British Cinematographer issue 51 - Imago

British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012 18
Close-Up
–––Sean Bobbitt BSC
Hysteria, Byzantium &
The Place Beyond The Pines
If variety is the spice of life then Sean Bobbitt BSC has
been having a very spicy time over the past two and
a half years. His most recent films include a period
romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator,
a gritty crime thriller with an experimental twist and a
contemporary vampire story definitely not for fans of the
Twilight franchise.
The first of these, Hysteria, is due for release in the UK
and USA during May. It tells the unlikely-but-true story of
how Victorian doctor Joseph Mortimer Granville (played
by Hugh Dancy) invented the vibrator as a medical
device to treat ‘hysterical’ women.
This sounds a bit Carry On... but Bobbitt says it is
really a love story told with humour: “There is comedic
potential but it is carefully handled.” Also starring Maggie
Gyllenhaal, Felicity Jones and Jonathan Pryce, Hysteria
was directed by Tanya Wexler, who Bobbitt describes
as a collaborative and decisive filmmaker. One of her
decisions was to shoot on film, with the cinematographer
primarily operating an Arricam LT and working with 3-perf
Fuji Vivid 500T and 250 stocks.
“It was definitely a ‘film’ film,” Bobbitt comments.
A sense of the era was evoked by the “judicial use of
Victoriana” - with rooms cluttered by plants and furniture
and shooting on the Vivid stock. “I also used a bit of
contrast,” Bobbitt explains, “so everything was not too
airy and bright. I didn’t want it to be overwhelmed by
the Victoriana so the density of the dresses was picked
out. This gave a sense of a repressed society less through
the design but more in the costumes.”
Hysteria was shot on locations in London with interiors
on a sound stage in Luxembourg. Bobbitt says the look
of the sets was “very rich, almost heightened” but as well
as this and “beauty shots” he also aimed for “an idea of
realism” through the lighting.
Tanya Wexler is the niece of famed American
director of photography Haskell Wexler, who continues
to add to his long list of credits, which include In The
Heat Of The Night (1967) and One Flew Over The
Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), by still working today. Bobbitt
says Tanya “picked me to do what I do” and did not
have preconceived ideas about the cinematography
because of her uncle, although his shadow was cast
over the production at one point.
“I was absolutely terrified when Tanya said she had
invited Haskell over,” Bobbitt says. “But he hates flying and
didn’t come. I would have collapsed in a fit of nerves if he
had, so it was a great relief - although it was also a shame
because he has always been one of my great heroes.”
Another key tool on Hysteria was the Cooke Optics
S4 lens range, which Bobbitt uses on most of his films.
“I just know the S4s so well and I love the look,” he
comments. “There is a perceived softness but they are
also spot-on sharp and the way the focus drops off is not
as hard a contrast. There’s also more to play with in DI.”
19
These lenses, along with the Arricam LT, also
feature on The Place Beyond The Pines, which Bobbitt
shot in the US for director Derek Cianfrance. As he
says, this is the “complete opposite” of Hysteria. It is a
contemporary, gritty story of a motorcycle stuntman
(Ryan Gosling) who considers crime as a way to
provide for his family, which brings him into conflict with
a former cop who is now a politician.
Cianfrance comes from a background of
experimental cinema; Bobbitt describes him as a “very
unusual filmmaker” and says the film has an “unusual
structure in the way the story is told”.
The unconventional approach extended to Bobbitt
shooting 14,000 feet of film on a single handheld
camera, using 400ff mags of 2-perf stock. “For Derek it is
a generational family epic and so he wanted it to look
like a film,” he says. “From my point of view I’m glad we
did shoot on film because a mag of 2-perf lasts eight
and half minutes. The LT can be reloaded very quickly
and I don’t think digital wouldn’t have been a greater
advantage. It certainly would have been to my physical
disadvantage. Digital tape is 23 minutes long and at that
length I would have been a ruin.”
The Place Beyond the Pines is still in post-production,
as is Byzantium, Neil Jordan’s first film to feature
bloodsuckers since Interview With The Vampire in 1994.
Jordan is the main creative force behind the Showtime/
Sky TV series The Borgias, which is made on the ARRI Alexa
digital camera and he was keen to use it for Byzantium.
“It was my first production that was not on film in
many years,” says Bobbitt, “and although initially I was
not convinced it worked very well. We shot RAW data
on to a Codex recorder and everything was quite quick.
It’s easy to get bogged down looking at the monitor, so
I tried to keep things as film-like as possible, including not
having a tent set up for me to sit in.”
The production began with two weeks on location in
Hastings, which Bobbitt calls a “remarkable town, with so
many incongruous things”, before moving to Ireland for
further shooting in Dublin, County Cork and at Ardmore
Studios, County Wicklow. Bobbitt says Byzantium, which
stars Saorise Ronan and Gemma Arterton, is violent and
otherworldly but ultimately poses the question of whether
an immortal creature like a vampire can find love.
A lot of RAW data was created during the shoot
so Bobbitt worked with digital image technician Sean
Leonard, advised by staff at Windmill Post in Dublin and
ARRI, to build a workflow that could deal with it. “We kept
everything as streamlined as possible and Neil watching
on a monitor with a simple look-up table,” he says.
Bobbitt describes the lighting for the film as “very
naturalistic” despite the elements of fantasy. “We had the
costumes and the sets as well as the lighting and camera
settings, so everything is there to go into DI for finishing. I
can’t wait to get my hands on it and finesse it out.”
Byzantium is being DI’ed at LipSync in London and as
well as that Bobbitt is already gearing up for the next film
by Steve McQueen, with whom he worked on Hunger
(2008) and Shame (2011). Twelve Years A Slave, starring
Chiwetel Ejiofor, tells the true story of a black free man
who was kidnapped and sold into slavery and will ensure
that the cinematographer’s “pretty much non-stop”
working schedule won’t be easing up any time soon.
British Cinematographer
Covering International Cinematography
www.britishcinematographer.co.uk
Issue 051 ––– May 2012