In filming “The Quiet Girl,”The 80s-set story about a mysterious child sent to live in Ireland with distant relatives. Kate McCullough, cinematographer, says that she found her way through being open to the natural elements and the setting.
“When you arrive on a location, there’s lots to inspire you,” says McCullough, who filmed writer/director Colm Bairéad’s feature debut, an adaptation of Claire Keegan’s acclaimed 2010 short story “Foster,” screening at the Camerimage International Film Festival in the directors’ debuts competition.
The Berlinale prize-winning film, praised for its own quiet qualities and storytelling through minute details, unfolds with the arrival of 9-year-old Cáit at the home of distant, childless relatives – a plan devised to offer relief to Cáit’s own household, where too few morsels are in the larder for too many children.
The child is as puzzled about the destination as its residents are about her. “The trees through the window, moving in a certain way, doors are creaking, floorboards, smells, it’s all very layered in,”McCullough speaks highly of the farmhouse’s location. “I find that really helpful in the process of prepping a film. You can start to build out from that and it’s kind of an anchor.”
The crew managed to find an atmospheric house from the era in which the story is set, says, McCullough, which signified a wealth of visual opportunities – if also challenges.
“The book is set in Waterford, which is down on the south coast. But we shot in Meath, about an hour north of Dublin, which is where I’m originally from. That was quite nice because I grew up on a farm. That milking parlor hasn’t changed, I’d say, since the 80s or 90s. It’s very hard to get access to those spaces now.”
Because the house had not been renovated, it offered authenticity in spades – but also forced McCullough to shoot around whatever angles she could find.
“I’m used to working on location,”She says. “I come from a documentary background so I’m used to tight corners. Also, the car was pretty tight – we didn’t have access to remote gear so I was in these weird contortions in the car.”
She believes that the pain of realizing this is worth it. “I like locations – I’ve only shot in the studio maybe twice. It’s a bit of a novelty to me, dreaming up reality in a box.”
McCullough’s past work shows remarkable versatility, with dozens of shorts, music videos, TV, film, narrative and documentary projects, and she relishes new challenges.
“It’s about trying to rethink again and forget everything you know and be fresh to the material.”
McCullough states that the director was more focused on finding opportunities than preparing a shoot plan. “We didn’t do any storyboards. It was a shot list, but in a way the shot list was developed just to be sure we got the story shot in the time we had.”
Under child labor laws, with a 9-year-old star such as Catherine Clinch – who turns in an arresting, naturalistic performance as Cáit – shoots with her were restricted to half days. With a total production time of five weeks, it meant the entire cast and crew had to be fully primed to go when Clinch’s day started.
“You have to sort of begin the scene without her, then bring her in, then take her out. There’s lots you can do with a double but it probably forced us to shoot a bit differently. If we wouldn’t have Catherine, how can we rethink this scene?”
McCullough explains that shots were also limited in time to create tension. “Trying to hold back on revealing her, her character, also this kind of slow tilt down from the landscape to reveal her – things aren’t always as they seem.”
Filming a story from a child’s perspective was new to the cinematographer too, she says, but the Academy frame size used made sense for the perspective.
“I haven’t done a feature centered on a kid. Coming down to her level, the choice of aspect ratio was linked to that. You’re more focused on the verticality of things, the difference between the adults and Catherine.”
She admits that working with a child actor for the first time is a big risk. It was a sound decision in this case. “She sort of set the tone. This actor, from day one, was just very composed and focused and wanted to get it right.”
Clink’s manner is much like her character’s in some ways, says McCullough – though luckily that does not grow from a place of neglect, as Cáit’s does.
“She’s quite contained,”She speaks highly of the actress. “I’ve seen her smile and laugh much more since the film has come out.”
Clink was cast following a call to Irish-language schools across the country. The film was also funded partly through the Cine4 initiative to create more such projects. When filming Irish-speaking subjects, McCullough adds, it’s important to allow for body language in the frame.
Most cinematographers are nervous about filming children with a locked-down camera. “The Quiet Girl.”This is the thinking that often gets people. “Maybe we should go handheld so we won’t miss a thing,”McCullough.
Clink, however, is not for you. “It was just allowing her space within the frame – she’s just incredible to look at. There’s always something going on. There’s an interior world. Even when we were doing camera tests, she’d never been on camera before but she was like, ‘I’m ready for this.’”