'Two Of Us' wins prestigious ASC Spotlight Award
DoP Aurélien Marra interviewed about his choice of VENICE for award-winning feature film.
Interview is conducted in French language but closed captions available.
On April 18, 2021, the ASC Awards were hosted in a virtual ceremony, live-streamed from their historic ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood. During the ceremony was the presentation of the Spotlight Award to French DoP Aurélien Marra for Two of Us directed by Filippo Meneghetti. The Spotlight Award recognizes outstanding cinematography in a feature-length film that was exhibited in limited release, at film festivals or internationally.
The movie tells the story of the turbulent love affair between two retired women and was also nominated in the “Best Motion Picture – Foreign language” category at the Golden Globes, and won the César for “Best First Feature Film” in France.
We interviewed Aurélien Marra about his work on the movie and how he developed the film’s look as ‘a lifestyle thriller.’ The story contains a lot of tension between the lead characters as they seek to keep their relationship hidden and to convey that, Marra chose to use the visual conventions of the thriller genre.
What I liked about the VENICE…was its colour capabilities, especially for colours that I don't really see anymore... I find that this camera is able to capture light on dark, blue-toned surfaces, which is the effect you can sometimes capture with 35mm. So that's what really fascinated me.
Two Of Us was shot with a tight budget and Marra knew he needed to work quickly, so a camera that offered reliability and flexibility was essential. The shoot was composed of four weeks in the studio and two weeks for exterior scenes – VENICE was chosen in part because of Marra’s confidence in it being suitable for both.
He also appreciated how he could adjust VENICE’s look with a LUT tailored to his specific requirements. The film has an indeterminate setting in terms of time which was, in part, achieved by shooting with lenses from the 1960s that have a vintage quality to them, like the Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar 3.
One feature of the VENICE that a lot of people love is the ability to change ND filters on the fly and very quickly… When you adjust the colour wheel, you can see each micro colour correction… not only is it very practical in a mechanical sense and saves time, but it's also reassuring when filming.
