Michał Dymek, PSC, speaks about the shooting of "EO", by Jerzy Skolimowski

When he recalls his first reading of the script, Michal Dymek immediately cites the precision and quality of writing of the great Polish filmmaker. “It was a treat to devour this scenario. Apart from the story, which immediately touched me, the descriptions and the way the donkey’s journey was put together spoke for themselves. No real need to add anything. Jerzy Skolimowski and his co-screenwriter Ewa Piaskowska had a good handle on it all and a perfectly honed concept. Although of course Au hasard Balthazar can be cited as a kind of model for EO, we didn’t strive to create visual references to that film. Apart from a few ideas here and there, such as the stroboscopic shots at the start of the film at the circus, or later when he is in the horse stable (where we wanted to evoke the very first films and Edward Muybridge’s sequential photos of horses), it was above all the scouting and the screentests that brought us to what the film ended up looking like. I would also like to emphasize the very important role of Ewa Piaskowska, who was the third person in the creative process, and the way the film evolved subsequent to the first preproduction meetings.”

This was his first time working with Jerzy Skolimowski, and Michał Dymek was at first surprised the great filmmaker was offering him this opportunity. “I joined the project a bit by chance. It wasn’t I who was originally supposed to film EO, rather Michał Englert. Because of the pandemic and various hinderances he had to abandon the film and he introduced me to Jerzy. I was extraordinarily lucky to win his trust and to be able to work on this film. The end result is really a synergy between an extremely experienced filmmaker and a much-less-experienced young DoP !”
Beginning with a somewhat improbable journey that leads donkey EO from Scylla to Charybdis, Michał Dymek emphasizes how deeply cinema’s nature was to the heart of this film : “You know, making viewers feel the emotion when your protagonist is a donkey isn’t really easy. Many members of the crew at first were even wondering how Jerzy Skolimosky was going to narrate his film, and how we were going to be able to draw emotions from such a stubborn animal on set. This is where the nature of cinema fully plays its role. Jerzy has such a mastery of narration and editing that it was day by day on the set that we managed to find tricks in each sequence to literally create situations out of nothing and to give the impression that our different actors were playing a role. In fact, it wasn’t so much that we focused on the moment ; our concern was chiefly whether or not what we were doing had continuity with what we’d already done and whether it would convey to the viewer what the script was describing. We communicated daily with the editor, Agnieska Glinska, who was working along with the shooting, and she sometimes guided us on a given narrative solution and helped us to solve some difficult situations. I remember, for example, that it was she who suggested to us the subjective shot of the donkey when it escapes from the farm on which it has been penned up. The sequence where he manages to open the gate to finally escape out onto the road was really problematic for the animals. And Agnieska’s idea really helped us that day. The sequence suddenly looked organic, and that worked !”

Asked about how he achieved his cinematographic goals with the animal, Michał Dymek says : “Mainly, EO is played by two different donkeys. But for the needs of certain sequences, like the opening one in the circus, we brought in a trained animal to perform the scene. I remember, it was an Italian donkey and the actress who plays Kassandra was able to perform an incredible choreography with him. For the rest, it required quite a bit of patience, and some tricks, such as several kilos of carrots to bait him, or sometimes a member of the opposite sex discreetly placed offscreen to bait him. These little donkey love affairs were useful to us on some shots ! We had to be extremely flexible on each scene, in order to adapt to this somewhat unpredictable actor !”

The shooting schedule was 37 days long, with one-week-long modules, and breaks to move the crew from location to location. The film was shot all over Poland, from the north to the south of the country. In addition, the team also stayed briefly in Austria to take some mountain shots, then finally to Rome, Italy to film the last part of the story. Shooting began in February 2021 and ended in March 2022, juggling between the pandemic and the various travel restrictions. “As soon as he started writing,” explains Michał Dymek, “Jerzy wanted to integrate the passage of time into his film. The film was to start in springtime and then all the other seasons were to be depicted in order. But the scheduling complications got the better of this idea, and the final cut does not perfectly follow this initial desire. In fact, you quickly develop an instinctive way of working because of the presence of animals. One of the image decisions that suddenly imposed itself on me was the desire to be as close as possible to EO. It is for this very practical reason that I decided to carry the Alexa Mini LF on my shoulder most of the time, and I adopted a bare-bones, very lightweight configuration without HF autofocus or bulkty accessories. Responsiveness was the key to getting the most out of each shot with the animals. However, this setup was not set in stone for the entire shoot. We also used a Steadicam, for example, during the scene where the animals flee the farm at dusk. Drones were also used for some aerial shots, as well as gyrostabilized systems when necessary. In terms of lenses, I was able to perform a few tests before starting, comparing a Leica R series with a Canon K35 series. In the end, it was the Canon series that I chose, because when used at 2.8, its rendering had a truly magical look. It perfectly made EO stand out from the rest of the image when necessary, and had a very beautiful bokeh. At first, I had even thought of using filters like the ones that Vantage rents out (the Bethke series) that would create even more distortion at the edges. But in the end, I was satisfied with this series’ rendering, with all the small defects which impart character to EO’s visuals. Regarding focal length, almost everything is shot with a 35mm, with a few shots with a 50mm. I sometimes used the 19 mm Leica R for very wide shots, or on the contrary, for macro shots (like the one on the eye of the donkey, which recurs like a leitmotif throughout the film) at 60 mm Leica R whose rendering in close focus is fantastic. As for the choice of the aspect ratio (1.5 precisely), it was quite simbly because of the shape of EO’s head. All the shots on him looked much better with this ratio, and anyway I didn’t really have in mind a film that would be a tribute to Robert Bresson’s cinema in CinemaScope.”

One of the most impressive sequences of the film is when EO crosses the forest at night after escaping from the farm. Michał Dymek explains : “For this night sequence, we considered several locations. First, the forest, which includes a little waterfall at the bottom of the valley. It’s true that in Poland, there is no shortage of forests, that’s the least that can be said ! But what seemed essential to me was to find sufficiently hilly undergrowth, with the possibility of filming from above, and to take advantage of the slope to be able to put my lights on booms at the top. We did find the right location, the lighting setup was comprised of a square lightbox hung as a toplight for the moon effect (using SkyPanels 360) and two 18 kW, one facing the other, which were used (or not) depending on the direction and the route that EO wanted to take !

With a combination of real smoke in the valley and authentic laser sights like the ones used by hunters, this sequence was shot in real night. It is true that the rendering of this scene is more romantic than the rest of the film. I think we wanted to place EO in this scary environment, with all the wild animals that he has probably never encountered in his life... It had a bit of a fantasy film look, close to German romantic painting ! Just after when EO passes by a cliff, before getting to the watermill, there, we had to do night-for-day, because I simply did not have the means at my disposal to light this very vast place. Finally, on the third location of this sequence, the mill, there, we are again at night, with nacelles. The weather was disastrous that day, and we even considered postponing this scene for a few days. But it was already March, and the leaves were beginning to appear on the trees. I preferred to shoot in the rain, rather than find myself without any light at all because of the foliage that would have obstructed my lights on booms.

(Interview conducted by François Reumont, and translated from French by A. Baron-Raiffe, for the AFC)