PHOTOGRAPHS BY MATEO CONTRERAS26 WINTER 2019 MOVIEMAKER.COM
EYE PIECE
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW
Spherical lenses and calculated color choices allowed
Birds of Passage DP David Gallego’s visuals to take flight
BY DAVID GALLEGO
EPICTING THE
ancestral culture
of the Wayuu—a
Native American
group indigenous to northern
Colombia—and shedding light
on their complex relationship
with death and dreams,
directors Cristina Gallego
and Ciro Guerra intended for
Birds Of Passage to be, above
all, a tale of the human spirit.
Our film begins its journey
with the roots of the Wayuu’s
intrinsic values of respect
and innocence and eventually
moves toward their complete
transformation, when those
values are tragically engulfed
by the world of drug
trafficking.
As the cinematographer,
one of my primary
focuses was to allow for
Birds of Passage’s dream
sequences to exist as experi-
ences that wouldn’t be too
distanced in visual terms from
the rest of the story. In these
sequences, the veils that cover
characters’ faces depict Wayuu
traditions carried out during
periods of mourning. Such
visual motifs establish a real-
istic depiction of the Wayuu’s
shared states of connectedness
and ancestral and cultural
expression. Our imagery in
Birds of Passage explores pain
and wakefulness as visual
metaphors as well—turning
them into surrealist pictures,
much like the paintings of
René Magritte from which we
drew heavy inspiration.
The use of spherical lenses
and a 2.35:1 aspect ratio
allowed us to capture the im-
mense geographical landscapes
of the Colombian Guajira.
We chose to juxtapose our
characters against this natural
backdrop in a way that would
shrink them within the frame,
to accentuate the feeling of
estrangement and loneliness
instilled within them by their
environment. (This trick, often
found in gangster movies, is
something we wanted to ap-
propriate.)USE OF COLOR
Taking advantage of the
color palette found in the loca-
tions in which our story is set,
we made use of warm colors
like red, yellow, gold, and
earth tones. These colors be-Tech Box
came the basis of a chromatic
structure that we modified
throughout our shoot. Each
of Birds of Passage’s five acts
has a specific color range and,
accordingly, a subtle color cast
that defines the interiority of
the characters.Our first act, “Wild Grass,”
concentrates on the idea of
innocence, which is presented
in the vivid colors commonly
associated with the Wayuu.
The second act, “The Tombs,”
adopts a monochromatic
scheme, with gray tones that
convey states of grief and
anguish. Our third act,
“The Bonanza,” is shot with
warm golds and yellows—
signifiers of actual gold, an
element that alludes to power
and wealth. To accentuate the
presence of blood in the film’s
fourth act, “The War,” which
is driven by the theme of
vengeance, we enhanced our
use of the color red by adding
strong contrasts with light-
ing and pronounced shadows.CameraArricam Lite (^) Birds of Passage’s final act,
Lenses
Ultra Prime, ARRI
Alura 45-250mm T2.6
F Telephoto Studio
Zoom, Angénieux
OPTIMO Zoom T2.8
OPTIMO 45-120
Shot on Kodak
VISION3 50D
Color Negative
Film 5203/7203;
Kodak VISION3
250D Color Negative
Film 5207/7207;
Kodak VISION3 500T
Color Negative Film
5219/7219
Lighting
Mixed package,
Arri Tungsten
and Hydrargyrum
Medium-Arc Iodide
(HMI) and oil lamps
Color Grading
Sandra Klass
CULTURAL DESERT:
IN BIRDS OF PASSAGE,
DP DAVID GALLEGO DEFINES A
WAYUU FAMILY’S ABANDONMENT OF
THEIR VALUES IN VISUAL TERMS
D