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“A Chemistry Between the Operator and the Actors:” DP Frida Marzouk on Where the Wind Comes From

A girl with long, black hair wears a red jacket. She is sitting next to a boy with short curly hair and a blue denim jacket. They look at each other lovingly.Where the Wind Comes From, courtesy of Sundance Institute.

19-year-old Alyssa (Eya Bellagha) and her 23-year-old friend Medhi (Slim Baccar) travel to southern Tunisia for a contest that promises to change their lives in Where the Wind Comes From, writer-director Amel Guellaty’s feature debut.

Cinematographer Frida Marzouk discusses lensing Guellaty’s film, including the difficulties of shooting car scenes, her penchant for verite filmmaking and her previous career as a set electrician.

See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here.

Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job?

Marzouk: I had shot a few films in Tunisia and Amel, the director, had seen my work. We had a long call after I read the script and saw her short films and we got along. I had mostly done handheld projects and Amel had a different aesthetic in mind. More steady shots on tripods and dolly. But she still decided to take a chance on me. We did end up shooting a few scenes handheld, which I think put an emphasis on crucial moments in the film, and I find them to be my most personal contributions to the project.

Filmmaker: What were your artistic goals on this film, and how did you realize them?

Marzouk: I think, as cinematographers, we have a tendency to do what we like to do or what we are used to do. But on this film, I had to stick to an aesthetic that I do enjoy but that I don’t get the chance to experience much. As DPs we can often be labelled under a certain style of filming. In my case I am under the verité style in terms of camera operating. My artistic goal in this film was to keep things looking like the director imagined but also interjecting elements that I enjoy in images, like shallower depth of field in some instances and high contrast for example. It’s a fine balance to create what the director imagined but also find space for personal creativity. I believe we found that balance.

Filmmaker: How did you want your cinematography to enhance the film’s storytelling and treatment of its characters?

Marzouk: Besides the camera part, I believe there needs to be a chemistry between the operator and the actors to be able to translate how they feel. Understanding the characters but also the actors, in their movements, in their ways, is essential. And I do enjoy syncing myself to them. I like natural light but I do love lighting. I was a set electrician for many years and I enjoyed it very much. Lighting the spaces versus a specific position that we are shooting was a way to enhance the films storytelling. It gave the actors a certain freedom. They could move around freely without having too many restrictions of marks etc..

Filmmaker: Were there any specific influences on your cinematography, whether they be other films, or visual art, of photography, or something else?

Marzouk: Amel shared with me all the references that she had in terms of shots and what films she liked. It went from Wes Anderson to Ida for the framing, to Pulp Fiction or La Haine. So I based myself on that to start with. I do have references that keep coming back in my work. I am a huge fan of Martin Scorsese but also of Abdelatif Kechiche. They both highly influenced what I love in film. I have watched and studied Scorsese for years and I worked with Kechiche on most of his movies. I believe that it all translates eventually somehow in my approach to filmmaking. I do have painters that I always have in mind in any projects. Caravaggio, Edward Hopper, Dali or Hammershoi, to mention a few, in terms of lighting and impressions.

Filmmaker: What were the biggest challenges posed by production to those goals?

Marzouk: I believe the challenges were mostly due to access to equipment. Shooting in Tunisia means adapting to what’s available in the country. In terms of cameras but also in terms of lighting, there are not that many options. I believe the right tool is crucial in some instances and it will influence the final result of a scene. You always wish you had better equipment even though there’s always a way to make it work. Sometimes you have an ambitious scene that could be achieved properly but a lack of units or of a specific unit can change the whole look of a scene and precent you from making it what it needed to be. Granted we always make it work in the end.

Filmmaker: What camera did you shoot on? Why did you choose the camera that you did? What lenses did you use?

Marzouk: I shot on the Red Helium and the Arri ultra primes. We had an equipment availability issue for an Arri camera and I ended up having to switch gears at the last minute. I had shot a few documentaries on the Red Dragon and I enjoyed the look It had. I went for the Red Helium that I hadn’t used before and it ended up being a good camera for our project. It was very handy in terms of the many resolutions, aspect ratios and color spaces. We didn’t have a DIT so it was very helpful to have color space options that could help us see what we could have at the end.

Filmmaker: Describe your approach to lighting.

Marzouk: Lighting the space first and then get into the details. Enhancing natural light if possible. Use it as a base especially if there’s not much time to achieve a scene. I learned from being a set electrician that it’s usually best to keep it simple. But I still try to emphasize contrast, I work a lot with negative fill whenever I can.

Filmmaker: What was the most difficult scene to realize and why? And how did you do it?

Marzouk: I think the scenes that were most difficult were the car scenes and we had many or them! This is a road trip movie and we kept having very bad luck with the weather. We would start shooting the passenger seat side with blue skies and then turn to the driver and it would be raining. I find car scenes to already be challenging (when not shot in a studio) in many ways but the weather made this the most challenging for the shoot. Some shots we tweaked in spots and others we had to live with.

Filmmaker: Finally, describe the finishing of the film. How much of your look was “baked in” versus realized in the DI?

Marzouk: We started out being satisfied using the R3D color space on the Red. We started from there but when we got to the post production stage, Amel wanted more of a film look. So we desaturated colors and added grain to the film, And I think it works really well. So not much of the look was baked in.

TECH BOX

Film Title: Where the Wind Comes From

Camera: Red Helium

Lenses: Arri Ultra primes

Lighting: skypanels, Arri 5k,

Processing: N/A

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