RULE OF THREE
By Natasha Block Hicks
The British film producer Dame Emma Thomas once said, “The great thing about a trilogy is that it feels like you’ve got a beginning, a middle and an end”. She may have been referencing her own body of work, but does this epithet apply across all trilogies? What of non-consecutive trilogies, linked only by concept or theme?
The latest trio of award-winning features from Norwegian writer/director Dag Johan Haugerud, all shot by DP Cecilie Semec FNF, form just such an example. Indeed, the sequence in which the films were shot was neither their notional arrangement at the time, nor their final running order.
Sex (2024) – the opening film – is an exploration of the validity of the rules that might be used to define someone as monogamous, heterosexual or male.
Love/Kjærlighet (2024) – the intended final film that ended-up being the central piece – examines the idea of different kinds of intimacy.
Dreams (Sex Love)/Drømmer (2024) is a coming-of-age tale following three generations of women within the same family as they confront their differing views on love and self-discovery, and contend with the burgeoning sexuality of Johanne, the youngest of the trio.
“The films are each quite different,” explains Semec, who first worked with Haugerud shooting projection footage for the Norwegian National Ballet.
“The interlinking themes are about sexuality, identity and desire and how those things free us as human beings.” The completion of the trilogy totals five feature projects she has shot with Haugerud to date.
“This film was more about the light and how to describe the feeling of love”
The trilogy films were funded by the Norwegian Film Institute, with a budget of 14m Norwegian Kroner apiece: approximately $1.33mUSD. Love was shot over 28 days in August 2022, with Dreams, on a 22-day schedule, following four weeks later, although unfortunately both Semec and Haugerud caught Covid for the first time during this already tight prep period. Sex, a springtime-set story, was shot last, in April 2023.
A modest development budget allowed Semec and Haugerud a few weeks of soft prep a year or so before the trilogy was actually green-lit, during which the pair scouted locations with Semec’s stills camera.
“The city of Oslo is like a character of its own in Dreams,” illustrates Semec. “Dag Johan is very logical in his approach; if the scene was set at night, we would meet up at night, and go around capturing visual sketches. It is very important to him to portray the streets truthfully.”
She details a scene where Johanne, played by Ella Øverbye, walks from the Botanical Gardens, through the old town, down to the harbour.
“We followed that exact route,” Semec relates, “Dag Johan will not try to fake it.
“It was fun filming in Oslo,” she elaborates. “The city is so beautiful, all the lights and colours, and there are many streets that have never been portrayed on film before.”
Haugerud envisioned the three films of his trilogy as visually-distinct from each other. Sex was shot on the ARRI Alexa Mini with Hawk Anamorphics, utilising “lots of shock zooms and plenty of white”, with Semec and Haugerud discussing references such as work of Jean-Luc Godard and The Graduate (1967, dir. Mike Nichols, DP Robert Surtees ASC).
For Love, shot large format 1.85:1 flat, Semec and Haugerud examined the framing in Rosemary’s Baby (1968, dir. Roman Polanski, DP William Fraker ASC BSC), viewed a 70mm copy of South Pacific (1958, dir. Joshua Logan, DP Leon Shamroy ASC) and Semec rewatched one of her personal favourites: The Conversation (1974, dir. Francis Ford Coppola, DP Bill Butler ASC).
“It was different with Dreams however,” she reflects, “I felt the film was more about the light and how to describe the feeling of love. We didn’t have any shared film references, but we looked at stills photographers such as Sarah Moon and David Hamilton.”
For her own personal reference, Semec reviewed coming-of-age films, notably The Virgin Suicides (1999, dir. Sofia Coppola, DP Ed Lachman ASC), and Blue Is The Warmest Colour/La Vie D’Adèle (2013, dir. Abdellatif Kechiche, DP Sofian El Fani), the latter particularly for its handheld work, which Haugerud had requested for Dreams, also to be presented in 1.85:1 flat.
“We had never worked handheld together before so that was interesting,” reveals Semec. “We had to reinvent how we told the story.”
Dreams was shot on the ARRI Alexa Mini LF with Cooke Mini S4/i primes, supplied by Storyline Studios, Oslo, who also provided the lighting package, grading and sound design.
“The Alexa Mini LF is a nice handheld camera,” states Semec, “and I love the warmth of the Cooke lenses and how they capture faces.”
The short, Covid-scuppered prep time before Dreams meant that there was no time for Semec to prepare a LUT, her preferred way of shooting.
The DP says she likes to operate the camera herself. “That’s the fun part,” Semec enthuses. “You see the performance first-hand and move together with the actors, like a dance. I really enjoy that.”
Supporting her on-camera were 1st AC Kjetil Fodnes and camera assistant Jakob Benum.
“They are very flexible,” she says warmly, “and when we’re out in the streets, capturing more documentary-style footage, I can tell they are really enjoying themselves.”
Gaffer Henning Høifødt also collaborated with Semec across all three films.
“Henning was a very important person for me artistically,” details Semec. “He’s a good listener and has an eye for detail. It’s easy to lose control of certain aspects of the lighting when you are going handheld, but when I looked back, Henning was always by the monitor, watching everything. There’s a lot of trust there.”
Semec’s lighting package included Velvet Light battery LEDs and Dedolight PB70s.
“They are perfect for a small film like this,” she comments, “and my background in documentary means I am comfortable working with natural light to a high degree.”
To give her the freedom to move handheld when shooting interior scenes, lamps were rigged to the ceiling, and the production designer Tuva Hølmebakk provided plenty of practical sources on dimmers to help Semec motivate the lighting.
One of Haugerud’s recurring motifs throughout his films is the positioning of characters for long takes near a window, through which life outside can be seen turning in its ordinary routine.
“I think of it as a study of life in action, and how a person and society are intertwined is crucial,” explains Semec.
To balance the interior light to the exterior glare in a single frame was a challenge, however a careful choice of location and luck with the weather helped. When Haugerud received the Golden Bear for Dreams at the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival, Semec was delighted when director Todd Haynes, who presented the award, mentioned his appreciation of how the camera was a patient observer within the story.
“I was glad because that is something I really enjoy when I watch other movies,” she reflects.
Semec says the thrills of shooting Dreams often shared the same airspace as the challenges.
“We were allowed only 30 minutes to film in the Botanical Garden in Oslo, for a key scene,” she relates. “The guard was checking his watch whilst everyone pulled together to get three set-ups of Ella sitting there in this black night, with the illuminated greenhouse behind. That’s the beauty of having a small crew.”
“I love the warmth of the Cooke lenses and how they capture faces”
Another challenge were the reduced daylight hours in Norway in November.
“We had long, dialogue-driven scenes to capture between 10am and 3pm whilst keeping continuity in the light,” relates Semec. ‘However we also had the uniquely intimate darkness of November, which was a blessing.
“I loved shooting the scene in the teacher’s apartment,” she continues. “During the camera test Dag Johan wanted to add more and more filters to create this magical, warm world which would portray how it feels to be in love when you’re 17.”
Colourist Christian Wieberg-Nielsen handled the DI grade as part of the Storyline Studios package.
“I’d done several short films with Christian before, he has a good eye, and it was great to have him for all three films,” highlights Semec. “Dag Johan was in the editing process at the same time, which boosted the collaboration.
“I’m just so grateful that I got to shoot these meaningful films for Dag Johan and that Sex and Dreams got presented at the Berlinale and Love at the Venice Film Festival,” she continues. “Hopefully this will make it easier for people to see our films.”
Semec wouldn’t say no to another multi-picture project in future.
“I would love to work with Dag Johan again, and I would love to shoot another trilogy,” she enthuses, “or maybe even – how do you say in English – a septology!”
