{"id":13771,"date":"2024-09-29T10:33:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T10:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sbcine.be\/?p=13771"},"modified":"2024-09-29T10:33:14","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T10:33:14","slug":"frank-van-den-eeden-on-small-things-like-these","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sbcine.be\/?p=13771","title":{"rendered":"Frank\u00a0van\u00a0den Eeden on Small Things Like These"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Based on Claire Keegan\u2019s novel of the same name,\u00a0Small Things Like These<\/em>\u00a0follows Bill Furlong who uncovers a disturbing secret at the local convent in the Irish town of New Ross. The film marks Frank van den Eeden\u2019s third feature collaboration with director Tim\u00a0Mielants. \u201cI shot his graduation film, a few commercials,\u00a0four\u00a0episodes of\u00a0The Terror<\/em>\u00a0and of course\u00a0Patrick\u201d<\/em>, begins\u00a0van den Eeden.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mielants always comes very prepared and had been looking at the script for some timebefore he called van den Eeden. \u201cTim thought this was something for me. At the time I was shooting in The Philippines, but I came back to him early on as I very much liked the script,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe sat together and Tim explained his ideas about how to approach this visually. The story is all about Bill Furlong. You could say he\u2019s the quiet, strong kind of protagonist who is on a quest and needs to make an important decision.He is about to stand up, in this case against the Catholic church. Every visual element we introduced needed to embody the essence of this main character. If I had to choose one word to describe him, it would be humble.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mielants stressed the importance of emphasizing this idea of a humble life. The story takes place over a handful of days. \u201cFor Bill it\u2019s waking up, going to work, taking your responsibilities, spend time with your family, go to sleep and repeat this the next day. Adaily routine that brings security to him and his family. Tim proposed to have a repetitive way of looking at his life. It\u2019s almost like this Groundhog Day<\/em> feel that he wanted to push forward. He suggested reprising the same set ups and angles over and over again butwith subtle changes which would reflect how Bill is slowly losing grip. We were not so much interested in covering scenes with a lot of angles, but wanted to keep setups to a minimum and to bring this story in a humble way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A good example of how the team captured this repetitiveness were the driving sequences throughout the film. \u201cWe had a camera mounted on the back of Bill\u2019s truck which would show us where we were, it allowed us to explore his universe without having to shoot establishing shots,\u201d explains van den Eeden. \u201cWhen we are with Billinside the truck, it\u2019s always the same profile shot. Even as the story progresses with Bill\u2019s emotions going strong, we would stay with this very same setup without furtherdramatising these scenes visually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came to looking at creative references, Mielants and van den Eeden both discussed the Coen Brothers\u2019 No Country <\/em>f<\/em>or Old Men.<\/em> \u201cThis was about the concept of simplicity, a down-tempo approach with not too many shots. Mielants also brought other references to construct this universe, which included photographs and paintings that would reflect the winter light and atmospheric elements like snow, rain and moist that we wanted to translate to the screen. He had one or two Van Gogh paintings and he showed me the Rembrandt self-portrait. We also looked at works of photographer Harry Gruyaert, who has the ability to look at people in a wider context but manages to focus on one person in a chaotic environment and that\u2019s something Tim was interested in, to show Bill\u2019s moral struggle and how this isolates him in his community\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Van den Eeden had previously shot another film in Ireland at the beginning of this year and was asked about Irish weather, as it\u2019s not unusual to experience four seasons in one day in the country. \u201cThere is a lot of rain in Small Things Like These<\/em> and sometimes we found ourselves shooting in actual rain or snow, which was exactly what we wanted,\u201d says van den Eeden. \u201cFor some of the scenes we added rain ourselves, which is not so much fun to do. The film takes place close to Christmas and we were looking for this dark, damp and cold atmosphere. We had SFX on set pretty much every day, also when shooting interiors as they would moist up the windows to bring the winter ambiance inside.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small Things Like These<\/em> is set in New Ross in the 1980s, with flashbacks to the 1950s.\u201cWe had production designer Paki Smith bringing these era\u2019s back to life. Paki understood that New Ross in the 1980s was a mix of the 1970s and maybe even the 60s. Depending on how poor the area is, people didn\u2019t have the latest stuff in their homes. So, we were looking at a mix of 60s, 70s and 80s. The story of course also jumps back to the 1950s, so we had a few interiors which were not connected to the 80s and he also did a great job there by finding this balance of putting up what needed to be there and keep a natural feel to it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Van den Eeden captured the film with the Alexa35 and after several tests settled on the Panavision P Vintage set lenses. \u201cI really like the Alexa35 as it has the higher ISO,\u201d notes van den Eeden. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say we pushed Small things<\/em> to be dark, but it is a winter film and a lot of it takes place at night, so the higher ISO was really welcomed. The Panavision P Vintage set helped us to stay away from a super clean image. It would refer to maybe 80s or 70s, without screaming that it\u2019s a vintage lens. During testing we shot some 35mm kodak side by side with the Alexa35. We were interested in an analoguelook, so I suggested shooting some negative film to see what we like about it and thentranslate that back to our digital negative. With our grader Olivier Oigneux we testedadding grain but not making it too distracting or obvious. When viewing these tests, key crew, as well as Cillian Murphy were present to look at the graded results. We would discuss the colours and grain but also wardrobe and make-up choices. I also did some of tests in the village of New Ross, it was interesting to see what we could do with existing streetlight and we found that some parts of New Ross actually still have a nice 80s look to it. Other parts were way too modern and we had to change the existing streetlightsback to the Sodium bulbs and housings of the 80\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For van den Eeden, an important element was not making this film feel beautiful or cinematic. \u201cLighting needed to be motivated, you can\u2019t just simply put up a light source because it will look good,\u201d he details. \u201cThings looking good was not in our interest, butwe didn\u2019t want this to feel like a documentary either. I wanted the look to be consistent, but lighting-wise we wanted it to be honest and realistic, so it connects back to our humble protagonist. We ended up with a light package which was mostly smaller light units which we could hide in small locations and would give us a more practical based look. A big part of the film was shot in actual interiors in New Ross, these locations were very small but served us well to capture the atmosphere of the 80\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The schedule was tight and the film was shot across a period of 25 days. \u201cThe interesting thing about this story is that a lot of it is without dialogue which makes it visually interesting because you are translating an idea which is not so much in your face,\u201d says van den Eeden. \u201cBut we did have a few dialogue-heavy scenes, some with children, we would cross-shoot these with two cameras to keep a sense of realism and get the most out of the performances and also to make sure we had the right amount of time to get these done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what he liked most about working on this film van den Eeden highlights the generosity of the actors and crew: \u201cIn a way the story of Small <\/em>T<\/em>hings <\/em>L<\/em>ike <\/em>T<\/em>hese<\/em>resonated with everybody involved in bringing it to the screen. Hopefully the themes of injustice and moral choice will engage the audience as it did with our team\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Camera Crew <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rob Atkinson … <\/em>E<\/em>lectrician <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bart Bleuze … first assistant camera <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enda Bowe … still photographer <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cian Byrne-Little … Grip Trainee <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phillip Gaffney Gaffers … <\/em>G<\/em>rip <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eimear Ennis Graham … lighting technician <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Green … clapper loader <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bailey Hayden … Camera Trainee: dailies <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Howard Jones … second assistant camera: B Camera <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ois\u00edn Kelly … key grip <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Kinney … camera assistant: trainee <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donal Lafferty … Best boy <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Leonard … Digital imaging technician <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simon Magee … gaffer <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zach McParland … data manager <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shane O’Connor … daily still photographer <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mick O’Rourke … <\/em>steadicam<\/em> operator b camera operator <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leah O’Toole … Camera Assistant Trainee <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carol Tormey … first assistant camera: B camera dailies<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Oliver Webb<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images by Enda Bowe and Shane O Connor.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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