Sundance Film Festival

Remarkable conversation with DP Tim Orr who‘s here with Mike White‘s Year of the Dog and David Green‘s Snow Angels. Two very different jobs.

Year of the Dog: Otto Nemenz Movicam compacts, Cooke S4 lenses with Optimo zooms. Fuji 8563 daylight and what Orr thinks was probably the last remaining Fuji 8573 tungsten on the planet.

“One of Mike‘s biggest references on the film was the Errol Morris documentary Gates of Heaven. He wanted his movie to feel a lot like the portraiture in that film. He didn‘t want it to feel contemporary in the physical texture of the film, he didn‘t want it to look like every other modern movie mde. I tested a lot of stocks for him and he decided to shoot these older Fuji stocks. The grain structure was definitely apparent and had a tangible nature to it. Today, with the new Kodak and Fuji stocks it‘s hard to see grain in them anywhere. The older Fuji stocks also had a little bit lower contrast.

“Also in line with the inspiration from Gates of Heaven we wanted as much portraiture in it as possible, to that end we barely moved the camera, so the film is very stylized, it‘s very symmetrical within the frame, many of the frames are really very composed. The majority of the movie is medium shots with characters who don‘t really move and talk almost directly to the lens. It worked narratively in light of the main character who has lost the partner she considers her significant other, she works in a sterile and lifeless offices and most of the people in her life don‘t consider her feelings.

“So using this technique, the actors didn‘t really act to each other they acted to a knot right next to the lens. You were just being talked at not really talked to and engaged; she was essentially being assaulted by whatever was going on in their life.” Then, as the character arc reaches it‘s liberating conclusion, Orr began to introduce camera moves.

“Mike really knew what he wanted and I believe in directors who had very strong opinions,” Orr says.

Next up Snow Angels…

Remarkable conversation with DP Tim Orr who‘s here with Mike White‘s Year of the Dog and David Green‘s Snow Angels. Two very different jobs.

Year of the Dog: Otto Nemenz Movicam compacts, Cooke S4 lenses with Optimo zooms. Fuji 8563 daylight and what Orr thinks was probably the last remaining Fuji 8573 tungsten on the planet.

“One of Mike‘s biggest references on the film was the Errol Morris documentary Gates of Heaven. He wanted his movie to feel a lot like the portraiture in that film. He didn‘t want it to feel contemporary in the physical texture of the film, he didn‘t want it to look like every other modern movie mde. I tested a lot of stocks for him and he decided to shoot these older Fuji stocks. The grain structure was definitely apparent and had a tangible nature to it. Today, with the new Kodak and Fuji stocks it‘s hard to see grain in them anywhere. The older Fuji stocks also had a little bit lower contrast.

“Also in line with the inspiration from Gates of Heaven we wanted as much portraiture in it as possible, to that end we barely moved the camera, so the film is very stylized, it‘s very symmetrical within the frame, many of the frames are really very composed. The majority of the movie is medium shots with characters who don‘t really move and talk almost directly to the lens. It worked narratively in light of the main character who has lost the partner she considers her significant other, she works in a sterile and lifeless offices and most of the people in her life don‘t consider her feelings.

“So using this technique, the actors didn‘t really act to each other they acted to a knot right next to the lens. You were just being talked at not really talked to and engaged; she was essentially being assaulted by whatever was going on in their life.” Then, as the character arc reaches it‘s liberating conclusion, Orr began to introduce camera moves.

“Mike really knew what he wanted and I believe in directors who had very strong opinions,” Orr says.

Next up Snow Angels…