Dod Mantle: In addition to my concerns about the brutality of the digital format — which would be exacerbated by high-noon sunshine burning down on baking asphalt in semi-uncontrollable lighting situations — I had to be prepared to physically follow the actors for 10 hours a day non-stop in a style I’d committed to: namely, a meeting of the embedded war camera and the gentle, centered peace of Curtis’ still photography. This was clearly also going to give me problems, if not a bad back. Steadicam was not an option, partly because Thomas wanted me to operate. So we had to break down the size of the camera, as well as the signal. My aim was becoming clearer, and Wendy’s visuals were heading toward a more painterly quality, but debate on these matters would continue through editing and well into post.

Thomas and I hoped to shoot Academy 1.33:1 for the high headroom and anti-Western look, but a week before shooting we were ordered by producer Peter Aalbæck Jensen to go to 1.66:1. That still allowed for headroom, which is very much an echo of Curtis’ stills, and Thomas and I both liked it for group compositions of The Dandies throwing themselves around Electric Park Square. Thomas Nievelt, my gaffer, wanted to suspend silks across the entire square and use Wendy lights (very appropriate), but this idea went into the bin instantly for economic reasons. A conventional HMI package helped us through the days, and we also built practicals all over the set where possible.

Ciupek: Anthony’s ultra-compact and very mobile camera was hooked to my van with a 2"-thick cable, and I initially feared our setup wouldn’t give him the necessary freedom to move quickly. I also knew my ability to communicate with him was extremely important. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to see much more than the framing through the different viewfinders we tried, which included the standard Sony black-and-white finder. I kept a very careful eye on focus and told Anthony and his focus puller, Jon Rasmussen, when there was a problem. With the Pro35 adapter, we were basically getting the depth of field of 35mm, and we were often shooting close to wide open, so the focus work was quite tricky. Whenever it got “too hot” for Jon, he brought his remote focus into my van and gauged it by my screen. Because so much of the acting and camerawork was improvised, there were rarely chances to use focus marks, so Jon had to guess focus a lot, and he is fantastic at doing that. (Anthony calls him “Jon Sharp.”)

Because we knew our camera had a limited contrast range, we decided to pre-grade the pictures during the shoot. Consequently, my van was equipped like a small grading suite. It was completely dark, except for properly calibrated background lighting. I had my vectorscope, a 20" HD monitor, and an HDW-F500 recording deck. With my camera-remote panel, I had access to all of the camera’s main setup parameters. If we were shooting on a controlled soundstage, we wouldn’t have touched the settings a lot, but on location, the situation was different. There are a lot of exterior scenes in the film where the lighting changes within a shot, and we were careful to compensate for that.

Some scenes developed differently with each take, and Anthony always took opportunities to keep the picture living and breathing. As a result, I had to be ready for the unexpected. In those situations, I altered the contrast curve of the camera, always trying to get as much information as possible on tape for the final grading.

With our custom rig and incredibly lightweight camera, it was extremely tempting to move the camera, but the base cable length was only 25 meters, which isn’t a lot when the camera is covering 360 degrees and following actors through town streets. Whenever we needed more flexibility, we pulled the HDC950 housing out of the back of my van, and that gave us another 50 meters to play with. Our grips had to coordinate the cable that stretched between the van and the HDC950, and the one that stretched from the HDC950 to the HKT950. Sometimes I was so amazed by their choreography I had to look out the window to make sure they really were connected to me! Before each scene, Anthony, first AD Bill Kirk and I went over the staging and shooting directions. This helped to keep the camera angle “clean” and enabled us to be ready for the first rehearsal.

Dod Mantle: The audio feed enabled me to have Dick’s voiceover narration running in my ears, so I could attempt to choreograph camera moves upfront. Sometimes it was like moving to music. My ambition was to have a camera that could move and breathe in a different way. I wanted the camera at waist height or at least below the eyes, a bit like a gun, and I wanted to separate my eyes and head from the normal viewfinder position to force myself into framing and moving in a different way in relation to actors. I wanted the camera to search in a gliding manner somewhere between handheld and Steadicam. There is an echo here from Dogville, but the operating possibilities are maximized on Wendy because it’s a framed film, as opposed to what Lars likes to consider more of a “pointing” style.

Having Stefan directly linked to me and my camera enabled us to talk all day and grade as best we could on set through very rock ’n’ roll shooting conditions. I like to work as intuitively with light as the director does with actors — not always an easy marriage, but in this case I had both Stefan and Thomas in my earphones on two-way link all the time, and I could jab directions and creative thoughts to Stefan in the same way Thomas did to me. This meant I had a grader at my side in post who’d heard every breath I made on the entire shoot.

Ciupek: We were unhappy with the first results we saw on 35mm. The standard Arrilaser output to intermediate stock looked too clean, too grain-free, and also too weak in the blacks. You could just feel a bit of “video” in the images. One alternative would have been to use one of the older CRT systems and record out to camera negative, but we would have lost too much sharpness, and the recording time would have been far too long.

Then I learned Arri was about to introduce a camera-negative option on the Arrilaser. Instead of recording to intermediate stock, you record to Eastman EXR 50D 5245. The difference was amazing, and the first tests convinced us that the camera-negative option was the way to go. We got lower blacks that still had very fine shadow definition, the saturation went a little higher, and we got some nice grain, which added a very filmic texture to the images.

For the color correction, we used Zentropa’s Digital Vision Valhall, which has its limitations, especially the single mask that can be used for vignetting. So we were quite happy that the optical vignette was already part of the picture! Anthony got the idea of using Turner paintings as a color reference throughout the film. We kept looking for shots that featured warmly saturated colors, enhancing them whenever possible. Whenever The Dandies appeared in one of their parades, we subtly enhanced the colors of their costumes, creating a little aura around them and their rituals. To remind me of his intention, Anthony papered the walls of our grading suite with reprints of Turner paintings and the Curtis photos.

Even though we had used fairly soft lenses, strong diffusion behind the lens, and low Detail settings on the camera, the images we saw on 35mm were still a bit sharper than the look we were after, partly because of the grainier 5245 we’d recorded out to. Anthony always brought his set of diffusion filters to our test screenings, and he would put them in front of the projection lens when he wanted to illustrate the look he wanted. We asked Arri whether it would be possible to install an optical diffusion filter in the Arrilaser, but it would have been too complicated to recalibrate the machine and might not have given us the desired results.

So after we finished the grade, we decided to take the whole film to a da Vinci suite with a defocus option at Digital Film Lab in Copenhagen. In order to avoid making the diffusion look digital, we applied a special technique: we diffused the whole picture, slightly overexposing and saturating it; then we faded this picture in another step onto our original graded picture. Depending on the level of diffusion we needed, we changed the fading level. This achieved a gentle, natural, soft look, and we were very happy with the results. (Éclair Laboratories in France carried out the photochemical phase of post. From the Eastman EXR 50D 5245 digital negative, the lab made an interpositive on Kodak 5242, an internegative on Kodak 2242, and then release prints on Kodak Vision 2383.)

Dod Mantle: Ultimately, with the patience and support of those involved in preproduction, production and post (including post supervisor Pia Nielsen, special-effects supervisor Soren Thomas, and Éclair colorist Isabelle Julien), we got there.

I’m deeply affected by the time we live in and the images that surround our world. I know some have perceived Wendy as anti-American, and this saddens me beyond words. As long as we lose one innocent person to random weapon misuse, regardless of culture or nationality, genuinely concerned films should continue to be made on this topic. That’s why I rejoiced in the opportunity to make this film.