American Cinematographer - May 2021 - 45

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM

Living in the wilderness just outside Romania's capital city.

extinguished grass fires. He believed his family
would be allowed to remain on the land once it
became a national park, even though authorities repeatedly told him he would have to leave. "
On his next visit, Ciorniciuc found four of
the boys paddling a small boat around a pond,
while older brother Vali dove beneath the surface, catching fish with his bare hands for the
family's dinner that night. " I was immediately
transported to my own childhood, " says Ciorniciuc. " I, too, had an intense love of nature. "
Even though the Enaches lived without running water or toilets, and the children didn't
know how to read or write, they seemed like a
regular family. Gica could be domineering and
harsh, but all were united by love and the ne-

filmmaker and his subjects.
" I didn't want to tell a story about the family;
I wanted to tell one that came from within the
family, " he continues. " Creating a sense of intimacy was very important. The camera became
one of the characters - a witness to the major
changes in their lives. "
He often was shooting directly into the children's faces, as when the boys are crammed together in the small boat. Ciorniciuc was wedged
into the bow, hoping not to tumble into the
water. " You learn to anticipate their reactions.
If I was in the boat with them and heard a
sound coming from the left, I knew instinctively they would steer the boat in that direction. "
He followed the kids as they ran through the

" I didn't want to tell a story about the family. I wanted to tell one
that came from within the family. "
cessity of working together if they were to survive. It was then that Ciorniciuc realized there
was a far bigger story here - one about people
living on the margins, who have rejected society in order to live on their own terms. What
had they given up, and what had they gained
by doing so? And would they really be able to
abandon their Robinson Crusoe-like existence
and adapt to life in the city?
Earning the family's confidence was crucial
if Ciorniciuc was to make the movie. " To build
trust, I spent a lot of time with the boys without
my camera, " he says. " Roma people historically
have been victims of severe discrimination, but
I showed them I wasn't like other white people
who looked down on them. "
A deep bond blossomed between the

tall reeds, but captured the scene from their
perspective. That meant holding the camera at
different levels, depending upon the height of
the child he was behind. Given a camera crew of
one - and eventually two - he used a Canon
EF 24-105mm zoom in these instances, " not
wanting to interfere too much with the kids'
organic play, " he says. " I needed versatility and
speed. " (For more on the production's camera
and lens package, see sidebar at right.)
Six months into the project, Ciorniciuc
brought Topoleanu on as his co-cinematographer. " Mircea is an incredible human being
and very good with children. He was the only
other crewmember on the film, except for my
partner Lina Vdovii, an investigative journalist and nonfiction long-form writer who wrote

Pragmatic Strategy
As an investigative reporter, Ciorniciuc
had always shot his own footage. For
Acasa, he employed Canon's EOS C100
Mark II with Super-35 sensor. " The C100
Mark II is a very pragmatic camera, " he
says. " It's light to hold, but it has cinematic quality. I would be spending many
hours with the camera, not necessarily
shooting [the entire time], so I needed
a model with huge battery and storage
capacity. I also really like the camera's
color profile. The texture of human skin
is very important to me, and the C100
gave me exactly what I wanted. I only
used manual focus, and I balanced the
light by either pushing the ISO or using
the built-in ND filters. "
Another reason for choosing the
camera was that it has two audio
channels and an in-camera amplifier,
which allowed him to capture sound
from more than one direction. A boom
mic was attached to the camera, while
a lavalier could be hidden in a pocket,
on a clothes hanger or under a pillow.
" Everyone knew the mics were there, "
Ciorniciuc notes.
While a tripod was used for some of
the later scenes in the city, all scenes
in the delta were shot handheld, using
three Canon lenses: an EF 35mm prime
f/2.0 IS USM, an EF 50mm f/1.4L USM,
and an EF 24mm-105mm zoom f/4L.
Says Ciorniciuc, " Both the zoom and the
35mm have built-in image stabilizers
that helped when I was following the
characters or walking with them. "

MAY 2021 / 45

p.42-47 Acasa My Home V4 DONE.indd 45

4/5/21 11:13 PM

http://www.ASCMAG.COM

American Cinematographer - May 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2021