Robert McLachlan | Interviews & Articles | On-Set with CURSED
On-Set with CURSED

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On-Set with CURSED

ARRI NEWS Issue 04/2004

Director Wes Craven has re-teamed with screenwriter Kevin Williamson in the current production of CURSED. The duo broke new ground in the slasher-film genre with SCREAM in 1996, and hopes to do the same with CURSED, a werewolf-themed horror film starring Cristina Ricci, Portia de Rossi, Skeet Ulrich, Omar Epps, Shannon Elizabeth and Scott Foley. The film is a modern take on the werewolf myth, framing up both a fight for survival against the beast as well as the dangers of its curse. ARRI was able to visit DP Robert McLachlan and 1st AC Michael Endler on set during principal photography to talk about this shoot.

?: Did Wes Craven have a specific film-look in mind when he came to you to shoot this project?

Robert McLachlan: This movie had actually already been shot once by another DP last spring but the studio decided to completely rewrite it, and almost start from scratch when I came on. They planned to save about 10 minutes from the first go around which was little enough that we had carte blanche in terms of the look. The only request from Wes and the studio was to shoot a much darker, scarier movie with the goal of ‘less is more’ for the werewolf sequences. Apart from that, I just aimed to make it feel as natural as possible because I believe a movie is only as scary as it is real. Other than checking your disbelief in werewolves at the door, the rest of the world that a movie like this takes place in should feel as natural as possible in order to engage the audience. The only constraint we had was that the first shoot had been done in Panavision anamorphic, because Wes loves the format with the extra crispness and clarity you get with it. I had never shot in anamorphic. It is conventional wisdom that Panavision is the camera to use when shooting anamorphic. But I’m a big ARRI fan and knew that I wanted to shoot this project using ARRI cameras. I also wanted to keep my business at Clairmont Camera, a company that has always given me superior service over the years. We had been testing the Hawk lenses at Clairmont, and they are fantastic. Mike (Endler, 1st AC) and I started some incredibly in-depth tests to compare them to Primos and the other lenses. Initially, we weren’t so sure of the Hawks from a purely technical standpoint, but when we actually shot with them, we were very impressed. They don’t flare at all.

?: How does director Wes Craven feel about the material that you have been shooting?

Robert McLachlan: Wes was really happy with the look. This is his first ARRI picture. Most of the shows I’ve done have been on ARRIFLEX 535s, this is my first ARRICAM show. I think by having a Studio with an ARRICAM LT and an ARRIFLEX 435 on your camera package, you have everything covered really well. It’s the ideal scenario. In the past, I’ve used the new Zeiss series and the new Cookes on some shows, depending on the project, and they’re both absolutely stunning as well.

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 ?: Describe the different camera techniques that have been used on the film, and some of the more unique things that your crew has brought to this picture.

Robert McLachlan: My favourite thing I’ve done on this film is to use the ARRI Lens Control System and control the speed of the camera by ramping down to 6 frames per second and be able to compensate exposure with the shutter instead of the iris. We ended up getting a great image with that after we printed it back to 24 fps. From the part of the picture lit with the Clairmont Strobes you get a super sharp image due to the 50,000th of a second exposure. From the side that’s lit conventionally and exposed at 6 fps, which is one 12th of a second exposure, you get a slightly blurry image. So the combined result worked very well for some of the werewolf attack scenes, creating a very expressionistic, violent, yet horribly beautiful image. The effect is quite lovely, it almost looks like a Francis Bacon painting if you do it right. I think one of the reasons Wes is so happy is that compared with all of the other anamorphic shows he’s done, the focus on this film has been impeccable. He tells me this after dailies every night. This is a testament to Michael, the fact that we’ve had no problems, it’s gone over really well with him (Wes).

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