Freedom of expression

Swapping a script for a ‘scriptment’ offered an alternative perspective on filmmaking for both cast and crew of Jamie Adams’ improvised indie She Is Love, as cinematographer Jan Vrhovnik explains.

“We all had to become vulnerable, strip away our egos, and really surrender to the process. I think there’s something unique about what we did.”

It may sound hyperbolic, but making She Is Love really was a shoot like no other for cinematographer Jan Vrhovnik. The reason why lies in the creative force behind the project: improvisational auteur Jamie Adams, whose films eschew scripts for ‘scriptments’ – a cross between a script and a treatment, with no written dialogue – giving cast and crew the kind of creative freedom rarely seen on a film set. 

When Vrhovnik received an email from Adams out of the blue, mentioning that he was on the lookout for a cinematographer, the DP was immediately intrigued. It transpired that Adams had seen Paradiso, a short directed and shot by Vrhovnik. “I think he decided to talk to me because he was looking for a cinematographer who is actually a filmmaker at heart,” he explains. “Because of the nature of She Is Love, I believe he wanted someone behind the camera who could strip away their ego as a cinematographer and approach it as a filmmaker – freely and confidently narrating their own story with the camera.”

Following in the feted footsteps of Adams’ previous dramedies Black Mountain Poets and Wild Honey Pie, She Is Love sees divorced couple Patricia (Haley Bennett) and Idris (Sam Riley) unexpectedly cross paths a decade on from their separation at a rural hotel in Cornwall, which Idris manages with his girlfriend (Marisa Abela). While Adams creates a strong beginning and end to the story and arms each character with a distinct agenda, the ebb and flow of the narrative journey is built on spontaneity.

The result is a novel workflow that challenges those on both sides of the camera. “Something that’s very important in Jamie’s work is the rule that ‘performance is king’,” says Vrhovnik. “My crew and I had to be technically very agile and flexible, and never let the technicalities of sound, lighting and camera come in the way of performance. Easier said than done on an improvised film!”

An unorthodox influence on the film’s ethos is jazz musician Herbie Hancock. Adams shared a clip with Vrhovnik in prep in which Hancock recalls performing with fellow legend Miles Davis. After hitting the wrong note on the piano during Davis’ solo, Hancock worries their show is ruined – instead, Davis plays some new notes and gives the wrong chord a completely new meaning. 

“I think what Jamie was trying to say to me was that there are no ‘wrong’ decisions – only opportunities that we accept and use as moments to discover something new,” Vrhovnik muses. “I took on the shooting approach of a jazz musician: you study, practise, research, test and plan as much as possible, but when it’s performance time, you forget about it all and just play. You’re present in the moment with your fellow musicians, and you perform in unity. You embrace what’s in front of you, you embrace the unexpected, and you see everything as an opportunity to discover something new.”

She Is Love’s mood and feel was shaped by The Green Ray (1986), A Bigger Splash (2015) and Faces (1968), while its shooting approach was inspired by Terrence Malick and Ken Loach. Malick’s style was also a reference when giving Vrhovnik confidence in the unconventional approach to filmmaking: “Not shooting the script but shooting what’s available around you and what life offers you,” he adds. 

Free spirit

Adams’ naturalistic approach meant She Is Love was shot chronologically over just six days, with at least five hours of rushes each day – an interesting technical (and physical!) challenge for Vrhovnik. Making sure his team were properly prepared was crucial. 

He remembers, “It was really important to me to brief the crew in detail because the approach to She Is Love was not conventional filmmaking. They did brilliantly, but it was definitely a shock for everyone on day one. I briefed them that we’d be doing roughly five hours of shooting time a day and they were cool with that, but when we were actually doing it, everyone was thinking, ‘Woah! This is not what we’re used to.’ I want to send my gratitude to the team, because I’m nothing without the people who are there to help and support me.”

Shooting at a grand country house, the actors were given the freedom to wander wherever they wanted during scenes, except for a few rooms. “I would never know what was happening next and that’s the beauty of improvisation,” says Vrhovnik. A scene with Marisa Abela comes to mind, where Marisa’s character insists she wants cod for dinner while Kate, one of the hotel staff, persistently offers her scampi. “What I thought will be a calm scene would turn into comedic chaos by Jamie sending an actor into the scene without anyone being aware what that actor’s agenda was.” 

Treating the camera like another character was key to Vrhovnik’s filmmaking philosophy. “I wasn’t there as an observer to capture what was going on; I was reactive to what was happening in the scene,” he says. “It was really a dance and I can’t praise enough the joy to dance with such remarkable actors as Haley Bennett, Sam Riley and Marisa Abela.”

Vrhovnik’s ease at embedding the camera at the heart of each scene might reflect his own experience as an actor. Hailing from Ljubljana, Slovenia, he remembers being fascinated by photography ever since his grandfather gave him his Canon A-1 (“I started playing with it as a kid and the first few rows developed completely black!”). Falling in love with films as a teenager, he was desperate to get experience on film sets, so his mother signed him up to a casting agency, leading to work in commercials and even two features.

“It’s an experience I’m really grateful for because it gave me an understanding how it feels to have all eyes on you while surrounded by tons of equipment and people,” he says. “As a cinematographer I’m often in the closest proximity to the actors on set, so you hold a special responsibility. I really dislike the idea of the camera being the barrier, so what I try to do – and what I’m really aware of – is making sure that actors feel part of the whole team, part of the process. I often like to put the camera on my side; I step in front of it to share the moment with actor during breaks (if I sense it’s the right thing to do of course); just to break this invisible psychological barrier and pressure which camera can create. Having had some experience as an actor, I feel I developed the sensitivity and appreciation of how vulnerable and exposed actors need to be, so I always do everything to ensure comfortable and joyful working environment.”

Embracing the environment

She Is Love was shot on the ARRI Alexa Mini LF with vintage Canon K35 glass and Tiffen’s Bronze Glimmerglass filter. Knowing there’d be plenty of long handheld takes (some one-hour long), the camera was stripped down to make it as light as possible. 

Vrhovnik opted for the LF because he liked the three-dimensional image that wider-range lenses provide. “I pretty much shot 80% the film on a 35mm lens on LF which is equivalent to 25mm on S35. The Alexa Mini LF was the perfect choice for its size, incredible latitude, beautiful skin tones and also the reliability I needed, while the vintage Canon lenses had a lovely softness to them and still held a solid image. The colour rendition is stunning and so is the fall-off.”

When it came to lighting, Vrhovnik and gaffer Simon Batchelar wanted to embrace natural light as much as possible in the manor house but in reality it was tricky, with its dim nooks and crannies. It was also near-impossible to pre-light, given that they wouldn’t know where the actors would be in advance.  “I had to light everything in a sort of a 360 environment, meaning light could be only coming in from the outside or from above,” the cinematographer says. “I primarily used HMIs shinning into mirrors and thin LED Flexi panels from above to emphasis window light. We pretty much replaced every practical possible with our own filament bulbs and dimmers.”

The DP worked with Cheat’s Karol Cybulski on the grade. “We went for a slightly filmic look with good saturation density, decent contrast but lifted shadows for softness the story needed,” he explains. “Karol did an incredible job, giving the film a strong look while not shinning attention on the grade.”

One of the biggest technical challenges on the shoot was one shared by many cinematographers working in the UK: the British weather. ”Cornwall is very close to the ocean, the landscape is flat and there are high winds, which means that we sometimes had all four seasons in a day,” Vrhovnik grins. “There was sunshine in the morning followed by rainy overcast, shortly it would clear and fast-moving scattered clouds would cover the sky, sun peaking in and of them resulting in 3 stops of light fluctuation. But the camera was still rolling, so my focus puller was often riding the iris more than the focus. At first, I was quite frustrated about it, but then I let it go because that’s how it is in life, too. You have sun that comes in and then the cloud comes in. It’s just a different look and you have to embrace it.”

Going with the flow is an attitude that Vrhovnik wholeheartedly espoused during the filming process and an approach that was necessary to work on an ever-evolving shoot like She Is Love. “Jamie’s brilliant writing and unique way of working drew me into it. His unusual approach of telling stories was really inspiring to me and with such A-class actors I knew it will be fun. The film was essentially a brave experiment for everyone involved. As they say: Fortune favours the brave.”

She Is Love is released in cinemas and digitally on 3 February.