Sundance Film Festival

Brad Anderson liked working with Spanish DP Xavi Gimenez on El Maquinista (The Machinist) and wanted to do it again. Transsiberian would be a very different project—all shot on a train set; they’d have to get movement (and the view out the windows of course) through lighting effects, good green screen and compositing. And very good notes.

“The logical feel for the movie was very fluid, raw and handheld—that’s practical on a train, but it also felt realistic,” Anderson says as he briefly recalls the shoot during a forced march of interviews and photo ops at the Hollywood Life Lounge. The film (starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, and the rest) had its premiere here Friday and he’s a little swamped as a result.

The need to create train movement with light inspired a repertoire of lighting effects—maybe the key light would drift across the interior wall of the train because it’s going around a corner, maybe a random series of flashes would suggest cars passing, or the ambient light would fade down for a tunnel. From the sounds of it, the team didn’t overthink the light choices—just made sure to keep them moving and changing. There were certainly exceptions, as when the protagonist couple meets Kingsley’s gangster for the first time as the dining car light fades into dusk, then darkness over the course of their conversation.

They had shot a lot of reference video on the Transsiberian Express itself, and drew the films color palette from the muted greens, browns and ochre yellows of the storied train, Anderson says. Gimenez and his longtime operator shot harsh and contrasty, with hard unflattering light coming in the windows. A lengthy DI at Infinia in Barcelona finished the look; the sasme company (owned by the film’s financiers) also did the compositing for all the window shots.

Anderson’s an editor, and as a result consumed a lot of film. Editor Jaume Marti cut on an Avid with Anderson “very involved. For me it’s the most enjoyable part of the process. Stylistically he likes the montage (partly why he does so much coverage), and suggest a rebellion against the new vogue of very long shots. “It’s like the audience is sitting there wondering how long can you keep the camera going, just waiting for some fuck up. Unapologetically, IU don’t dwell on long master shots, I like to get in close, see the actors, make it multi-faceted.”

Transssiberian screens tonight (6pm) at the Sundance Resort, and in Ogden at Peery’s Egyptian on Saturday (930p). Click here for theater info