American Cinematographer - January 2017 - 92

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Time of Grief

The crew readies the camera for a scene with Robert Kennedy (Peter Sarsgaard), Jacqueline
Kennedy and others following the president's assassination.

by Jackie, shot in 2-inch black-andwhite video. These very disparate
sources had one thing in common: a
strong texture. So it seemed natural to
use 16mm [in order to take advantage
of ] its strong grain, and also its color
palette. It was very important that the
audience not notice the transition
between archival footage and the images
we shot.
Most of the film is shot handheld. Did you operate?
Fontaine: Yes, I operated most of
the film, except for the few Steadicam
shots.
Your camera is often very close
to Natalie Portman.
Fontaine: Yes, extremely close,
often about a foot away, with very wide
lenses: 14, 18 and 25mm. We did some
tests before production with different
focal lengths and we realized that we
could be very wide, and that Natalie's
face was still very becoming. The important thing for us was to be close to her,
but still provide a sense of [the environments] around her. If you shoot a closeup with a long focal length, you isolate
the person from their surroundings. The
only time we used a really long lens -
an old 10-100mm Zeiss - is when Vice
President Johnson is sworn in on Air
Force One. It's an important moment
92

January 2017

that marks Jackie's separation from that
world, so we showed her disconnected
from her environment. Our framing is
faithful to the famous photograph taken
then.
How did you stage your handheld scenes?
Fontaine: When you're shooting
scenes with a lot of dialogue, it's often
tempting to multiply the number of
shots - with different angles and sizes
- and then find the film in the editing
room. This was not the case with Jackie.
This film was clearly constructed in the
editing, but it was absolutely conceived
in the shooting. Most of the film was
shot with a single camera, and Pablo
gave the actors and the camera a lot of
freedom to maneuver, but we would do
several different takes. We would often
shoot the whole mag in a take.
That's something I see a lot in
contemporary filmmaking: shooting
scenes in long takes, even if they'll be
edited afterwards.
Fontaine: Yes, Jackie was often
shot in long takes, and the pans are
sometimes kept in the edit. That way of
shooting adds a tension, an energy that
you don't get when you build a scene one
shot and one character at a time. Here,
everyone is playing all the time.
Are your camera movements
American Cinematographer

always motivated by the actor?
Fontaine: Yes, but sometimes you
also want to tell the story differently.
There are moments when it's good to
suggest another emotion. When you're
handheld you may get further away
from the actor to give a different color to
the shot, to create another nuance -
like in this case, to provide a feeling of
fragility.
So she ends up smaller in the
frame?
Fontaine: Yes. Pablo gave me a
lot of freedom, which was very pleasant.
I had an earphone so I could always hear
the dialogue as I was shooting. I often
frame with my ears. The frame is
dictated by what I feel the scene is
[saying] in the moment, by the story the
actors are telling. Of course I sometimes
missed something Pablo wanted to see,
but then we did another take and I
timed the movements differently, and
the second take could tell another part of
the story.
You were offering options for
editing?
Fontaine: Absolutely. I needed to
be able to bring things to Pablo so that
he could be really creative in editing. But
that doesn't mean 'TV coverage.' Pablo
liked this approach and we understood
each other, so we could work quickly.
When he gave me indications, I immediately understood what we were missing and what we needed to get.
I imagine that Natalie Portman's
movements sometimes guided yours?
Fontaine: There was a fair
amount of improvisation on her part, so
the camera had to build something
around that. We had to get past improvisation so the shot seemed designed,
while still being extremely free. I really
like it when there is a silent dialogue
between the actor and the operator,
when I can feel intuitively that she will
want to move. Knowing that, I start to
leave a place for her to move to. When it
works, you can see the actor move into
the space you left them. I love that
moment. You can also suggest things to
the actor, lead them to a place where you
might have an interesting background.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2017