American Cinematographer - December 2012 - 51

In a frame grab from Anna Karenina, Anna (Keira Knightley) contemplates a grim future with her husband and without her lover.

do anything. By setting Anna Karenina in a theater, we had to do everything in that space and sort out what that meant in terms of lighting and camera movement.” Wright’s unexpected decision to set the action in a theater created a big challenge for production designer Sarah Greenwood, who supervised the rapid 12-week construction of five sets at Shepperton, including on the giant C stage. “It was actually really invigorating,” she remarks. “We were a little bored with the idea of another typical costume drama, and Joe’s brainwave was the most exciting thing that could happen. Everyone had a huge amount of energy and belief to push this through. We had 12 weeks to design

and build that theater and get it dressed and lit. It was just epic.” She emphasizes that her work was informed by the location scouts she and Wright had done during prep. “We’d done three months of prep, including scouting in Russia, and had an enormous amount of information and research. That enabled me to refine it into what we were trying to do within the theater.” “The lovely thing about Sarah’s sets is the way they are aged, the way they are tinted and darkened,” says McGarvey. “Before I’ve even lit it, the characters sit apart from their environment. This allows me to use big, soft sources for close-ups.” Among the film’s most striking visual aspects are its camera moves,
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which flow freely during complex set pieces and also during seamless segues from one setting to another. “The moves were very choreographed,” says McGarvey. “For Joe, that was a way to suggest mannered society and its mores.” The moves were also designed to keep the restricted space lively. “The danger of setting 80 percent of a story in a theater is that it can be very dull, so we very deliberately decided to explore the space with the camera,” he continues. The intricate real-time set transitions “were part of the regimen.” “Joe is very camera literate, and he designs shots that are usually easy to achieve,” observes A-camera/Steadicam operator Peter Robertson, who also worked with Wright on Atonement (AC Dec. ’07) and Hanna (AC April ’11). “When we set up a dolly, he’ll say, ‘Take me down the track,’ and look through the lens. He is also very adept at plotting Steadicam moves. The conception of the shot is easy, though the actual execution might require a lot of effort.” Robertson points to an uninterrupted shot of Anna and Vronsky dancing at the ball amid a crowd of dancers and onlookers. As the couple swirls around the floor, Vronsky lifts Anna above him, and the camera follows her as she twirls around and then comes down in a dark, empty ballroom. “There was an ease about the shot — the only hard thing was clearing the extras out of the set in time!” recalls Robertson. The complex camera moves are intercut with dialogues shot in static, classically composed close-ups. Wright explains, “I didn’t want the theatrical concept to overwhelm the emotional story. In fact, the theatrical conceit came out of a desire to focus on the performances. I knew that wherever we were, a close-up would take us to the heart of the drama and put the setting in soft focus. I love playful camera choreography, but really, a close-up projected 16
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Unit photography by Laurie Sparham. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Focus Features.

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American Cinematographer - December 2012

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