Director Morten Tyldum told SHOOT that director J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible (2012) was what drew him to cinematographer Oscar Faura. The Impossible focused on a family that survived, was separated and then somehow miraculously reunited after a tsunami ravaged the western coast of Thailand on the day after Xmas in 2004. The story puts a remarkable human face on a natural disaster–the earthquake and resulting tidal waves–which took nearly 300,000 lives in Southeast Asia. First and foremost, the film captured the “quiet dignity” of people–the family members and so many others–who managed to still show kindness and decency in the midst of enduring a physically and emotionally taxing ordeal.
Faura’s insightful cinematography captivated Tyldum who entrusted the DP with the recently released The Imitation Game, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing, a computer pioneer who broke the Nazis’ elaborate secret communication code, an accomplishment which helped to win World War II. Turing’s historic story is also a personal tale as he was a closeted gay man at a time when homosexuality was criminalized in the U.K. He was prosecuted for his sexual orientation and committed suicide in 1954.
The Imitation Game won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, an honor which has often proved to be a precursor to Oscar success. The film is the latest feather in Faura’s cap. He made his first mark via his work with Bayona. “I specialized in cinematography at Barcelona Film School,” recalled Faura. “We started working together after graduating. We shot many music videos and commercials together before he offered me to shoot The Orphanage, our first feature film.”
The Orphanage premiered at the Cannes Film Fest in 2007 to a standing ovation and represented Spain at the Academy Awards. In 2007, Faura earned the Barcelona Film Award for Best Cinematography on the strength of The Orphanage. He was also nominated for Best Cinematography in 2008 at the Cinema Writers Circle Awards in Spain. Four years later, Faura garnered the same nom for The Impossible.
Faura’s collaborative relationship with Bayona continues. After The Imitation Game, Faura has embarked on the Bayona-directed drama/fantasy A Monster Calls.
SHOOT: What was (were) the biggest creative challenge(s) that The Imitation Game presented to you as a cinematographer? How did you go about dealing with those challenges?
Faura: When I met Morten Tyldum he had a certain look in mind for the movie. He wanted the film to look not stylized and appealing at the same time. The story was divided in three different historical moments of Alan Turing’s life. We decided to make them look slightly different. We wanted the 1950s’ police investigation plot to look grey, rainy and sad. We also decided to avoid the cliché color palette of some World War II movies for the 1940s’ scenes using rich colors in costumes and in some elements of the sets. For the 1930s, young Alan Turing’s story, we tried to achieve an overall brighter and cleaner ambient, appealing to the innocence of the school days.
From a lighting point of view I had a challenge too. My biggest concern was related with an actual historical event. During World War II in England at night there was a blackout regulation. That meant that outdoor light was not permitted to avoid the Germans reaching their targets. Windows were covered and streetlights were off and car headlights were hidden by snoots. For me, that was a big restriction in terms of finding any justified light source to shoot night scenes outdoors.
SHOOT: What drew you to The Imitation Game?
Faura: When I was offered to shoot The Imitation Game, I had no doubt that it was a great opportunity. I enjoyed a lot reading the script, I found amazing the idea of telling a story about the figure of Alan Turing and I also loved the idea of shooting a period movie for the first time.
SHOOT: How did you get the opportunity to shoot The Imitation Game? Provide some backstory. This was your first collaboration with director Morten Tyldum. How did the two of you connect to begin with?
Faura: It was our first collaboration. I had the chance of reading the script (my agent sent it to me). After reading it I had a conversation with Morten. He told me that he liked the cinematography of The Impossible, a movie that I shot based in actual events (the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia).
SHOOT: What camera(s) did you decide to deploy on The Imitation Game and why?
Faura: We decided to shot on film basically because we thought that the texture of the negative would establish a better visual code for a period movie. We had two ARRI cameras, one ARRICAM ST and one ARRICAM LT. We used them together for the dialogue and action scenes to get different sizes.
SHOOT: What was (were) the most important lesson(s) learned from your experience on The Imitation Game? How will those lessons or experiences inform your future work?
Faura: During the preparation of the film, we designed most of the scenes. But there was plenty of dialogue scenes with a lot of actors involved in The Imitation Game. That meant that during the preparation we were missing a lot of valuable information in terms of “mise en scene.” It’s not possible to work in advance on the shot list of a scene if you don’t know what the actors are going to do or where they are going to be. At the beginning of every shooting day we used to do a technical rehearsal and block the scene. Then it was the moment to decide how to solve the scene in terms of camera positions and how to light the scene. That situation made me achieve ease and fluidity to cope with such scenes.
SHOOT: What’s next for you?
Faura: Nowadays I’m shooting A Monster Calls alongside director J.A. Bayona in Manchester, U.K. We will be shooting until February 2015.
