The director explains, "Art direction and cinematography usually work to support the actors, but I wanted our settings and their look to represent an obstacle to humanity. I tried to build this tacky world in the first half of the film, which is how the notion of photo-realism came into my mind. By 'photo-realism,' I mean a removed, intensely objective view of things, including people. That required higher contrast, a lot of reflective material such as glass and metals, and a lot of defocused subjects and negative space in the compositions to distract the audience and force them to become more analytical."
"Ang and I both latched onto the photo-realist painters of the Seventies as a visual key for the film," confirms Elmes. "We looked at many paintings from that era for example, the work of Ralph Goings, who painted diners with fantastic detail, color and light. We also looked at the work of still photographers who were imitating the photo-realist painters at the time."
The second half of the picture "would rely more on a sort of impressionism," Lee contends. "The ice storm and the force of nature suggested that."
Through these early production meetings, "We soon found a general palette for scenes and settings," Elmes recalls. "We didn't tie specific looks or lighting to characters, but we did establish their homes in a way that would say something about the people who lived there. The Hoods' house is comfortable and warm, because there is still a certain amount of warmth in their relationship and the family. The house itself is in a setting filled with pine trees, which added softness, and there is greenery despite the fact that winter is coming. By contrast, the Carvers' Modernist home has very large windows and bare walls. In fact, the only real texture come from what you see outside the windows bare trees with no leaves. Our designer, Mark Friedberg, was very helpful and collaborative in this process."
The design of The Ice Storm helped Elmes immeasurably in "using reflections in windows, mirrors, and any other glass surfaces to add to our photo-realist approach, foreshadow the ice storm and represent the characters. We built translucent surfaces into the sets and even the practical locations, putting in pieces of glass to build up reflections. That also suggested the impression of looking through things and past the surface at something else."
The cinematographer points out a key scene in which Ben Hood ambles drunkenly through the Carver home after Janey suddenly abandons him during an afternoon tryst. "It's one of my favorite moments in the film," the cinematographer attests. "As he waits for his mistress to return, Ben wanders through her house and looks out at the world through a giant picture window, which allows us to see him and the interior of the house, as well as a reflection of the forest and the impending storm. Behind him, we see through the house to the windows on the other side, creating a disorienting sense of depth. The end result is almost abstract."
Says Lee, "That's a favorite shot of mine, and it reaches for the limits of what we could do with reflections. I called that location 'The Glass House,' and there's an edge to the situation that I like our hero is naked and transparent in this reflective space. Practically speaking, I think cinematographers hate that kind of setup, because there is nowhere to hide the lighting. You are not only lighting the scene, but also the objects to be reflected while running out of space for the camera."
Elmes confirms that the setting did create problems "in terms of lighting and camera placement, but the result was great. It always pays off to fit a mirror or some reflecting surface into a shot, because it adds a tremendous feeling of openness. Also, having something happen off-camera, in a reflection perhaps, was more powerful than just seeing the actor."
Lee notes that the film's schedule was always arranged to create options. "In the beginning, we waited for sun," he notes. "By the end, though, we went inside to cover sets if it was sunny, and went out if it got cloudy!"
Schamus recalls, "We started production in April and shot for about 55 days, with all but about the last three weeks on location up in New Canaan and Westchester, New York." The first sequences filmed were day exteriors, specifically because they required that there not be any leaves on the trees; the story takes place over the Thanksgiving holiday, but spring was rapidly closing in on the filmmakers. Next on the schedule were any interiors that featured the landscape through windows. Then came the night exteriors, which included the ice storm.
While Elmes utilized HMIs to supplement the infrequent daylight, he primarily used tungsten fixtures. "I'm comfortable with tungsten light, and I know what gels will do to them in terms of color," he says. "In my tests, I generally start with what I know is a 3200°K light; that way, if I'm trying to create, say, a nighttime look, I know what color temperature I'm going to get when I use a particular gel. It's important to start with a standard in tests, so you know exactly where you're going. However, during production, among the lights you've rented there will be a percentage that have aged bulbs and discolored reflectors. Those things change the character of the light. Invariably, you might only have four 10Ks, and they won't all be perfect throughout the shoot, so you'll use the best one here and the others over there. My gaffer, Jonathan Lumley, was very attentive to this situation, and kept a close eye on all of my lights. The rest of my crew consisted of operator Phil Oetiker, grip Jim Finnerty, Jr., and first camera assistant Andy Harris. We had all previously worked together on a film called Reckless, and went on to do In The Gloaming right after we wrapped The Ice Storm."
[ continued on page 3 ]