Memorable moments

Cinematographer Stuart White reflects on the exciting challenges of capturing Arabella Burfitt-Dons’ feature debut.

At this year’s Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto, when director Arabella Burfitt-Dons won the award for Best Foreign Debut with her indie feature film Grey Matter, the trophy was so large she had to buy a holdall for it to have it flown home in the aircraft’s main hold. Burfitt-Dons is now taking the film for its US premiere at the Naples Film Festival in Florida, from 26-29 October. 

The director worked on the film with DP Stuart White. The film was shot in and around the very picturesque coastal town of Southwold in Suffolk, most famous for a local brewery! The strength of the script, a female-lead family drama about a teenage girl’s struggles with her beloved nan’s onset dementia, helped Arabella secure the talents of actors Eloise Smyth (Harlots), Elizabeth Berrington (The Responder), Paul Brennen (The Long Shadow), Harry Kirton (Peaky Blinders) and the return of Stephanie Beacham.   

“Having met with Arabella to discuss the script and her vision for the film, her directorial debut (written by Elizabeth Hrib), I proffered a series of mood boards before we moved forward with the film’s pre-production and its visual style,” says White. “The Southwold family home location, where a large slice of the action takes place, was rather small which created its own challenges, especially as we had a COVID situation. The reshuffled schedule created challenges for our small crew but watching the film you would never know, which is testament to the effort we all put in. Arabella and the production team worked tirelessly to retune the schedule and locations and Arabella has finished her film to a high standard which showcases her character and professionalism.” 

Due to the necessity of a lead actor to isolate, the entire schedule had to be rethought. This created a number of issues, not just with the actors and their days on set but also locations which also had to be rescheduled, causing some stressful moments and late nights for production.

“It became rather obvious that this one problem would create a snowball effect on the rest of the shoot and the last thing I wanted was such an occurrence to compromise the quality of the cinematography,” White recalls. “This was an independent production with a finite budget and all we had was all we had. No matter what changes the production team offered I approached them with consideration to ensure Arabella and her team could get the most out of each and every day. If it meant bouncing around exterior locations for 1/4 of a page 5 times a day, we did it. If it meant shooting day for night and night for day, so be it.”

He remembers how they shot night-for-day one cold, dark night. “We had every one of our 2.5K HMI lamps on extended double wind-ups circling the house so we could light the entire first floor for a daylight scene where mum and daughter chase each other up the stairs, across the landing and into a bedroom for an emotionally charged, pivotal scene. A really pivotal scene… We had 1/4 CTO gelled light hitting the silked windows in each of the four rooms on camera and I also fitted small DMG Mini LED panels and Dedo DLH4s onto polecats for the interior fill and edge lighting.

“As often with emotional and fiery scenes, our actors had a few rehearsals and discussions with Arabella and the end of our day was fast approaching. The director, our script supervisor Alexandra Finlay and focus puller Bradley Shemmell were crammed into the only other available upstairs space with the video village and the scene was shot, with a handheld camera for amplified intimacy and immediacy, with seconds of the day to spare. Watching it back in the final cut you would never believe it was shot with minimal takes in the pitch-black winter night; it looks great and packs a real punch. I had a little smile with the crew as the actors were whisked away to their warm digs.”

Burfitt-Dons says: “Stuart brought a real sophistication to the cinematography and never compromised on the quality, even when we were faced with an intimidating schedule and challenging locations. Working with him was seamless from the start. No challenge was too big for him to overcome.”

White operated both A-camera and the Movi-mounted B-camera throughout the film. 

The film is submitted to UK film festivals and conversations are happening for Grey Matter’s UK and territorial distribution.