Chris Kenworthy talks production for The Sculptor
FTI spoke with Chris Kenworthy, co-writer, producer and director of The Sculptor, about his inspiration and processes during production for his latest film.
What was the original inspiration for the film?
Probably the poets, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. What happens when two extremely talented people try to live a creative life together? And what happens when you throw the occult into the mix? Ted and Sylvia were quite heavily involved in the occult, and one of their friends went so far as to say that it was black magic that killed Sylvia. We had no desire to write a film about Ted and Sylvia, because you couldn't do justice to them in two hours, but we took some of their intensity and some of their history, and used that as a starting point.
Atmosphere is really important to the story, could you tell us about how the cinematography and sound have contributed to the rural gothic Australian claustrophobia of the film?
The Australian landscape is often shown as open all the way to the horizon, but I wanted to show that you can feel quite smothered and trapped out there. The sense of claustrophobia was largely created by using locations that had some sort of wall around them, such as a wall of rock or a wall of trees.
For the night scenes, the idea was always to have a smooth roll-off into complete darkness. When you're outside at night, that's often your experience. You can see some things clearly, but there's a lot of complete darkness in the spaces, and that's frightening.
Good sound design was important to the whole film, but at all times it was used to illuminate the story. I never want atmosphere for the sake of atmosphere. Everything has to make sense in terms of story.
What brief did you provide your Production Designer, given the importance of design to the story?
I started talking to Emma Fletcher eighteen months before the shoot, but there wasn't a brief so much as an ongoing discussion about source material, colour and texture. I created some pre-viz images for her, but after that I preferred to let her create and then I'd choose what suited the film. I went in to the workshop most days during pre-production and she always had something good to show me. I once told Emma I wanted some of the sculptures to be really big, and she took me literally. Some of them ended up being massive. They took weeks to create, transport and assemble, even though they're only on screen for a few seconds.
In terms of your film making process, are there any techniques that you rely on? Do you find these are project specific?
So far, I've never had a project specific technique. I always choose the lens, and I choose where the camera goes. Some directors leave this to the DP and concentrate on performance. But I think it's my job to get the best performance from the actors, and find the best way of capturing it.
Mark DeFriest once said to me that when you're almost done with one set-up, you have to start planning the next one in your head, so nobody's waiting around when you call cut. It's really good advice, although it takes a lot of concentration to watch one take while blocking the next shot with another part of your brain.
How hard was it to produce the film as a privately funded production?
In many ways it was easy, because it took just six months to raise the money, which is really quick. On the other hand, no matter how much money you have, you're always fighting the clock and the budget. In that sense, it was like any other movie.
There was a lot of pressure, but the pressure didn't come from it being privately funded; it came from being producer and director on the same job. You have to be incredibly disciplined with time and money, but still find the space to be creative. And you have to live off three hours sleep a night.
You have a take in the film lasting a full 3 minutes that was not planned. Could you tell us how this came about?
We'd spent hours on some really technical shots, and the actors were bored and drained. I think everybody knew that we'd just spent nine hours working on a scene that was never going to make the cut. We had to do something to get inspired again, so I decided to shoot one of the key scenes in a single Steadicam shot before the sun went down. The actors weren't expecting that scene for another few days, but they rose to the occasion and didn't miss a single line. You've never seen such energy and commitment on a set, and it was just what we all needed.
Were there other elements in the film that were created during the shoot?
New elements were brought in all the time, whenever they met the needs of the story. Directing is about harvesting all the talent on set, rather than ordering people around, so you talk to everybody and listen to their ideas. The little details that are added on the day can make all the difference to a scene.
What was the original inspiration for the film?Probably the poets, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. What happens when two extremely talented people try to live a creative life together? And what happens when you throw the occult into the mix? Ted and Sylvia were quite heavily involved in the occult, and one of their friends went so far as to say that it was black magic that killed Sylvia. We had no desire to write a film about Ted and Sylvia, because you couldn't do justice to them in two hours, but we took some of their intensity and some of their history, and used that as a starting point.
Atmosphere is really important to the story, could you tell us about how the cinematography and sound have contributed to the rural gothic Australian claustrophobia of the film?
The Australian landscape is often shown as open all the way to the horizon, but I wanted to show that you can feel quite smothered and trapped out there. The sense of claustrophobia was largely created by using locations that had some sort of wall around them, such as a wall of rock or a wall of trees.
For the night scenes, the idea was always to have a smooth roll-off into complete darkness. When you're outside at night, that's often your experience. You can see some things clearly, but there's a lot of complete darkness in the spaces, and that's frightening.
Good sound design was important to the whole film, but at all times it was used to illuminate the story. I never want atmosphere for the sake of atmosphere. Everything has to make sense in terms of story.
What brief did you provide your Production Designer, given the importance of design to the story?
I started talking to Emma Fletcher eighteen months before the shoot, but there wasn't a brief so much as an ongoing discussion about source material, colour and texture. I created some pre-viz images for her, but after that I preferred to let her create and then I'd choose what suited the film. I went in to the workshop most days during pre-production and she always had something good to show me. I once told Emma I wanted some of the sculptures to be really big, and she took me literally. Some of them ended up being massive. They took weeks to create, transport and assemble, even though they're only on screen for a few seconds.
In terms of your film making process, are there any techniques that you rely on? Do you find these are project specific?
So far, I've never had a project specific technique. I always choose the lens, and I choose where the camera goes. Some directors leave this to the DP and concentrate on performance. But I think it's my job to get the best performance from the actors, and find the best way of capturing it.
Mark DeFriest once said to me that when you're almost done with one set-up, you have to start planning the next one in your head, so nobody's waiting around when you call cut. It's really good advice, although it takes a lot of concentration to watch one take while blocking the next shot with another part of your brain.
How hard was it to produce the film as a privately funded production?
In many ways it was easy, because it took just six months to raise the money, which is really quick. On the other hand, no matter how much money you have, you're always fighting the clock and the budget. In that sense, it was like any other movie.
There was a lot of pressure, but the pressure didn't come from it being privately funded; it came from being producer and director on the same job. You have to be incredibly disciplined with time and money, but still find the space to be creative. And you have to live off three hours sleep a night.
You have a take in the film lasting a full 3 minutes that was not planned. Could you tell us how this came about?
We'd spent hours on some really technical shots, and the actors were bored and drained. I think everybody knew that we'd just spent nine hours working on a scene that was never going to make the cut. We had to do something to get inspired again, so I decided to shoot one of the key scenes in a single Steadicam shot before the sun went down. The actors weren't expecting that scene for another few days, but they rose to the occasion and didn't miss a single line. You've never seen such energy and commitment on a set, and it was just what we all needed.
Were there other elements in the film that were created during the shoot?
New elements were brought in all the time, whenever they met the needs of the story. Directing is about harvesting all the talent on set, rather than ordering people around, so you talk to everybody and listen to their ideas. The little details that are added on the day can make all the difference to a scene.
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