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The Project: Ripple Effect
The Client: YBG Productions, Director: Philippe Caland

Synopsis: Fashion designer Amer Atrash, perpetually on the verge of success, is undergoing a personal crisis in both his marriage and career. Attributing his misfortune to bad karma from a wrongdoing committed fifteen years prior, he sets out to correct his mistake, and in doing so, experiences a spiritual awakening.

Background Information: Philippe Caland set out to direct Ripple Effect in a style that would allow him to capture performance as naturally as possible. Philippe's approach is not to allow actors to read the script, instead giving them an outline of the story and its arc. This technique allows the characters to be natural and spontaneous when the cameras roll.

Cinematic Treatment: Because of this approach to capturing unscripted dialogue, we shot on Hi-Def, which allowed us the freedom to shoot 40- minute takes.

Being a very visual DP I work hard to utilize light, lensing, and camera movement to influence the audience's emotional response to a story. With emotional scenes I like actors to have close eyelines to the camera, so the audience can connect intimately with the characters. Philippe's approach is to shoot dialogue with two cameras, for cross coverage. Cross-covering is challenging for many reasons. Eyelines need to be a little looser and camera movement is restricted to keep the opposing camera out of frame. Also you have to light for both camera angles simultaneously.

In a traditional filmmaking approach you repeat and hone each take for performance and technique. With an unscripted approach, each take has an individuality all its own. If you miss a moment of great acting because of technical inefficiency, that moment could quite possibly never be recaptured, so it's a taxing style for a visual DP.

However Philippe's approach has its rewards in that Ripple Effect is filled with authentic, natural performances.