Several years ago, director Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, Laurel Canyon, The Kids Are All Right) and cinematographer Fred Elmes, ASC (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, The Ice Storm) served on a Sundance selection jury. “It’s a very intense experience judging for Sundance,” related Elmes. “During that time, Lisa and I bonded. And though we didn’t know it at the time, that experience eventually led to our working together.”
That collaboration turned out to be the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge for which Cholodenko won a DGA Award earlier this year. Based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title with a teleplay by Emmy winner Jane Anderson, Olive Kitteridge tells the sweet, funny, emotionally wrenching story of a seemingly tranquil New England town stricken with indiscretions, crime and tragedy as related through the eyes of Olive (portrayed by Frances McDormand) whose sharp wit and harsh demeanor mask a genuinely warm yet troubled heart and staunch moral core. Spanning 25 years, the story focuses on Olive’s relationships with her husband Henry, their son Christopher and other varied members of the community.
Cholodenko, based on the connection she made with Elmes back at Sundance, approached the DP with the project. “I was immediately drawn in,” recalled Elmes. “I ran out and read the book but before I could finish it, I got the script, read it and saw the potential. It’s a wonderful story about people and nature–the power of nature. I loved the characters who all live in a small town in Maine. They are very hearty individuals yet life is a trial, including the power of nature all around them. This was a chance for me to work with fabulous people, a director sensitive to actors and focused on finding the best performances. My challenge was to take the environment, the powerful force of nature and the elements in Maine, and reflect all that in the faces of the actors, making it part of their lives and something that helps to make them who they are.”
Also a treat for Elmes was the chance to shoot on film. “Part of the story is in the current day but much of it is set in earlier years, making it a period story,” said Elmes. “Lisa and I got to talking about creating the sense of another era. We looked at each other and thought why don’t we shoot on film instead of digitally. We approached HBO and wound up shooting all four episodes on film.”
Elmes deployed an ARRIFLEX film camera in tandem with old Cooke lenses. “I’m still active in commercials which we shoot on film sometimes. So I’ve been able to still work on film occasionally. But to get to shoot an entire miniseries on film was a special opportunity. Often we are exploring ways to make digital media look like film, imposing grain and different techniques. It was great to again shoot a full long-form project on film.”
Olive Kitteridge was shot largely in the Gloucester area of Massachusetts. “The weather is very dynamic in the fall. You can have a bright sunny day and suddenly it turns stormy and cold. Making the elements work for us was one of the challenges I faced on this project,” observed Elmes. “One day we had a scene on the front porch of a house. The weather was great most of the day and then a front blew in, dark clouds gathered and suddenly we had sideways sleet. Contending with nature–as the characters in the story had to do–was a constant challenge in this filmmaking process. It’s a challenge, though, that when taken advantage of properly, helped to advance our story. Many of the settings for the story are on or near water, even the house where Olive and Henry live. The tide changes twice a day and we would encounter very different, changing environments in a short time frame. We had to make those changes work for us.”
Elmes found the end result gratifying, noting that Olive Kitteridge earned inclusion on many “best movies of the year” lists. “Not best TV movies of the year but best movies,” affirmed Elmes who knows a thing or two about lauded features. He has been nominated for three Best Cinematography Independent Spirit Awards, winning twice–for director Jim Jarmusch’s Night on Earth in 1993 and David Lynch’s Wild at Heart in 1991. Elmes earned his first Spirit nomination for director Lynch’s Blue Velvet in 1987. In fact in 2000, Lynch and Elmes (whose shared filmography also includes Eraserhead) won a Camerimage Special Award for Best Director-Cinematographer Duo.
Elmes has also shot for directors Martin Scorsese (the documentary Street Scenes) and Ang Lee (The Ice Storm, Hulk, and the short Chosen which was part of The Hire series of BMW films). Early on in his career, Elmes worked on writer/director John Cassavetes films A Woman Under the Influence (assistant camera) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (as camera operator).
“I’ve been very fortunate, getting a filmmaking education at NYU and AFI and meeting David Lynch and John Cassavetes at an early age,” observed Elmes. “John and David are singular filmmakers driven to make films their way. Working with them was a valuable education. I learned early on you don’t have to go with the flow, that you could stand up and make a statement with a project by doing it the way you wanted to do it.”
And while he has since successfully diversified into TV as evidenced by Olive Kitteridge and a Best Cinematography Emmy nomination back in 1997 for the Christopher Reeve-directed telefilm In the Gloaming, Elmes remains active on the feature film front. At press time he was preparing to shoot Wilson, a Fox Searchlight picture directed by Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins), scripted by Daniel Clowes, and starring Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern.
David Klein on Homeland
As SHOOT went to press, cinematographer David Klein was on a tech scout in Berlin for season 5 of Homeland. This marks the start of Klein’s third season on the Showtime series with his work this past year putting him in contention for an Emmy nomination.
Homeland marks a continuing chapter in Klein’s career which has seen him become integrally involved in high-profile television. His roots are actually in independent features as right out of film school Klein shot Clerks for his collaborator and classmate, director Kevin Smith. This led to Klein going on lens Smith’s next two films, Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Klein continued to shoot features with other directors and then later circled back to shoot the Smith-helmed features Clerks 2 and Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
“I feel very fortunate in the timing of my career,” observed Klein. “I was lucky to get into independent features when I did–and years later to get into television when I did, at a time when the quality of cable shows has reached a new level.”
Klein’s initial major mark in TV came with multiple episodes of True Blood (HBO) from 2011-’14. A couple of those episodes were directed by Lesli Linka Glatter who went on to direct multiple episodes of Homeland while serving as executive producer on the series. “Back when she was promoted to producing director on Homeland, cinematographer Nelson Cragg, who shot the first two seasons, left the series. Lesli brought me in for an interview. I met with her and [EP/showrunner, co-creator] Alex Gansa. Just prior to that interview, I had not seen the show. So I binge watched it and was immediately drawn to the series.”
Glatter and Klein have proven to be a formidable tandem. Earlier this year Glatter won her second career DGA Award on the basis of her fifth nomination–for the “From A to B and Back Again” episode of Homeland, which Klein shot. He also lensed “The Star,” an installment of Homeland which garnered Glatter a DGA nomination in 2013.
While he’s currently exploring the potential of Berlin, Klein reflected on the past season’s locale of Cape Town, South Africa. “When we relocated for last season with Cape Town standing in for Kabul, Pakistan and some mountainous regions of Afghanistan, there were some adjustments to make. We first got there in May of last year when their winter was beginning, marking their shortest days. We had to use that daylight well. The light in Cape Town became its own character and kind of helped me create the look for that season–the look of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was a really harsh sunlight which we managed to use to our advantage. One of the technical/creative challenges was that the sun is in the northern sky as opposed to the southern sky I’m used to in the States. A lot of the buildings in Cape Town are north facing. We got a lot of front light we had to schedule our days around.”
For Homeland Klein has primarily deployed ARRI ALEXA cameras, with all Canon glass–zoom and prime lenses. “I also have a Red Dragon on the truck which we use from time to time because of its size. I found during the past two years of Homeland that I can mix those cameras–the ALEXA and the Dragon–pretty well. Each has its own set of rules yet they mix pretty well once you know them. We also occasionally mix in a Canon 5DS and I have a personal Canon 1D C which we use for different reasons.”
Klein is gratified over the opportunity he’s enjoying on Homeland. “I always wanted to be a cinematographer. I went to film school for it. Right out of school, I wound up shooting Kevin Smith’s first three movies, which got me into the independent feature world. And independent features in turn proved to be a good training ground for this new golden age of television.”
This is the third installment of a 14-part series that explores the field of Emmy contenders, and then nominees spanning such disciplines as directing, cinematography, producing, editing, animation and visual effects. The series will then be followed up by coverage of the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony on September 12 and the primetime Emmy Awards live telecast on September 20.
