THE STUFF OF LOVE
By Natasha Block Hicks
This article originally appeared in Issue 22 of Cinematography World.
Any filmmaker with a low-budget independent feature on their CV will be familiar with the notion of cramming cast, crew and kit into confined locations, craning round doorways and crouching in corners to achieve the shot. The theme of compulsive squirreling and stashing of things, in writer/director Luna Carmoon’s debut feature Hoard (2022), promised to add an extra dimension to this challenge, but this did not deter DP Nanu Segal BSC for one moment.
“I was captivated by Hoard as a piece of writing and wanted to be involved as soon as I read it,” Segal relates, recalling the moment her agent passed her the script. “I could tell that Luna and I would share a real creative kinship.”
Carmoon first garnered attention with her short films Nosebleed (2018) and Shagbands (2020), both lensed by Rachel Clark, which each give a lewd, toxic or even brutal angle on the female coming-of-age story.
Hoard – which was backed by BBC Films and the BFI – follows Maria, played in early adulthood by Saura Lightfoot-Leon, as she goes from a young child closeted in the magical but hazardous home of her magpie mother Cynthia (Hayley Squires), to a school-leaver in the long-term care of her foster mother Michelle (Samantha Spiro). With the arrival of Michelle’s former foster son Michael (Joseph Quinn), and the reappearance – in a sense – of her mother, Maria’s relative contentment starts to unravel.
“I’m fascinated by how different forms of love are expressed, and how trauma translates through time,” says Segal, explaining the appeal of Carmoon’s story.
“I was drawn to the two versions of the mother-daughter bond in the film and was moved by how little Maria’s love for her biological mother affects her later as a teenager, impacting on her relationship with her foster mother. The intense one-way love of Michael for Maria was also incredibly compelling, especially how this plays in the context of Maria’s fierce love for her mothers.”
“I’m fascinated by how different forms of love are expressed”
During pre-production, Carmoon – a self-taught filmmaker who Segal describes as a prolific cinephile – shared extensive and beautiful lookbooks with her team, encouraging them to think of the “Alan Clarke world”, the radical British director known for Scum (1979, DP John Wyatt).
Carmoon expressed a wish that the hoarding scenes should have a flavour of the ‘Theatre Of The Absurd’ movement, with the camera “dancing”, and directed Segal towards some leftfield visual references. These included the films of Polish writer/director Andrzej Żuławski, best-known for the psychological horror Possession (1981, DP Bruno Nuytten), and the early works of Ken Russell, such as Women In Love (1969, DP Billy Williams OBE BSC) and The Devils (1971, DP David Watkin BSC). Some of Carmoon’s references were previously unknown to Segal, which the DP found refreshing.
“It was fascinating to get a window into Luna’s process and the kind of material that inspires her,” Segal divulges.
“We wanted to go on this journey with Maria and see the world through her eyes,” she continues. “Sometimes she is in the present, but at other times she will be carried, by a smell or sensation, into a memory. Luna and I were looking for ways to communicate these different textures to the audience via the cinematography.”
Choosing from One Stop Films’ extensive selection of vintage spherical primes, Segal selected the “beautiful and characterful” Cooke S2 Speed Panchros to represent Maria’s daily experience, and complimented these with a set of Kowa Cine Prominars for Maria’s more abstracted moments.
“The Kowas are a little bit more impressionistic,” describes Segal of the 1960s glass, her first time using these lenses.
“When we were shooting, I would always check in with Luna to see if she felt the emotional beat of the scene was more internal. If so, we would switch to the Kowas. We tried to be specific about the atmosphere and reflect that with the lenses that we used.”
Coloured light and crossfades also play an important stylistic role in indicating Maria’s internal world, as well as connecting moments between the two timelines.
“We had a very naturalistic canvas for most of the film,” explains Segal, “but there were specific sequences where Luna wanted to push the colour into more of an emotional hue, rather than one drawn from real life.”
In particular, a “punchy” orange light makes an occasional, playful appearance, standing in for a sunset or a Tungsten streetlamp, or fading-up in a poignant moment where the young Maria examines the pelvis of a school lab skeleton.
“It’s reminiscent of those warm types of light but the colour is exaggerated beyond what is natural,” illustrates Segal. “Luna said she wanted the light to have the quality of Lucozade.”
Segal’s gaffer, Vianney Kernanet-Huggins, supplied some of his own kit for the project, which when added to a with modest package from Panalux, made up the lighting inventory. This comprised of Panalux Sonara LEDs, Astera tubes and ARRI Skypanel S360s, helping to provide the aforementioned Lucozade orange and lighting transitions.
“My aim was for the ‘present moment’ lighting to feel source-motivated, coming from a window say, or a practical lamp” explains Segal. In the kitchen, for example, she simply put an Astera tube into the fitting in the ceiling.
They did have a bit of fun creating a lamp made up of hundreds of multi-coloured Tungsten fairy lights mounted on polyboard, to boost the practical light coming from a diminutive Christmas tree during an intimate scene.
“I really enjoy that DIY approach of working with non-film lights for certain moments,” she comments.
By Segal’s estimation, ninety percent of the movie was shot handheld, and she selected the ARRI Alexa Mini to suit both the task and the budget.
“Luna said she wanted the light to have the quality of Lucozade orange”
“I love working with Alexa cameras and know them well,” Segal explains, “the Alexa Mini also has a small footprint, which was really beneficial as the location for Michelle’s house was very tight, particularly the hallway where so much of the action takes place.”
The smattering of top-down shots throughout the film contrasts the pace and intimacy of the handheld style.
“The top-shots were images that Luna was very specific about in prep,” explains Segal. “I feel like they present an objective viewpoint, like you’re seeing Maria’s world from a new perspective, which gives a different rhythm to the storytelling.”
Although she didn’t approach the lighting from a period perspective – keeping it consistent between the past and present of the plot and monitoring in Rec.709 – the film does have a retrospective feel in its hues, with a subtle shift in texture between the ‘80s and ‘90s. Segal credits the skills of the production designer Bobbie Cousins, costume designer Nat Turner and colourist Vanessa Taylor – then at Colour Matters Ltd – in creating this aesthetic. She is always quick to also acknowledge the collaborative effort of her camera team, paying tribute to gaffer Vianney Kernanet-Huggins, grip Oliver Lemmings, 1st AC Irys Steel and 2nd AC Christopher J. Orr as key members of “an amazing crew who all brought so much love to the making of this film”.
“I feel privileged to have been a part of it,” she reminisces, “Luna is a really special filmmaker.
“We shot an amazing scene on the stairs between Maria and Michelle, just a simple two-shot, and the whole crew were moved to tears by the end of the take, along with the actors, as if we were all in the scene together. It didn’t make the finished film, but it was still one of the most special moments of my career.”
Phantasmagorical sequences of Maria whirling under bed sheets that bounce between her present and her childhood – another highlight for Segal – did make the final cut.
“I feel privileged to have been a part of it”
“Shooting those scenes was really fun,” relates Segal, “I was handheld, spinning with Saura. We were outside in the garden for Maria as a young adult and rigged a Dino Light with a CTO gel to hit the sheets, creating a warm tungsten glow that would echo the Lucozade light of Maria’s childhood.”
Segal’s schedule has been steady since wrapping on Hoard in the summer of 2022. In 2023 she lensed reportage drama Scoop (2024, dir. Philip Martin) for Netflix and vampire comedy The Radleys (2024, dir. Euros Lyn) starring Damian Lewis. At the time of writing, Segal is prepping her first feature of 2024.
She has reunited with Carmoon once since Hoard, on a music video for Iona Munro.
“I’m so happy I got to shoot Luna’s first feature,” she enthuses, “it was a beautiful experience and a joy to make. I would love this to be the first of many.”
