Fascinating cinematography

Drake 2022-03-29 09:01:02

Excerpted from IndieWire

1. The director himself becomes the DP

Originally, the director wanted to use his college classmate and three-time Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki as the DP, but because the shooting date was extended to 108 days, the director/screenwriter Alfonso Cuarón, who studied cinematography, went into battle himself.

2. Black and white

A really bold choice. Cuarón explains it this way

It's not a vintage black and white. It's a contemporary black and white. When the idea manifested, it was about the character Cleo [Yalitza Aparicio], the tune was memory, and it was black and white. From there you can change things.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter he said

I wanted a digital black-and-white that would embrace digital, not try to hide the digital quality of it, with amazing resolution and amazing dynamic range and amazing definition."

Personally, I feel that because of monochrome, the challenge to lens language is higher, and maybe it is more free. It feels like those plaster statues seen in Italy, pure white. And every inch of texture, every fold, every detail can be savored for a long time.

3. Panning

The 380-degree panning of Cleo turning off the lights is really impressive, and the blocking control is amazing.

When Cleo is turning off the lights we have 45 different cameras positions, the camera can't be in one place and panning. It was a floor with lines everywhere. Even before bringing in the actors it was about sorting out the timings. But the actors had to have the flexibility to improve.

4. Lighting

The director explains the theater scene

EL: Inside the movie theater with interactive light, you shoot naturalistically with a lot of depth. That combination is not simple. It requires that you have a deep stop and that means you need a lot of light. In this particular scene you can see what’s being projected, see the lighting on [the characters], there’s a fill light, so you can see who they are. Then there’s a big change of light. This scene, even for a very old tested cinematographer, is a nightmare. How did you do it?
AC:I don't want movie lights. I want the scene to be lighting everything in sync with the projection. Projecting 35 mil is not enough light, 65 we can't afford, we don't have a big F stop. Shoot 35 open as much as possible, with the F stop you lose the depth the field. So you need power. The solution of how do it was informed by “Gravity” LEDs. We changed the screen for LED lights that would be projecting, and then replaced later in post-production for 35 mm projection. To reach our characters, on top of the screen there was a smaller LED with lesser intensity that was in sync. And also I rounded a bit on the sides. The challenge was the change of light when the lights come up.

5. The drowning scene

That scene when I saw Cleo save the two kids was really catchy

It was also luck. For the beach scene, we had to build a jetty, and put a techno-crane to keep the same height. And the day before we shot, tropical storms weakened the jetty. Every time we tried to shoot the scene the cameras would derail. I wanted to have six takes before the sweet spot of the light. We couldn't get anything, it was derailing 45 seconds after saying action; we would get the beginning. Luck. When the sweet spot came the camera didn't derail and we have the only good complete shot. I didn't want to keep on going. I was afraid of safety and also because the light was not worth it. Do a lot of prep so you can be bit luckier!

6. No music

That was part of the design from the get-go. It's described in the screenplay and one of those things that you follow through.
My favorite scene (is this a real location lol or they built it)

Finally, a few words

- Lubezki said "The camera becomes almost like a consciousness revisiting the story. The camera knows something the actors do not." The director will set the lights the night before and then direct + the shooting is too bad

- I like the clip rhythm of Dad driving home and backing up over the shit

- The sense of distance of the background foreground is very good

- The most memorable line in the film is when my mother said to Cleo our women siempre estamos solas

- This film reminds me of Hirokazu Koreeda and Adèle's Life, maybe because the film directed by Hirokazu Koreeda is also slowly but fascinating without music, and Cleo's eyes are similar to those of Adèle's ECUs A fight is too powerful.

View more about Roma reviews

Extended Reading
  • Katelin 2022-03-25 09:01:08

    I realized it was in the 1970s when I saw it in the middle of it. Originally, there were many old cars in Mexico, so I didn’t think the cars reflected the times at first. Instead, I wondered why middle-class families didn’t have washing machines. The host's house is very similar to that of a Mexican friend of mine. From the stairs, the structure of the house, the light of the kitchen to the courtyard, the street in front of the door, and the helpers, the similarities remain in my memory as if engraved, so that I have the illusion that I have been there! Beginning and ending with a long shot of a fixed frame, the planes flying over several times clearly have some political undertones. Some people are dying, some are being born, and in this country where earthquakes are everyday, the pains of life come and go as fleetingly as earthquakes. It's a good way to look back on history. People are so busy dealing with their pain, how can they care about bullets flying outside the window? Rather than resonating with women's suffering, the film made me think about why men are so often absent, and what makes them flee from their places. 1212상상마당홍대

  • Adolphus 2022-03-25 09:01:08

    The panning mirror shows the multi-dimensional space (pointing to the invisible distinction), the overlapping visual sense of roof washing and night parking, and the dual-structure picture display (entertainment life, nightlife, music taste) all describe the one shared by the two parties. A sense of ritual, creating a silent presence. Therefore, the purpose of careful sound processing is not only to enrich the details of the film, but to use the sound as the discourse network to complete the formation and dispersion. Roma is extremely good at tracing personal life histories (family units). But my doubt is that the relationship between the maid and the employer was suspended, and finally it seemed to become an interaction between classes. The loss of a child seemed to be due to the "incompetence" of the maid rather than the social environment. As soon as the water marks of cleaning dog feces are echoed with the saved ocean waves, the whole film points to the element structure of ocean waves-water-mother's love-life-hope at the human level, which lacks reflection. But because of the lack of understanding of the social environment to which the numerous reviews refer, it is a masterpiece to appreciate from the perspective of life history alone. 4.5

Roma quotes

  • Sra. Sofía: What happened?

    [to Sofi]

    Sra. Sofía: Are you OK my love?

    Sofi: Cleo saved us.

    Sra. Sofía: [to Cleo] Thank you. Thank you.

  • Sra. Sofía: We love you so much, Cleo. We love you so, so much.