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MillimeterQ&A with Stephen Murphy, DP on Fifth Street
Nov 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Craig Erpelding
For Fifth Street, DP Stephen Murphy (pictured) and Director David Roddham opted for Fujifilm Vivid 160T stock.
Originally from Ireland, Stephen Murphy began his career as a prosthetic makeup artist, designing and sculpting prosthetics and animatronics. He then worked as a camera assistant for several years before enjoying a successful career as a Steadicam and camera operator — working in features, commercials, and TV drama. Now based in both London and Dublin, Murphy's distinctive cinematography can be seen in features including Fifth Street, commercials, music videos, and short films. For more about Murphy, see his Reel-Exchange profile at reel-exchange.com/
members/83ef4582/
profile.
For Fifth Street, you shot film instead of video/HD. What led you to that decision, and was there an aspect of versatility in choosing film rather than shooting digital?
Murphy: For Fifth Street, the only decision we faced in terms of our format was whether to shoot in Super 35 or anamorphic. We had always intended to shoot widescreen, and both myself and the director — David Roddham — prefer the aesthetic of film over video. Video is a different medium, and we didn't feel it was the right choice for this project. We wanted deep rich blacks, strong colors, and a light texture, and I knew film could deliver that — particularly given we were using [Fujifilm]'s new Vivid 160T stock, one of the best stocks on the market at the moment.
Ultimately, the decision to shoot in Super 35 over anamorphic was budgetary, knowing that we'd need a few extra camera bodies for high-speed and Steadicam work, so we decided on Super 35 with a DI.
Both David and myself wanted to achieve our different visual looks in camera as much as possible, so even though we knew we'd be going through a DI, I worked as I would have had I been using a traditional post path — pushing the film stock for extra saturation and contrast, using color filters on the camera and lights, and exposing the negative the same way I always do. I don't believe in finding a look in the grade; I believe you can deliver stronger images by shooting 95 percent of the look in camera and using the grade to finesse what's on the negative. By making decisions about the visuals in camera rather than in the grade, I find you present a less diluted point of view to the viewer, because the only people making decisions about the visuals are the director, the DP, and the designer.
Were there budgetary constraints on the project? If so, did that affect the way you did things on set, as well as the approach to leading to the postproduction?
Although our budget was small, David was very ambitious about what he hoped to achieve, and he always encouraged the department heads to be equally ambitious. Thanks to some very generous vendors (The Production Depot, Cine Electric, and Screen Scene, in particular) we were able to realize most of those ambitions without breaking our budget — although we did stretch it a little bit.
I was fortunate enough to have my regular crew with me and all the technical back up I needed in terms of a camera/grip and lighting package, so the only budgetary constraints we felt during the shooting day were time restrictions because we couldn't afford overtime, but that forced us to be a bit more creative and helped us to be brave in our choice of camera angles — looking for a few really good shots, rather then just throwing cameras at a scene and overshooting.
READ THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW
reel-exchange.com/insider/stephen_murphy
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