"Julie has a lot of control over her theater productions, so she really knows what she's after," he continues. "She also has wonderful eyes that enable her to judge what took me about seven years of training to learn the contrast of a light, or the value of a color. We timed the movie together with Dale Graham at Technicolor, and it went very well, because whenever she said something about the colors or the look, it was exactly what Dale and I were thinking. After just one projection, she knew all about primary colors, secondary colors, and so on. She's a very fast learner, and she was immediately able to adapt her mind to various moviemaking techniques. The main difference between film and theater is that during a stage production, you can see the results of a light or a certain effect immediately—on a movie project, you have to [extrapolate] things a bit in your mind. It was therefore very interesting for me to follow all of Julie's thoughts about the images, and to try to bring her vision to the screen."
Tovoli is quick to point out that he also had the additional benefit of working with top-notch department heads, including costume designer Milena Canonero and production designer Dante Ferretti. He enthuses, "I was placed in front of fantastic sets and costumes that had already been designed and realized—not to mention some real structures that had been brilliantly built by ancient Roman architects! Those existing elements led me to create a lighting style that was quite contrasty, in order to highlight the dramatic contrasts in the story. The fact that Julie was mixing up all of these different eras gave me a huge amount of freedom—in certain situations, for example, I could create huge contrasts in color. Right away on Titus, I began drawing on all of my past experience to help Julie achieve her vision of the film. I knew this was not a naturalistic film, though, so when I considered my past projects, I felt it was better to think about stylized pictures like Suspiria or Single White Female, in which each frame was built by hand, like a sculpture. Titus was a real change from the style of the last picture I had shot, so I had to start from scratch. But I enjoy doing that on almost every picture I shoot now. I don't do as many films as I used to, so I try to make each project a new experience."
Titus was filmed at exterior locations in and around Rome, and also in Pula, Croatia. Interiors were shot within soundstages at Rome's famed Cinecitta Studios. Tovoli notes that "if we had made this film in Hollywood, it certainly would have cost three times as much, but normally we would have needed a third more time on such a picture. We shot for 16 weeks, but we were always running out of time. Fortunately, I had great support from Julie and both the Italian producer, Conchita Airoldi, and the American co-producer, Adam Leipzig. I also had the help of a real super-crew that included first camera operator Enrico Lucidi, Steadicam operator Massimiliano Trevis, first focus puller Lorenzo Tovoli, loader Daniela Chioffi, gaffer Carlo Vinciguerra, best boys Marco Contaldo and Luciano Micheli, and key grip Roberto Emidi. On such an intellectually and physically demanding production, I would have been much less effective without the assistance of all of these passionate and experienced people."
Since Titus was adapted from Taymor's stage production, Tovoli felt that it was appropriate to apply a somewhat theatrical lighting scheme to the narrative. He admits, "Usually, the rule for a cinematographer is that you don't want to feel the light too much, or impose it on the story, but this film was different. I enjoy breaking those kinds of rules when I can."
A good example of this strategy is a scene in which Tamora confronts Titus from the steps of the royal palace. "That particular sequence feels more like a stage play than a film, with very vivid, colorful lighting and a great deal of contrast," Tovoli notes. "We shot it at two locations. The palace was actually Mussolini's E.U.R. building [also known as the 'square coliseum'], but the reverses, which show Titus sitting among some ruins, were shot at a forum in Villa Adriana, a bit outside of Rome. I basically came onto the production while that scene was being shot, and I used my experience working with gels to enhance the already interesting look that had been created."
Toward that end, Tovoli recalled his work on Suspiria, during which he had lit close-ups with large arc lights filtered through frames of colored velour. On Titus, he modified that method a bit, bouncing the light from 2K, 5K or 10K Fresnel fixtures off boards and then filtering the illumination through frames containing gels and some frosted diffusion. He explains, "That technique creates strong colors in terms of contrast, but the diffusion helps to reduce the violence of the colors a bit, and to create some modeling and fewer shadows on the actors' faces. We were using big colored sources, but in a way that was very delicate—I like full tonal photography, and the diffusion kept the light from being unacceptably hard. I also mixed the light from the Fresnel fixtures with more modern units, like Kino Flos. We would have the light from the Fresnel on one side of an actor's face, while illuminating the other side of the face with a Kino Flo placed about a foot away.
"I've done that on other films, but never with as wide a range of contrast as we used on Titus," he concedes. "I think most cinematographers who would want to be perceived as 'cultured artists' with 'good taste' would hesitate to do that kind of thing, because it creates really garish colors. But on this particular film, that style worked very well. I really enjoyed mixing old and new technologies."
Tovoli says that he and Taymor quickly discovered that they shared a mutual desire for clear, sharp images. Addressing his personal philosophy on this topic, the cinematographer maintains that "today, we are surrounded by images that are flat, because a lot of productions don't have the time to photograph things properly. Onscreen, we often see flat light or a romantic style that's very diffused. Why? Because as directors of photography, we all want to hide the fact that we often had a lack of time to photograph things properly! People like diffusion, and they think it looks beautiful. If you do a close-up by putting a fog filter in front of a nice lens that the optical experts have worked hard to design, of course your shot is going to look magnificent. If you utilize a telephoto lens, it will be better; if you use some smoke, it will be much better; and if you combine a telephoto lens with smoke and some backlight, it will be even more impressive.
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