American Cinematographer - September 2012 - 48J

Character and Landscape Drive Aesthetics in
For Ellen
For Ellen is the story of
absentee father Joby (Paul
Dano), who is a struggling
musician trying to make it big.
In the process of pursuing his
dreams, he has neglected his
duties as a parent. When he
has to fi nalize his divorce with
his estranged wife, he is faced
with the decision of having to
give up his rights as a father to
their 5-year-old daughter Ellen.
Director So Yong Kim and
cinematographer Reed Morano
felt a personal connection to
the story, which Kim wrote.
Both grew up not knowing
their biological fathers.
“So wrote For Ellen because
she was trying to understand
why her own father wasn’t
there for her,” says Morano.
“We did a lot of research
together for several months
before shooting. We would
meet and watch fi lms, and she
would show me photography
that inspired the look she
wanted. She wanted the movie
to be shot in a vérité, intimate
way — almost as if there was
no presence of the camera.”
The story plays out over
the course of four snowy
days in an upstate New York
town. Joby is there to sign the
divorce papers, but before he
gives up his rights as a father,
he tries any way that he can
to spend some last moments
with a daughter he has never
gotten to know. He struggles
with whether or not he is
making the right decision for
himself, and for Ellen.
The photography of Robert
Frank and Saul Leiter provided
inspiration to the fi lmmakers.
They also referred to fi lms like
Five Easy Pieces (Laszlo Kovacs,
ASC) for color and tone, and
Beau Travail (Agnès Godard,
AFC) for shooting style.
“We wanted the ability to
capture natural moments
and small details,” Morano
explains. “So and I are
naturally attracted to the same
compositions. Since most of
the fi lm was handheld, she
was great about trusting my
intuition about where I would
go with the camera. She would
just let me follow the scene in
a vérité manner.”
The fi lmmakers controlled
their color palette through
format, costume design and
production design. Morano
says that production designer
Ryan Warren Smith (Wendy
and Lucy) was a valued
collaborator.
“Together, we chose
locations that had the earth
tones that went along with
So’s aesthetic,” she adds.
“Joby’s motel room was all
earth tones with beautiful,
textured wood paneling,
and the bar he hangs out in
had slightly different wood
paneling. These two main
locations, combined with
the snow and Joby’s muted,
maroon-colored car, helped
create the earth-toned, ‘70s
color palette we were looking
for.”
The format was 3-perf
35mm. Originating on fi lm
was an important part of the
equation. “We wanted the
audience to feel the texture of
Joby’s surroundings,” Morano
says. “The way fi lm stocks
render color is very different
than digital. You can get a
truer monotone ‘70s look
simply by originating on fi lm
and choosing the right colors
to be on the screen. Since this
movie and our locations were
so small and controlled, it
was easy to make sure all the
colors in the frame matched
our look and aesthetic. When
we couldn’t control all the
elements, such as in wide
exteriors, then we would
desaturate the image and
change the tone of the fi lm in
post.”
Their camera was an
ARRICAM LT from TCS in
New York. Morano chose a
set of older ZEISS Superspeed
lenses, and the fi lm stocks
were KODAK VISION3 250D
Color Negative Film 5207 and
KODAK VISION2 500T Color
Negative Film 5218.
“The 5207 [Film] proved
to take the high-contrast
American Cinematographer - September 2012

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