American Cinematographer - September 2015 - 96

Top: Simo lives
with his mother
(Anneli
Karppinen) and
his brother in a
cramped
Helsinki
housing project.
Bottom:
Flinckenberg
lines up a shot.

any fluorescents, and we wanted them in
the shot; they were flickered with a dimmer.
Above the surface, 12K Dinos and a lot of
Par cans which were connected to a dimmer
board slowly flickered, creating massive
waves of light. For fill, we bounced one 6K
Par. We used a 4K Xenon for [the underwater shot where Simo is floating toward the
light]. For the black-and-white shoot, we
used mainly tungsten Fresnels. Arri T24s
have a beautiful 'shadow' quality, which was
needed for the poetic noir of this film.
Goodich: Was the shot of the
96

September 2015

bridge in the opening sequence CGI?
Flinckenberg: I like to do things as
real as possible. We used an actual bridge
and the real boy standing on the shore,
about 50 feet from it. I shot a plate with an
anamorphic lens to make the proportions as
real as possible. Then the whole collapsing
bridge and train hurtling into the water were
created in CGI, with backgrounds shot in
different locations. We see the cathedral, oil
refinery and other key locations of the story
in this scene.
Goodich: The characters seem to be
living almost on top of one another in an
intimacy that made me uncomfortable at
times.
Flinckenberg: The apartment [which
was built on a soundstage] is a very enclosed
space. Simo, Ilkka and their mother are very
cramped. Pirjo wanted the feeling that there
is no air, no space to breathe. We used
hazemakers, as well as dust particles floating
in the air, to [emphasize] this idea.
Goodich: There's a shot of Ilkka
standing at the window, and his triple image
is so evocative. We see the back of his head
at the window and the reflection of his face
in the glass. He looks almost demonic, with
his nose and lips distorted. Just beyond that
reflection, however, is another reflection of
his face, but not as distorted. There is real
poetry in these images.
Flinckenberg: We didn't plan the
American Cinematographer

multiple reflections [which were caused by
the double set of windows commonly used
in Scandinavia to insulate from the cold].
We had planned it as a wide shot from
behind Ilkka, followed by a front shot. But
as soon as we saw the double reflection,
we embraced it.
Goodich: Did you ever use a polarizer?
Flinckenberg: I almost always use a
polarizer, often to change the contrast of
the image and sometimes as an ND filter. I
like the control. I also like to use [Century
Optics] Swing/Shifts as my macro lens
because it gives me control of what I want
the depth of field to be - although we
couldn't use the full 4:3 sensor with them
[so spherical capture was necessary]. I
wasn't playing much with the shift, but
rather with the focus, which is what I use to
tell much of the story.
Goodich: When Simo and his friend
board the metro, you have a light aimed
directly at the lens.
Flinckenberg: That was an Arri
T24. We love those lamps [for creating]
sunshine, and on this show the big Fresnel
glass is seen in the shot many times. We
were laughing with Jani that usually we try
to bring the light source close to the frame,
but this time it's often in it. It was important
to have continuity in the light - in Finland
you never know what the weather will be.
American Cinematographer - September 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2015
