American Cinematographer - January 2010 - 22

Clockwise from top right: Director Michael Haneke (center) and Steadicam operator Jörg Widmer prepare to film; Haneke works with actors Christian Friedel (left) and Leonie Benesch as Christian Berger, AAC (background) sets up the shot; the church interior; the CRLS setup used outside the church. discovers his father (Rainer Bock) and Anna in a compromising position. The sudden glare of light is startling, underscoring the scene’s shocking content. “That was very difficult to do,” Berger recalls. “Haneke kept saying, ‘Darker, darker,’ and I couldn’t see anything in the viewfinder, and the camera was constantly moving, following this invisible boy. The entire scene was one long shot. The lens was wide open, and I had to underexpose by 2 stops using 5219. It wouldn’t have been printable the analog way!” Berger used three “beamers” to light the shot, producing a shimmer of moonlight on Rudi as he descends the stairs and moves through a patch of light on the rug in the hallway. A bit more light filters in here and there, but overall, the scene is very dark. “Holding focus under such conditions is very challenging, and my first assistant, Gerald Helf, did a masterful job,” notes Berger. “The little boy is wearing a light nightshirt, and I 22 January 2010 tried to constantly modulate the contrast between it and the dark.” In the room where Rudi discovers his sister and father, Berger augmented the practical lamp with a small source hidden in the corner and erased the extra shadow in post. Referring to Haneke’s penchant for dark images, Berger laughs and comments, “Michael dislikes technical restrictions and has a tendency to just ignore them. That makes life not so easy for a director of photography. More light on a scene would give me more information for postproduction!” One key scene in the film takes place outdoors, in bright sunshine. It’s a village dance, where romance starts to blossom between the town’s schoolteacher (Christian Friedel) and Eva, a shy governess (Leonie Benesch). “No reflectors were needed because Eva’s white blouse was reflective enough,” says Berger. “With the camera moving 360 degrees, there was no opportuAmerican Cinematographer nity to use lighting, anyway! My favorite Steadicam operator, Jörg Widmer, just danced along with the characters, and he is a very good dancer. Gerald had to sit atop a tall post in order to follow with the focus.” Later in the film, a distraught Eva goes to the teacher’s quarters to tell him she has been fired. He tries to calm her by playing his piano. A single oil lamp illuminates the room. “Again, the room was dark,” says Berger. “How do you light? How do you handle the shadows that come from a single oil lamp? You need another source, but you can’t put one in without a second shadow appearing. The answer was postproduction. We used two 12-volt halogen lamps to bounce light onto the actors’ faces, and we erased the double shadows in post.” All of the post work was done at Listo Videofilm in Vienna. For the DI, the negative was scanned at 4K on a North-

American Cinematographer - January 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2010