American Cinematographer - April 2013 - 24

Above: Bolduc (left) and director Kim Nguyen
survey the landscape. Right: Komona
observes a group of albinos. Left (from left):
Bolduc, gaffer Gaétan St-Onge, 1st AD Pierre
Magny and Nguyen on location.

Nguyen sought naturalistic performances from the actors, many of whom were
Congolese and had no professional experience. According to the director, Mwanza has
lived much of her life on the streets. He shot
chronologically and did not show the cast the
script because “I tried to keep surprises. I
consider the camera almost a third character
in a scene. I like to keep things moving and
not have everything pre-planned and preblocked. If I [blocked] the actors, I would tell
them something else might happen. Then, we
could have a character shift to another spot,
not looking for marks, so the camera, like the
character, was adapting when something
happened. It was directed improvisation.”
“Kim would just talk to the actors, and
I would set up an environment where I could
shoot almost 360 degrees without any light24

April 2013

ing,” says Bolduc. “We’d choose our
moments on the day, and I would improvise
with the kids. When Kim would suggest
another take, I’d suggest a wider [shot] so
he could cut, and then maybe something
tighter, and then we’d try something different. It was completely on the fly.”
Bolduc’s handheld camera and the
chaotic cutting lend War Witch a documentary feel. “I was so close to the actors I was
in their bubble,” the cinematographer
recalls. “We chose to not shoot from far
away with 100mm, 150mm or 200mm
lenses. We wanted to be with them, which
creates such tension.” He accomplished that
with 32mm and 40mm Zeiss Ultra Prime
lenses, although numerous shots with soft
backgrounds give the impression longer
focal lengths were used. “That’s the magic
of Eric, my first AC,” says Bolduc. “He didn’t
take any marks and never imposed any on
the actors. He just winged it with my T2.8 or
T2 on the barrel. I love to shoot pretty much
open. We shot a lot at T2.8, sometimes T4,
and to be that close at that kind of aperture,
the background just falls out of focus.”
The actors’ skin tones and the spontaneous camerawork dictated few artificial
fixtures, he notes. “Black actors have beautifully reflective skin, and if you put up a
light, you would see the light on them. I
couldn’t put up a light, anyway, because I
never knew where I would be shooting the
American Cinematographer

actors! Also, I don’t like to see the ‘artificial’
in lighting, not even bounce lights. I used a
bounce light once on one of the actors. The
rest was usually no movie lights at all.” He
adds that he twisted polarizing filters in
exterior shots to remove undesirable
sunlight reflections from the actors, and to
add density and contrast and slightly bring
down the stop.
The most extensive use of lights was
a night scene in which the rebels, after a
successful day’s attack against the army,
celebrate at their camp by dancing, playing
soccer and firing their weapons. “We
prepared for six hours and shot during one
night for about an hour and a half, improvising with everybody, just having fun,”
Bolduc recalls. “I could go 360 degrees
around with them. We just hung bulbs here
and there, a couple of neon lights, and we
turned cars toward us and turned on their
headlights, and that was the scene. It felt
real.”
Facilitating such long, uninterrupted
shooting was the Arri Alexa, which was
recording in ProRes 4:4:4 to 32GB SxS
cards. Bolduc had shot most of his previous
features on film, but he felt that would have
been too restrictive on War Witch. “I would
have had an Aaton on my shoulder with a
400-foot mag. That’s four minutes in
35mm, and reloading would have broken
the mood. I loved the idea that with the
American Cinematographer - April 2013

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