"In any artistic endeavor, you have to have a foundation in order to explore. Film gives me the confidence to work more freely. I can look at the set with my eye and see what's going to be on the film. Each story requires its own visual approach and design.… I try to shoot from the hip, to let my work come more from my feelings. My goal is always to create a movie that speaks for itself. When I can watch the film and go along with the story, then I feel that I have had a successful collaboration with my colleagues, and that I am making a connection with my work."
Steve Asselin was born and raised in Québec City, Québec, Canada. He studied cinema and literature and began his filmmaking career as a gofer at age 18. He shot many music videos and short films, and eventually photographed his first feature, Une jeune fille à la fenêtre (A Girl at the Window) at age 26 for director Francis Leclerc. Since then, his credits include dozens of television commercials, the short film Transparence, as well as the feature films Délivrez-moi, Borderline, and Un été sans point ni coup sûr (A No-Hit No-Run Summer). His work on the film Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnés was nominated for the Best Cinematography prize at the 2006 Jutra Awards, which honors achievements in Québecois filmmaking.
[All these films were shot on Kodak motion picture film.]
A Conversation with Steve Asselin
QUESTION: How did you become interested in cinema?
ASSELIN: I remember it very well. In high school, a neighbor visited and showed me Le Procès (The Trial), the 1962 Orson Welles movie based on the Kafka story. I was amazed. It was the first movie I saw in black and white, and I fell in love with the pictures and the photography. After that, almost every day I would go to the library and take out movies. I was watching as many movies as I could.
Q: When did you start thinking of filmmaking as a possible profession?
ASSELIN: I wasn't planning to make films for a living. When it was time for me to choose where to go to college, I chose communication, and at the school I chose, cinema was one small part of that program. It wasn't enough for me, so I moved from Quebec City to Montreal and enrolled at Collège Ahuntsic in a specific program for cinema.
Q: What did you learn during this period?
ASSELIN: On the first day of class, our professor divided us into teams of two and three and sent us out with a camera. He told us to push all the buttons and shoot everything, and to come back in an hour. He didn't give us any more instruction than that. As it turned out, that was pretty much what I did to learn what I am doing now. Later, I went to a university to study literature, not cinema. I didn't study photography during that period.
Q: How did you come back to filmmaking?
ASSELIN: A friend of a friend was a director of little music videos. He hired me as a kind of gofer. That was my first real experience on a set. I was 18 years old at the time. That was in about 1991. Later, I moved back to Quebec City for two or three years. I met people who were members of a co-operative dedicated to various applied arts, including cinema. I met people there who had dropped out of university because they felt it wasn't practical enough. That's where I met Francis Leclerc, who is now a well-known director in Montreal. Around that time, Francis shot something like 40 short films. That's when I started to shoot short films and music videos.
Q: How did you transition to professional jobs?
ASSELIN: Things began to go well, and I moved back to Montreal, where I did lots of music videos. That was a very good school for me. I didn't have any technical training. I learned by doing it. I experimented a lot. I did my first feature at age 26 with Francis. He gave me my first chance. The name of the picture was Une jeune fille à la fenêtre (A Girl at the Window). The format was 35 mm film. I was quite nervous, and I was working with people who were considerably older and more experienced than me. I learned as much as I could from them.
Q: What lessons did you learn from them that have really stayed with you?
ASSELIN: I learn something every day that I shoot. I learned to shoot from the hip more, to not be too prepared. That being my first feature, I tried to prepare quite thoroughly. While we were shooting, I tried to let things go more. It's a lesson I'm always learning: to trust myself. This year, I have come back once again to that lesson, to let my shooting come more from my feelings.
Q: Did shooting longer-form, narrative projects change how you thought about cinematography?
ASSELIN: Yes, for sure. I began to be more concerned about the psychological part of the story. I could make a scene warmer or colder depending on the story and what was going to on with the characters. I had not really done that previously.
Q: Since that first film, you have shot most projects on film. What's your thinking on the choice of medium?
ASSELIN: For me, film is still the best medium. We have many digital cameras that try to recreate a film image, but it's not the same for me. When you compare the results at a screening and you look at the pictures back to back, there is something different. There are subtle differences that annoy me. Also, working with video is different because you don't have as much latitude in terms of exposure and contrast. On film, once I've lit a scene, I can look at the set with my eye and see what is going to be on the film. On video, I have to look at the monitor, and that can be completely different from what I see when I look at the set. I'm not really comfortable with that. I want to know what's going to be on the film.
Q: Does that confidence in film help you trust your instincts and shoot from the hip?
ASSELIN: Yes, but it depends on the project. Some filmmakers aren't really concerned about the beauty of the picture, and that can be right for certain projects. But as a director of photography, my job may be to make a beautiful picture or it may be to destroy the image to some extent. It depends on the story. But either way, film allows me to shoot from the hip and work more freely. I know that if I don't have anything lighting the scene, no lamps or anything, I can work with the director to find a specific spot and shoot there using existing lighting because I have more latitude than with video. With a video camera, I could push some buttons and boost the signal and see details in everything, but there would be noise, and for sure it will be a worse picture than I can achieve with film.
Q: How do you balance the technical and the artistic in your work?
ASSELIN: It's similar to painting in some ways. If you look at Picasso, you see that he learned the technical basics and thoroughly understood classical painting before he developed what became his signature style. I think it's like this in most artistic endeavors. I think it's the same for a musician. You have to have a foundation in order to explore. If you understand the technical aspects of getting a correct picture - how film reacts chemically and how the camera works - you can put it together and then forget it. Sometimes I'm working with a new gaffer and he will ask me for my lighting ratios. I must tell him that I don't know. I just light the scene and when I feel it is OK, then it's OK.
Q: Tell us about your collaboration with the postproduction aspect.
ASSELIN: When I can, I work with colorist Nico Ilies at Technicolor. He is a true artist. He encourages me to shoot from the hip and unlock my potential. When I have the chance to work with him, we read the script and I shoot some photographs and some scenes from the films. Then we discuss it and do tests together. It's an exploration. When I work with other colorists, I do the tests, and design the photography to build in that result. But with Nico, we try everything on the machine. We experiment with the physical film and with the software, and it's a part of the job that is really fun for me.
Q: How do you know when to achieve something in-camera and when to do it using post techniques?
ASSELIN: I try to make these techniques work together. When I am shooting, I am thinking of what I am going to do with the picture at the end. I try to build in the right colors and contrast on the set and fine tune them in the digital intermediate. To create that in color timing would be more complicated and more expensive. Sometimes we don't have the time to set a flag, and in that case, the DI gives you the ability to correct that in post.
Q: Tell me about your recent project called Un été sans point ni coup sûr (A No-Hit No-Run Summer).
ASSELIN: Un été sans point ni coup sûr was my third feature with Francis Leclerc. We have also done many commercials together. It's the story of a 12-year-old boy who is dedicated to baseball. He wants to spend the whole summer in a league with friends but he doesn't make the team. The year is 1969, the same year that the Montreal Expos became a Major League Baseball team. Un été was inspired by a book of Polaroids that Nico had found. I tried to learn more about that type of photograph. We had a hard time finding the right texture, but we got close by shooting with the older Cooke Speed Panchro lenses from the 1960s - an idea we got after seeing Pierre Gill's (CSC) work on Maurice Richard. We chose to shoot on the low contrast (KODAK VISION2 500T) 5229 Expression film. We didn't want the images to be too contrasty, and we wanted to leave more details in the blacks and shadows. On the set, I lit pretty much the same way. For exterior scenes, we used (KODAK VISION2 200T) 5217 film.
Q: Have audiences become more visually literate since you began your career?
ASSELIN: Yes, definitely. I remember when I saw Jurassic Park for the first time. It was pretty amazing. Now people see scenes with extensive CGI and they are not amazed anymore. I think it's different. At the same time, I don't think that changes the way I work. My goal is still to create a movie that speaks for itself. Each story requires its own visual approach and design. When I can watch the film and go along with the story, then I feel that I have had a successful collaboration with my colleagues, and that I am making a connection with my work.
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