THE VOICE

By Iain Blair

Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd BSC got his start in documentaries back in the ‘80s, and over the course of his long and prolific career (some 84 projects and counting) he’s developed a unique, highly-recognisable style and visual signature – a documentarystyle approach informed by his background in, and love for, social realism. With its ample use of handheld cameras, punchy zooms and naturalistic lighting, it’s a method Ackroyd has refined and fine-tuned over the course of some five decades and several key collaborations with such directors as Ken Loach, Paul Greengrass and Kathryn Bigelow.

Starting in the early ‘90s Ackroyd shot ten films for Loach, including Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006), before teaming with Greengrass on United 93 (2006), which won him a BAFTA nomination. He went on to shoot three more films with Greengrass, including Green Zone (2010), Captain Phillips (2013), which won him a second BAFTA nomination as well as an ASC nomination, and Jason Bourne (2016). His first film with Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (2008), won Ackroyd BAFTA, Oscar and a host of other award nominations, and the two reteamed on Detroit (2017). Along the way, the DP has also collaborated with such diverse directors as Adam McKay, Sean Penn, Jay Roach and Ralph Fiennes.

Now Ackroyd has brought his method and all his experience to bear on what might at first seem like an unlikely project for his particular skillset, I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the long-awaited biopic about the late superstar Whitney Houston, from TriStar Pictures. Starring Naomi Ackie as the powerful, soulful singer, and directed by Kasi Lemmons, whose last film, Harriet (2019, DP John Toll ASC), was nominated for two Academy Awards, the film is produced by the team behind the blockbuster Bohemian Rhapsody (2018, DP Newton Thomas Sigel ASC) including producer Denis O’Sullivan and screenwriter Anthony McCarten, who was Oscarnominated for his Bohemian Rhapsody script.

“Over my career I’ve shot a lot of small, intimate films with directors like Ken Loach, and some big action films, such as Jason Bourne and Captain Phillips with

Paul Greengrass, but I’d never done this sort of film, so it was a bit of a challenge,” admits Ackroyd. “When they approached me and I first read the script I thought, it’s got it all – small, intimate scenes, huge stadium concerts, and this incredible story of her life that’s both so full of joy and success and yet is also so tragic. And I knew it had the right team behind it to do it justice and do something special.”

But like so many indie projects, it took a while for all the pieces to fall into the right places, reports Ackroyd.

“I was on-board, but then the original director, Stella Meghie, ended-up leaving, and then Kasi came on, and she hadn’t hired me as her DP. So we had to start from scratch and I had to convince her about my approach. It was definitely an unusual way to start a film.”

Happily, the new team quickly clicked as they began tackling the project’s many challenges.

“A biopic has to have certain elements – the history and the character, the highs and lows – but it’s the way you put all that together to tell the story that makes it work or not,” he notes. “And it really helped that it was authorised by Whitney’s family and Clive Davis, the record executive who discovered her and then became her mentor and a father figure as he guided her career, as he was a major figure in the story and the film which he also co-produced.”

Another key part of the puzzle was already in place – English actress Naomie Ackie. “Casting her as Whitney Houston was brilliant, as she has a great musical talent,” notes Ackroyd. “So it was great that we kept the same lead actress when Kasi took over. To be honest, I didn’t really know that much about Whitney’s life before I did this, but when I read the script I immediately knew it was a fantastic story, really compelling. And then you add in all the great music, and I felt we could make it something more than the usual biopic. That was our goal.”

Because of the change in director, the film’s entire schedule was pushed back. “We ended-up having just over three months of prep, which isn’t that long for a complicated project like this,” Ackroyd reports, “and in terms of camera and lens tests I kind of know what I’ll be doing and I have a method.

“I test things, but, to be honest, I just mostly come out using the Angénieux Optimo 24-290 T2.8 Zoom. That’s my favourite lens by far, and I used it every day. I put it on and it was there till we wrapped. It’s the most incredible tool, and for me, just gives me that lens and camera combination that I can shoot any kind of film. Yes, I can be stubborn at times about my method, but hopefully not in a negative way, and I know what I can achieve using the methods I’ve perfected over the years.”

Ackroyd says that the initial plan was to shoot it all Anamorphic, “but we shot a mixture of Anamorphic and spherical lenses, often using a trio of Alexa Mini LF cameras in Super 35 mode, with an aspect ratio of 2.39:1.”

The Anamorphic lens package included: Atlas Orion 2x Anamorphic primes; Angénieux Optimo 56-152mm 2X zoom T4; Angénieux Optimo 30-72mm 2x zoom T4; plus Cooke Anamophics. Spherical zooms included: Angénieux Optimo 24-290 T2.8 Zoom; Angénieux Optimo 15-40mm T2.6 Zoom; Angénieux Optimo 28-76mm T2.6 Zoom; Angénieux Optimo 45120mm T2.8 Zoom; plus Cook S4 Primes. The DP also used Tiffen Black Satin filters and Star filters.

“I like to set up all three cameras on a longish zoom lens and use them like there’s a human eye behind the lens and camera,” explains Ackroyd when asked about his approach to shooting. “It’s a human being watching and listening and deciding where the eye should go, and there’s a certain plan to that. And, of course, there’s a definite relationship between us and the director in terms of how we’re going to capture the images. That’s how we approach the work on-set. Then you’re just trying to improve all that every time.

“I feel we made some huge leaps on this film. There’s some really interesting geometry in this, and we made sure we were making very interesting shots, even in tiny rooms. So you’re trying to give it all life – like her life, whether it’s full of greatness or beauty or ugliness. And to do that, having the right tools at hand is crucial, so you’re not constantly having to stop, change lenses and reposition the camera. I want the whole process to be as fluid as possible.”

To this end, Ackroyd explains, “I like to use fixed positions, but with sliders, so you can let the handheld shots lean left and right and use that beautiful Angenieux 24-290 lens balanced to float-in and zoom-in at the appropriate moments.”

And, appropriately for this film, he used the lenses “just like music. It has its high points and low ones, and rhythm, and it was a case of bringing-in the visuals to match the intensity of the story.”

The DP shot the film at 4K, “so we could keep the spherical lenses, and we shot Super 35 and Anamorphic, framing 2:25 spherical for the zooms,” he reports. “As for choosing the ARRI Alexa Mini LF, I love the look, the feel of it, everything about it, really. And I always operate the camera – and always with my left hand on the zoom, which not many people do, and that comes from my documentary background. I bring the style, and then add that to the other operators.”

In terms of lighting, “it’s always a bit of a dog’s dinner in a way, as you have all these different lights for different things,” he notes. “But when you get down to it, when you’re doing intimate scenes, you’re using practical lights, available light, and units like Astera Titans which are the equivalent of the old Kino-Flos. I worked very closely with my regular gaffer, Kelly Clear, who’s a lovely guy, very skillful. “We discuss together where to place the lighting and he’ll get it all set-up very quickly. And that’s been my lighting method right since the beginning of my career, working with Ken Loach. You light the space and then give the space to the actors to work their magic.”

Ackroyd worked with famed Company3 colourist, Walter Volpatto, whose diverse credits include The Hateful Eight and Avatar: The Last Airbender, on the colour grade.

“I’ve worked with Walter before, on the last two or three films I’ve shot in America. I come from a background in social realism, and that’s what I’m looking for in any given project,” he explains. “That’s what appeals to me, and I wanted to capture that look and feeling in this film. It’s not some fantasy. It’s the life of this young, talented woman from New

Jersey, and we have to respect that.

“So capturing a natural, realistic look was absolutely essential to me. I didn’t want to go for heavy grades and a glossy, fashionable look. It’s really about bringing reality to every situation – whether it’s a simple scene at home or in a small New York blues club when she was just 19, or one of her huge concerts, like the amazing performance at the Superbowl. And those massive shows needed a huge amount of lighting to bring the right atmosphere and energy.”

The film was largely shot in Boston. “It’s not one of the big film cities like LA or London or Atlanta, but you go where the tax breaks are,” he notes. “And finding stage space isn’t that easy now with all the new streaming production. Everything’s booked-up. So we actually setup in a brand new empty building in Quincy, a Boston suburb. It was totally inappropriate for making a film in at the start, as it had no soundstages or even electricity. But it was big, and Kelly came in early during prep and got things sorted. We also used it to build sets and for the art department, so when we shot everyone was under one roof which was very convenient, although it was a little crowded. So, against the odds, it all worked out, largely thanks to our great camera crew and technical team bringing it all together.”

The three month shoot also needed “a lot of locations,” he adds, “and Boston doubled quite well for New Jersey where Whitney grew up. It also has some very big theatres, which we could shoot in, so pretty much the whole film was shot in Boston. Then right at the end, we went to LA, to the Beverly Hills Hilton where she died, as we couldn’t find anything at all like it in Boston, or like the style of mansion we needed for Whitney’s home with Bobby Brown.”

For director Kasi Lemmons, her close collaboration with Ackroyd, both in prep and on set “was so creative and intuitive,” she says. “He’s just a master at what he does, and he had a very interesting approach for a biopic, as he shot it handheld, almost like a documentary, which is how he began his career. Of course, I’d seen most of his films and I knew his work, and while we’d never worked together before, that unusual way of dealing with a biopic really interested me and appealed to me, especially with this film.”

Lemmons adds, “I really had a personal connection to the story as I’d actually written two screenplays for Whitney – one that she didn’t know I was writing, which I came in and pitched to her, and another that her father commissioned me to write for her. She made a real impression on me when we met, so I wanted to make a tribute to the person that I knew and had written for, and I also wanted to celebrate her.

“Barry got that right away. I also found his take on the material and narrative to be a very musical approach which really suited the story. There’s this immediacy to it too, and you feel the life in it. It’s like a living, breathing camera, and it’s why I love handheld and especially when it’s used for movies about music.

“But there’s also this quality where you feel like you’re peering in at something, and Barry gives it this intense sense of reality which is something I wanted. He also makes it look very beautiful, and he shot all the performance scenes and concerts with such energy and that sense of excitement. I absolutely loved working with him.”

When asked how hard the shoot was, Lemmons quickly admits that “it was pretty tough and stressful. I’ve done hard shoots before, like when we shot Harriet in the woods at night in the cold. That was hard, but in a different way. You’re shooting these huge musical numbers and guiding an actress who’s in almost every scene, and it was very intense. So it was great to have someone like Barry who’s so experienced and calm, someone that you can trust and lean on, especially when you’re dealing with the big set pieces.”

Ackroyd, who worked closely with his DIT Kyo Moon on-set, reports that “the big concert set-pieces were fairly challenging to shoot, as you’re on a tight schedule to prep, light and shoot in a theatre, so I always had five cameras running for those scenes to make sure we got all the coverage possible.

“You’re also dealing with a lot of visual effects for crowds, and a lot of extras – sometimes as many as 250 for background inside a stadium or concert hall. But despite having big stages with lots of people for many scenes, we had few Covid cases during the shoot thanks to everyone being masked.”

Summing up, Ackroyd notes that “recording vocals and all the sound correctly for those concert scenes was crucial, and we had the same great British sound team that won the Oscars for Bohemian Rhapsody.

“As for Naomie, she has a very powerful voice that’s so close to how Whitney sang, and when they blended both their vocals the result was amazing. Naomie also had all Whitney’s movements down, for every period of her life, as she really had studied all the documentaries and old footage for over a year. She never held us up for anything while shooting. It was an incredible performance, and I think audiences will be pretty impressed when they see the film. I’m very proud of what we all achieved.”

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