Blog_files/American CinematographerDBD1

Gabriel Beristain,
ASC, BSC goes on
location in Spain and
Argentina for the
atmospheric religious
drama There Be
Dragons.
By David Heuring
•|•
R
A
Saint
and a
Sinner
40
May 2011
oland Joffé’s There Be Dragons tells the story of a Spanish
journalist who, in the course of reconciling with his
elderly father, discovers that the older man was a close
childhood friend of Josemaría Escrivá (played by Charlie
Cox), a real historical figure who was named a saint in 2002,
nearly 75 years after founding the devout Catholic organization Opus Dei. Joffé has said that the movie, which was
partially funded by Opus Dei, is “about love, human love,
divine love, hate, betrayal, war, mistakes — everything it is to
be a human being.”
The movie’s cast includes Dougray Scott as the journalist and Wes Bentley as his father, Manolo. Their story unfolds
in four segments: the boyhood years of Manolo and Josemaría
in Spain during the early 20th century; the duo’s early
manhood in the 1920s; the Spanish Civil War era, which tore
the country apart in the late 1930s; and the 1980s, which serve
as the story’s present day.
Joffé chose Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC to photograph There Be Dragons. Beristain was born in Mexico, where
American Cinematographer
Photos courtesy of Mount Santa Fe.
Opposite:
Childhood
friends Manolo
Torres (Wes
Bentley, seated)
and Josemaría
Escrivá (Charlie
Cox) find
themselves on
conflicting
spiritual paths
as adults. This
page: Manolo
takes up arms
(top) while
future saint
Josemaría
chooses the
priesthood.
his parents were successful actors. He
shot documentaries and commercials
before moving to Europe, and eventually studied at the National Film and
Television School in England. After
spending 15 years working in the
British film and television industries,
Beristain took the advice of Allen
Daviau, ASC and moved to the
United States. “I was also aided by
Sandra Marsh, my agent at that time,
who persuaded Taylor Hackford to
consider me forBlood In, Blood Out,” he
notes. His résumé has since grown to
include 40 films, among them
Caravaggio, K2, Dolores Claiborne and
The Spanish Prisoner. He recently
wrapped the pilot for Exit Strategy.
When Beristain first read the
script for There Be Dragons,he saw two
ways to think about the visuals:
through the four main time periods,
and by tracing the distinct emotional
paths followed by Manolo and
Josemaría. “The war period, with all
the famous visual references, took
place around the time that color
photography was becoming more
common, and that was, of course,
fascinating to me,” says Beristain.
“Also, our production design, by
Eugenio Zanetti, was a visual feast
because of all the period details and
textures. Added to that is the rich
iconography and symbolism of the
Catholic Church. The story concerns
one person who found a religious
mission in life and another who developed a hatred of religion. I knew we
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could make a great film from these
elements.”
Early conversations between
Beristain and Joffé focused on texture,
atmosphere and décor, and how to
create chiaroscuro without losing sight
of delicate details, like the lace of a
dress. All this would need to be done
on a modest budget at locations in
Spain and Argentina. Two fundamenMay 2011
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A Saint and a Sinner
Top and bottom
left: As children,
Manolo and
Josemaría make
frequent visits
to a chocolate
factory where
they receive
tasty treats —
and bits of
wisdom — from
Honorio (Derek
Jacobi). Bottom
right: The boys
enjoy the
comforts of an
opulent
upbringing.
tal technical choices that grew out of
their conversations were the decision to
light primarily with direct, undiffused
light (except for the 1980s scenes), and
the decision to keep the A camera
almost always mounted on a three-axis
Scorpio head operated by Beristain. The
Scorpio head was often used in conjunction with a Technocrane to facilitate
dramatic, sweeping movement.
Beristain describes his approach
to light as “emotional lighting” —
letting the emotional content of individual scenes dictate his approach, as
opposed to applying an overall style to
42
May 2011
the entire film. “Direct light is oldfashioned, in a way, but it gives me very
precise control over what part of the
scene to emphasize or intensify,” he
says. “Considerable engineering and
ingenuity went into creating the lyrical
camera moves Roland sought for this
film. In exterior situations, we usually
used the Technocrane; for interiors, the
camera was usually on a jib arm, sometimes attached to the Scorpio, which
became my dependable steed. I was
almost always operating, which is
something I trained extensively for
during my years in Europe.”
American Cinematographer
The producers raised the possibility of shooting digitally, but Beristain
says Joffé left the decision to him.
“After we considered all the options
and weighed all the practical and artistic factors, we decided to shoot on
film,” says the cinematographer. “We
were going to have many different
cameras, and there were unknowns
about the dependability of postproduction in Argentina, which made using a
digital format less attractive. We
planned to film our exterior battle
scenes with half a dozen cameras and
two Technocranes, which would limit
our lighting options. Film would give
us the maximum latitude and dynamic
range, as well as the flexibility to make
everything match in post. We also
knew we would be shooting during the
summer in Argentina, sometimes in
the mountains, where the skies are very
powerful and very clean. With film,
there’s no problem with strong highlights.” Beristain ultimately decided to
use four Kodak stocks: Vision2 100T
5212, 200T 5217 and 250D 5205, and
Vision3 500T 5219.
Joffé was keen to spread the
right mood throughout the set. “I
could see from the beginning that I was
working with a method director,” says
Beristain. “The mood of the scene was
something Roland wanted to bring to
everyone on the set, thereby leading
each department to the right contribution. Cinematographers have to recognize how a director works and then
adapt to that method. Ours wasn’t a
‘heavy’ set, but we were invited to
recognize the dramatic value of the
scene and the need to execute the shots
in a way that was harmonious with that
mood. Roland got excellent performances that way.”
The boyhood scenes were filmed
in a tiny, picturesque village in Castile
called Sepulveda. “That’s as Spanish as
it gets,” Beristain attests. “It’s a
medieval stone town, a harsh place, and
we mostly filmed exteriors there for
about three weeks.” Beristain mainly
used available light, although he was
occasionally able to augment the location’s existing ambience with HMIs.
Once the company moved to
Argentina, production became more
complicated. Wide shots sometimes
required extensive bluescreen and
greenscreen construction to cover
period-inaccurate elements. “In a place
like Argentina, these challenges are
solved in an artisanal way,” says
Beristain. “The crews may not have all
the resources and be as well prepared
for these situations as they are in
Hollywood, but today, these kinds of
techniques can be accomplished
anywhere. Buenos Aires has many
In the film’s present day, Manolo’s journalist son, Robert (Dougray Scott, top), has trouble
connecting with his emotionally distant father (Bentley, middle, in old-age makeup), but his
quest for understanding leads him to do some research at the Vatican (bottom).
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May 2011
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A Saint and a Sinner
beautiful, turn-of-the-century colonial
buildings, but some of them are right
smack in the middle of ghastly modern
architecture, so we needed to isolate
those locations by using large greenscreens. The scale was nowhere near
what I experienced when I was shooting additional photography on
Iron
Man, but the Argentinian crew built
the greenscreens using whatever was at
hand, and those shots made a significant contribution to the look of the
film.
“By way of example, I’ll note that
any screen larger than 20-by-20 feet
has to be put together skillfully in order
to avoid seams and folds, and our crew
put together an 80-by-80-foot screen
using several 20-bys carefully
suspended from a giant construction
crane,” he continues. “Just before the
shot, we discovered we needed an extra
20-by to cover a last-minute change of
composition. My point is, if you are
working with film crews far from
Hollywood, don’t assume something is
impossible. If you have the will, it’s
neither expensive nor difficult.”
Another visually arresting scene
During the
Spanish Civil
War, Manolo
aligns himself
with the rebels
but turns on
them and
serves as a
Fascist spy.
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May 2011
American Cinematographer
shows Manolo, now a soldier, making
his first attempt to kill a rebellious
worker. “I found a factory warehouse
with a glass roof, and we shot it day-fornight,” says Beristain. “I shot it during
the daytime but underexposed by 6 or 7
stops. I knew that once we got to the
digital intermediate, I could pick out
the windows and bring them down
further. I put three 10Ks inside the
office, and everything else was available
light. It lends the scene an ominous
quality. That shot was all in knowing
how to manipulate the exposure and
knowing what can be achieved in the
DI.”
Like the majority of Beristain’s
crew on the film, gaffer Daniel Hermo
is Argentinean. Hermo studied
photography at National School
of Cinematographic Production and
Experimentation, and has served as
gaffer on many commercials and about
30 features, including the Oscarwinning The Secret in Their Eyes.
Beristain’s direct-light approach
meant larger sources and more rigging.
Hermo explains, “To achieve the
aesthetic Gabriel described, we used
tungsten Fresnel lamps ranging from
650-watt units to 20Ks. We used HMI
mixtures in daylight situations. Most of
the sets were so large and complex that
we had two teams working simultaneously, with one crew pre-lighting the
subsequent scene. Close collaboration
with key grip Anibal Cattaneo was
crucial.
“For several scenes, including a
church sequence, Gabriel asked me for
Musco or Bebee [Night] lights, but
they are not available in Argentina,”
Hermo continues. “We couldn’t access
the roofs, and we needed an 82-foot
boom, so we rented a 131-foot telescopic mobile crane that is normally
used on construction sites. We assembled a truss structure that would absorb
vibrations and wind, and mounted
After joining the
rebels, Manolo
becomes a
jealous rival of
the faction’s
charismatic
leader, Oriol
(Rodrigo
Santoro, top).
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May 2011
45
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A Saint and a Sinner
three Arri 18K HMIs on the truss. We
used this rig to bring light into high
windows, casting beams through the
smoke we had laid in the church interior.”In some situations, the crane rig
was augmented with an Arri
MaxMover to facilitate remote aiming
and focus of the lights.
The project’s “pièce de résistance,” according to Beristain, was a
vast battle scene in which the square
and cathedral in Luján, Argentina,
stand in for Madrid. In addition to the
numerous greenscreens, the scene
required extensive special effects, large
numbers of actors and extras, and careful choreography. The size of the square
meant Beristain had to work with
Cinematographer
Gabriel Beristain,
ASC, BSC says he
tailored his
lighting to the
emotional
content of
individual scenes
rather than
fashioning an
overall style.
“Our primary
concern was the
dramatic mood of
the scene.”
available light, and because the cathedral was oriented east-west, it was
backlit in the morning and front-lit in
the afternoon. “Luckily, I had the
element of smoke to work with,” says
Beristain. “Whenever I had shadow
areas, I justified it as though smoke
were covering that area. The opening
shot was done in overcast conditions,
but once the sun came out, the smoke
saved my life. There are many actors
running through the scene, squibs
everywhere, explosions, shots being
fired — it’s chaotic, and the adrenaline
was pumping. You can’t stop everyone
and say, ‘Sorry, the light isn’t right.’
That’s a reality for most cinematographers. We need to sharpen our wits and
find a way. When it was sunny, sometimes the sun would break through the
smoke and create fantastic shots.” ➣
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May 2011
American Cinematographer
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A Saint and a Sinner
Filming battle sequences with
kinetic intensity also required ingenious
solutions. To render a documentary feel
for certain scenes, the production
combined a Steadicam rig with a
Segway two-wheeled vehicle, which
camera operator Matías Mesa used to
cover rough terrain at high speeds.
“Roland is not generally very keen on
the Steadicam,” Beristain says, “but we
used it with the Segway in the battle
situations, and it added very much to
the sense of advancement we needed to
create. It’s more than just following the
characters.
“One of our most dramatic locations was the town of Epecuen, where
The movie’s main
battle sequence
was shot on a
square in Luján,
Argentina, which
stood in for
Madrid. A
Steadicam rig
combined with a
Segway twowheeled vehicle
(middle right)
allowed the
filmmakers to
traverse rough
terrain at high
speeds.
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May 2011
American Cinematographer
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A Saint and a Sinner
An ailing
Manolo
experiences a
vision from his
youth while
lying on his
hospital
deathbed.
we shot a big battle scene,” he
continues. “It became a ghost town two
decades ago, when the nearby lake
flooded half the villa. Half the town
comprises water avenues and submerged rooftops, and the other half is
dead trees, barren soil and abandoned
50
our heroes.”
Beristain knew that many long,
moving shots might not make the final
cut intact, and “Roland and I felt we
should not be saddened or discouraged
by this fact,” he says. “We believed that
by creating these dynamic, choreographed moves with the Scorpio head,
Technocrane, jib arm and Steadicam,
we were giving the film a different look,
and that even the cuts would be made
special by that movement. The cuts are
not simple, narrative-based cuts, but
rather based on the whole poetry.
Ideally the cuts and the movement
work in harmony to become something
very special, an integral part of the
mise-en-scène.
ruins. The soggy soil made it impossible
“I think it’s important for films to
for us to bring in any heavy equipment, have that [fully integrated] quality,” he
so cranes and dollies were out of the
says. “People don’t talk about that any
question. The Segway would just glide
longer, and I think it’s a vital part of the
over anything, and Matty achieved
cinematic language. Roland underphenomenal shots, like moving forward stands this, so I trusted him. In that
with enemy infantry as they charged
respect, There Be Dragons was a fasci-
nating experiment.”
The production’s front-end lab
work was done at Cinecolor Argentina
in Buenos Aires. That lab also handled
the majority of the 2K scanning; some
other scanning work was done at
Technicolor in Madrid, where
Beristain worked on the digital grade
with colorist Noémie Dulau.
“Nowadays I’m involved in many
conversations, panels and interviews
regarding how new technologies can
optimize the way a cinematographer
communicates with the dailies and final
colorists,” he notes. “Of course, the
integrity and artistic value of the
images cinematographers produce
depends very much on this communication, but I think equally important is
our close contact with the person who
will sit behind the machine, and our
capacity to involve him or her in the
project.
“When I met Noémie and told
her about my ‘emotional lighting’
concept, she looked at me with an
expression that said, ‘Oh, no, this is
going to be painful,’ but after she read
the script and we had a few conversations, she understood that our primary
concern was going to be the dramatic
mood of the scene. We didn’t care
about the period or have any preconceived notions about certain colors for
certain characters. If the mood called
for cool light, we made it cool; if it
called for strong contrast, we’d crank
those blacks. The [Autodesk] Lustre
helped us make the lighting a great
character, like a storyteller within the
film.”
●
TECHNICAL SPECS
2.40:1
3-perf Super 35mm
Arricam Studio, Lite
Arri Master Prime,
Angenieux Optimo
Kodak Vision2 100T 5212,
200T 5217, 250D 5205;
Vision3 500T 5219
Digital Intermediate
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