focuses on plight of ch during war - Kodak

Feature Film
2
InCamera April 2005
Innocent Voices (Voces inocentes)
takes an unflinching look at war
through the eyes of a child. The
film is set in El Salvador during
the 1980s, when the victims of anticommunist
death squads included nuns,
priests and children. A recurrent theme
is that the reasons for war are always
insignificant to its most defenseless
victims.
“Our goal was to portray the civil war
in El Salvador as something that could be
happening anywhere on the planet,” says
Juan Ruiz-Anchia, ASC. “The specifics,
how the war is structured, are in the
background. We focused instead on how
the war immediately affected the living
conditions of children.”
In a review of
Innocent Voices,
Hollywood Reporter critic
Kirk Honeycutt wrote,
“Director Luis Mandoki
and his accomplished
cinematographer present the brutality of
war and the contrast of the land’s beauty
in pleasant colors… it’s both intimate
and epic. The film presents the theme
of war through a child’s perspective…
where for a child, there is room for
games, falling in love and dreams… this
is all accomplished on the screen by
Innocent
<strong>focuses</strong> on plight of
during war
not subduing to the darkness and harsh
appearance that war can have… but
rather… a child’s eyes sees everything
just as it is… without losing the colors
and beauty of his surroundings.”
The film also took home the 2005
Stanley Kramer Award presented by the
Producers Guild of America.
Ruiz-Anchia is a native of Bilbao,
Spain. He studied at the Escuela Oficial
de Cinematografia in Madrid before
graduating from the American Film
Institute (AFI) in 1979. His AFI film,
Miss Lonelyhearts, won a prize at
Cannes and was shown on PBS. He has
subsequently compiled more than 35
film credits, including House of Games,
Spartan, Where the River Runs Black,
The Seventh Sign, Glengarry Glen
Ross, A Far Off Place and At Close
Range. He received a Goya award for his
cinematography on Mararia.
Towards the end of the Salvador
conflict, fighting forces would kidnap
children as young as 11 and force them
to become soldiers. The protagonist of
Innocent Voices is one of these children.
The audience experiences the story from
his perspective.
“I never thought the results could be so incredible with a
500-speed film. Shooting conditions were very difficult.
We were filming in jungles, mountains and other
places with a lot of variation in light.”
“Children see reality in different
ways,” explains the cinematographer.
“There are some amusing moments in
the film, but we always tried to make the
camera a participant in the events, rather
than a passive observer.”

Voices
children
The filmmakers used multiple
cameras to capture the performances
of the children, who were not actors.
A recreation of a fierce battle near a
school was filmed with as many as seven
cameras. That was one of the reasons
why Mandoki and Ruiz-Anchia decided
to film Innocent Voices in the Super
16mm format combined with a digital
intermediate process in post-production.
Ruiz-Anchia used a variety of
cameras, including ARRI 16SR-3s,
usually in combination with zoom
lenses. Cameras were often mounted on
Steadicam rigs for smooth movement
without laying track. He occasionally
utilized Lenny arms and other cranes for
a more distant perspective, and handheld
shots when the mood called for more
energy.
“In this type of movie, where you’re
recreating a war zone, you want to fit
in with that feeling,” Ruiz-Anchia says.
“The idea is you go to this war zone
and you try to shoot part of the action
PHOTO: DOUGLAS KIRKLAND.
“Children see reality in different ways. There are some amusing
moments in the film, but we always tried to make the camera
a participant in the events, rather than a passive observer.”
without being noticed, as if you are there
participating in the event. That was our
theory.”
Ruiz-Anchia reports that experienced
crewmembers were plentiful. “Fernando
Moreno, my gaffer, was crucial,” he
says. “The crews were fast and good. We
had to move quickly through the entire
shoot.”
Ruiz-Anchia used a variety of stocks
including Kodak VISION2 500T 7218 film.
Feature Film
Above left: DP Juan Ruiz-Anchia, ASC.
Above right and main picture:
Scenes from Voces Inocentes, shot by
DP Juan Ruiz-Anchia, ASC.
April 2005 InCamera 3

4
Above: (Front, L-R), Producer
Lawrence Bender, director
Luis Mandoki, and DP Juan Ruiz-
Anchia, ASC discussing a scene
for Voces Inocentes.
Above right and below: Scenes
from Voces Inocentes, shot by
DP Juan Ruiz-Anchia, ASC.
InCamera April 2005
“I was very pleasantly surprised,” says Ruiz-Anchia. “I never
thought the results could be so incredible with a 500-speed
film. Shooting conditions were very difficult. We were filming
in jungles, mountains and other places with a lot of variation
in light. I had to change stocks a lot, especially when I lost the
light. But we were able to match everything through the digital
intermediate process used in post-production.”
The film was shot mostly at exterior locations in Mexico.
Often days would begin sunny and
turn cloudy in the afternoon.
Ruiz-Anchia and his Mexican crew
used a large complement of lights
including 12K HMIs to recreate
sunny conditions during the
afternoon and into the evenings. In
addition to matching for continuity,
he used the digital intermediate
30
“We wanted to maintain the beauty
of the jungles to help emphasize
the horrible situation taking place
within. In those scenes we went for
saturated, lush colors and additional
contrast. In other scenes we
desaturated colors.”
process to fine tune special looks for certain situations.
“We wanted to maintain the beauty of the jungles to help
emphasize the horrible situation taking place within,” he says.
“In those scenes we went for saturated, lush colors and additional
contrast. In other scenes we desaturated colors.”
Ruiz-Anchia said that grain was not a problem.
“We had the option to control the grain digitally, but as you
diffuse the grain, you lose sharpness, so we chose not to,” he
says. “I also created many shadows to enhance separation for
photographic reasons. This was not a movie where I could take
a lot of time for lighting on the set because then you lose that
moment. The small, lightweight Super 16mm cameras combined
with the ability to improve the look of the images through digital
techniques were perfect for this film.”
Digital color timing was done at FotoKem in Burbank,
California. Ruiz-Anchia praised the real-time interactivity and the
large, accurate screen used in the process. Innocent Voices was
Ruiz-Anchia’s first experience with the Super 16mm format.
“Of course I had shot 16mm, but not very much,” he says. “I
found Super 16mm to be very useful, and I learned a lot from
this project. The process will probably continue to improve as
film stocks get better and better. When I see a preview or festival
screening of the film, it’s impossible for the audience to tell it
wasn’t 35mm. I look forward to shooting more Super 16mm. The
option is there for the right project.”
He adds that the impact of the film on audiences is strong.
“People see the film and they are outraged,” he says. “It seems
so real. They demand action and ask what they can do to prevent
this in the future. That’s the whole point. That’s what we wanted
to achieve with this movie.”
PHOTOS: COURTESY OF LAWRENCE BENDER PRODUCTIONS AND ALTAVISTA FILMS.