‘I had to shoot this film as a one-man crew’: DP Luke Lorenzen on A Still Small Voice

An ambitious priest named Mattie deals with tragedy, grief and his own bandwidth to deal with the untold losses of the pandemic in Still a small voice, the latest from documentary filmmaker Luke Lorenzen. Wrapping up a year-long residency in the spiritual care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Lorenzen captures the battle of Mattie and her supervisor, Rev. David, to maintain hope and warmth between 2020 and 2021, two of the deadliest years on record of the USA.

Lorenzen, who directed, shot and edited the film, discusses how shooting one person allowed him to blend into the documentary’s setting – and gain the trust of his subjects – more easily.

See all the answers to our annual Sundance Filmmaker Interviews here.

director: How and why did you end up cinematographer on your film? What were the factors and qualities that led to your being hired for this job?

Lorenzen: Due to the sensitive subject matter of this film (as well as the hospital’s COVID-19 restrictions), I had to shoot this film as a one-man crew. Not having an on-site team meant I was juggling a lot of things at once, but I was able to blend in more easily with the hospital and the residence, which I think led to deeper levels of trust with the people I was photographing. Photography became a very personal process where the intimacy of our relationship was often not hindered by complex technical needs.

director: What were your artistic goals for this film and how did you realize them? How did you want your cinematography to enhance the film’s storytelling and treatment of its characters?

Lorenzen: I wanted my cinematography to create a sense of presence – close, connected and right there with the priests and patients I was photographing. I was afraid of images that would draw attention to themselves and worked for a very consistent and clean visual style. Every scene in the film was shot on a tripod and almost always on 45mm, f/2.6.

director: Were there any specific influences on your cinematography, whether it was other films, visual art, photography or anything else?

Lorenzen: I was able to see Alice Neel’s show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art just as I was starting the production, and her paintings had a big impact on me. Each portrait managed to reveal so much about the person depicted without any clever tricks. Her deeply empathetic style was something I was in awe of at the time and carried with me through this shoot.

The Chambermaid, a film directed by Lila Aviles, was also inspiring for the ways it made a rather sterile hotel building feel cinematic and compelling.

director: What were the biggest challenges posed by the production for these purposes?

Lorenzen: It took many weeks to learn how to shoot around the masks that most of the people in the film had to wear when they were in the hospital. Whenever possible, I tried to include both eyes of the person I was photographing. Eyes became the primary source of facial expression and personality I was able to capture, as profile pictures seemed unusually difficult to read.

director: What camera did you shoot with? Why did you choose the camera you did? What lenses did you use?

Lorenzen: I shot this film on an Arri Amira with an Angenieux Optimo 28-76mm lens. I knew from very early on that this was going to be a film about faces, and I fell in love with how beautifully Amira captures the skin tones. The Amira provided a deeply cinematic look that I felt matched the importance and meaning of the conversations I was filming.

director: Describe your approach to lighting.

Lorenzen: I decided early on not to light any of the scenes in the film, but I often played with the available light sources in active ways – especially in the rooms I shot regularly. For example, I would place the window blinds consistently in the same places at certain times of the day, or mark the light dimmer in the room so that the space appears consistently lit from day to day. I loved the gift of a conference room with a working dimmer.

director: What was the hardest scene to pull off and why? And how did you do it?

Lorenzen: The resident group met every Tuesday to discuss patient cases and I had to cover these conversations – which were between five people – with one camera. Getting the right coverage without moving around the room in a distracting or chaotic manner was difficult. I came to learn the pace at which each resident spoke and got better over the year at predicting where to be and when.

director: Finally, describe the ending of the film. How much of your look was “baked in” versus realized in DI?

Lorenzen: The final look of the film was very much in the source material, but the colors came to life after working with colorist extraordinaire Phaedra Robledo. We worked to preserve the natural skin tones and authentic feel of the hospital, while reviving some of the brighter colors naturally in the material, such as the teal uniforms of the nurses or the blue walls of the spiritual care unit.

TECHNICAL BOX

Movie Title: Still a small voice

Camera: Ari Amira

lenses: Angenieux Optimo 28-76

Color Gradation: Davinci Resolve with Phaedra Robledo