Stephen Moyer in The Barrens
The Barrens is a psychological thriller set in the dense Pine
Barrens of southern New Jersey. The story follows Richard
Vineyard (played by Stephen Moyer) as he takes his family on
a camping trip where he encounters what he believes to be the
mythological Jersey Devil. As the story progresses, it is unclear
to the audience if they are watching Vineyard go insane, or a
father who is heroically trying to save his family.
The film is the fourth collaboration between director
Darren Lynn Bousman and cinematographer Joseph White.
“Darren and I have developed such nuanced shorthand that
our communication is often non-verbal,” says White. “At this
point, I know what he likes in terms of movement, contrast,
saturation, tone and mood. The challenge has now become
how to express these things in a different way than before.
While I want there to be a thread connecting our work
together, I want each film to feel like its own separate entity.”
From the beginning, Bousman knew he wanted to shoot
on smaller cameras to allow for a lot of movement. The
filmmakers chose two ARRIFLEX SR3 cameras, CANON
zooms, ZEISS Super Speeds, and KODAK VISION3 500T Color
Negative Film 7219 and KODAK VISION3 250D Color Negative
Film 7207. “The benefits of shooting film on a movie like this
cannot be overstated,” notes White. “To have the latitude to be
able to hold backgrounds and highlights during ever-changing
conditions meant we were able to complete the work in an
artful yet expedient way. And shooting Super 16mm was such
a joy as it gave us tiny, compact cameras that allowed us to
have the grit and texture appropriate for the film while moving
quickly at all times.”
Shooting a film almost entirely outside with a lot of day
work created its fair share of challenges. “We had to figure out
how to hide things,” White explains. “How do you play with
light and shadow when there are no walls, no dark hallways,
no narrow corridors? We had to create a film that was dark
and menacing yet was just outside in the woods. We went for
a heightened naturalism, and did our best to make the film
manifest the character’s madness.”
Most of the shooting locations were quite a hike into the
woods near Toronto. At times, the filmmakers could bring in
larger sources and big back lights, but sometimes the location
forced them to work with battery-operated sources and
bounce. “Sometimes we would push the film a stop to give it a
little extra contrast and grain, whereas other times we would
overexpose slightly to tighten things up. I feel that we were
successful in using the camera to convey this struggle within
our leading man, switching from STEADICAM to handheld to
dolly (operated by Brad Hruboska) to accentuate these shifts
in his sanity.
“There were also several sequences where we used a huge
amount of fog to just obscure what felt like miles of forest,”
the cinematographer adds. “There was a daytime scene,
and I didn’t want the viewer to know if they were watching
something real or a nightmare. The fog was playing so bright
and the actors were so dark, but it felt so good to the eye. I had
to expose in such a way that meant you couldn’t really make
anything out in the monitors but I just knew it was all there. It
was, and the scene came out beautifully, a real testament to
how much detail film can retain in the extremes.”
There is a haunting scene by a lake where Vineyard
confronts a young man who has been following their group,
hoping to gain the affections of his daughter. There is a
complete 180-degree shift in Moyer’s character as he almost
completes his
horrifying descent
into madness while
interrogating the
boy. “The camera
goes from being
mostly static
to having light,
slow wrapping
movements,”
explains White.
“It eventually gets
closer and closer as
he closes the gap
between them, and scares the hell out of this poor boy. The
way we used the camera to capture this frightening dance
between these two men was really effective, and I am really
proud of it.”
The Barrens can currently be seen on DVD or BLU-RAY.
