Mark Nutkins on Filming ‘Little Brown Bird’ with TLS Vega

Pic. Mark Nutkins on the set of Rivals - Disney+ 2024

In this engaging discussion, UK-based cinematographer Mark Nutkins shares insights into his dynamic career, which spans over two decades and includes high-profile projects like the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper's "Rivals" and the Paramount+ drama "Curfew." Mark reflects on his journey from camera trainee to Director of Photography, highlighting his film, "Little Brown Bird," an emotionally charged narrative set on a remote farm that explores the poignant relationship between a daughter and her father with dementia. With a focus on intimate storytelling and innovative cinematographic techniques, Mark reveals the creative decisions behind his work, including his choice of TLS Vega lenses and the artistic vision that shapes his compelling visual narratives.

Could you tell us a little about yourself?

I am a UK based Cinematographer primarily focusing on long form narrative, my recent credits include Disney+ adaption of Jilly Coopers ‘Rivals’ starring David Tennant, Adian Turner and Alex Hassell. And a Paramount + 6-part drama ‘Curfew’ starring Sarah Parish and Alexander Burke, both due to air Oct 2024.

My career started back in 2001 as a camera trainee on film and over the course of 13 years assisting, I worked as a loader and then focus puller on the camera department until making the transition to Director of Photography in 2013.

Can you share more about the production of 'Little Brown Bird'?

Set on a farm on a remote island, Little Brown Bird is an emotionally driven story about the bond between Kate and her dad, who has dementia. The true horror in the story is the tragedy of her Father’s condition, getting to see only glimpses of the person she loves and with no respite as his permanent carer.

We were truly lucky to have cast, John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings) playing the father and Eliza Butterworth (The Last Kingdom, A Town called Malice) playing his daughter Kate, both of whom were very passionate for the project, which was helpful as we had scheduled 4 nights shoots working from 3pm to 3am.

Our location was a working farm and while we were there it was lambing season, which was a bit mad to be shooting around the family of the farm delivering lambs at all hours of the day and night. Though quite a wonderful experience, it did present a few logistical challenges we had to overcome, a massive thank you for the hospitality of the family of Moorhouse Farm in Colby, Isle of Man.

The filming style of the short was to mirror Kate’s feeling of isolation and loneliness, less observational and more of an intimate experience. Handheld operation was deployed to add a realistic energy to their movement and shooting wide and physically close was important for the intimacy. We kept the camera movement motivated, so that when there was stillness from the characters, we were also still allowing us to absorb the subtleties of the performances and in turn bring additional energy to the frame once they were moving.

What made you choose TLS Vega for this project?

I choose the TLS Vega’s as I was hearing positive comments about the build and quality of the glass. I was after a fairly comprehensive set which would deliver a good choice of focal lengths and we were able to get our hands on most of the lenses - The lenses package came in the following focal lengths 20mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, 58mm, 85mm, 105mm, 135mm. Normally I would prefer the set to include a wider option like a 16mm, as sometimes even in large format a 20mm is not quite wide enough for those epic wides. For our film it was adequate but if I was shooting long form job, I would have to look into hiring in a wider lens which would complement the Vega’s.

What did you enjoy most about using TLS Vega?

I really enjoyed having the option to shoot at T1.5 when the image required it, though Ben Goodall our focus puller might disagree with this. Personally, I don’t shoot wide open all the time because sometimes the image needs some depth but being able to shallow out where appropriate is a really useful tool for the visual narrative. The T1.5 option also allowed me to separate the background a lot more from the characters in our small location, bringing more emotional resonance to the characters and their performance.

I choose to soften the lenses with Tiffen’s pearlescent filters, as the film has a dream like quality and I wanted to add an in camera halation to the practicals and highlights. This was also important as I wanted the film’s grade to head towards a filmic emulation and I thought this would help with the desired effect. The combination of the TLS Vega lenses and the pearlescent filters really worked well and gave a wonderful rounded fall off and depth to the image I was hoping for.

There are two looks for Little Brown Bird, a day look in which we leaned into a cooler de-saturated world and night look in which we embodied a warmer fire-lit visual. In both looks I wanted the end result of the image to be soft and hazy with a bite, naturalistic with a visual emotional depth.

Lighting and creating the mood for Little Brown Bird relied on the choice of lens, filtration, atmosphere (haze), strong daylight sources through windows for the day look and very soft smaller LED’s warmed up and the use of fire effect for the night work. It is a multitude of elements that are all working together to get you the desired look, I like to think of it a little bit like cooking.

For this particular project I was super excited to get into the grade, I had exposed the film 1.5 stops over as I wanted the colourist to have a healthy latitude of exposure. Colourist Kurt Williams did a fantastic job at understanding mine and the directions vision and was able to adjust the levels of the images to bring out the mood and atmosphere. Very importantly balancing the night work and the subtle fire effect from the log burner, the more we crushed the image the more this effect was prevalent. Once we had the grade in a good place we handed the film over to Warren Blackmore at Lab Class, Cardiff to undergo a film emulation process using a tool called Lab Grain Pro which I have been helping to develop. Once he had applied the emulation it went back to Kurt to check.

Would you tell us more about the incredible achievements of 'The Little Brown Bird,' which has received several awards and nominations?

The film won Best Horror at the Athens International Monthly Art Film Festival, was nominated for Best Short at the Marbella International FF, and for Prague FF nominated best first time director. It received an honourable Mention in the Horror category at the Budapest Movie Awards and was nominated for Best Short Drama at the Celtic Media Festival. The film has screened at festivals in England, Wales, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Australia, along with a number of online festivals. It makes its Irish debut at Spook Screen in December and is currently still working the film festival circuit.

This is the writer/director Pete Rogers directional debut, he has been working as a VFX producer for the last 13 years and now resides at Gorilla VFX in Cardiff, UK. He has a number of new projects in development, including 70s set horror feature Bone Dry. We worked very closely together in the pre-production stages of the project, to establish the right look and feel for Little Brown Bird. We plan to work together again in the future.

Pic: Director Pete Roger

Pic: Director Pete enjoying a cuppa with Actor and legend Johnathon Rhys Davies

From a technical standing point on set this project would not have been possible without the support from the camera rental Origin Broadcast (Bristol), Firebug Lighting rental (Cardiff). And a massive thank you to the gaffer Mark Holownia, Focus Puller Ben Goodall and the rest of the team.