Perfect Mothers

The film takes place in Australia and, as we know, the summer sun in Australia is hard and bright, which means overexposure, so NO digital ! I wanted to take advantage of the biggest 35mm format commonly available, meaning anamorphic. The scenes shot out-of-doors during daytime are bright, a little overexposed in a few scenes, and only a couple of surfing scenes were shot using a Red Epic for practical reasons : in the enormous waves, only the Epic (ultra-compact model) in a waterproof case can be handled in the rough seas. Later on, during colour grading, I had some black filmed using Kodak film to mix its grain with the images filmed using the Red Epic. At the beginning, I wanted to film a couple of night-time shots using the Red Epic, too, but in the end the dark around the houses was so black that I did it using film to maintain that deep, dark effect. The bay where we were shooting was the location of most of our sets (houses, beaches) and it was truly a luxury in terms of lighting, because of late afternoon shots that were stretched out over a couple evenings, unpredictable weather, etc.

I was lucky to have an excellent and dynamic Australian team that overcame all obstacles (waves, storms, giant lizards) and accomplished and beautiful actresses (Naomi Watts and Robin Wright).