Toronto-based cinematographer Dylan MacLeod says director Clement Virgo threw him for a loop upon their first meeting. MacLeod says he went into it very excited, believing he was going to be involved in a visually striking film, characteristic of Virgo’s previous work. But the director had something different in mind for Love Come Down, the cameraman’s first theatrical feature.

‘He said, ‘I don’t want to do the stylistic thing for this one,’ ‘ MacLeod recalls.

Love Come Down is an urban drama about two brothers in their early 20s, one black, one white, each trying to come to terms with a tragedy that tore their family apart and has their mother imprisoned. Neville (Larenz Tate) is a struggling standup comedian and recovering drug addict, while Matt (Martin Cummins) is a boxer. The film also stars singer Deborah Cox, who plays Niko, Neville’s love interest, and Sarah Polley as Sister Sarah, a nun with a past.

Virgo told MacLeod he didn’t want to shoot on digital, yet wanted to avoid getting tied down with a lot of lighting. MacLeod suggested they push-process the film, allowing them to work with lower lighting levels. MacLeod got the idea for push-processing film after seeing its results in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.

During preproduction, MacLeod performed tests with push-processing and worked with only practical lights and candles to cut down on the lighting package. ‘It was going to facilitate us being able to move quickly and be very mobile,’ he explains.

The crew for Love Come Down was small, allowing the production to shoot 25 setups per day. MacLeod says it was a constant struggle to achieve the balance of keeping it looking like a theatrical film and being able to move at the pace they desired.

Virgo wanted to create a raw and realistic feel in Love Come Down, prompting production designer Jennifer Carol to bring in references to Nan Goldin. MacLeod says it was a good starting point because Goldin, a New York stills photographer, inspired the crew with her unglamorous photography, which epitomized the style they wanted.

MacLeod says, however, that the presence of Cox called for incorporating another style as well. ‘The other end of it is that she is a star – her makeup person had to look through the camera and she had to look fabulous,’ he recalls. MacLeod feels the different styles worked in the end because they were able to create three different worlds, each representing a different aspect of the story.

MacLeod created the flashback world of the brothers by using rear-net diffusion for the effect of a romanticized reminder of the good life. The technique causes a bloom around the lights and candles that, along with his color palette of amber and cyan, created a subtler, less stylized look. Rear-net diffusion was also used for a club scene since the brothers went there in essence to be transported to the past.

Half the film was shot hand-held, hence the reason to use a Moviecam Compact camera, since it is lightweight and facilitates such shooting. The crew made use of cranes in one scene to show the separation of the brothers, and slow dolly moves in romantic scenes. MacLeod says Virgo dislikes Steadicam, which they only used for one scene that needed to be done in a single take.

Other challenges on set included shooting with wide-open lenses. MacLeod says because they had to shoot that way it ‘made it difficult for the focus puller when the characters started walking around.’ He adds the motivation behind shooting wide open was to create a unique look that focused on the character and would pull the audience in.

The boxing scenes were filmed using still photos. ‘We used a high-speed Motorwind stills camera that can shoot up to six frames per second,’ MacLeod explains. The frames were then optically manipulated to achieve a kind of static motion as the characters box. MacLeod says he and Virgo discussed the boxing scenes in Raging Bull, but wanted to keep the scenes looking natural. Color was used whenever Matt was losing to really convey the blood, and black and white was used to create a more stylized, newspaper-type effect for the magic moment when Matt wins.

MacLeod chose Kodak Vision 500T 5279 film stock for its sharpness and realistic color rendering. The producers hesitated due to cost, but MacLeod successfully demonstrated that the Vision 500T would help compensate for the graininess created in push-processing.

The producers had to hire a second unit DOP because of the tight 25-day shooting schedule. MacLeod functioned as his own camera operator for 23 of those days and it became a strain. ‘I will never do it again because it takes me away from the director,’ he says. He admits he has mixed feelings about it because he is very specific about framing and says it is hard to trust another operator.

MacLeod graduated from the film program at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto and got his big break shooting music videos. He recalls that his first music video was shot on a budget of $8,000 for a band called The Twilight Rituals. He says even though he had always wanted to be a writer/director, cinematography provided him with more room for experimentation.

The cameraman’s credits also include many commercials. He recently returned from Mexico, where he lensed a spot for Gatorade. ‘With commercials, style and image is your main concern, but when it comes to features and dramas, style takes a back seat. I’m used to making things look beautiful, but [in Love Come Down] the story demanded I pull back a bit.’

MacLeod was recently nominated for a Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award for best music video cinematography for his work on Big Kenny’s Under the Sun. MacLeod lost out to Christopher Soos, who won for the Smashing Pumpkins’ Stand Inside Your Love.

Love Come Down was submitted to the CSC awards but was disqualified because the producers didn’t get the print in on time. MacLeod says they will consider it for next year’s awards. *