Cinematography Study - The Fountain

PAUL FOREST – CINEMATOGRAPHY STUDY

THE FOUNTAIN

DIRECTED BY DARREN ARONOFSKY
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW LIBATIQUE

For this assignment, I will be looking at the cinematography in the Darren Aronofsky film, The Fountain, which was released in the UK in 2007. The film was shot by frequent Aronofsky collaborator Matthew Libatique who didn’t shoot Aronofsky’s Oscar baiting The Wrestler but who has worked with him on both Pi and Requiem For A Dream as well as the forthcoming Black Swan. Libatique has also worked on Inside Man, Phone Booth and Iron Man and it’s sequel.

My focus is going to be on what I'll call the tree sap sequence which is between the running times of 1:20:40 and 1:23:48 on the DVD (or in it's entirety below). I will specifically be looking at the palette choices as well as how much of it was artificially achieved and how much was in-camera since Aronofsky has said he was looking for a more traditional optical approach rather than CGI for the film.

The sequence itself is the final conquistador sequence with Tomas finally finding the Tree of Life which will supposedly save Spain. Whether it does or not is never confirmed but from what happens after this sequence, we can assume that he is successful. When he arrives, via the Mayan temple, he discovers the tree of life and using a religious dagger previously taken from a Mayan priest, thrusts it into it's bark releasing it's sap. Upon drinking this, one is supposed to “live forever” when in fact, he does not live forever as himself but he is turned to earth and plant life. Since the Queen knew that the Inquisitor was coming for her, I assume that she meant that they would live forever in the afterlife.

The sequence is very distinct and unforgettable and I believe this is down to the look of it. The colour palette of mainly golds and whites, were chosen 2 years before production as Matthew Libatique mentions in his American Cinematographer interview:

“When I work with Darren, we always talk about the palette first because it's an element we try to limit. Once Darren sets the pallete, it becomes my job, -along with the production designer and costume designer- to adhere to that choice.”

Libatique goes on to mention that the colour gold is said to represent the Mayans and a sort of “fools gold, a false truth.” The whites are said to represent mortality and truth which is why Izzy is enveloped in white light, or entirely dressed in white, throughout the film since she is used as a metaphor for the truth. While these colours are the main choice throughout the film, the tree sap sequence also contains green which Libatique says represents the “colour of life”, which is the reason why as Tomas is dying, it is deeply green plants that burst from his body.

While the choice of colour was key and emphasised many subtleties throughout, there was another reason for the pallete to be kept consistent.

“We wanted to facilitate the editing. The movie was going to cut jarringly by virtue of what you saw in the frame, but if we were consistent with the colour, at least that element wouldn't seem so jarring.”

In post-production, Libatique also did some fine tuning in the Digital Intermediate. He wanted to create fluid transitions between the golds in each of the time periods. The Efilm colourists also allowed him to get true white which wasn't quite possible to achieve in-camera.
Beyond the palette, Aronofsky knew that he wanted to create a film that was visually unique and wouldn't date too badly. The majority of the space and star effects were shot with macro photography, using many close-ups on chemical reactions. These give the film a very believable and familiar feeling while showing you images that are almost entirely alien.
The sets for the film were all constructed in a linear fashion to help represent the journey. The Tree of Life set was all physically built in Montreal, though green screen water and a tree extension was used for the first establishing shot in the sequence. CGI was implemented for the background of the shot to show the vast expanse behind the Mayan temple but this was more of a “CGI Matte” than a visual effect and something which would be very hard and expensive to shoot practically. In the wider, profile shots of Tomas with the tree to the left of frame, the background used was a cyclorama which helped sell the realism in the sequence and the water in the background was also created fairly conventionally, with someone using a massive piece of wood off-camera.

To light the sequence, Libatique created sources for light as often as possible throughout the film:

“We talked a lot about creating sources that would justify the light we were seeing. It was like working backwards. I would create the effect of something, and they had to justify it with a credible source.”

These sources can be seen shining through the tree in the sequence where the surroundings also act as backlight and fill since the source light bounces across the water and tree foliage.
Like the set, the elements in the transformation sequence where Tomas no longer becomes human and instead becomes plant-life, is almost entirely practical. Early in the sequence, the sap which oozes from the tree is creamy frosting which was created on-set, minutes before shooting. The white fizz that can be seen on Tomas' stomach when he places the sap on there was one of the simplest effects; Alka-seltzer which actor Hugh Jackman would then rub water onto to create the effect.
In order to create the flowers bursting from Tomas at the end of the sequence a mix of practical and computer generated effects were used. A “bladder of flowers” was created and prop flowers burst from behind the costume. Hugh Jackman was placed underneath the stage and wore a torso which was remotely controlled off-screen. The flowers coming from his mouth were also practical though all of these practical flowers couldn't do one thing: bloom. This is one of the few times that Aronofsky relented to using CGI, though it was only after all of the possible practical routes were followed.

Through the research of this essay, I have realised how important the colour pallet choice is for any film and how even a specific colour can assist the storytelling. I have also learned that even though many filmmakers seem to only create worlds inside a computer, many still want to create them in-camera. This has all informed my knowledge and in pursuit of my specialism next year, I'll be sure to think of colour as well as simply lighting a scene.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Calhoun
"Eternal Love"
American Cinematographer
November 2006

Darren Aronofsky
The Fountain Audio Commentary
http://darrenaronofskyforum.com/index/
2007

20th Century Fox
"Spain - 16th Century"
The Fountain DVD Special Features
2007

20th Century Fox
"The 21st Century"
The Fountain DVD Special Features
2007

20th Century Fox
"The Endless Field"
The Fountain DVD Special Features
2007