American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 18

Production Slate
Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) falls prey to a charismatic cult leader in the indie drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, shot by Jody Lee Lipes.

I

Mind Control By Patricia Thomson

It isn’t often that brainwashing techniques influence the visual design of a movie, but they proved to be a fitting inspiration for Martha Marcy May Marlene . Written and directed by Sean Durkin, the film tells the story of Martha (Elizabeth Olsen), a young woman who flees a cult in upstate N ew York and attempts to readjust to the outside world with the help of her sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson). As Martha struggles to process her experiences, the film cuts back and forth between two primary locations: the cult’s farmstead and Lucy’s lakefront vacation home in Connecticut. On the farm, we see Martha’s gradual assimilation into the cult’s communal lifestyle, and her discovery of the domination and violence that lurk beneath its bucolic veneer. At Lucy’s house, Martha’s mind frays, and she becomes increasingly convinced that the cult is coming after her. Durkin and cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes decided that Martha’s present should not be visually differentiated from her past. “In some cults there’s this Buddhist-based philosophy to focus on the moment — there’s no future, no past, only the present,” explains Durkin. “It’s a common brainwashing technique used by cults to make people lose track of time. There are no calendars or clocks around. It made sense that this would be a key component of Martha’s psychology: she has no sense of time.” Although the commune and Lucy’s home are very different in terms of their architecture, lighting and palette, the filmmakers did not strive to emphasize those differences through the cinematography. “It was important to keep the two locations as indistinguishable as possible because there are times when Martha is confused about where she is,” says Lipes.
18 November 2011

For example, Martha looks over at someone during a conversation and suddenly, seamlessly, she’s talking with someone else in a different time and place. Or she walks down a dark hallway in Lucy’s house and steps into a room that is revealed to be in the farmhouse. “We didn’t want these transitions to have any sort of visual indicator,” says Durkin. “We wanted to make the viewer take a second to orient himself.” Martha is Durkin’s feature-directing debut, but it is not his first collaboration with Lipes, who was named one of Variety’s “10 Cinematographers to Watch” earlier this year. Durkin first called on Lipes to shoot his senior film at New York University in 2006. Then, when Durkin and classmates Josh Mond and Antonio Campos cofounded Borderline Films, they hired Lipes, a fellow NYU alum, for most of their music videos, commercials and two previous features, including Campos’ Afterschool. Lipes’ other credits include Tiny Furniture (AC Jan. ’11); NY Export: Opus Jazz, which he also wrote and directed (AC March ’10), and episodes of HBO’sGirls. (Lipes shot seven out of 10 episodes and directed two of the other episodes.) With a budget of less than $1 million, Martha had 2½ weeks for preproduction and 24 days for production. Ten days each were devoted to the two main locations: a Catskills farm, which offered three barns, a rambling farmhouse and unlimited rusticity; and a lakeside house in Connecticut, whose Ikea-style furnishings, recessed lighting and plate-glass windows provided a clear contrast. It was the farm that set the photographic look, which Durkin describes as “worn.” “We wanted to shoot on film and have texture,” he elaborates. “We felt [the image] should accent the dry, overgrown dirtiness of the farm.” To translate that objective into visual terms, Lipes aimed for a grainy, low-contrast, slightly desaturated look with milky blacks. Shooting 3-perf Super 35mm with an Arricam Lite, he chose

American Cinematographer

Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Fox Searchlight.



American Cinematographer - November 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2011

American Cinematographer - November 2011
Contents
Editor’s Note
President’s Desk
Short Takes: “The Candidate”
Production Slate: Martha Marcy May MarleneAmerica in Primetime
Time Bandit
All for One
3-D on a Budget
Caught on Tape
Sharp Shooting
Filmmakers’ Forum: Juan-Ruiz Anchia, ASC
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Dan Mindel
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - American Cinematographer - November 2011
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 1
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 2
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Contents
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 4
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 5
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 6
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 7
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 9
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - President’s Desk
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 11
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Short Takes: “The Candidate”
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 13
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 14
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 15
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 16
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 17
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Production Slate: Martha Marcy May MarleneAmerica in Primetime
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 19
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 20
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 21
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 22
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 23
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 24
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 25
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 26
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 27
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 28
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 29
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 30
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 31
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Time Bandit
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 33
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 34
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 35
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 36
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 37
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 38
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 39
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 40
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 41
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 42
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 43
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 44
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 45
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - All for One
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 47
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 48
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 49
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 50
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 51
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 52
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 53
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 54
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 55
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 56
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 57
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 58
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 59
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 3-D on a Budget
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 61
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 62
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 63
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 64
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 65
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 66
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 67
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Caught on Tape
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 69
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 70
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 71
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 72
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 73
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 74
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 75
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 76
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 77
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Sharp Shooting
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 79
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Filmmakers’ Forum: Juan-Ruiz Anchia, ASC
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 81
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 82
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 83
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 84
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 85
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 87
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 88
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 89
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 93
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - 95
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - ASC Close-Up: Dan Mindel
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - November 2011 - Cover4
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