Frame Fudge #1: Ava (2017 dir. Léa Mysius), DP Paul Guilhaume, AFC

The Beginning of a Legendary Series. Where I Break Down Frames from Films.

Well folks, you are lucky. I was about to start breaking down lighting setups from Euphoria but then I was talking about it with a PA on a van ride who hates the director and his new show, The Idol Americanne. And then I realized he’s right, the show is garbage, but beautiful garbage. But still - why bother? My dear readers are probably not shooting high multimillion dollar tv shows. Well not yet. So let’s look at films with lower budgets that still look incredible and let’s go frame by frame and try to break down why they look so good. Since most films are about I think around 172,800 frames, this may take a while.

Ava (watch here) is a French film from 2017 directed by first-time director Léa Mysius and shot by Paul Guilhaume, AFC. His website is here. Also why do DPs have initials after their names, like Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC? It’s not like we are saving lives. Imagine if people with actual jobs that save lives had initials like that, like doctors, nurses, lawyers, physical therapists, and accountants?

Ava, according to the Internet Media Data Bass, (IMDB, for short), was shot on Kodak Vision3 250d and 500t film stock with Hawk 1.3x anamorphic lens at 3-perf! Not 2-perf like this blog. So they are spending a few extra bucks to get that 1.85 aspect ratio instead of just going typical where you shoot anamorphic and deliver a 2.40 aspect ratio. So why shoot on anamorphic glass if you are going for a 1.85 framing? Because the bokah and falloff is beautiful and it’s still there at 1.85 aspect ratio. Maybe not all the wacky stuff on the sides of a 2x anamorphic lens, but still it has the good stuff. Also maybe you still may want that 1.85 framing - cause it feels more intimate than 2.40. You can get closer to the person and fill the frame more with the person, which Ava does a lot. To me, 2.40 aspect ratio, even though it looks always so beautiful - it can feel a little sci-fi and distant. Like Solaris. Anyway it was their choice, so that’s that. Case closed.

Ava was shot for $3 million, which is low-budget but not like low-low budget or low-low-low budget where you get some pizza and a IMDB credit. But Ava still isn’t hollywood. For instance, it didn’t have a grip and electric team of, like, 50 people. IMDB lists four people total. That’s not that many people and doesn’t allow for a lot of lighting units. You have to be smart.

Okay here we go. And wow, it’s a lot of stills. A lot to read.

And before we go, if you can subscribe, that would be really good because it will make me more motivated to do these lighting break downs and other posts.

STILL #1:

A beautiful car shot, with the camera rig outside the window. There’s also a light on Ava’s face. I assume the car is on a process trailer and it looks like it, so you can control lighting. Seems like a hmi or similar going through a large piece of diffusion. There is a ton of falloff on the left of frame, which makes me think they put a big 4x4 tent or something outside the window - also to kill reflection of the camera, etc. Also using a polarizer. Don’t forget to always have a polarizer in your kit!

STILL #2

The desk lamp is the motivation. Then they put a hard light, like a 1k tungsten fresnel near the lamp to create that shadow. Normally nowadays, we don’t like to see shadows - but shadows mean a lot in story telling, it’s a lost art. Especially in this as Ava is losing her vision and also kind of reaching the dark side of herself as she enters a life of crime.

I am tired of writing the titles of “STILL”. You do the math. And what the next frame number is. Ok, fine. STILL #3

Golden shears are a true DP magician trick. They can make any location beautiful - warming up the light. Also shooting film is a secret because highlights, even though they go overexpose-y, it all looks beautiful how they overexpose. Also look there’s sun coming in from the doorway and the windows - wait a second, that means there are two suns! And guess what, no one cares. It looks gorgeous. Seems like maybe it’s either natural or they have some hmis going into bounces for the exteriors and probably no lighting inside for the wides.

STILL #4

See a window, light thru it. And that’s your scene. Window light is the best light. This light is a little spicy. Maybe there’s a light being used for a little fill. Does it matter? It’s beautiful.

STILL #5

This is all about wardrobe. The pink color contrasts with the cyan blue wall beautifully. Again a soft window light to illuminate.

STILL #6

Morning mood here? Yes. How - well how about very soft underexposed light but a slash of a strong light from a jo-leko? How do I know this hard light is a leko? there’s diffraction on the edges. Who cares about that - no one. It’s gorgeous. Also again this is where film shines. How it handles highlights. It’s gorgeous how it refracts light.

STILL #7

It’s night at a beach and it’s pitch black. So the DP lit the waves from the side with a daylight lamp, probably a 4k hmi or something, and lit her with tungsten light maybe gelled or dimmed to get to 2800 kelvin - very classically placed - like 45 degree angle. It’s motivated by fire light and it’s so beautiful. Great color contrast.

STILL #8

Film captures green and cyan so beautifully. This is lit inside by what looks like naturally real fluorescents - probably not titan tubes and similarly from the outside by overhead fluorescents plus a light from camera right. It’s a gorgeous interpretation of what night looks like on a street. The red colors and art direction are perfect.

STILL #9

First frame here. Then the second frame below. This is an abandoned night club and looks like they have a jo-leko blasting down from a hole in the ceiling and like a 4k hmi or maybe stronger blasting in the door, doing a skip-bounce off the floor to light up the ceiling. So beautiful.

STILL #10

Then the door opens up and you can tell what’s going on.

STILL #11

They put Ava in front of the giant jo-leko as a silhouette.

STILL #12

Later they use a leko to simulate a flashlight and again it’s just beautiful, straight dead center at him to pop his skin and have that incredible fall off.

STILL #13

Light through those golden shears and then maybe a bounce of something passive and that’s it. So naturally gorgeous. I am writing “gorgeous” a lot.

STILL #14

Green wallpaper is a beautiful contrast to the warm tungsten light on her face motivated by her desk lamp.

STILL #15

Looks like they are blasting a sodium vapor gelled light onto the wall from camera left. It’s a harsh look but in the film the nigh time is harsh. And that’s their looks for night exteriors and it works, maybe up on a scissor lift. Overall it’s simple here and works. Again the shadow as a theme. You see the shadow of the dog.

STILL #16

So pretty, like the opening scene in Contempt, or as the French call it, as well as Criterion, Le Mepris. You can call it Le Mepris to look good. Here’s Ava’s night look. Light from a 3/4 angle possibly into a silver reflector to mimic the giant reflector in the sky - the moon. And it has a cyan gel on it that’s gorgeous. Nowadays in film, night is usually cyan. While back in the 1980-2000s it was more a steel blue color. Cyan I think is so much nicer. But then again, I live in 2023, not 1987.

STILL #17

The red couch is gorgeous. Again all about art direction. And blasting a leko light onto it with hard cuts, and matching that on the left too is gorgeous. Light and darkness.

STILL #18

This is where the Hawk anamorphic glass pay off - the bokah is gorgeous. A slash of light only on the beer bottles behind her and a direct light from her profile with maybe a small chimera and egg-crate or just cut nicely to light up her face softly.

STILL #19

When you use anamorphic glass - that bokah is so nice. You can just blast the crap out of the blurry stuff in the frame and it glows. And again they have a smaller soft chimera unit with an egg-crate or something hitting her, not anything else. And looks like a little backlight on her as well.

STILL #20

Here’s those florescent tubes again. I think they are like home depot variety. It just makes everything nice. And inside they lit it with tungsten lights for color contrast, and look they caught the light still in the sky. Timing and scheduling is so important so thank your first A.D.

STILL #21

Tungsten for car headlight and blue daylight fluorescents create color contrast that makes the scene gorgeous. Mix that light, friends. And look at the hard backlight on the bride. It just works.

STILL #22

This is an homage frame from “Fallen Angels” - Wong Kar-Wei’s film shot by my god, Chris Doyle. And it works. Well it’s not really an homage - Chris shot the motorcycle stuff on like a 12mm lens. But it has a guy and a girl on a motorcycle.

STILL #23

Lit from a window. Also maybe they lit up the doorway and light in the corner. Simple and gorgeous. Oh look, a lampshade is “growing” out of his head. No one cares. No one looks - all one sees is the beautiful light on his face.

STILL #24

Look at this frame. Location scouts are worth their butter if they are good. And it’s just beautiful the lines running left to right diagonally. Always have diagonal lines.

STILL #25

Side light from the right 3/4 angle from a slightly lower angle maybe? And the huge falloff makes it gorgeous. Goes so into darkness which is beautiful.

STILL #26

When in doubt, put a tube in the shot. And it works. Again shooting at dusk. Plus looks like they lit from behind the wall where the police car is - shooting the light into the car with a tube maybe as well as backlighting under the tunnel slightly. The yellow chair is a really nice touch.

STILL #27

Tubes, baby. Just get some tubes and throw a tungsten lamp in there for fun and you have color contrast. Oh look, she’s underexposed. Does anyone care? Not everything has to hit that pink thingy on false colors.

STILL #28

Looks like a poor-man’s process shot. Making the background green and having hits of sodium vapor light is a beautiful color combo. And just enough light on Ava.

STILL #29

Pushing light through the window - to create a shaft plus a hard light on her maybe from the inside creates a lot of mood. Is that two lights doing it or just one?

STILL #30

Put that camera on top of your cube truck looking down and the angle - well it’s amazing. Look at the diagonals in the frame. Point of vanishing returns.

STILL #31

Put the tubes in the shot - daylight, and white-balance at like 4600 Kelvin on your camera, and a gross fully-white environment is completely beautiful. Look at the “white” chair. I noticed they do this on the film First Man a lot because it’s a lot of white interiors at the NASA test site. And seems like they put up a litemat 2l or whatever to give Ava a 3/4 edge, as her exposure and the woman next to her’s exposure seems about a 1/3 of a stop or so brighter than the other talent taking a selfie.

STILL #32

Holy moley, beautiful. Front lighting rain? That’s not the way it’s supposed to be done! The nerve of the French. But damn it’s striking with all that texture in the frame.

STILL #33

Then they dim down a light on the rain and it’s just a light on Ava, just to show off how beautiful the frame is and that they can make it better.

STILL #34

Tungsten light on a scissor lift, 3/4 edging the scene, gelled with sodium vapor and having it just on the top of the frame and then a backlight from behind the building on the walls. No color contrast. No blue magical light. Just what it’s really like at night.

STILL #35

Wanted to show this, because this could have been a super boring angle but they raised the camera high enough to make those diagonals in the frame and put people near the front and back and that just makes it a really pretty frame.

STILL #36

Using a giant fog machine and backlight the “crap” out of it with an hmi. It’s a Spielberg thing that still works. And what looks like a light into a reflector to give them a little on their faces. Incredible.

STILL #37

Night exterior. Night is night for different DPs, but the moon is a giant silver reflector, so feels like they edged her out with a little light into a silver reflector, or maybe it was a direct light and her skin was a little shiny naturally. Who knows. Looks like probably using a light at 5600k and with the grade of film, makes it cyan - or they added cyan to it. Just gorgeous, and negative fill on the right. Always keying from the far side of the camera, meaning putting your light behind the actor.

Okay, that’s it for this one. I could be right, or wrong. But it is fun for me and this motivates me to really look at a film critically because one day if I’m good at this, I’ll get fame and acclaim, uh….I mean, I am spreading and sharing knowledge which is important and noble to do. Hopefully you also can ponder the choices they made. If you can see this film, please do. Here’s a link to watch it.

Thanks again and please subscribe or whatever or comment.