Déjà Vu

Gijs Vervenne
7 days ago
7 min read

During my graduation project at St. Joost University, Déjà Vu was one of the chosen projects. While Stefan's nihilistic quest might not have immediately appealed to me, Tijn Severin's personal motivation and how this story found its way in the final script, were. I could immediately relate to his story about the inevitable death of his grandmother and the bittersweet emotions, stories, and statements that accompanied it, and that was precisely the emotion I wanted to capture in the final product.

In this blog post, I'll try to provide insight into the process Tijn Severin (director), Tobias Kooijman (producer), Daisy Stout (gaffer), and I went through to achieve the final result. From references, to shotlists, to grading.

References

This personal connection is, in my opinion, most evident in the Eefje timeline, characterized by the warm tone and nostalgic 4:3 aspect ratio (more on this later). This characterization, and the film's overall visual style, stemmed from various, primarily cinematic references. For example, The Green Knight (2021), The Lighthouse (2019), and Stalker (1979) played a significant role in the final color palette.

These references have personally influenced me enormously in the final look of the film, in which the intended look and feel of the film is tangible from an early stage in the lookbook.

Colour

We considered various combinations, such as filtering color in black-and-white photography or the expressionistic use of colored light or grading to convey specific emotions. The Pale Blue Eye (2022) personally played a decisive role in both the color and the overall lighting. They weren't afraid to let shadows dominate, nor were they afraid to use strong warm-cold contrasts between different scenes.

Motivated by Stefan's declining physical and mental state, we chose to create a progressively deteriorating color palette throughout the film. After considering and testing various options, we arrived at the following progression: It begins in Stefan's house, where a combination of warm and cool is evident. When he steps outside, the coolness predominates, but the warmth is still palpable. In his conversation with the man with the guitar, the coolness fades, and the original plan was to use warm lighting against a black background. Ending in the dungeon, we transition to black and white by matching the warm candles with the warm light from outside, which we balance white in-camera.

Lighting

As mentioned before, shadows have a dominant role in the lighting, and I wanted to work with pools of light. This ultimately created a dramatic, exciting look for Stefan's timeline. We focused primarily on his house, exploring how we could combine the blue-green moonlight outside with the warm light from inside. This is how I, along with my gaffer Daisy Stout, arrived at a color gradient for Stefan's face, where both sources originate from the same direction.

In this space, it wasn't necessary to be able to see everything, as can be seen in the first interior shot. In the pan moving from the fire to Stefan's back, we see only a reflection on one of the pots on the wall, combined with an almost too-slow pan, directly establishing the film's mysterious and ominous atmosphere.

Eefje's timeline, on the other hand, was characterized by naturalistic, soft lighting. Here, it was important not only to create a visual contrast between the two worlds but also to visualize Eefje's influence and character. Just as Stefan felt comfortable and loved until his very last moment, the viewer should feel that too. Therefore, we opted for a soft, warm character for the interior, balancing the visuals whilst keeping them interesting and engaging, without going as dramatically in the shadows as in Stefan's world.

Movement

We continued this expressionistic approach in the movement, where, especially in Stefan's house, it was a key element in visualizing his declining physical and mental state. Starting with controlled and calm movements, with long, deliberate dolly movements (once again drawing inspiration from Tarkovsky's work), we transition to a static camera with only pans and tilts, ending with sporadic steadicam movements, where we utilize its floating nature. Here, we could also have opted for handheld, which Tijn personally didn't prefer. Outside Stefan's house, the camera loses these narrative movements somewhat, but the motivation was always to evoke a desired emotion.

Lenses and aspect ratio

Lens choice and aspect ratio were two key elements in distinguishing the different timelines. It was important that Stefan's world had a strong visual character, and we used his distorted worldview as our inspiration. This led us to a combination of secondhand Mir and Helios lenses, emphasizing the softness, rotating bokeh, and atmospheric flares.

We also opted for a 2.00:1 aspect ratio, which struck a balance between depicting a strange, overwhelming world without sacrificing the personal, intense close-ups.

For Eefje's timeline, it was crucial to create a warm, familiar atmosphere, while also visually representing a different time period and spherical period. Therefore, we explored the difference between 1.66:1 and 1.85:1, ultimately settling on 2.00:1 for Stefan and 1.33:1 for Eefje. Furthermore, these lenses needed to minimize bokeh distortion and deliver a high-contrast image, which, for accessibility, led to a set of Zeiss lenses from school.

Finally, we wanted to create two contrasts between Stefan's familiar world inside and the unknown, vast world outside. The original plan was to shoot longer indoors, at 37mm, 58mm, and 85mm, and wider outdoors, at 20mm, 28mm, and 37mm. This allowed us to get closer to Stefan's face outdoors, to truly experience his experience of the outside world together with him, as well as utilize the distorting quality it creates. Ultimately, the choice to shoot longer indoors wasn't always possible due to the space, and we frequently had to go wider, to 28mm. Nevertheless, I think the overall idea is still palpable in the final product, and hopefully, it achieved the intended effect.

Composition

Composition played a key role during the journey, where we wanted to make the world feel as vast as possible. It was important to allow the eye to wander a bit, but to direct it as much as possible to the insignificant, small impression Stefan leaves on his surroundings. I also wanted to play as much as possible with abstract compositions, creating a hard horizon or an infinite field.

We also wanted to approach the composition, particularly for the travel sequence, as well as for the rest of the film, as if it were a painting. Here, we let go of naturalism somewhat and create the freedom we need to guide, influence, or mislead the viewer. This painting principle also reappears in another area, where, for example, we compositionally imitate Francisco de Goya's (1819-1823) Saturno Devorando Seu Filho in the dungeon on the wiry man, or Michelangelo's Creazione di Adamo in the field, thus visualizing Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical proposition: "God is dead and we have murdered him."

Decoupage

Inspired by Tarkovsky's work, we largely focused on combining shots and compositions within the shotlisting process. This was especially important in Stefan's house, where we continued a stylistic development, to achieve the desired sense of control we were looking for. At other times, the challenge was how to capture the originally longer conversation between Stefan and the man with the guitar as impactfully as possible.

In the dungeon, for example, in an earlier draft, we explored ways to make the space feel as large and maze-like as possible by deliberately going off-axis or omitting parts of the room from view. This was ultimately scrapped due to time constraints, but the extension of the dungeon's space is still tangible and in that sequence, it became crucial at what points and at what pace we would reveal the wiry man, after we, as viewers, had previously seen him ominously eating someone in the dungeon.

We also recorded this shotlist together in its entirety before the shooting days, to see where we could go more extreme, where we would run into problems, or where we would have to come up with alternative plans.

Based on the chosen spaces and compositions, we recorded everything in floor plans so that Daisy could prepare lighting plans and I had a clearer overview for the shooting schedule.

Grading

Within grading we wanted to enhance what was already there, trying to minimize manipulation of the image with windows whenever possible. This was necessary on a few occasions, especially in the travel sequence. The most important elements within the grading process were enhancing the contrast, which we used to make pop here and there with glow, adding a split tone, and adding texture to the image with grain or a light vignette.

A few points that required more attention, as mentioned earlier, were the travel sequence shots and the Creazione di Adamo moment, since we shot this as day for night. In the travel sequence, we focused primarily on how we could add local contrast with windows to draw the eye more to Stefan, without making it feel artificially lit. Due to the drastically different lighting conditions and locations, matching the relevant shots also presented a challenge.

Art, Clothing, and Makeup

Although I haven't explored this in as much depth as the heads of these departments, I still want to mention it, especially in this film. Since the film is set roughly in the 18th century, the setting and the look of Stefan and Eefje, in particular, play a major role.

This began with the location, where we had an old barn in France, magnificent nature reserves, and ruins. This formed the basis for the look. Stefan's house was given a simple appearance, where untreated wood, clothing, and ropes defined the space, along with period-related props like pots, candleholders, and materials. This theme also carries over to the clothing, where both have an earthy color theme with a few pops of color.

In my opinion, the makeup completed this look, where the grime reveals Stefan's world, invisible to the viewer. For example, in an unselected shot in Eefje's timeline, we saw both hands. This time, however, Stefan's hands were clean instead of dirty, as he had to stop working from the moment he reached his deathbed, while Eefje's hands were dirty, having been forced to take over these tasks out of necessity.

There's much more to say about these aspects, which I simply don't know enough about, but which, in my opinion, significantly enhanced the final product. Personally, I believe that lighting and art make up about 80% of the film, and as a DoP, it's my job to capture this in a meaningful and impactful way. For more information, the final lookbook contains numerous references and choices regarding both the art and cinematography.