Interviews
2015 Sundance Trading Card Series: #4. Matthias Grunsky (Results)
Matthias Grunsky: The amazing “Collection de l’Art Brut” in Lausanne, Switzerland. The record “Lieblingsfarben und Tiere” of the German band “Element of Crime”. The exhibition of the spectacular black and white photographs of Sebastião Salgado: “Genesis”
Lavallee: In Results, Andrew Bujalski proposes natural, physical attraction between the sexes, could you discuss framing and how you potentially pulled people together in two shots.
Grunsky: The actors did the part of showing physical attraction. But really the characters have difficulties getting together and communicating. And we tried to emphasize that with the camera. Void spaces around them and lens choices were something we gave a lot of thought in that regard. Because Andrew and I felt that in most of her scenes we wanted to be close to Kat (Cobie Smulders), I mainly shot her with a 35 mm lens, while being further away with the camera and going on a longer lens on Danny (Kevin Corrigan) or Trevor (Guy Pearce), creating some distance, to give a discreet visual hint of this invisible wall of miscommunication between them.
Lavallee: Comparatively with Computer Chess, the video look enabled a certain aged 80s distinction. This is obviously night and day — what was the visual strategy for the film in terms of lighting, lenses and color palette look?
Grunsky: On RESULTS we had a very different visual approach indeed. The story is set in a crisp and colorful world, but we wanted to resist that with a somewhat flat, desaturated, not too sharp image. I used a set of old Super Baltar lenses. They are beautiful but neither perfect nor state of the art; I love how their cobalt glass handles skin tones. They have a certain softness without feeling out of focus. They feel warm and create really nice flares.
As with most of Andrew’s movies I also wanted RESULTS to look naturalistic. This time I lit a bit flatter than I usually would, instead of polishing and this wanting to be perfect world in front of the lens. Also I tried to approach the lighting in a simplistic way. Of course the tight schedule and budget were parts to that decision, but I always like the idea to set up just one big light instead of many small ones. On exteriors I only bounced sunlight with muslin. Day interiors I lit through windows whenever I could.
We shot and graded the movie in a desaturated and flat way, which also seems to contradict our characters world and mindset. They want to improve themselves, trying to be perfect by getting in shape and to do things right but then ending up doing so much wrong and not being perfect at all.