Shooting skills of paradise day

In their films, the combination of lighting and scene scheduling (Mise-en-scène) makes lighting a part of scene scheduling. This high integration of vision and lighting has always guided me, and this artistic preference has also led me to terrence malick and his work Paradise Day.

When producers Harold and Bert Schneider first contacted me about Paradise Day, I asked to see Malik's previous film The Waste Land. After reading it, I immediately realized that I could establish a unique and fruitful cooperative relationship with this director. Later, I learned that Terry really appreciated my work in L'ENFANT SAUVAGE. Although this is a black-and-white movie, it is quite similar to Paradise Day, and it is also a movie of the times. In fact, it was because of this Fran? ois Truffaut film that Malik thought of letting me shoot Paradise Day.

In the process of filming, because the director doesn't know the technical details of film photography requirements, the communication between the director and the photographer often leads to confusion and misunderstanding. But working with Terry, such a thing will never happen. He always knows exactly what I like and explain in photography. And not only did he allow me to make an attempt that I wanted to do for a long time-using much less artificial lighting than the old-fashioned method (I didn't use it at all most of the time)-in fact, he forced me to do so. This kind of creative support makes me very excited and directly improves my work level.

The main insistence of our creation is simple photography: cleaning up the artificial lighting in recent movies. We refer to the films of the silent film era (the works of Griffith, Chaplin and others), when photographers had a basic and unique use of natural light.

Use natural light as much as possible, that is, use only the light from the window when shooting indoor scenes during the day, just like the paintings of the great Dutch painter John Vermeer. When shooting indoor scenes at night, there is only one reasonable light source for limited lighting, such as portable lights, candles or light bulbs.

Therefore, in a sense, "Paradise Day" is a tribute to the image workers before the birth of sound films, to the rough texture I like, and to the lack of artificial exquisite luster.

Film art-the image display of film-became very mature and complicated in 1930s, 40s and 1950s. As a movie fan, I like the photography of those movies, especially the early talking movies, but that's not the style I want to seek.

All the films I made were inspired by great painters. The film Heaven's Day has influenced me mainly from American painters, such as andrew wyeth and edward hopper.

In addition, as an artist, Terry Malik is also a collector of classic photos. His collection of photographs from the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century is a guide for us to design clothes and feel the atmosphere of that era.

Finally, considering the influence of these photos, we decided to put them at the beginning of the film as the audience's first impression of the film, so as to establish the atmosphere and feeling of that era in the film.

Bill Weber edited these clips, and the photos at the beginning of the film, accompanied by classical melodies full of pictures, were slow and solemn, and they were staccato and vibrato-like, and presented to the audience one by one.

In order to find the layout and style of this special film, when I set foot on the location of Canada, the first consideration was how to use natural light in this film.

In France, washing powder is placed in the red countryside, because the sky is covered with thick clouds and the sunshine is very soft and delicate, so it is very easy to shoot the exterior, and there is no need to make any adjustments for shooting (lighting) scenes from different angles.

In North America, the air is more transparent and the texture of sunlight is harder. But when shooting a character in the backlight, his face will be shrouded in the shadow in the film.

Usually, when shooting outdoor scenes during the day, people will use reflective or artificial lighting (such as arc lamp) to fill the light, reduce shadows and reduce the contrast of the picture.

But when shooting this film, Malik and I both felt that we should not follow the old shooting method, do not use lights, and shoot with shadows as the exposure standard. This will expose the sky and make the blue sky less blue. Terry likes the effect.

Malik, like Truffaut, follows the current fading trend, and the blue sky will bother them. Because the blue sky makes the scenery like postcards and vulgar travel advertisements.

Exposing the shadow directly under the backlight will make the sky overexposed and lack of color. If you use arc lamp or reflector to fill the light, it will make the whole picture very flat, without focus and visually boring.

I decided to give up all reflective and artificial lighting, and then measure the sky and shadow separately, and make exposure according to the light difference between them. In this way, people's faces will be slightly underexposed, while the sky will be slightly overexposed, so that the sky will not be too blue, but it will not become dead white.

But to my surprise, this innovative decision has become the main focus of debate among the film crew.

As a European photographer, shooting blockbusters for the (Hollywood) studio makes it impossible for me to choose the mechanic I want to work for. On the contrary, the mechanic of this film was appointed and recruited by the producer. With a few exceptions, the entire film crew is composed of typical veteran Hollywood technicians.

These people are used to polished lights and photography. For them, their faces should never be covered with shadows, and the sky should always be blue. I found that when I walked onto the shooting scene, the arc lamp was already in place and every scene was ready. And my job became dimming, that is, removing fake and traditional lighting.

I can see that the film crew is very dissatisfied with the innovative methods we adopted for this film, and some people began to publicly criticize us for being clueless and unprofessional. These times, in order to show goodwill, we will take two shots for one shot, one with arc lamp and the other without arc lamp. After that, we invite those who are skeptical to watch samples different from other films to compare the effect and give comments.

With the deepening of shooting, this kind of creative contradiction is becoming more and more intense. Fortunately, Malik not only supports me, but also is braver than me. When shooting some scenes, I initially thought it necessary to use plastic foam board to reflect sunlight on the actors' faces to reduce the contrast, while Malik asked me not to use reflector.

Because we can instantly see that Wool is different from other films, we find that the shooting effect is obviously conducive to the visual expression of the story, and we are becoming bolder and bolder, constantly reducing artificial lighting and pursuing rough and natural image texture. Some staff began to understand our pursuit and gradually participated in the creation. Others never understand.