Lucie Baudinaud, AFC, reveals her way of work on "Bis Repetita", by Emilie Noblet

How did you get involved in the project ?
Lucie Baudinaud : I have known Emilie since our study years at La Femis. I have since accompanied her on all her projects, we have filmed several series together including "The 7 Lives of Léa", filmed in the south of France with Panavision as camera service provider.

How would you describe the look of the project ?
LB : I would say that we generally sought to use bold, saturated colors in all places : whether in the sets, the costumes, and the lighting. Neutral light sources are rare : on the French side, the streets are lit by Mercury, blue-green sources, the chosen high school is very colorful, and all the extras have received a color chart, depending on the settings in which they would see, so that they could match their outfits to the colors of the sequences…

In Naples, the streets are all lit with Sodium and the sources are sometimes tinted with 3 full CTOs to make the most of red, and thus almost leave the more consensual orange. The settings are warmer, in natural contrast with the winter part which opens the film, in France.

From a cutting point of view, we shot anamorphic with AL CFlenses, which bring great dynamics to the shots. Lots of Dolly, movements that stylize comedy whenever the narration allows it. The idea was a mix between a visual grammar borrowed from American comedy, while remaining faithful to the auteur comedy to which we are very attached.

Are there any visual references that inspired you ?
LB : There are always many from very varied backgrounds. For light and colors, I do a lot of research on phonogram sites like ShotDeck ; which brings a very wide variety.

For the cutting research, there is Bridget Jones, Ocean’s 11, Les Beaux gosses or even The Spanish Apartment... When I start preparing a film, I re-see all those to which we refer from our beginnings. first exchanges with Emilie (or the director of a more general nature), and I note the shots which give me ideas for certain sequences. Using a little editing software, I collect these shots in extracts which I show to Emilie, and if this inspires a specific desire in her, we classify it by sequence so that the idea of the shot is clear to everyone.

This is the case of the shot on the Van when they return from Pompeii (Ocean’s 11), of the circular top shot when she leaves the villa (Bridget Jones), of the different road movie shots (Little Miss Sunshine), of the movements in high school (A Serious Man) ...

What brought you to Panavision for this project ?
LB : Panavision is always one of the service providers I call upon for film preparation. Guillaume Demaret has been with me since my diploma film at La Femis, in 2013... On this project, Emilie and I wanted to shoot with the PrimoAL Close focus, so the collaboration was in this direction.

What attracted you to the specific lenses you chose ?
LB : These Primos have a rare optical quality in anamorphic. The close focus is something important in what this allows in staging. Also, the deformations are quite discreet, and the faces are rendered very faithfully at almost all focal lengths. The quality of the anamorphic blurs is also very beautiful and brings an aesthetic to each shot. Their size/weight does not allow us to consider them often, on this film it was possible, so that’s why we were able to choose them.

What inspired you to become a cinematographer and what inspires you today ?
LB : I remember always wanting to do this job... at a time when, ultimately, I didn’t know what it really was ! I was first attracted by the setting because it was ultimately what was within my reach the earliest, my grandfather’s camera. It was at the beginning of my studies that I became aware of the work of light, and little by little, of its emotional power.

Today I feel sensitive to many things in my environment, I have the feeling that my brain imprints many luminous events in my daily life to reinject them into ideas throughout the films.