#denson baker

Filmmaker: What was the most difficult scene to realize and why? And how did you do it?

Baker (Ophelia Cinematographer): We had many difficult scenes, some rather big scale scenes and some very technically challenging scenes. However, one particular scene worth mentioning would be our opening shot, where we referenced the famous Pre-Raphaelite Ophelia drowning painting by Sir John Everett Millais. We had Daisy Ridley playing Ophelia, who was positioned floating on the surface of the water as the camera on a 50-foot Supertechno crane skims across the water, over lily pads, revealing Ophelia then raising up over her, then slowly descending towards her face as she submerges into the water. We shot at 48fps to give a slightly dreamy quality, which meant that the grips had to move the crane at 2x the speed and hit some very precise marks with very precise timings. We had to lower Daisy into the water by having her attached to a submerged descender rig that was operated from the shore and would have her sink on cue. The shot was made difficult by the fact that we had to build a platform in the water weeks in advance. Greens had to do a whole lot of work on the location and, between choosing the location in winter and then shooting in spring, the snow melted in the mountains, which affected the level of the water that we were shooting in. Not to mention it was ice cold for Daisy, so there was a team of people striving to keep her warm in the water, and we had to dry her after each take. And to top it all off, we had a rather short window of time to shoot it in; we had to wait for the sun to come over the huge rock formation right next to the location, and then we only had an hour or so before the sun would be too high and would eventually cast a great big crane shadow over Daisy. We got it in three takes and the shot is beautiful.

- abridged, link below for full interview

WE HAVE DECIDED NOT TO DIE

We Have Decided Not To Die is about a mental state where logic drops away and anything is possible. It is an audio/visual narrative that uses sound, stunt and visual effect to create a world where characters float in space and time. Conceived by Daniel Askill and produced by Collider with the Australian Film Commission, it tells the story of three character's modern day journey's of transcendence; journeys into a place where death is no longer inevitable. 

Cinematographer. Denson Baker