Robrecht Heyvaert on realism for Steve 

Based on the novel Shy, by Max Porter, Steve documents headteacher Steve (portrayed by Cillian Murphy) as he battles for his reform school’s survival. The film was captured by Robrecht Heyvaert. 

Steve marks Tim Mielants and Heyvaert second feature collaboration, having previously worked together on the 2023 film Wil. “Tim spoke with me about Steve before I read the script,” begins Heyvaert. “He described it as a slice of life of Steve, the headmaster of this reform school, set in the mid-90s. So, the arena is already very exciting and so are in the characters in the script.”

Heyvaert was impressed by the script, which he explains was unconventional in its structure. “It doesn’t follow traditional script structure of traditional plot points as they are written in certain academic books,” he says. “I think that it makes it all the more interesting and challenging. I like when films every now and then break the mould and draw outside of the lines. Tim is the perfect director to tackle projects like this, so I was happy that he contacted me. We started discussing it about six months before pre-production started.” 

Heyvaert read Shy in preparation for the film. Steve is an unconventional film and Shy is an unconventional book. “It almost reads like a slam poetry book, which is really energizing,” he says. “It shoots in all directions and it has a very particular rhythm and pace to it that I thought was worth capturing and trying to translate to the screen.” 

Heyvaert began to look at the material, which covers both what it is like to be a teenager, as well as the life of a head principal in the 90s in a school for troubled youths. “We started looking at what that is,” he explains. “We looked at the music and cinema scene of those days, as well as 90s indie filmmaking. We particularly focused on the Danish Dogme 95 movement which was in its heyday, as well as looking at the other side of the spectrum with the stylised, kinetic and dynamic music videos of the period.”

Heyvaert and Mielants discussed the idea of merging these numerous elements. “You could go rough, down and dirty, as some of these Dogme films do and you could also go stylised, rhythmic and musical on the other hand,” says Hervaert. “The script and the writing and the subject matter captures different aspects of teenage life. We thought there might be a way to merge and actually play with different styles that suit the story whenever it’s needed, and transition from A to B throughout the film. That was the journey of the experiment we set out to achieve.”

One of the Dogme films that was discussed was Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film Festen. “You can’t really talk about the movement without touching up on that film,” admits Heyvaert. “It was spearheading the movement, along with The Idiots and a few others. Coincidentally it also takes place in one location, in a mansion, so there are definitely some similarities there. I think Steve isn’t a Dogme film at all, but we took certain influences from it. Our film was more directed and more blocked. That fast and loose camera also slowly transitions to a more observing camera and takes more position in the storytelling, whereas in Dogme it’s always following the action and not really painting in a certain canvas. It’s there to capture the moment and nothing else.”  

Mielants and Heyvaert looked at all sorts of films to see what their own language would be. Although, it was important not to try and mimic the look of 90s cinema, instead aiming towards making their own contemporary version of it. “That allowed us, or gave us the creative freedom to look at different genres or filmmaking styles and make our own hybrid of it.”

Heyvaert opted to shoot the film with the ARRI Alexa 35, with ARRI HEROES lenses and rehoused Moviecam lenses. Additionally, they had a classic vintage Betacam SP video camera to hand for the BBC documentary crew sequences. They also looked at numerous news gathering video cameras from that era and ultimately settled on what they thought was the most appropriate for the storytelling. 

“The Alexa 35 was our hero camera,” adds Heyvaert. “The film mixes those two formats, going from one to the other. It also uses different aspect rations, which was a fun experiment and puzzle. We also had fun searching for the vintage cameras, dusting them off to see if they still worked and then adapting them to modern standards because they obviously recorded on tape and didn’t have modern video outputs or wireless video options.” 

Choreographing the film proved to be a challenge and physically demanding due to the unpredictability of the characters. “The film has a unique cast in the sense that you have very seasoned actors that have been around for decades and know every single bit of filmmaking, and then you have got newcomers that have their acting debut on screen, so it’s a great hybrid.”

A lot of liberty was given to the actors to improvise scenes and to play with blocking. “That doesn’t mean they just did whatever they liked, however,” explains Heyvaert. “They were given a certain canvas in which we gave them liberty to operate. It was exciting to see how these seasoned actors, fully embraced the dynamics and the energy coming from the younger generation and vice versa. I think it was a beautiful cocktail. It really makes a lot of the scenes stand apart. Obviously, it was challenging to sometimes capture those lightning in a bottle moments. It required flexibility when it came to camera positions and camera movement and we allowed for 360 degrees movement.” 

Tom Mulder served as colourist on the film, having worked with Heyvaert across numerous projects. “Tom is a long-time collaborator and we know each other very well,” says Heyvaert. “We also worked together on Wil and he has a good collaboration with Tim. In early pre-production, we were testing the Alexa 35 with the lenses we were using, putting actors or stand-ins in the right costumes and starting to tweak the look. We created these LUTs which were our interpretation of what we liked about the look of certain feature films and music videos from that era. I described it as like a not too grainy 16mm look with blown out highlights, so that everything that’s bright on the screen can be of a certain glow and be almost overexposed to give it a certain grit and reality, but without mimicking the films that we were referencing. It’s still our own interpretation and it is a contemporary look that is inspired by certain 90s films that we liked.” 

The overall shoot lasted seven weeks. Heyvaert particularly enjoyed finding the right rhythm and tone. “I really like rhythm on set,” he says. “I like to find the rhythm of the camera and the camera movement and letting that energy and rhythm come from the blocking, the actors and from the script. I really enjoy that and that’s also how I operate. I think pretty rhythmically when it comes to filmmaking.” 

For Heyvaert, working with Mielants is always a pleasure. “He’s super well prepared and does his homework. He has interesting and original ideas for every single scene,” he concludes. “At the same time, he also embraces any new ideas on the day, whether that’s from the actors, the weather, art direction, or whatever. He can see a fire extinguisher, for example and come up with a new and fresh idea and make it part of the scene. Seeing Tim and Cillian work together as a duo is also a rare thing to see. As a cinematographer, you can stand by and just try to fully support them and capture all the magic that they create, which is challenging but also very rewarding.” 

Crew

Stanley Caldecott Thornton – Drone Assistant

Sion Davies – Best Boy

Ben Grady – Digital Imaging Technician

Alex Hollowbread – Second Assistant Camera: “b” Camera

Ben Jones – First Assistant Camera: “b” Camera

Matthew McCabe – Grip: “b” Camera

Arron Monkman – First Assistant Camera: “a” Camera

Julie Sande – Second Assistant Camera: “a” Camera

Stamos Triantafyllos – Camera Operator / Steadicam Operator

Wim Swinnen – Gaffer

Tom Stansfield- Key Grip

By Oliver Webb