María Secco, AMC, looks back on the challenges faced during the filming of Christopher Murray’s "Brujeria"

In Chile, in 1880, in a part of the island of Chiloé : Rosa is a girl of Huilliche origin who works on a farm with her father when one day the German foreman causes the death of Rosa’s father. She wants to seek justice but to no avail, so she turns to the leader of a mysterious organization that practices witchcraft...


What does this film mean to you ?

María Secco : It’s quite an extraordinary adventure. First of all, because of the context : it was shot in July 2021 (in the middle of the southern hemisphere winter) when Chile was still under very strict government restrictions due to the pandemic. So I had to spend ten days in quarantine before I could enter the country, in a hotel in Santiago with a guard watching my comings and goings 24 hours a day. It was a rather unfriendly way to approach a shoot abroad, especially when you’re pretty much the only member of the technical crew from outside the country and you don’t know anyone on set... Of course, I had been able to meet Christopher Murray, the Chilean director, during the preparation phase, but that was about it. What’s more, I had initially accepted the project with great enthusiasm because my partner is Chilean himself, and our children were looking forward to joining me to see their grandparents... Unfortunately, with Covid, everything was thrown into question, and I had to go alone to make the film.



Where did the idea for the film come from ?

MS : The subject of the film itself, the witchcraft trial against a group of indigenous people called "La Recta Provincia", is entirely based on a true story. During his anthropology studies, the director conducted research himself, for which he accessed the trial records, which are still available in the Chilean national archives. It’s also a political subject, since it’s clear that this secret society of sorcerers was created as an independence movement against the invader... The incident recounted in the film is even quite well known in Chile, as Chiloé also has a reputation for being a place where the paranormal and magic are very present. 
When you arrive on this large southern island (1,000 km south of Santiago), there is definitely a mysterious atmosphere. Especially the wooden houses that seem frozen in time. Just like the village where we set up to shoot. 
To my great regret, there were no paranormal occurrences on set or unexplained phenomena during production, but there was an atmosphere that I think masterfully conveys the film and the images.


The island is indeed at the heart of the story...

MS : That’s for sure, and we took great care to find the right locations for each scene. Christopher knew the place perfectly, having spent nearly three years there himself during his anthropological research. These settings, such as the forest with its huge hundred-year-old trees, or the fault line where the strange procession leading to the cave takes place, and of course the village, constantly battered by rain. The sea also plays an important role, being associated throughout the story with the Huilliche tribe to which Rosa, her late father, and Mateo belong. You know, the island is very large, and it wasn’t easy to convey that immediate feeling of insularity on screen. That’s why we also took great care to make the sea feel present even when it was far away, from a hill for example... And we deliberately chose to keep the very complicated sequence between Rosa and Mateo where she almost drowns...


The film is very dark, even during the day...

MS : Filming in the middle of the southern winter completely shaped the look of the film, with the sun very low, the days very short, and the weather often terrible ! Of course, Brujeria is a very low-budget film, we only had 27 days of shooting in the schedule to get the scenes in, and it was simply impossible to wait for a break in the rain. So the schedule was organized as follows : first we shot the forest scenes and interiors such as the mayor and his pregnant wife’s house, and the prison scenes. Then we continued with the scenes at Mateo’s house, such as his arrest and the Germans’ visit to the mayor to discuss the trial.


In the third week, we moved to another part of the island where the settlers’ property, the village, and the wizards’ cave were located. That’s also where we shot the torchlight hunt at dusk to find the children. Finally, we finished shooting with the scenes by the sea and a few scenes that were missing at Mateo’s house or in the village. On screen, I realize that the film is a bit like a fairy tale thanks to these choices of locations that recur throughout the story and shape the narrative.

How did you plan to shoot with the director ?

MS : In order to make the film in four weeks, we decided together with the director to do everything with a Steadicam equipped with Arri’s Trinity system. Not necessarily to embark on virtuoso camera movements, but to be able to move very quickly between shots, as the camera can switch very fast from a long tracking shot to a fixed shot, for example. It was the first time I hadn’t framed a film but Mirko Zlatar had offered us his services with his own equipment. Mirko is an extremely experienced camera operator who works mostly in advertising. We were very lucky that he was interested in this fiction project, which was undoubtedly very different from his usual work. Thanks to his talent, we were able to shoot not only all the very classic fixed shots found in the film, but also some key sequences, such as the opening shot, or the movements in the forest and on the hill during the search for the children. He was also responsible for the camera work during the drowning sequence, using a waterproof case of his own design.


Let’s talk about that sequence by the sea...

MS : Yes, it’s a special moment. Brujeria is not a film with an avalanche of digital effects. Of course, a few contemporary elements, in wide shots, have been removed, but on the beach, everything was done for real, live, with the actors and the cameraman. As I said earlier, it’s winter in Chile, the water is extremely cold, and yet the young actress and the cameraman jumped into the ocean wearing only wetsuits. We were at the limit of safety at times, with really impressive waves and lifeguards watching over us during the shots. I think the editing makes everything seem to go quite fast, but given the complexity of the scene, I think all the shots were used. That day, we simply couldn’t do multiple takes.


The skies also have a very metallic sheen...

MS : Yes, I really like the skies. Those tones are really unique to that place and that time of year. We were lucky to have sunshine for that sequence, even though it wasn’t planned... Because if it had rained, it would have been extremely complicated ! And it makes this moment stand out from the rest of the film, with a sunnier image that’s very different from the rest. If I remember correctly, we only had to wait for the clouds once or twice during the shoot ! Like in the scene between the dogs and Rosa’s father.


How did you light the film ?

MS : I didn’t have much equipment at my disposal, and a very small crew with a gaffer and his two assistants. As the interiors were all very narrow, with small windows, it was often very dark even in the middle of the day. For the trial sequence, for example, I was able to use a few 4kW Fresnel HMI spotlights. They were connected to the mains, as we didn’t have a generator on this film. Among my other favorite tools on this film, I must mention the Dedolight Lightstream system, which consists of a single projector with a very narrow beam of 4 to 6°, which can be reflected across a range of mirrors of varying degrees of clarity or frosting. I used it to light most of the interior scenes, placing the light source outside the set and then taking advantage of the extreme compactness of the mirrors indoors.
 Finally, I made extensive use of fire bars that were specially made for me by the production team, which allowed me to light a lot of night scenes indoors with torches or oil lamps. I really like the very realistic look of these ramps... The only drawback is sometimes the noise they make.


And the Scope ?


MS : The choice of anamorphic lenses was obvious to Christopher and me, because we really wanted to take advantage of this very horizontal location and its relationship to the sea. I chose the classic Cooke anamorphic series, which I really like, but which has one drawback—like many other anamorphic series—that of minimal focus. Of course, there is the 65mm, which has macro capabilities, but this focal length wasn’t available from the rental company, so I had to do without. From the first days of shooting, I felt a little uncomfortable not being able to get closer to the actors, so ordered diopters right away to reduce the minimum focus. On the other hand, as soon as you use this kind of optical accessory, you’re immediately trapped in terms of focus tracking if you want to move back or if the actor moves too much in the depth of field. In any case, I would like to congratulate my first camera assistant, Juan Millian, who worked miracles by shooting almost the entire film at full aperture with these delicate lenses. I must also commend Daniela, my second camera assistant, the only woman on this very male-dominated crew, who was a great help throughout the shoot. She was also one of the few people who lived on the island...


How did you control your look ?

MS : The Alexa Mini camera was often set to ISO 1,000, using only the LCC preview setting, which is a kind of Rec709 with slightly lower contrast. I come from film, I’ve shot a lot on film. So I can tell you that on this shooting, I worked pretty much the same way I work on film, exposing as best I could, but without trying to overwork the image using LUTs from the moment I shot it. I had a data manager on my team, Alejandro Ovalle, who took care of all the dailies, but without getting into the strategies you can develop with a DIT. 
I think my greatest source of pride was rising to the challenge, setting off on my own, as I explained at the beginning, and directing the photography for this film on this incredible island steeped in history and filled with highly cinematic settings. It was hard, even very hard at times because of the weather conditions, but the Chilean crew around me was extraordinary and I have particularly moving memories of many scenes. If I had to pick one, I would choose the song performed by our young actress, Valentina Véliz Caileo, in the last scene of the film. It was an extremely powerful moment, performed by this young girl from Chiloé who had never acted in a film before. I think her portrayal of Rosa during those four weeks left a lasting impression on all of us.


(Interview conducted by François Reumont, for the AFC)


Link to the antroplogical work of the director Christopher Murray, on the trial of "La Recta Provincia".