Michaël Capron discusses his work on Wei Liang Chiang’s "Mongrel"

Oom is a Thai undocumented worker living in the remote hills of Taiwan. He is the trusted new assistant of Chang, who runs a human trafficking operation linked to providing health care in the island’s secluded areas. Among his many tasks as a henchman, Oom helps take care of an elderly sick woman who lives alone with a young disabled man. A relationship of trust, but also one imbued with despair, develops between them. Soon, Oom is faced with a difficult choice and will have to pick a side.

Initial contact and directorial choices
We were introduced – the director Wei Liang Chiang and I - by the French co-producer of the film, Marie Dubas, when Wei Liang was looking for a director of photography for his project in Taiwan. At the time, I was in the middle of preparing a feature film in Bogotá, but upon reading the script, I was impressed by the quality of the writing and the depth of the subject matter for a debut feature. I immediately said yes. I remember that we exchanged a lot about cherished filmmakers and the delicate question of representing the marginalized and suffering on screen. I recall mentioning Pedro Costa’s work and the concept of dignity amidst suffering.

Despite the complex storyline involving the characters caught up in a spiral of events, the directorial choice was to dedramatize. In terms of visuals, this translated into using static shots, giving each scene the right distance, also reflected in the camera’s positioning at a certain height. Wei Liang, who is very meticulous about frame composition, opted for the 4:3 aspect ratio, often favouring an arrangement that centred the bodies, employing the centripetal principle of framing.

The backgrounds in interiors were usually blank walls or small windows with drawn curtains. When we needed more distance, the camera would move to another room and we filmed through the door frame. Even outdoors, Oom was mostly framed as if imprisoned, framing within a frame, (doorways, corridors), or advancing into misty spaces, with no perspective.

The choice of sets was crucial and led to many discussions with the design team. The challenge was twofold : to find indoor locations that would suit the story and the exterior scenes, but also to ensure that no direct sunlight reached them. The steep mountain ranges on the eastern side of the island provided the right weather for the film’s mood. Access to these landlocked areas was nonetheless difficult, given that the peaks quickly reach an altitude of 2,000 metres above sea level, or even 3,000 metres at times.

Technical choices
From a technical standpoint, we enhanced this effect by using relatively open apertures, creating a more ethereal atmosphere. The shallow depth of field also helped isolate the characters from their surroundings.

The light was also worked on in this way, whether diffused or reflected outside above the windows using a ’cap’ system with bounce lighting. With the Taiwanese gaffer, Liu Chen Wei, we redirected the light indoors using different qualities of reflectors. The light was often chosen to be very soft for our night-time settings, making the sets and characters glow. For some scenes, I remember having almost no readings on my light meter.

We filmed with the Arri Alexa Mini, in RAW to move away from the surgical look of digital. Using the Zeiss GO series also enabled us to move in this direction. We needed a lens series without too many aberrations, not overtly vintage. Rather rounded yet sober and compact, this lens series favoured working in underexposure and to create the twilight, dark tone of the film.

We set the camera at 2,000 ISO and often worked around f/1.8 or f/2 for the night scenes. The combination of these settings contributed to bringing more vulnerability to the image.

Regarding our lighting sources, we opted for traditional lighting, HMI or tungsten. We preferred using colour gelatine rather than obtaining hues via DMX, which ultimately offers less richness and subtlety.
With Yeh Tzu Wei, the Taiwanese art director, and the gaffer on location, we experimented using various colour gelatine samples on certain sets. The idea was to share our preparatory research and familiarise ourselves with what the main aesthetic lines of the project might be. It was a good way for us to discuss concrete images, given that I didn’t speak Mandarin like the rest of the team. One of the colours we spent a lot of time thinking about was the beam that was to be reflected from a rotating incandescent filament radiator. This was an important element in the script, rhythmically marking, like an impassive witness, through its back-and-forth movements, the difficult scenes of May’s death.

Challenges
Among the delicate scenes we had to shoot, I particularly remember the shot where Oom is beaten by his boss Chang. For this shot, filmed in the last light of the day, the camera was placed indoors facing a door that revealed the character stepping out onto the threshold and descending the steps in the pouring rain, after an ambulance had left the courtyard. The coordination of movements and successive actions required a lot of rehearsals to be perfectly ready to shoot 2 or 3 takes maximum per hour and balance the interior light as the day faded outside. The space cut out through the door, creating depth, placed the scene of Oom’s beating in the background, on the edge of the visible, as if on the verge of disappearing.

I’d like to extend my warmest thanks to the Singaporean and Taiwanese teams, who were wonderful and passionate, despite the uncertainty surrounding Taiwan’s future. Special thanks also to Clément Hervouet.

(Headings by the editor)