Director of Photography Suzie Lavelle talks about One Hundred Mornings

The Script –
‘’I thought it was the best script I ever read. The way the story was told, the development and also that the theme was so topical that we are all quite worried about it and I love the visual poetry in the script, the exposition was flawless for me. Everything had a purpose, every transition was there andI just thought the characters were amazing and it is a character story in a really extreme circumstance but it is a character story and I love that about it.’’

Working with Conor Horgan-
‘‘Before I got the job we thought the best way to approach it not knowing each other was to bring any stills or images which we felt represented the mood. Out of all the pictures in the world we happened to have one picture that was the same image and I think that is how I got the job, that and we knew straight away that we saw it in the same way.’’

The Filming -
‘‘It was great story and huge opportunity to tell it in a really creative way. We had to use our imaginations a lot to keep it interesting, 80% of the filming is in the house and it just gave great scopes for subtle tricks with story telling and with each character we could develop their own personal story through camera angles, lenses, lighting, contrast.’’

‘‘We started Jonathon off with wider lenses, he is lost in this world that everything is in focus in. He lets the world around him come inside so we started to use longer lenses towards the end of the film. Another element of this film was creating an element of real time, long takes, to use the blocking to tell the story. If his character is empowered we place him close to the camera and on his weaker parts he is much further away.’’

‘‘The location really guided us in our approach then we started to think, is this movie like a western? Nature is a really important part, that nature lives on seamlessly and in fact blossoming really. We shot listed it like mad and we have a folder that’s like our bible with everything in it but every morning we choose to throw it away and just watch the performance and see what they bring to it because it changes quite a lot and we always wanted to have the approach of thinking on our feet.’’

‘‘For me if you are camera aware something has gone wrong, I’d like the camera to be relatively invisible in this and you’re just caught up in the characters and the world and I hope we achieve that.’’

Approach -
‘‘We wanted people to feel like this could be them, in order for them to feel that we thought real time was really important, long takes but clever blocking. On a low budget with a limited amount of time this is quite terrifying so I had a meeting with the editor, I knew we couldn’t come in with a four week shoot and do our takes that work for everything and also provide cover. Straight away from the beginning we had to make a choice, are we going to make a film that is cutty or are we going to go for it. So went for the one takes, long takes. I’d much rather go and see a film with some risks, with an interesting approach and script than to have made something that has allready been made and I hope it comes out as something different and that you walk out of the cinema and you’re not going to forget it.’’

Working with RED Camera –
‘‘Essentially it is a computer with a lens on. Being quite remote here [in Wicklow] dealing with lots of bad weather, working very quickly, lots of hand held, I was really nervous about it but its been great.’’