American Cinematographer - April 2008 - (Page 70)

Sundance 2008: Mining for Movies In Bruges, which opened the Sundance Film Festival this year, follows two Irish hit men, Ken (Brendan Gleeson, left) and Ray (Colin Farrell), who are sent to picturesque Bruges to lie low after a botched hit. The opening-night selection at Sundance this year was In Bruges, a darkly comic, unexpectedly soulful story about two Irish hit men who are ordered to lie low after a botched contract killing. They hide out in Bruges, Belgium, a city famous for its cobblestone streets, canals and meticulously preserved Gothic architecture. Ken (Brendan Gleeson), the older of the pair, is content to sightsee and soak up the serenity of the medieval surroundings, but Ray 70 April 2008 In Bruges photos by Jaap Buitendijk, courtesy of Focus Features. In Bruges Cinematographer: Eigil Bryld Director: Martin McDonagh (Colin Farrell) is nearly crawling out of his skin with boredom. He is also tormented by the bungled hit, which caused the death of an innocent bystander. Unbeknownst to either man, they have been sent to Bruges by their boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), because he intends to have Ken kill Ray. Danish cinematographer Eigil Bryld (Becoming Jane, The King) says he and director Martin McDonagh wanted to capture the charming qualities of Bruges without sacrificing the story’s sinister undercurrent. “Bruges looks like a fairy-tale place, and the story is a bit like a Gothic fairy tale,” says Bryld, speaking by phone from Copenhagen. “We wanted the film to be rich in detail, saturation and color but also to have a simplicity. We were careful not to make it too stylized; we wanted realism.” Dominated by a large market square, Bruges is lit up at night with a mix of sodium and mercury-vapor lights, including architectural lights that illuminate the buildings from below. The overall light level is low, however, and using that as his base, Bryld had the art department design additional practicals. “We had to do quite a lot of testing to try and match the various color temperatures,” he recalls. “We had a lot of filter packages made up for the lights. We also had to switch out quite a few of the lamps around town with some of our own.” Strings of Christmas lights hung in the background added to the atmosphere. Day exteriors relied primarily on available light and, in keeping with the overcast skies, were played a bit cooler. “We brought in lights occasionally, but I prefer to do [day scenes] with blocking and staging and then use reflectors, polyboards and 6-by-6 wind bags.” Interiors tended to be very warm, with the exception of a gun dealer’s apartment. “Most of the interiors feature a lot of wood, and we used small practicals,” says Bryld. “In the first pub, we put three or four rows of amber- and yellow-gelled [Kino Flo] Image 80s above the bar on a little sill so we could have cross light.” Additionally, yellow-gelled Kino Flo tubes shone through a stained-glass window behind Ray. Given the city’s tall, narrow houses and high stone towers, widescreen was not an obvious format choice, but shooting Super 35mm allowed Bryld and A-camera/Steadicam operator Peter Robertson to frame and hold the tight two-shots — usually of Ken and Ray — that comprise much of the film. “We went for fairly simple framing and kept with the actors at

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2008

American Cinematographer - April 2008 Contents Editor's Note Global Village: The Counterfeiters Short Takes: Milia Production Slate: Paranoid Park Production Slate: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane Card Sharks Temple of Doom 3-D Cinematography Sundance 2008: Mining for Movies Post Focus: Digital Film Tree Gets into Peyote Post Focus: FotoKem’s 3-D Workflow Post Focus: Technicolor Digs in at Pinewood Filmmakers’ Forum: Steven Fierberg, ASC on Searchers 2.0 New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Rodney Taylor

American Cinematographer - April 2008

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