Scene Deconstruction with Kate McCullough ISC
Deconstructing key scenes from the Academy Award-nominated movie The Quiet Girl.
Introduction
After graduating from the famous Lodz Film School, Kate worked on several award-winning documentaries, followed by episodes of the Normal People drama series which won the Irish Film & Television Award for Best Cinematography in 2021. Kate then shot the Irish language film An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) using a Sony VENICE. This won the Best Cinematography award at the 2022 Irish Film & Television Awards, an Excellence in Cinematography award at the European Film Awards and is the first ever Irish Language film to be nominated for an Academy Award in the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category.
The Quiet Girl is a coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Colm Bairéad. Set in 1981, the film follows a withdrawn nine-year-old girl Cáit, who experiences a loving home for the first time when she holidays with relatives in rural Ireland.
Scene Deconstruction: Key Insights
- When shooting exteriors and the sun isn’t where you would like it, mirrors can be used to bend or reflect sunlight to create the look you are after.
- A small amount of diffusion, such as from a 1/8th Black Pro-mist filter, can take the edge off bright highlights.
- A narrow (1.37:1) aspect ratio was used to suggest a bigger world outside of Cáit’s immediate perception. This forced Kate to approach her composition in a new way which she found invigorating.
Cáit’s Arrival Scene
In this scene Cáit is arriving at her relatives’ house for the first time. We see her waking up in the back of a car driving down a tree-lined road as flashes of sunlight pass across her. The changing light adding an extra layer of intensity to her arrival. Kate worked with her 1st AD to find periods of bright sunshine where they could shoot outside for an hour or two. As the production didn’t have a remote head, Kate needed to get inside the car to shoot.
She used a VENICE Extension System as the compact size of the camera head allowed Kate to get into the tightest corners of the car. Kate loves the ability to separate VENICE’s sensor unit from the main camera body, allowing her to get otherwise impossible angles.
For the car shots, Kate believes use of full frame and the tall aspect ratio – where you see the ceiling and the curvature of the windows – creates a strong sense of being there.
As Cáit leaves the car the sun wasn’t in the right place, so Kate used mirrors to reflect the sunlight and create the desired lighting effect.
The wide shots in the scene are used to show the audience what’s happening beyond Cáit’s more specific and sometimes narrow point of view.
School Scene
Initially see Cáit sat at her desk, then classmates run past and bump the desk to cause a drink to spill. They had to get the scene on the third take as they didn’t have any more clean costumes.
On the first take, the actor that plays Cáit responded too quickly, on the second take the response was too late, so it had to be right on the third take – and luckily it was.
A set of Angenieux zooms was used for the school scenes, a 22-60mm and a 45-135mm and these matched very well with the primes. In one shot we see Cáit running away from school – a slow zoom in was used to give a sense of trying to follow Cáit but being unable to keep up.
More complicated methods were considered but they were behind schedule. Sometimes these restrictions force you to find another way which can be a stronger approach.
Running Scene
Here we see Séan giving Cáit the task of running to the post box. The shot takes place outside beneath the shade of some trees on a bright and contrasty day. For the end position, Kate used an 8×8 ultra bounce reflector to help lift the shadows. At the same time, she used a 1/8th black pro-mist filter to take the edge off the otherwise intense sunlight.
We then see Cáit running as fast as she can down a tree lined road. This was shot using a golf buggy fitted with a Black Arm and a Ronin 2. For the close-up shots the VENICE was over cranked so that the final shots would be in slow motion. The script called for Cáit to truly come alive for the first time and Kate felt this came through as she shot the scene.
Most of the film was shot with a 35mm lens, with a 50mm lens being used for close ups and a 28mm lens for wider shots.
In terms of the film’s look, Kate says the VENICE sensor allows you to go wherever you want, so for her it’s just a case of working with a colourist that shares the same sensibilities to bring the look of the film to where you want it to land.
Light On The Wall Scene
This scene occurs in a small dim bedroom in the countryside house. On one wall, we see a square of gently fluctuating light from the window opposite. When Kate first visited with the director, they noticed that there was this subtle projection of light onto the room’s back wall. Although they weren’t telling a ghost story, they felt this gave a sense of a presence in the room. So, then the challenge became – how do we reproduce this.
The solution was to aim a 12K fresnel light on a Genie boom through some trees just outside the room. They arranged a wind machine to make the tree branches sway, but on the day the wind was sufficient and the light on the wall fluctuated.
With many scenes shot outdoors in varying light or using natural light, Kate found the VENICE’s built in ND filters very useful. The ability to flick a switch and add the optimum amount of ND for the changeable conditions was immensely useful.
For Kate the biggest factor that made her choose VENICE for this film was the sensitivity of the sensor. She found the cleanness of the image extraordinary with a massive 7 stops of dynamic range either side of the middle which she says allows you to be creative and confident in moments of huge dynamic range.
