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INDUSTRY LENS•MBS GROUP
MIND GAMES
Cinematographer Ben Smithard BSC created a space for the actors to shine in Florian Zeller’s empathetic, graceful, Oscar-winning and utterly terrifying cinematic journey through senility.
Though The Father’s plot may be simply outlined in one sentence – a story of a feisty 80-year-old Londoner gradually surrendering to dementia, which sends his daughter (Olivia Colman) on a rollercoaster of emotions – there is nothing simple about the film. For it assumes Anthony’s (Anthony Hopkins) perspective, an unreliable narrator who is not aware of his unreliability, whilst Zeller, a firsttime film director filming his own play, allows the audience to be as confused as the protagonist is.
Though The Father’s plot may be simply outlined in one sentence – a story of a feisty 80-year-old Londoner gradually surrendering to dementia, which sends his daughter (Olivia Colman) on a rollercoaster of emotions – there is nothing simple about the film. For it assumes Anthony’s (Anthony Hopkins) perspective, an unreliable narrator who is not aware of his unreliability, whilst Zeller, a first-time film director filming his own play, allows the audience to be as confused as the protagonist is.
It is hence hard to blame Smithard, eminent British DP with dozens of films and high-end TV series on his resumé, for actively campaigning to shoot it.
“Florian is French and wanted a French DP, but I loved the script and had a good working relationship with Tony Hopkins. So I begged my agent to get me a meeting,” explains Smithard, whose previous credits include My Week With Marilyn (2011), Alan Partridge (2013), Good By Christopher Robin (2017), Viceroy’s House (2017) and Downton Abbey (2019). “When we talked, I was relieved to hear that his only worry was that the language would be a problem. But, it never was, experience, except for one thing.
“There are many big movies taking up the stages, so we didn’t have many options. The one we used was high enough but not big enough, with a Rosco SoftDrop Translight backing something like 14-feet from the windows, and the other side of the set right up against the wall. I’d love to have had another four feet, but I had to make do with what was available.” His lighting was dictated by his wish to stay imperceptible. “It’s all Tungsten Fresnels, every bulb was a Tungsten bulb. I like the old style of lighting, it’s very consistent and I can tell the colour temperature of everything, even if it’s dimmed down,” says the DP. “There’s a scene where it wasn’t perfect, though. Because of the problems with space, I had to use an LED lamp. I knew it looked wrong on Tony’s skin but had no choice. I don’t think anyone else will notice, but I do.”
Another compromise he had to make was how it was shot. “I really wanted to shoot The Father on 35mm film, the project was perfect for that, but it was a small independent film and we couldn’t make it work. When we went digital, I knew I was going to shoot on the Sony Venice. I worked with it for the first time on my previous feature, Downton Abbey, and it’s a brilliant camera that gives a whole lot of options. I have a lot of admiration for high-end Sony cameras.”
It was a bit more difficult to choose the lenses, as Smithard explains.
“I shot Downton Abbey with Zeiss Supremes, but they’re expensive and I tried to find something else. I chose nice medium format lenses but during prep I saw that, because they’re stills lenses and have wildly ranging T-stops, I was going to have to use more light than I had been willing to. So, I went back to Zeiss Supremes at the last minute, and it was a good decision. They gave me the flexibility I needed.”
After principal photography ended, Smithard worked with his regular colourist Gareth Spensley (formerly at Molinare, now at Company3 in London) to subtly enhance what had been done in-camera and make the performances shine.
“It’s important that I know that what I’m doing can be made a bit better in the grade,” says the DP. “It’s a detailed work with the colour and the shading of the bits of the frame. Grading for me is an instinctive thing and is about manipulating the image so that the audience looks where I want them to look.”
The film premiered at Sundance 2020 to splendid reviews, but had to be shelved for over a year for obvious reasons. Now, riding the wave of two Academy and two BAFTA Awards, it makes a grand theatrical comeback and seems destined to end up on many Top10 lists. Though the only thing you need to know is that The Father is this rare kind of film for adults not afraid to be confronted with difficult emotions, in this case the horror and the poignancy of the fragility of the human mind.
Smithard is really proud of how it turned out.
“Sure, I could’ve been more elaborate with how
it looks, but I don’t think it was necessary. The film is about great acting and great words – it’s brilliant. Yes, I had to put up with things I didn’t necessarily like, but I enjoyed that challenge. It’s where I come from as a filmmaker: if you’re making a great story, it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, as long as you’re able to fulfil its potential. I believe we have.”
and we got along really well from day one.”
Because of the film’s nonlinear structure – Anthony’s shattered mind has us see other characters as different actors/actresses, whilst the apartment he resides in undergoes subtle shifts in interior design – the key word was: precision.
“You have to be an absolute perfectionist with this kind of movie as it hinges on nuances that may maintain or break the viewers’ immersion in the story,” Smithard explains. “My lighting and camerawork needed to be kept simple so as not to detract from the performances.”
It meant, among other things, a neat display of the apartment’s layout.
“We had a clever construct there, a series of simple, empty shots of the place that give the audience something to hold onto while the décor shifts,” says Smithard. “This is something you notice, what you don’t see is the subtle change in lighting. As the film goes on, the light that comes from the window gets lower and lower, like a normal sun. It was my visual metaphor for the light going out in Tony’s life.”
The project was quite intimate with only a few speaking parts and no more than three characters appearing in any one scene.
“It’s about trust between me and the performers. I had to react to what they were doing, both as a DP and a camera operator, give them space to flesh-out the characters. You also had to be aware that because Tony Hopkins is 80, and such a well-prepared actor, that he was not going to do it 20 times. And he knew I wasn’t going to mess him around.”
Smithard shot The Father in six weeks on a stage at West London Film Studios and was happy with the
Photos by Sean Gleason. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
PASSION PROJECT
DP Linda Wassberg DFF harnessed Kodak 16mm, and operated a largely handheld camera, to depict a passionate and captivating portrait of Finnish artist/illustrator Tove Jansson, the legendary creator of the Moomins, for director Zaida Bergroth’s acclaimed bio-picture Tove.
Exploring themes about art, identity, desire and freedom, the movie centres on Jansson’s early, unconventional life among Helsinki’s liberal society – from just before the end of WWII to the mid-1950s – in which free-spirited artists carouse with politicians at illegal cocktail parties, dance to the latest jazz records and swap partners in open marriages.
The €3.4 million film, written by Eeva Putro, reveals how Jansson, an imaginative young artist who embraces life with gusto, found global success from an unexpected side-project in the creation of the beloved world of the Moomins, whilst also portraying her romantic relationships with both men and women – most notably her on/off lover/ husband Atos Wirtanen, the left-wing intellectual, journalist and cultural critic, and Finnish-Swedish theatre director Vivica Bandler.
Starring theatre-actress Alma Pöysti, in her debut feature-film role that has been hailed as “mesmerising”, Tove was selected as the Finnish entry for Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards, and has been sold to over 50 territories worldwide. Also noted for its direction, costume and cinematography, Tove broke box office records in Finland in 2020, in spite of the pandemic, and now ranks as the highest-grossing Swedish-language Finnish film in the last 40 years.
Getting involved with production was more that just another job for Wassberg. Rather, it was an absolutely-must-do passion project.
“Tove Jansson is a hero for me. Like many Scandinavians, the Moomins were part of my childhood, but Tove’s life and her other artistic works have been of lifelong personal interest. So when I discovered a film was being made about her, I tracked down the producers to introduce myself with the hope of getting actively involved,” enthuses Wassberg, whose hails from Sweden, studied filmmaking at Den Danske Filmskole (The National Film School Of Denmark), and now lives in Copenhagen.
“When the producers realised my personal passion for the project, I was invited over to Helsinki, and had a two-hour meeting with Zaida,” Wassberg recalls. “She and I talked about our mutual love and admiration for Tove, and how we might bring her iconic story to the screen. We both agreed that whilst the Moomins are cute, cuteness was our enemy. We both wanted to break loose, to bring a certain wildness and energy to the cinematography that would reflect the times and the way Tove lived her life.”
A visual staring-point for Wassberg was Bergroth’s reference to director Lars von Trier’s multi-award winning Breaking The Waves (1996), which was shot entirely handheld using Super35mm cameras by DP Robby Müller. “Zaida wanted the same sort of visual power in her film. I was willing to experiment and we went from there,” the DP says.
Wassberg’s enthusiasm for the project saw her immerse herself for a full six months before production began. During that time she worked with Bergroth on the script and participated in extensive conversations with the director, and production designer Catharina Nyqvist Ehrnrooth, about the overall look of the film.
“Along with the Moomins, of course, we looked at a lot of Tove’s paintings, as they would feature in the film, and we watched archive 16mm footage of Helsinki, during and after WW2, and of Tove herself,” says Wassberg. “We found a book of beautiful photographic stills, called Aho & Soldan – Helsinki In 1950’s Colours, to be very inspirational, and also watched a lot of biopics, such as Raging Bull (1980, dir. Martin Scorsese, DP Michael Chapman ASC), and The Fighter (2010, dir. David O. Russell, Hoyte van Hoytema FSF NSC ASC), for their use of handheld camera movement.
“All of this research stimulated a lot of dialogue between Zaida, Catharina and myself, about the natural richness of the colour and the quality of texture we wanted in the set/costume designs and the cinematography in Tove.”
It also started the debate about whether to shoot using digital or celluloid film. However, after watching side-by-side test footage, Wassberg declares that, “it became pretty clear that 16mm film would give us the qualities we wanted. The digital images had the appearance of being lookalike imitations, the filmed images looked real, truthful and alive.”
She also adds, “Tove herself is known across Scandinavia through TV interviews that were all on shot 16mm film, so it was most appropriate for our audience to portray her via this familiar-looking medium.”
Filming on Tove took place over 27, often bone-chilling, shooting-days during January and February 2020, at locations around Helsinki. A replica of Jansson’s studio apartment was built on the stages at Angel Film Studios in the city. Due to travel restrictions caused by the impeding Covid pandemic, the city of Turku/ Åbo in Finland doubled for sequences in which Jansson goes to live and paint in Paris.
Wassberg worked with Bergroth’s regular camera/lighting crew, who were all Finnish and who, apart from gaffer Aki Karppinen and grip Juha Niskamost, were women, namely focus puller/first AC Elina Eränen, and Janina Witkowski second AC. Wassberg’s teenage daughter, Imelda, was employed as a production trainee.
“I had not collaborated with any of the crew before, and don’t speak Finnish, so I was a little concerned about how things would go,” Wassberg admits. “But, they had all worked with film before, and through a mixture of broken English, Swedish and Danish, plus the positive mood that Zaida created on-set, they made me feel at home – things worked-out just fine. They were easy-going and always had smiles, even during the coldest, harshest days of winter weather.
“I also think that having a small crew made-up mainly of women was very helpful when we shot the more intimate moments in the film. This was Alma’s first big role, and having a respectful attitude was important in making her feel safe and comfortable.”
Wassberg shot Tove using an ARRI 416 16mm camera fitted with Ultra Prime lenses, supplied by Dagsljus Filmequipment AB in Stockholm, Sweden. Her emulsions of choice were Kodak Vision3 500T 7219, for the movie’s dark/night-time scenes, plus Kodak Vision3 250D 7207, for day interior/exterior sequences. Focus Film Lab in Stockholm provided processing, 2K scanning and streamed dailies.
In the film, Tove slips blithely in-and-out of the frame, and the camera often weaves in-and-out of the action as the cast cavort in the numerous party scenes.
The DP estimates that 95% of her operating was done handheld, on the shoulder or with an EasyRig, with the remainder on the dolly and wides on sticks.
“Although handheld is very popular these days, especially in Scandi-productions, I had not done much work in this style, but I loved the interaction with the actors,” Wassberg relates. “When combined with the texture, contrast and natural colour of the 16mm film, this approach made for a very interesting and engaging visual marriage – we had a modern linguistic style and an evocative, period image meeting together to convey an atmosphere that is very much alive. Zaida particularly loved the warmth of the golden wash that the 500T captured, and how both film stocks delivered an authentic look without anything ever feeling forced.”
In terms of lighting, Wassberg says the strategy was, “to keep things coming from a natural perspective – nothing cinematic, no moonlight or backlight on exteriors. Although Aki, my gaffer, is a man of few words and had to work with a minimal lighting package, he proved himself to be super-sensitive to what we wanted in every scene. He was very skilful at integrating the lighting into a room, whether it was using silks to bounce-in light, or practicals and other small sources, and all controlled from an iPad. That was really fast and brilliant!”
Reflecting on her time shooing the film, Wassberg says, “it was a beautiful experience. Coming back to filming on film, and working everyday with lots of love and respect between the crew and actors, Tove was one of the best shoots I have worked on in ages. This atmosphere started with Zaida, and filtered through us all. I made a great initial connection with her on a project that I was really drawn to, and we went on a special journey together through every single frame. I felt she was my soulmate.”
Photos: All shots from Tove,
