From the lighting perspective, Passi says the train was by far the most interesting, but complicated location, often being dependent on practicals.
“I felt that the nature of the light should vary according to the situation and the mood of the scene. Which meant playing with the CTO/CTB and green gels and extending this with small LED lamps. Sometimes it needed to be bright and flat, or dirty and gritty, sometimes moody, warm and cozy.”
“We also needed to shoot some of the nighttime train scenes in a couple of wagons in the train depot where we built a shaker machine to simulate the movement of the carriages. So we used moving LED lights, artificial snow, wind and smoke, to create the feeling of the train moving through the wintery landscape.
“Basically, we used everything – from practicals to Dedos, pocket-sized LEDs to Dinos, and 18Ks on cherrypickers – whatever served the purpose best. One of our locations was an enormous open-cast mine with a diameter of about 1km, and we needed to shoot a wide shot in the night there. So the big tools were really needed at times.”
He concludes: “For me every shooting day is a learning process. Compartment No.6 was fun, but it was a big thing for the different departments to work on. Most importantly though, the tricks and techniques we employed are not noticeable at all in the final picture. People who have watched the film believe what they see – a story about strangers sharing a trip, experiences and connections that stay with them both forever.”
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