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Creating the look of GRACE:



An Interview with Zoran Popovic & Martina Buckley



By Heather Wixson



So much goes into making a film that goes just beyond putting characters on a screen. Without the right look or atmosphere, a movie can fall flat before it even gets started. So it was important to both Director of Photography Zoran Popovic and Production Designer Martina Buckley that the upcoming film GRACE captured the vision of Director Paul Solet.



“I have never worked with a director that was as thorough as Paul was with GRACE,” said Buckley. “He had this 200+ page manifesto about his characters and just every nuance of the film which made my job very easy.”



For GRACE, a lot of the location was very much reflective of the characters. Buckley used a very stark palette of yellows, greens and blues for most of the house interiors, and for contrast, made baby Grace’s room very colorful and lush, reflecting a mother’s love for her child. According to Buckley, a lot of the film had to have the feel of a stark New England neighborhood, something similar in tone to the 1997 film THE ICE STORM.



As a production designer, Buckley has always had a keen eye for the details and making sure everything you see on set is entirely relevant to the scene and atmosphere. What is also important to Buckley is giving the actor’s the right stage to work on and making sure that there is a high level of craftsmanship to her work.



“I always make sure that when a character has to do something like look in a drawer or open a cupboard, where they need have a reaction onscreen, that they have what they need in that place to give a great performance,” explained Buckley. “I want to make sure that these performers really feel like this world exists and it’s easier to get a good reaction when something is actually there.”



“I also had to do a lot of food styling work for GRACE so I actually cooked full meals for the cast to eat during different scenes,” added Buckley. “For me, it’s important that when the actors sit down to eat in a scene, it really should feel like it was a real meal for them. I always want to give the actors the best possible environment to work in.”



Part of Buckley’s work also included demonstrating a chilling theme transformation as the movie progresses and the audience starts to realize that the title character, Grace, is not exactly the ideal baby and just how obsessive Madeline (Grace’s mother) becomes over her baby.



“I describe the house transformation process being something similar to sour milk,” said Buckley. “Everything starts off lookinggrace_pic_6 nice and maintained but as Madeline’s behavior tends to get darker, so does everything around her.”



“We wanted things to start to look unkempt- dead flowers in vases, food left out, a cardigan that just never gets finished because of Madeline’s descent- all things showing the passage of time,” added Buckley. “One of the biggest challenges was a pearlescent coating we added to the walls in the house- at first, it looks nice and cozy but in certain lights, it made the house a very menacing presence.”



While Buckley’s work was to set the stage and depict many thematic elements in GRACE, it was Popovic’s camera work that brought Solet’s vision to life.



“GRACE’s script was so perfectly written, that I could literally see the entire movie unfolding in my head before I even shot a single scene,” said Popovic. “The shoot for me ended up being almost a cakewalk, despite having such a tight schedule.”



Popovic knew that scouting the right location in Canada was a key ingredient for making sure GRACE had the perfect look to it.



“Having an amazing house was important for this film since it ends up also being a ‘character’ itself,” said Popovic. “As soon as we found the right one, I could literally visualize certain shots. Once Martina got everything in the house perfected, the whole thing just clicked for me. True cinematography to me is 50% design work so it was great to have such a pro like Martina working on set.”



With having only a 17-day shooting schedule with about 8 ½ hours to shoot for each of those days (due to Canada’s filming regulations), most directors would be a bit daunted at trying to work such a tight schedule, but Popovic saw the challenge as an opportunity to get creative and still give GRACE to look Solet envisioned.



“We never wanted the budget to determine how GRACE looked,” explained Popovic. “I just knew that there were some intriguing shots I needed to get but we really didn’t have time to experiment much. We were lucky that we were able to get everything we needed and have it turn out the right way in very few takes.”



Popovic added that, “what I loved about working with Paul is that I could go to him and discuss adjustments that needed to be made. We’d collaborate on the changes we needed to make to get the right shot and Paul was never disappointed with making changes. He was incredibly flexible and supportive of what I wanted to do for GRACE.”



For both Buckley and Popovic, GRACE was one of those instances where the stars aligned for everyone involved on the film.



“Working with Paul was one of the great experiences in my career,” expressed Buckley. “I’ve never met such a young talent with that level of sophistication to his work already. This is honestly just the beginning for him.”



“Everything about the GRACE was such a collaborative process for everyone involved,” said Popovic. “I wish shooting movies was always this easy and enjoyable. I was just amazed by the work we did and can’t wait to see the reaction the film gets.”



GRACE is set for its premier during the Sundance Film Festival. The film was chosen as part of the After Midnight series of films and will be screening for the first time on Friday, January 16th there.



Martina Buckley has worked on over 13 films and multiple music videos and commercials as a Production Designer. In addition to her recent work on GRACE, she designed the “American Boy,” music video for Estelle with Kanye West. Some of her theatrical credits include THE FORSAKEN, CRY_WOLF, 8MM 2, and THE OH IN OHIO. For more on her work, click here.



Zoran Popovic has been the Director of Photography on over twenty theatrical releases, including THE LOST, TRAPPED ASHES, and WAR, INC. He recently completed work on THE LEAST AMONG YOU and REDLAND, both having 2009 scheduled release dates.



Writer’s Note: “Creating the Look of GRACE” is the third article in a series based on the upcoming Anchor Bay release GRACE and the work of writer/director Paul Solet.



In the coming weeks, we’ll discuss with Composer Austin Wintory the nuances behind scoring a feature film and Terror Tube will also be providing a firsthand recap of GRACE’s Sundance premiere on January 16th. You can read part one here and read part two here.

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