American Cinematographer - September 2019 - 96
Energy of the Earth
An image of McCormack dissolves into a shot of a young boy. Costello collaborated with editor Andy
Netley, who made the documentary "really hum," the director says.
Costello supervised with an eye
toward maintaining naturalism. "I
wanted some images lifted," she
remembers, "but I didn't want to make
it look unreal. The Burren is a very
special landscape, and I wanted to be
as true to it as possible."
McCrystal confirms that the
filmmakers' "main criteria was that
they wanted a gentle touch on it," and
he describes the overall grade as
"slightly off-center, in that we didn't
want to make it look like a strict documentary. The whites aren't perfectly
white, the highlights are slightly
warmer. It's not totally natural-looking,
but it's not far off. I wanted it to feel like
a film, like storytelling, but with a
natural look." In particular, the Irish
landscape's green foliage required
some finesse. "With the really strong
fluorescent greens, you have to dial it
back a little bit," McCrystal explains.
"If we made it fully colorful, it would
look more like a wildlife documentary
than [McCormack's] story."
An exception to the naturalistic
approach was made for the historical
reconstructions, for which McCrystal
applied "a tone that was beautiful,"
Costello says, "and that helped inform
the audience that it was a re-creation."
For those scenes, McCrystal explains,
"the greens have been hue-shifted
towards a more red, brown look,
mainly to avoid over-saturating. There
were a couple of scenes where
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