By Iain Blair

Director Joe Wright and director of photography Seamus McGarvey have collaborated on several award-winning films, including Atonement and Anna Karenina. Their latest project is Cyrano, a new version of the classic love story “Cyrano de Bergerac,” shot entirely on location in Sicily.

Director Joe Wright

This version has been reimagined as a musical in the tradition of the classic MGM movies, and instead of an actor with the traditional large, prosthetic nose, it stars renowned actor Peter Dinklage in the title role opposite Haley Bennett as the beautiful Roxanne.

For this new adaptation, scripted by Erica Schmidt, Wright assembled a behind-the-scenes creative team that included DP McGarvey, production designer Sarah Greenwood and editor Valerio Bonelli.

I spoke with Wright and McGarvey about shooting the film, post and visual effects.

The film has a lot of visual variety. Can you talk about the look you and Seamus went for?
Joe Wright: Yes, a lot of visual variety was always the plan, and we set out to create three distinct looks. For the first section set in Noto, this gorgeous Baroque town in Sicily where we shot it all, we wanted a very romantic, lush, deep look to the cinematography — almost like the insides of a fleshy pomegranate. For that we were aided by our old friend, the 10 denier silk stockings, which we put over the back of the lenses to create this kind of blooming effect in the highlights and the candles and so on.

This was an effect we originally used in the first section of Atonement, and it was perfect for this. Then for the whole Etna sequence, we wanted to create something far more stark and full of contrast and almost brittle in a way, as a sharp contrast to the first section. For the final look, the last scene really, we were looking for a kind of heaven, a kind of lightness and experience of light.

While this doesn’t seem like a VFX-heavy film, there are quite a few. Can you talk about the VFX?
Wright: I don’t separate post from prep or the shoot. It’s all part and parcel. I didn’t do any previz on this, as I’m not a big fan of working like that. I far prefer to just storyboard it all myself, and that process helps me figure out what VFX might be needed.

Cinesite did them, and we had quite a lot — several hundred, with a lot of roto and compositing work on the sequences we shot on Etna and then a lot of the usual cleanup you have to do for any period piece like this. And everyone assumes all the snow on Etna we had for the battle scenes was VFX, but it was all real. We were at 16,000 feet, it was freezing and way below zero, and the week before we were due to start shooting on Etna, the heaviest snowfall in 20 years hit us. It was perfect for that monochromatic look we wanted. I like working with VFX as long as they don’t feel like they’re overwhelming the story, and on this they just added to it in a pretty invisible way.

This film looks so beautiful. Talk about working again with Seamus and what he brought to the project?
Wright: He’s brilliant, and we’ve worked together many times — this is our fifth project together, and we know each other very well. We have this great shorthand, which is so useful on a set. He’s very supportive but also lets me know when I’m going too far (laughs). He pulls me back in, and I can tell by the tone of his voice. He goes up a couple of octaves if I’m talking crap. (Wright imitates a high-pitched McGarvey here.) “That’s a good idea, Joe,” so then I know it’s really a terrible idea.

The thing about Seamus is that his character is undeniable and imprinted on every frame he shoots. He’s the gentlest, kindest, wittiest and most compassionate man, and somehow that’s translated through all the science and technical processes of cinematography and appears in the image. I don’t know how it happens, but it does.

Fair to say this a far more kinetic look than the more formal framing of some of your films?
Wright: Yes, exactly, and I’m glad you noticed that, as I feel a lot of my recent work, especially since Anna Karenina, has become quite presentational. I’ve been using a lot of wide-angle lenses and organizing the frame and composition in a very formal way, and I think it worked well for a film like Darkest Hour. But on this I wanted to smash up that approach a bit and return to something more observational. Because of this, Seamus and I went with long lenses, and I was less prescriptive to the camera operator. I tried to find a way of creating something that has more of a sense of spontaneity. That was especially true of the big opening theater sequence, which turned out to be the most complex scene I’ve ever shot because so much happens in it.

You’re establishing so many different characters, and there are so many different eyelines between everyone watching everybody else. Then you’ve also got a song and a big sword fight at the end of it. That was very challenging to shoot for Seamus and me. As for the aspect ratio, we went with 2.39:1 so we could split the frame into three and have three close-ups in the frame together, which worked well for the montage sequences.

Seamus, how did you approach the look of the movie? And tell us about your camera package.
Seamus McGarvey: As Joe said, there was a trajectory in the look. First, we wanted to play with the idea of nascent love and innocence. Also a photographic softness that would reflect that in both filtration and luminescence, as well as overexposure and the rhythms and fluidity of camera movement, and the dance itself of the camera with the actors.

Director Joe Wright with hat (left) and DP Seamus McGarvey standing (right)

Then the story takes a bit of a turn as you realize it’s this fraught love triangle, and things get more torqued. The camera becomes more urgent and darker — the image takes a darker turn. For the third look, it gets even darker with all the war scenes. We dispensed with all filtration and went for a more lithographic, almost monochromatic palette and played with almost absolute stasis in the camera.

My camera package was an ARRI Alexa LF and an ARRI Alexa Mini LF, and I shot with the new Leica Leitz Large Format Primes, which they just brought out last year; they are incredibly crisp, but also very beautiful for portraiture. When I tested them, they reminded me of medium-format lenses, and Joe really responded to them.

In the end I shot with a Leitz Large Format Zoom 25-75mm and an Angenieux Optimo 36-435mm. Initially I used them unfiltered, but when we saw the first day’s rushes, we realized they were actually too vivid with the Sicilian light. Because of that, I used the Dior 10 denier black nets Joe mentioned and Tiffen Black Glimmerglass filters, and I alternated between them depending on the situation.

What about the lighting?
McGarvey: I love natural light, and while we shot in real locations, we did light. For outside windows I’d use an 18K HMI, and sometimes it’d be on a cherry-picker for scenes like the palazzo. We had certain rigs for different windows, like 4K HMIs. Inside the rooms I tended to use LEDs — smaller S60 ARRI SkyPanels.

Joe likes a lot of movement, so the camera’s constantly moving, and you’re effectively seeing 360 degrees a lot of the time, so all the developments in LED technology really helped, and we used a lot of Astera tubes. They’re color-controlled and dimmable and battery-operated, so you can hide them in corners and behind walls. They give you the fill and the source you need without all the cables.

Joe Wright on set

Did you work with a colorist in prep on any LUTs?
McGarvey: Yes, with colorist Peter Doyle, but I don’t like to get involved in all the intricacies of the look while I’m shooting. There’s just too much to do in terms of lighting and camera movement and so on. I don’t even spend a lot of time in the DIT tent, laboring over every shot. I do all that later in the DI.

Speaking of the DI, how did that go?
Wright: I love all of post, especially the edit and the DI and the whole finishing process. I love how specific you can be and how much the film can change from one pass to another. We did it in London at De Lane Lea with Peter Doyle, my longtime colorist. He’s very involved from an early stage. He doesn’t just turn up at the end and start grading. He and Seamus and I worked very hard on the grade.

Writer Iain Blair and Joe Wright

McGarvey: I’ve done quite a few films with Peter now, and this was very different. Before we shot, we talked with Joe about the trajectory of the film and how it should have a warmth and allure that was built into the LUT. And if the colorist is on board at that early stage, you can really show intent, and your editor can have the actual looks you want the film to have. That was so true of this film, though we did so much more in the final color grade with Peter.

We spent three weeks on it, so it was the three of us really fine-tuning it all. We knew that we wanted the battle scenes on Etna at the end of the film to have this very monochromatic, spare, unfiltered, almost acid-etched feeling, and that’s something we set up at an early stage. But then Peter took that to a whole new level in the DI.

We also experimented with a few things for the early part of the film. I tried for something a bit outré and pronounced in the aftermath, but I think Joe ultimately felt he just wanted to return to realism. He didn’t want the film’s opening to feel “fucked with” or “got at.” He just wanted the faces and environment to tell the story and not have a jumped-up grade. I’m so happy with the way it all turned out. Joe’s like a cinematographer in the way he works and directs, and I feel I do my best work with him.

Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.