Lavelle and Shore both operated on what was mainly a single camera production but did incorporate the Steadicam skills of Greg McGuiness during the Irish stint of production and Charlie Cowper in Croatia, plus the focus-pulling talents of Connor Hammond, who ensured sharp images despite the lack of marks.
“Although we did some work on dolly and tracks, the majority of the camerawork was a combination of handheld and Steadicam, as we wanted to respond to the performances, which might change between takes, and to keep the image real and alive,” Lavell explains. “This approach, and the small technology footprint that comes with filming on film, also meant we could work quickly and get thorough the daily page count and setups efficiently. Typically, our Irish episodes took 12 days each, and that reduced to ten days in Croatia.
“One of the features of shooting 2-perf, especially with longer focal lengths, is that we reduced that very narrow depth-of-field that you can see in Normal People, and could stand back slightly to plant our characters, especially Frances, in the different locations around Dublin. That said, the Covid protocols were much stricter there than they were in Northern Ireland, and our 1st AD became adept at positioning plants, props and extras so we didn’t get people wearing facemasks on our Dublin exteriors.”
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