs.] That s right: #MexicanDPsMatter The Intervention: This feature directing debut from veteran Sundance actress Clea DuVall gathers a handful of couples in a Savannah country home, with the conceit being the friends are reuniting to stage an intervention for one character s dismal marriage. It was shot by Polly Morgan in lush, warm summer tones that showcase the beautiful location and the soft lighting transitions without being showy. How did you find each other? Morgan: I had worked with [Intervention actress] Melanie Lynskey on a film, and she urged me to read this script that turned out to be this brilliant little gem funny, sad, insightful, all in one location. I was shooting a fourpart miniseries in England, probably my biggest job to date, and that didn t end until two days before The Intervention started. So Clea and I began Skyping and we hit it off. Duvall: Actually, Melanie kept raving about this DP, both how great she was personality-wise and her beautiful work. So I watched the movie they did together and The Truth About Emmanuel, another Sundance movie that Polly shot, and just knew she was the one. You had 18 days, a large ensemble cast, and meager resources: How important is it to get along with your DP on a film like this? Duvall: It s vital. Polly was my greatest ally and my connection to the crew. I still sort of feel like an actor who directed a movie, and Polly patiently taught me the technical side of things without ever being patronizing. It felt like a very safe environment to be working with her, as I could let go of those insecurities. She also showed me how much I really did know, having been on sets for 20 years. Our relationship got me through the movie. What was the main visual theme you discussed in the limited prep time you had? Duvall: I told Polly I did not want this to look like an independent movie. I wanted it to be very accessible, despite the super-low budget. I wanted this beautiful location to mirror the natural feeling of all the relationships, without having a thousand establishing shots or forcing the look. I also knew I wanted to shoot two cameras so I wouldn t have to break the rhythm of the scenes by going into coverage. Morgan: The only film we watched as reference, mostly due to the lack of prep time, was The Big Chill. And we talked about the camera having that same fresh and contemporary feel as that film did at that time. The wide-screen was chosen we shot 2:40 with Panavision Primos because with an ensemble cast you need to have that depth in the frame. Like when Ruby and Peter are having their big fight and you can see the other characters reacting in the background, without, as Clea said, having to cut a lot. There was also a way we chose to frame certain scenes that corresponds to the humor in the story. We used excessive headroom, for example, that added a quirky feeling. Clea published a Spotify playlist while we were in the house shooting tests, so her musical choices, like Tegan and Sara, were sort of mirrored in the framing. Duvall: I didn t want the camera to make any big dramatic moves; I wanted it to be more of an observer because so much of this story is told by the people who are listening, and not speaking like when Melanie gets really drunk the first night, and we see that progression on the faces of everyone else without dialogue. It s a daunting task for a first-time director to work on an ensemble film where so many characters are on-screen at the same time, as in the large dinner scenes, the Charades game, and the actual intervention. Morgan: The week Clea and I spent in the house together before shooting was so important, as we were able to walk the location and sort of pre-block those scenes you mentioned. And on those specific scenes our method was to light the room and then roam freely with two cameras. We actually shot them really quickly and managed to get a lot of coverage with this approach. Now on many of these indie films, you make a great plan and it all goes out the window. But in this case much of what we talked about in that week was realized on the day. It was doubly challenging for Clea having to be on screen as she had no director to support her as an actress. She relied on me a lot as to how things played, and whether we got what we had talked about. We had a 77

7 Frame grab from The Intervention / Courtesy of Polly Morgan great synergy together. Duvall: Yes, that time we had together in the house allowed us to make shot lists and be very, very prepared. I knew there were moments I had to have in those scenes with so many characters on-screen. Our script supervisor, Allison [Hughes Stroud], also played a key role. She could see what I couldn t. So the three of us were really a great team. What camera system did you use? Morgan: The Sony F55, which was a new experience for me. I chose Sony because I feel their cameras have great color rendition, not unlike how Fuji s film stocks were with color once upon a time. Also being in Savannah, in summer, we knew color would play a huge role in the emotional arc of the film day to night, night to day, torchlight and flashlights and lots of natural sunlight being our sources. I also wanted to try something with a different feel from the Alexa, and achieve the painterly quality of a film like Ex Machina. We only had 18 days, so there was no time to soften the sun or use big overheads, which meant exposures had to be dead-on so the highlights didn t blow out. I will say that in the DI, I could see that Sony clipped some of the color saturation in the highlights that the Alexa probably would have kept intact. I was delighted when someone came up to me after the Sundance screening and asked if I shot on film, which I feel comes from the more tactile feel that the Sony system provided. Is there a moment or scene that best combines Polly s photography with Clea s narrative goals? Duvall: This may sound weird but it s the dream with Alia and me [where Duvall s character imagines being seduced by her friend s younger girlfriend]. That was going to be done with traditional coverage. Instead we created this beautiful oner that had a very surreal feeling, and we didn t need to do any more coverage. Considering the limitations of time and budget, Polly, what scenes were you most pleased with? Morgan: The scenes in the forest, where they go look for Peter with flashlights, came out so much better than I expected! On any other job, you d have a cherry picker and big lights washing through the woods. But I lit the three of them walking away from the house with a one-by-one Lite Panel, maybe sixteen feet away. And the big dialogue scene with Jack in the woods was lit with just a 2K where we ran power all the way from the house. At the Sundance screening at Eccles, someone else came up and said, I really loved your moonlight! It was so naturalistic. [Laughs.] We had no generators, nothing. I told the actors to wipe the lens with the flashlights. But that was about it. You worked with a female director on another Sundance film, The Truth About Emanuel. Any differences between the genders? Morgan: The main difference is not gender but experience. With first-time directors [like Duvall] there s a bit of showing them the way. And this film was such a minefield we had constant issues with summer thunderstorms changing our schedule; we had a large cast and small crew; and we had the director acting in the film. It s an intense environment, shooting a low-budget movie for days at a time in the same location, so the real question is not so much about gender as personality, and how you and your director are going to get along. My goal was always to provide Clea with everything she needed to tell this story, despite the many challenges. Duvall: As a director, I only know working with Polly, so I can t make any comparisons, gender-wise. I started acting twenty years ago, and it was incredibly rare to see a woman in the camera department in any capacity, even as a loader. Almost our entire camera department on The Intervention was female, and the film I m working now has a large amount of women in camera 78

8 Rebecca Miller breaks down a shot for DP Sam Levy on the New York set of Maggie s Plan / Photo by Jon Pack so things are definitely changing. Maybe not as fast as they should: as an actress I ve never worked with a female DP before Polly. But people like Rachel Morrison, Reed Morano [ASC], and Polly are having a big impact, and it s only a matter of time before it all evens out. Maggie s Plan: Rebecca Miller s films can make you love a hated character and hate a loved character; they can elicit tears and laughter within the same scene. She s had three features at Sundance Angela (1995), Personal Velocity: Three Portraits (2002) and The Ballad of Jack and Rose (2005) and this latest entry stars Greta Gerwig as a hapless academic who elicits the love of a colleague (Ethan Hawke), who is married to another famous academic (Julianne Moore). Cinematographer Sam Levy has shot three films for Sundance regular Noah Baumbach (Mistress America, While We Were Young, Frances Ha). Both Miller and Levy worked for InDigEnt, started by Gary Winick in 1997 with a mandate to make low-budget digital features using experienced filmmakers. Personal Velocity, which won the 2002 Sundance Cinematography prize for Ellen Kuras, ASC, came out of InDigEnt s New York based film factory, and during the filming of Maggie s Plan, Miller remarked to Levy that their shared background helped prepare them for today s independent landscape. How has Sundance influenced your career? Miller: As a filmmaker I was really born at Sundance. I remember the exact moment that I realized I actually had to show my film to people that I didn t know. That s traumatic [laughs]. My first film was intimate and everything had been made in a very personal way, then suddenly I saw all these strangers filing in to watch it. I was horrified and embarrassed, but the truth is your work should make you blush, and I was definitely blushing. How has the changing environment of indie filmmaking impacted your expectations pre-festival? Levy: I don t think independent filmmaking has changed that much, even with the advent of digital capture and projection. It seems like fewer people are going out to theaters because of things like the streaming services, [but it] feels like we re doing the same thing that we ve always done, in terms of breaking down a script and preparing it, the way that we block a scene and anticipate how it s going to edit. The tools are shifting, but they ve always been shifting, even before there was digital. Every year there d be new film stocks. When Kodachrome was going out, filmmakers were trying to figure out how to get Fuji to look like it, or how to get 500 ASA film stock with tight grain structure to look like 200 ASA film stock with more visible grain. I think it s just an extension of the shifting tools of filmmaking that s always been here. Rebecca, your first three films were shot by Ellen Kuras, ASC, and then you worked with Declan Quinn, ASC, for The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. Now, you re working with Sam. Was it a conscious decision to go with a male cinematographer at some point? Miller: I view individual people as so different from each other that they might as well be a different sex, even if they re the same sex. I love Ellen and we ve always had a wonderful relationship, but she wasn t available to do Pippa Lee. I started looking around for a DP, and after meeting Declan, I was very excited at the prospect of working with his eyes, his experience. For Maggie s Plan, I needed someone who had a deep resource of references to pull from, but who also knew how to make a movie the way that we had to make this movie fast and beautiful. I appreciate the comfort in having that marriage relationship with a DP, where you re with the same one forever. But you can also 79

9 Sam Levy and Rebecca Miller, Upstate New York location of Maggie s Plan / Photo by Jon Pack get re-energized by working with a different person every now and then. Maggie s Plan is a comedy about a fairly serious subject, an affair. What choices were made to visualize that kind of narrative? Levy: It was built in so well to Rebecca s script that we never talked about how we were going shoot something to get a laugh or to emphasize the comedy. We did talk a lot about how each scene would interconnect with its surrounding scenes almost like each scene is its own short film. Rebecca wanted each scene to be muscular and transition smoothly into what was coming after. Miller: I was looking for a sense of interconnectivity [between scenes] and interdependence [between] characters, which is part of what the film is through the cinematography. For me, it was, How can I convey meaning through images in the simplest way possible? 80 Sam, you have shot three Sundance films for Noah Baumbach and worked with another Sundance director, Kelly Reichardt, on Meek s Cutoff. How different is this world from your frequent commercial work? Levy: I always think of shooting a commercial as sort of like playing jazz. Generally, as the DP I don t do much until the tech scout, but then it s very fast and furious. You have to have a relaxed state of being to do the work of a commercial; it s hyper-visual in a solitary kind of way. On a movie, and, for example on Maggie s Plan, Rebecca and I had memorized the shot list as a result of our careful prep discussing everything. By the time the tech scout rolled around, it was more like classical music we had our score that we prepared, and then the shoot was our performance.