OnFilm Interviews A Conversation with Xavier Pérez Grobet ... - Kodak

OnFilm Interviews
"I got my first Super 8 camera when I was 11 years old and started
experimenting with things like stop motion and perspective. It has always
been my dream to be a moviemaker. Cinematography is a visual language
that is global. Each film has its own language with endless possibilities, but
you have to create it together with a director who is willing to experiment.
You start from scratch at the beginning of every film looking for ways to
push yourself a little bit further. You have to be ready to shoot when
unexpected things happen. Magic happens when you capture those
moments. There are films that are pure entertainment, but there are also
films that stay with you forever. I don't think anything compares to a great
film that has soul."
Xavier Pérez Grobet earned Silver Ariel Award nominations for Best
Cinematography in Mexico for La Mujer de Benjamin, Sin remitente,
Esmeralda De noche vienes and Sexo pudor y lágrimas, and an
Independent Spirit Award nomination for Before Night Falls. His credits
include The Woodsman, Nine Lives, Nacho Libre and Music and Lyrics.
[All these films were shot on Kodak motion picture film.]
A Conversation with Xavier Pérez Grobet
by Bob Fisher
QUESTION: Let's begin with some background. Where were you born and
raised?
GROBET: I was born in Mexico City in 1964 to an architect father and a
still photographer mother, I guess that's where it all started.
QUESTION: Were you a photo hobbyist when you were growing up?
GROBET: I grew up with a photo lab next to my bedroom. I had my first
camera at an early age and took pictures, I played a lot with the enlarger
using different objects to create compositions. When I was 11 our family
spent a year in England. That's when I bought my first Super 8 camera and
started making my films. I experimented with things like stop motion and
perspective, I made it look like my brother was holding my sister in his
hand. Later, back in Mexico, together with my cousin, we wrote and shot a
couple of stories using everybody in the family.
QUESTION: Were you also a movie fan?
GROBET: We went to the movies all the time since I was a kid. I knew I
wanted to be a moviemaker since I got my first Super 8 camera. After high
school, I wanted to enter film school. There were two film schools in
Mexico. You had to be 23 years old and have a career in order to apply to
Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC), which was the one that I
was interested in. I tried architecture school in the meantime, but after a
Xavier Pérez Grobet
Photo by D. Kirkland

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while I realized that it wasn't something that I felt passionate about.
QUESTION: What did you do after you came to that realization?
GROBET: After about a half year in architectural school, I decided to board
a cargo ship to Europe. I got onboard in Acapulco and rode through the
Panama Canal. The trip took about two months, and then I spent about a
half a year backpacking around Europe.
QUESTION: That must have broadened your outlook. What did you do
after that odyssey?
GROBET: I went back to Mexico and worked for a while until it was time to
apply for film school. The exam consisted of several stages and ended with
an interview where five tough teachers made it really difficult. Around 300
people applied, and I was lucky enough to be one of the 12 they selected.
QUESTION: How about sharing some your memories from film school?
GROBET: We studied every aspect of filmmaking during the first year. It
was a great opportunity to meet real filmmakers. During the second year,
the director of the school, who is a well known documentary filmmaker,
Eduardo Maldonado, was working on a feature documentary about the
festivities in Xochimilco, an area south of Mexico City. I worked as camera
assistant on that film. That was my first experience on a film other than our
school projects.
QUESTION: We noticed that you were also an assistant cameraman on an
number American films while you were still in your mid-20s. How did that
happen?
GROBET: There were different American films shooting in Mexico that
were looking for locals who spoke the language and had enough
experience to work on their crews. My first experience was on a film that
David Watkin shot called Last Rites. Tom Berenger was in it. It was an
incredible opportunity to see how David Watkin lit the interior of that
church. I also assisted on Revenge shot by Jeff Kimball (ASC) and Total
Recall by Jost Vacano (ASC).
QUESTION: You earned your first cinematography credit around the same
time.
GROBET: La Mujer de Benjamin (Benjamin's Woman) started as a
graduate student film project and ended up earning many awards all
around the world. It was directed by Carlos Carrera, with whom I did three
films.
QUESTION: You earned the first of your four Silver Ariel Award
nominations for best cinematography on a Mexican film on that project. By
the early 1990s, you were shooting one film after another in Mexico. Do
any of them stick out in your memory?
GROBET: I remember a film called Sin Remitente or No Return Address in
English. That film was also directed by Carlos Carrera. I did some
interesting and risky things for the first time on that film like underexposing
the negative and using color and neutral density grad filters, and our sets
were painted really dark. It is great when a film gives you opportunities to
explore new things.
QUESTION: You earned your second Silver Ariel nomination for your work
on that film. But, you just raised an interesting point about creating looks
that are right for different films. When does the inspiration for that happen
for you? Does it begin with the script?
GROBET: I can't really say that I see the look of a film in my mind the first
time I read the script. I came onto The Woodsman (2004) only around two
weeks before we started shooting. It was Nicole Kassell's first film, but she
had a very clear vision of what she wanted. At our first meeting, she said
that she wanted kind of an overcast day look throughout the film. We
experimented with desaturation and grain, looked at some 1970s films
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together-Five Easy Pieces, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and also Rat
Catcher-and spoke about the language they used. I considered flashing the
film, but because of budget I ended up using cyan and a "pull" process on
the negative. I chose an older set of Zeiss prime lenses, because we didn't
want everything to be crystal sharp and clear.
QUESTION: What an interesting example of visual grammar. How about
another one?
GROBET: There were POV shots where we wanted a sense of unreality to
represent a feeling of uncertainty We over exposed the film by three stops,
so the images are grainy and washed out just enough to tell the audience
he might be seeing something he doesn't want to see.
QUESTION: Where do ideas like that come from?
GROBET: You are always learning and looking for ways to push it a little
bit farther, but you can't do it alone. I can read a script and have ideas that
might work for the film, but unless I am working with a director who shares
that vision, and is willing to experiment, it isn't going to happen. Every film
has its own language with endless possibilities, but you have to create it
together with a director who shares your vision.
QUESTION: How do you decide whether or not you are interested in
spending months of your life working on a particular film?
GROBET: There are many different reasons to choose a film. First is the
story and most important the director. Without that match it is hard to come
up with a visual understanding. After The Woodsman, I was ready for a
comedy. It is really easy to get categorized as someone who does certain
types of films, and once that happens it is difficult to get people to see you
as someone who can do other things.
QUESTION: You shot a comedy, Nacho Libre, fairly recently.
GROBET: The director was Jared Hess. He has a very specific vision in
terms of lenses and framing, which I embraced and found interesting. We
used wide angle lenses and composed the action in the center of the
frame. We mainly used a 21 mm even for close-ups and the long lens was
a 27 mm. It was the right language for this movie.
QUESTION: You have also occasionally shot documentaries.
GROBET: I have shot some documentaries like Blossoms of Fire (2000). It
was a 16 mm film directed by Maureen Gosling and Ellen Osborne. It is
about a community in the south of Mexico where the women wear the
pants. Documentaries are kind of like hunting. They teach you that you
have to be ready to shoot when unexpected things happen. All of your
senses have to be open to what's happening around you.
QUESTION: Do you ever see a cross-over between documentary and
narrative filmmaking in terms of visual language?
GROBET: Unexpected things happen on fiction film sets as well, and it's
magic when you capture them.
QUESTION: When did you move from Mexico to Los Angeles?
GROBET: That happened in 1999. I shot Before Night Falls that year. That
film was directed by Julian Schnabel. It was produced in Mexico and in
New York. Lot's of doors opened with this movie.
QUESTION: Do people in different countries approach filmmaking
differently?
GROBET: I guess there are some differences but filmmakers everywhere
have a common language. One interesting thing is that whether you are
shooting in Mexico, the U.S., China, Russia or Buenos Aires, film crews are
the same.
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QUESTION: What was your first film after moving to Los Angeles?
GROBET: My first film was Tortilla Soup. It was produced by Sam
Goldwyn, Jr., directed by Maria Ripoll. With my second movie, I got the
chance to enter the Camera Guild. It was a comedy called Chasing Papi
then came In the Time of the Butterflies with Salma Hayek and The
Woodsman. I shot four episodes of Deadwood, a great show for a
cinematographer with lot's of opportunities to play with textures and light.
QUESTION: You also shot an interesting feature called Nine Lives around
that time.
GROBET: It was written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia. He is a talented
director who understands human nature. We had a great cast, including
Glenn Close, Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek and Kathy Baker among others.
This are nine stories each told in real time, shot on a Steadicam rig. We
used Super 16 film, which allowed us to shoot over 12 minutes each take,
not having cuts had it's difficulty when it came to lighting in practical
locations.
QUESTION: You mentioned Nacho Libre. What was it like going back to
Mexico?
GROBET: It was a great to work with my old crew again. I got to work with
gaffer Fernando Moreno and key grip Jesus Ramirez whom I started my
career with. It was like being on a playground with my old friends. That's
important to me, because the crew becomes part of my family.
QUESTION: Let's go back something you said earlier about no two films
being the same. When we think about that, it is kind of like writing literature
or composing music.
GROBET: When you are a cinematographer you find out that there is a
common language that is global, but every movie and every director are
different. With every movie you start from scratch, finding the right camera
angles and movement, lighting, colors, lenses and formats for that specific
story.
QUESTION: As we are speaking, you are in postproduction. Tell us about
that film.
GROBET: It is called Music and Lyrics. It's a comedy for Warner Bros.
written and directed by Marc Lawrence with Hugh Grant and Drew
Barrymore. The story takes place in Manhattan. It's a love story between
this '80s pop star who has to write a song in four days for his next gig. He
meets the girl of his dreams who helps him out. The most important of this
movie was to make Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore look great.
QUESTION: So, you were back in New York, where you did your first U.S.
film.
GROBET: Shooting in Manhattan is interesting. The buildings are so tall
that once you get past mid-day you're in shadows. I used the (Kodak
Vision2) high-speed (500T) 5218 to have enough stop. I actually used the
same stock through out the film.
QUESTION: If you could go back in history and pick out one of the past
great directors to work with today, who would you choose?
GROBET: Vittorio De Sica. His film, Miracle in Milan, has been one of my
favorites since I was a little kid.
QUESTION: Do you think movies are our entertainment or something more
than that?
GROBET: Great movies are art, like going to a concert or reading a good
book they stick in your mind and affect how you think and feel about the
world. There are films that are pure entertainment, but there are also films
that stay with you forever. I don't think there is anything that compares to a
great film that has soul.
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