SHOOTING WITH SENSITIVITY

Sundance Film Festival thriller Night Nurse deals with a lot of sensitive themes – agency, control, consent, amongst others. DP Lidia Nikonova explains how she approached the cinematography to reflect this.

At what point in the process did the film truly “find itself” in the edit and how different did it look from the version you imagined on set? 

Our editor Alex Jacobs and the director Georgia Bernstein spent several months in the edit room chiselling and tuning the film before it found its true voice. I loved seeing different edits, all the alternative universes the film could have been in, as each one had its own aura and rhythm. 

However, I truly think that what became the final edit is the only version the film could have been, and in a strange way it became exactly what I was imagining the film would be while we were shooting it. There is a magical and serendipitous thing that can happen with the edit: it wanders through the winding roads around different rhythmic and tonal domains, and through this journey it eventually settles into what the film has always been, or what it was meant to be. However, this final version has to be discovered through the journey of exploration, play, and experiments.  

Was there a specific scene or sequence where the cinematography became the storytelling engine rather than the script or performances? 

For this very intimate story I wanted the cinematography to be relatively invisible, making images work more on an unconscious level. Our protagonist Eleni is lured into the mysterious world of the retirement community and I wanted the images to reflect her experience, trying to bring the viewers to feel what she felt. Staying true to the erotic thriller genre, we designed the visual language to build on the suspense and the tension of the film through slow hypnotic zooms and dolly moves that make the world feel both alluring and somehow imperceptibly dangerous.

There are several scenes in the film where cinematography drives the narration, notably in the opening scene of the film. We wanted to establish the dynamics between the all the main characters through glances, and used camera placement and blocking to foreshadow some of the elements of the story. In many instances framing and composition work as visual allegory, at times collapsing the environment on the characters, at times expanding the world around them. Ultimately, my goal is to achieve aesthetic unity with other elements of the film and make the images serve to build the unique world of Night Nurse feel authentic, intimate, and visceral. 

Showing the intimacy of the story but bringing the elements of erotic thriller genre was a wonderful and exciting challenge

How did you manage rhythm and pacing when balancing emotional intimacy with narrative momentum in the cinematography? 

Showing the intimacy of the story but bringing the elements of erotic thriller genre was a wonderful and exciting challenge. The pacing of the film is musical, in a way: longer lens scenes became our motif, while the more austere observational compositions work as a leitmotif that reminds us that the what Eleni experiences exists in a broader context. With this approach some of the scenes were constructed to be extremely tactile and visceral, and these intimate spaces were contrasted with more ‘institutional’ spaces designed to remind us that Eleni’s actions may have broader reverberations and consequences. 

How early were cinematography decisions influencing other post-production elements like sound design, music, or visual effects? 

In order for the world of the film to feel authentic and complete, we wanted to create unity between the images, sound design, and the score. I think the film has a lot of texture, which exists both in images and the soundscape. The sound design is very delicate, even minimalistic at times, and it creates a backdrop for our beautifully composed score to unravel. Our composers Sam Clapp and Steven Jackson created a musical journey that is wonderfully attuned to the images of the film, adding dramatic tension, expressing Eleni’s interiority, and building another layer of suspense.  

Over the course of production, the cinematography, using Canon, evolved towards a more intimate, long-lens, tactile style

Did the cinematography reveal anything unexpected about the characters or themes that wasn’t apparent during production? 

Over the course of production, the cinematography, using Canon, evolved towards a more intimate, long-lens, tactile style. Through this evolution some of the more subtle elements of the actors’ performances came to the forefront: touch, glances, micro-expressions became more visible and hence more visceral. Having this level of access to our characters revealed their inner processes, to the point where you can almost see their thoughts. I was not initially thinking about bringing out this interiority in such a way but as we kept filming, these scenes started to stand out and eventually became our favourite.  

How did collaboration between cinematographer and director evolve over the course of post-production, particularly when difficult decisions had to be made? 

To be completely honest, Georgia (the director) and I were in complete synchronicity throughout the process of making and finishing the film. Working with her was so gratifying and rewarding, she gave me so much support, inspired me in numerous ways, challenged me to be bolder, and ultimately made me a better filmmaker. The only time we disagreed with each other was when we were deciding on the aspect ratio of the film, and even then I think she was right. Тhe key to our collaboration was that we love similar films (especially David Cronenberg’s Crash) and were aligned on what we wanted the Night Nurse to feel like.  

What were the biggest technical or creative challenges you faced and how did your camera tools help you work through them efficiently? 

The biggest technical challenge by far was working with the roboarm and a live talent for the opening shot of the film. In order to create this four-minute-long oner where the camera with a probe lens follows the chord wrapped around Eleni’s body, we had to spend six hours programming the hundreds of cue points for the camera as our beautiful lead Cemre Paksoy had to lay completely motionless with a couple of dozen of grip clips pinning the chord around her. Cemre is an incredible performer, and I was so glad she agreed to do this extremely challenging and physically demanding shot, which ultimately became a kind of staple of the film.  

The film deals with a lot of sensitive themes: agency, control, consent, amongst others. To me, it was of utmost importance to create a visual world where we don’t sensationalise

For films dealing with memory, trauma, or complex social realities, how did you approach ethical responsibility in the cinematography? 

The film deals with a lot of sensitive themes: agency, control, consent, amongst others. To me, it was of utmost importance to create a visual world where we don’t sensationalise, nor hide from the discomfort and complexity of these themes. We wanted the viewer to experience them through the narrative perspective of our protagonist. This meant that I had to approach our fictional character with empathy and compassion, and imagine how these moments would feel to her. It also meant that when she was making questionable decisions, it was important that we knew why she was making them, and that she always had agency.  

Looking back, what’s one cinematography decision you now see as pivotal to the film’s final emotional impact? 

I think a big part of the emotional impact of the film relies on the balance of light and shadows: as the story unravels and our protagonist gets enveloped in the scam schemes that plague the retirement community, the film progressively gets darker. I wanted to build a stark contrast between a certain naïveté that exists in the beginning of the film, and the dark turn the story takes towards the end. In order to do so, we progressively added more and more darkness to the mise-en-scene, allowing the shadows to swallow the characters towards the end of the film. Night Nurse was shot out of order, and my brilliant gaffer Karson Kane was keeping track of the levels to create this continuous progression.