American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 30

Right: A camera
crane was
utilized only
once, for the
opening
sequence of the
film. Below:
Cinematographer
Richard van
Oosterhout, NSC,
SBC (right)
frames a shot
through a
window.

going to shoot this?'" the cinematographer
says. As always, Stillman wanted traditional
coverage and limited camera movement.
"Normally, I like to work with a floating
camera," van Oosterhout relates. "This was
completely different. Whit has very
outspoken ideas about how to make a film.
You have the shot, the reverse shot and
maybe an establishing. That's how he wants
to see a scene. He doesn't like movement at
all. In the end, I think we ended up with
much more moving camera than was his
intention." Even so, Love & Friendship has
just one crane shot (for the opening) and one
Steadicam scene (a walk-and-talk with
Beckinsale and Sevigny); the rest is divided
30

June 2016

between dolly moves and static frames. Van
Oosterhout adds, "That aesthetic gave me
the opportunity to be very subtle in lighting
and really dive into that aspect."
Film stock was never an option, but
Stillman insisted on capturing raw files.
Framing for 1.85:1, van Oosterhout used an
Arri Alexa XT coupled with Cooke S4 primes
and Schneider Hollywood Black Magic
softening filters. The ability to reframe the 12bit ArriRaw files saved the day when Stillman
began dispensing with dialogue during the
edit, leaving an awkward jump cut in the
Steadicam scene. "Sophie [Corra, the editor]
was writhing in agony every time she saw it,"
Stillman recalls. Their solution, he adds, was
American Cinematographer

to "go in really tight, as if you had a different
camera position. She jumped in really close
and got away with this cut. It's a funny scene
and it's in the trailer, so all's well that ends
well."
Van
Oosterhout
eschewed
customized look-up tables. "I never use
[custom] LUTs on my films," he states. "For
me, a standard [Rec 709] LUT is accurate
enough. It's only when you have an edit that
you know what the exact feel of the film is.
On set, my light meter is still my most reliable
tool."
For lighting, the 1790s setting meant
van Oosterhout had three motivating sources
at his disposal: daylight, candlelight and
firelight. Variety was important in recurrent
locations, such as the Golden Room - the
castle drawing room where the Vernon
family gathers to read or converse. "Rhythm
is so important," van Oosterhout says. "The
idea was to look natural but different every
time you'd come into this room."
Daylight was tricky, given Ireland's
notoriously fickle weather. "That country has
four seasons every day," van Oosterhout
laments. Compounding the difficulty, "every
scene was long, sometimes shot over one or
two days. If you have big windows facing
south in a place like Ireland, continuity in
lighting is really a challenge. Outside, it was
a jungle of stands and lights and flags and
screens."
Shooting in February and March

American Cinematographer - June 2016

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