There was some discussion around how the KODAK VISION3 250D Color Negative Film would handle the black skin of Ace [Gilbert Owuor], the nurse looking after the comatose patriarch. “Sometimes daylight kicks on black skin tend to feel blue because the colors are slightly more neutral on the daylight stock compared to tungsten stocks. Whereas at night Ace looked fantastic on 500T.”
Four to five people made up the grip and electric departments while the camera department consisted of a first camera assistant, second camera assistant and a loader. Key crew members were first AC Tony Coan, key grip Michael Jezak and gaffer Eric Mosley. “Our main shooting crew with the actors was 12 people, and that was also one of the practical reasons we wanted to shoot on film,” notes Nuttgens. “We were liberated from modern technology and had one monitor for the directors, and we shot very fast with a single Arricam Lite camera. It was 24 10-hour days straight. A massive factor was that everyone wanted to do this picture because it was on 35mm.”
Despite printer lights no longer being used Nuttgens still mentally works out the average exposure. “On this particular film I was quite down the line with my exposure when it came to making sure that I maintained all of the detail both in the shadows and in the highlights.” The widest lens carried was a 35mm Zeiss Master Anamorphic. “David, Scott and I have always worked relatively tight and used to call the 75mm the ‘happy lens’ as it was the one that we used the most regularly. However, on this film we worked a bit wider between a 50mm, 60mm and 75mm. Ultimately, we are doing portrait photography, and on the exteriors, we wanted to see enough of the background without it being too out of focus. Our zoom lens was an Angenieux Optimo 56-152mm. When doing handheld, I used that combined with a 1,000 ft magazine and it gave me a perfect balance with the camera.”
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