American Cinematographer - June 2015 - 18

Filmmaker Liam
Saint-Pierre
preps the small
space for
shooting.

ently," muses Saint-Pierre, perhaps with a
hint of good-natured chagrin.
Production took place over the
course of approximately 10 non-consecutive days between January and October
2013, because "I had to wait for the film
fairs," says Saint-Pierre. By necessity, much
of the production was shot under available
light, and a paucity of it at that. "Ümit's
shop uses about three energy-saving lightbulbs and that's it," he continues. "I took a
650 [watt tungsten light], but if I did it again
I'd have to take lots of lights." As a result,
much of the material was shot wide open at
f2.8, with only occasional excursions to
f5.6.
In postproduction, "I just converted
it all to ProRes [4:2:2] HQ and edited in
[Final Cut Pro 7]," Saint-Pierre explains.
"People say that FCPX is okay now, but I
can't move on. I used DaVinci Resolve 9 and
did the grade myself." He cites the work of
18

June 2015

Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC; Gordon Willis,
ASC; and Christopher Doyle, HKSC as inspiration, alongside the films of Terrence
Malick. "Beautiful photographic cinematography is, in a way, what got me into
film," Saint-Pierre notes. He adds that while
grading, "I always think about the films I
like, and they have a timeless quality about
them. My reference points are more photographic."
Exhibition of short documentaries is,
as Saint-Pierre himself laughingly accepts,
"always the tricky thing. I've entered [The
Way of the Dodo] into three times as many
festivals as it's gotten into. It's about how
much money you're prepared to spend traveling around. And the ones you think it'll
get into, it doesn't. It didn't get into the East
End Film Festival - made for people in East
London, by people in East London."
Perhaps less surprising, if a little technically adventurous, is Saint-Pierre's ambiAmerican Cinematographer

tion to get a 16mm print made. "I keep
getting that request," he reflects. "If I could
get Ümit to project it, that would really be a
highlight for him."
Saint-Pierre
recognizes
that
appetites for nostalgia have an evolution of
their own, which is important to understand especially when considering a look
for a new work. "Super 8 [as a look] has
been done to death," he opines. "People
are now emulating Hi-8 and camcorders;
we're far enough from it, with two decades
between us, that we can get nostalgic
rather than thinking it's just bad." His
current and upcoming work embraces
these ideas, an example being a music
video Saint-Pierre recently shot on a Sony
Handycam. "That was quite nice, in a way,
because it freed me up from thinking about
what lens we were going to use," he says.
"I could be more impulsive."
Meanwhile, Ciné-Real's firmly
analog exhibitions continue. "We've been
doing it monthly now for about three and a
half years," Saint-Pierre enthuses. The joy
that Mesut and Saint-Pierre find in the
projected photochemical image is infectious. Indeed, a couple of minutes into the
documentary, Mesut gazes at a projected
image and says with a sigh, "That's
Kodachrome. The colors are beautiful."
Apparently, as long as Ümit & Son remains
open, the dodo will be alive and kicking.
To view The Way of the Dodo, visit
www.liamsaintpierre.com/the-way-of-thedodo.
G

http://www.liamsaintpierre.com/the-way-of-the-dodo http://www.liamsaintpierre.com/the-way-of-the-dodo

American Cinematographer - June 2015

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