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Camera Obscura: Chris Clark on the Pursuit of the Perfect Close-up

10/02/2023
Production Company
Auckland, New Zealand
108
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The Film Construction director talks about why the close-up presents a fascinating landscape of detail to uncover


Chris Clark knows where to find his sweet spots. His visuals are strong, beautiful and brimming with authentic life and human warmth. As a director with Film Construction, he engages with performers at a deep level and fosters a sense of energetic fun on set.

Chris’ passion with visuals runs deep. Indeed, his family heritage in advertising. “As a young director, I always had ambitious creative ideas. Making work beyond its  means and not allowing anyone to notice my constraints,” he says.

His work delves into stunning visuals, comedy, character development, and above all, story shaping. Prominent campaigns under his belt include the likes of Toyota, Sky TV, Kiwi Rail, Cavalier Bremworth, Electrolux, and Sovereign  Insurance. 


LBB> What is your niche craft obsession?

Chris> The first close-up scene I saw that really impacted me was from Oliver Stone’s Platoon. It was 1987 and I was 11 when I convinced my parents to let me watch the film on VHS. Early in the film, Charlie Sheen’s protagonist is on a night mission in the jungles of Vietnam. He’s in a new, dark and dangerous world. As he’s on watch, in the middle of the night, in the stinking hot, humid jungle, there’s a big extreme close-up of ants crawling in his ear.

That single shot implanted something in me. The image, the light, the sweaty dirt in his ear and the scuttling ants. It made me feel inescapable discomfort. It was somehow familiar, while being completely foreign. It captured the discomfort war places you in. All in a single close-up. I was mesmerised. The authenticity and impact of that tiny little moment was all devouring.




LLB> Was it an obsession straight away or something that has evolved over the years?

Chris> I then noticed close-ups and extreme close-ups more and more. I noticed how filmmakers used them differently. Some transition in or out of a scene, while some filmmakers build an entire scene or sequence towards the final moment when they would land on a close-up to pay off the entire scene. Close-ups began to show me how versatile, thematic, energetic and beautiful they could be. They had a rich cinematic history and were constantly reinvented in fresh ways. I fell in love. 

There’s a story about John Ford shooting his masterpiece The Searchers on location in Monument Valley. As rain rolled down the valley, an assistant director questioned the conditions, “Mr. Ford, what can we shoot out here?” Impervious, the master director pointed to a tent, meaning for them to shoot inside its small confines amidst this most impressive of valleys and said, “what can we shoot? The most interesting and exciting thing in the whole world. The human face.” The longer I direct, and it’s been a while now, the more I find reward in finding the perfect angle, lens and lighting combination in capturing “the landscape of the human face”, or in a close-up detail, as I do in crafting a more elaborate action set piece. 


LLB> What are the most interesting debates or conversations you are having around this obsession?

Chris> The pressures of commercial production often have the schedule pressed hard. Often times a close-up can be seen as a luxury, or even unnecessary if it’s not directly related to a product or brand moment. I will often pitch my concept with the specific inclusion of close-ups being a key part of my proposed creative. Using close-up to emphasise texture, scale and energy. Making them a key part of our visual narrative rather than just an additional moment to grab on set.

Scale is an interesting topic when it comes to close-ups. I find cutting from a big close-up to a large-scale wide shot enhances the sense of scale in a piece of work. Big always feels bigger when it’s right next to something small. Also, concentrating for a moment on something small within the world you are trying to build helps portray the scale of the environment your narrative is set within. Ants in a human ear in the jungle at night says more to me than a wide shot ever could. 

In the edit, it’s always a debate when to use close-ups and how long to hold them for. Is a quick flurry of three close-ups better than one, or is it too gratuitous? Close-ups tend to be graphically strong, allowing them to be absorbed by the audience incredibly quickly. So, I like to have a little bouquet of them in a row. Bang, bang, bang. They’re so versatile, stylish, energetic and packed with metaphor. I love ‘em.  


LBB> How widespread do you think this obsession is with your peers? 

Chris> People with interest in the visual image generally like to talk about close-ups. But usually, it’s a pretty brief talk. I must admit, even among film collaborators, as a conversation turns to close-ups and I recount specific close-ups that have impacted me, or the long list of close-ups I feel I haven’t quite captured perfectly yet, to the type of lenses, lighting and camera movement used. The folk listening tend to look at me like I’m a special case. I’ve long since made my peace with it. Everyone needs a love language, eh? 



LBB> Can you share any examples of work where that obsession really came to the fore and elevated the final production? Can you tell us about it and share links if possible?

Chris> The first short film I made, on a 16mm wind-up Bolex consisted almost entirely of close-ups. With the narrative focusing on an agoraphobic woman, shut inside for years, I wanted her small house to feel like an entire world, so I only revealed the environment piecemeal. It worked fabulously as it disoriented the viewer into her jilted world view and placed the grimy, oddball details and textures of her world on full display. 

In a campaign I Directed for New Zealand’s retirement village, Summerset, I used close-ups to propel the energy of the campaign through transitions. Where possible I would match the shapes of objects within the frame from close-up to close-up, to carry the viewer from scene to scene in a fluid and energetic fashion.

In the first Covid lock-down I edited a few montages of my work, one of them focused on my love for crafting close-ups. The first job I directed after lock-down was a campaign for Mother Earth health foods, where the agency specifically asked me to direct the spot because of the close-up montage I’d created and synced perfectly with their concept. 




LBB> For anyone just getting into your field, what advice would you share to help them get their head around this particular thing?

Chris> When planning a scene, try and get to the essence of what the scene is about. Then as you prep with your departments, think about what is an object, human action, or detail within the scene that could emphasise and capture the key message of the scene? What shape does this object have? What expression will the performer give? Can that match with another image in an adjacent cut or scene? How crafty can you get with these close-ups? But these are just playful details… 

Beyond this, more fundamentally, I guess choose an obsession that will provide endless challenges, constant change and deep reward.

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