Intellectual Angst

“The Royal Tenenbaums”, the third collaboration between Robert Yeoman, ASC and director Wes Anderson, brought Anderson a step further from his first movie. Anderson explains, “Bottle Rocket was very austere in its look. We shot that with spherical lenses and made an effort to make it almost monochromatic, with only a few bursts of primary colors. Rushmore was a widescreen movie that was more lush and used richer colors. The Royal Tenenbaums continues in that direction and goes quite a bit further” (American Cinematographer, January 2002, pg. 51).
Anderson states that the first issue was finding a place to shoot the movie. He wanted the Tenenbaums house to actually exist and not be a soundstage. His prayers were answered when they came across a set of “once-stately mansions” that were due for renovations. They struck a deal and setup in one of the mansion. The next problem was making it look real. Although the movie spans in over 155 places, a significant part of it takes place it the house, therefore they took a lot of time in making it look just right.
Anderson therefore brought in his brother, illustrator Eric Anderson, to make some detailed drawings of what Anderson wanted. Getting the color of paint for the walls had to be right as well and therefore they went through a couple of shades before they find the right one. They also wanted everything to look practical and added a lot of “nightlights” and “sconces” and tons of glowing bulbs in the background.
The next lighting situation came with a special location inside the house. This was a tent set up for Richie as a refuge. Anderson states that he wanted to imbue the enclosure with an almost magical feel. They used a lot of 2K Blondes and really had to blast them because the canvas was pretty thick. In order to get this “magical glow” that Anderson wanted, when you saw the outside of the tent, the lights were in the inside and when you saw the inside, the lights were on the outside.
Anderson also said that he shot the movie in anamorphic, just like Rushmore. He enjoys this type of shooting because it uses the entire negative and he was able to fit more people in the shots with much trouble. It was also easier to cut from a wide view to a close up without much difference showing. The stage work all around with widescreen is just more flexible for the director.
The camera movements were also kept to a minimum. When it did move, however, it was strapped securely to a dolly on a track. Anderson is a huge fan of traditional techniques and prefers this over the new “steadicam”. Yeoman even made a track that went down hill and around a huge boulder for Anderson. They state that to the audience the shot looks relatively straight, which was Yeoman’s exact purpose. However, some old traditions most be laid down.
This came with a shot of the house that went from the roof of the house all the way to the bottom in one shot. This was difficult for Anderson to shoot because of the lighting that changed on the way down and the speed at which the camera had to move down. Anderson settled with putting the camera on a Super Technocrane and that on a lift to get it high enough and then had to run the camera from remote control. The lighting problem was taken care of by Storn Peterson and the audience can’t even realize the difference in aperture.
The overall development of the film only brought the two long time friends closer and helped to bring Anderson closer to his next film. It is not written yet, but the idea is going to be a little bit on the huge side, which will bring with it a whole new set of problems.