Robbie
Greenberg Talks About the This article appeared in ICG Magazine in 2004 “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied
or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” What if there was never an Alice Paul? What if she was a less determined individual who chose to go with the flow of the mainstream? Would we live in a different type of country or world today? Would women be eligible to vote in elections or pursue careers of their choice? Would California have two female senators? There aren’t answers to any of these abstract questions, but they are worth pondering. Ms. Paul is the central character of Iron Jawed Angels, which premieres on Home Box Office in February. The story focuses on a small group of women suffragists who played an extraordinarily large role in the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. The amendment finally gave women the right to vote. The story is set in Washington, D.C. from 1912 to 1920. It features Hilary Swank as Alice Paul, along with Angelica Huston, Julia Ormond, Frances O’Connor, Brooke Smith and Molly Parker. Iron Jawed Angels is the first American film for Katja von Garnier, a talented young director from Germany. The cinematographer was Robbie Greenberg, ASC. Greenberg’s body of work ranges from such eclectic features as The Milagro Beanfield War, Sweet Dreams, Free Willy, Fools Rush In, Save the Last Dance to the award-winning telefilms, Winchell, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, and James Dean. “HBO sent the script to me while I was in New York shooting commercials”, Greenberg recalls. “The importance of the subject struck such a deep chord with me that I clearly wanted to be a part of the project. I screened Katja’s film Bandits (produced in Germany in 1997) and I was immediately struck by her directorial style and ability to use contemporary technique to enhance the emotional impact of the story she’s telling. Her sophisticated editing and music choices led me to believe that she would bring similar sensibilities to this very complex script.” Alice Paul was a Quaker born into an upper middle class family in Moorstown, New Jersey in 1885. She studied at Swarthmore College and earned a doctorate in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Paul continued her studies in England, where she became involved with the Women’s Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst, who was considered a militant female rights advocate. The story opens in 1912 during a meeting between Alice Paul, her fellow suffragist Lucy Burns (played by Frances O’Connor) and veteran leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). The older women were second-generation suffragists, and were committed to a rigid strategy of convincing individual states to endorse amendments that would enable women to vote. They felt that any attempt to propose a Constitutional amendment was too radical for the times. The leaders of NAWSA were resistant to Paul and Burns’ militant attitudes and methods, but reluctantly agreed to allow them to open an office in Washington, D.C. in order to lobby Congress for their cause. Paul’s and Burns’ first political action was to organize a Women’s Right to Vote parade that coincided President-elect Woodrow Wilson’s arrival in the Nation’s Capital. The high-spirited parade turned into a riot when the irate men lining the parade route attacked the women. Suffragists had been fighting for the vote for almost 60 years and the battles were heating up. When Paul, Burns and a small group of comparatively young radicals were tossed out of NAWSA, they founded the National Women’s Party. Paul’s group pursued an aggressive strategy of pressuring Congress and President Wilson to pass a Constitutional Amendment. Their efforts lead to inevitable conflicts and ultimate success. Greenberg had about four weeks of prep time with von Garnier. Production designer Norris Spencer’s research led them to choose locations in the Richmond, Virginia area where they could recreate pre-World War I Washington, D. C. This laid a foundation for Greenberg and Spencer to “brainstorm” with von Garnier to create a color palette and visual style atypical of most period films. “Katya wanted to make a contemporary film about young women fighting for something they believed in – it just happened to take place in 1918. She didn’t want concerns about the purity of the period to prevent her from using modern techniques like quick cutting, variable speed changes, and unmotivated camera moves to add a unique energy to the film.” Greenberg and von Garnier made unexpected choices in style for a period film. “We allowed ourselves to be more playful with the camera. This was done to visually support the youth, energy, and passion these brave young women demonstrated for their cause. “ Iron Jawed Angels was shot in 50 days in and around Richmond, Virginia. Its downtown is still authentic to the period but it needed to be augmented by covering the streets with dirt and using CGI to remove all traces of the 21st century. The art department found authentic props like the automobile once owned by President Wilson. The façade and front gates of the White House were built in an open field and then CGI enhanced. “If we were true to the period, we would have used earth tones,” Greenberg observes. “The spirit behind this production was that these women were modern thinkers, so we used more vivid colors. Katja also had ideas about moving the camera with a contemporary sensibility. We made fairly frequent use of the telescoping capabilities of the Technocrane to keep the camera moving and somewhat distant from the characters.” “We had an extraordinary cast of very diverse women. The makeup and hair tests we shot provided a great opportunity to explore each face and find a lighting style that would enhance their individual beauty.” As the film progressed, and the consequences of the women’s political actions became more severe Greenberg had to alter the lighting style. “Early in the story, we wanted to emphasize their youthful beauty and passion. This provided a strong contrast for the later hunger strike sequences where a gaunt and weak Hilary Swank was force-fed through tubes in her throat.” He credits the flawless production design, detailed wardrobe, and subtle makeup with successfully enhancing von Garnier’s conception of the period in a non-traditional way. Greenberg assembled camera, grip and electrical crews from California, New York and the Baltimore area. They were primarily frequent collaborators, who already had a strong sense of how he thinks and likes to work. That was important, Greenberg explained, because there was an ambitious shooting schedule and a specific visual style. The A camera/ Steadicam operator was Chris Squires. Frank G. DeMarco led the second unit and also operated the B camera when required. Additional cameras were operated by Bruce MacCallum and Tom Weston. The assistants were Richard Tschudin, Coby Garfield, Sean Sutphin, Kathina Szeto, Cheli Clayton, Doug Foote, Amanda Hudson and Jennifer Koestler. Greenberg brought a relatively modest camera package, including Panaflex Millennium XL and Platinum bodies, a full set of Primo primes and 4:1 and 11:1 zoom lenses, from Panavision in Los Angeles. He generally reserved the longer prime lenses for reaching out and grabbing close-ups of faces in crowds. “The 40 and 75 mm prime lenses were my workhorses,” he said. “I used a 75 mm lens for close-ups and a 40 mm lens for masters and medium shots, with Tiffen 1/8 Black Pro-Mist filters on the glass. I rarely used extremely long lenses for interiors, though I recall a shot in the prison lunchroom where I used a 200 mm lens for a close-up because it just felt right.” Greenberg chose to set the period look with a combination of two film stocks. The 500-speed Kodak Vision 5279 negative for most night scenes and some day interiors and the 200-speed Eastman 5293 for most daylight exteriors and some interiors. He felt that the 5293 was less sharp and contrasty with a softer color palette. “It’s my favorite stock.” Deluxe Labs in Los Angeles processed the negative. Greenberg had the benefit of film dailies for the first three days. After that, the dailies were viewed in the digital Beta SP format transferred by Match Frame in Los Angeles. “I set up the timing in the beginning and then communicated by emailing digital stills taken on the set and manipulated with Photoshop on my laptop” Greenberg said. Greenberg moved the camera about half the time. Other times, when the director wanted the audience to really listen to the dialogue and feel, viscerally, the emotions behind the words, it was comparatively static. He used the Steadicam to pull the audience deeper into scenes in a more subjective way – at times you almost feel like you’re watching the story unfold from inside Alice Paul’s head. Greenberg says that he and von Garnier storyboarded almost 70 percent of the film, and remained extremely true to those storyboards in terms of camera angles and movement. He described an early scene at an art gallery opening where the camera, on a Steadicam, traveled around the room introducing the audience to the principal characters. It briefly speed ramped to eight frames as it raced from one group of people to another, slowing to 24 frames as it found the principal characters and eavesdropped on their conversations. “We made a 360-degree shot that introduced the main characters. It required multiple lighting cues, dimming off and on as the camera moved around, so that I was able to maintain the backlight.” Greenberg estimates that some 20 to 30 percent of the scenes were exteriors. They shot from late September into early December, as the cool fall rains turned cold and wintry. There were always cover sets, so no time was lost due to weather. Daytime interior lighting was motivated by window sources. “We used Dinos with blue bulbs from outside as our primary lighting”. Greenberg generally played interior lamps slightly warm. “By 1918 most lighting was actually electric not gas, as most people assume.” The drama is made more personal through the relationship of fledgling suffragist Emily Leighton (Molly Parker) and her disapproving husband, Democratic Senator John Leighton (Joseph Adams). She gradually becomes involved with the suffragist movement against her husband’s wishes. He is philosophically and politically opposed to the Constitutional Amendment. The conflict between them escalates as she gradually asserts herself and is drawn deeper into the movement until she, too, is jailed and participates in the hunger strike. Scenes staged in the senator’s house were filmed in the Virginia’s official governor’s mansion. Greenberg wasn’t allowed to rig lamps on the walls or ceilings, and he was confined to working in a constrained space with a moving camera. His solution was to diffuse light through a 12x12 muslin with a folding grid in front of it. This provided a natural looking soft source of light without requiring a lot of flags. Another important subplot was the relationship between Alice Paul and a cartoonist for the Washington Post, played by Patrick Dempsey. There were suggestions and tantalizing hints of romance between them but Alice’s commitment to her cause precluded any deeper involvement. In a significant cameo role, Bob Gunton played President Woodrow Wilson in the period spanning his inauguration through the beginning of World War I and the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. “It’s clear that President Wilson was not in favor of the amendment, because it didn’t suit his political agenda,” Greenberg said. “This was immediately apparent in the brief meeting he granted Alice Paul and the young suffragettes and again in his wartime address to Congress.” Congressional Hall in Richmond was a perfect location for the U.S. Congress. “We began the scene of President Wilson addressing Congress with the camera looking up at the gallery where Alice Paul and the other suffragists observed the President’s speech. The camera was mounted on the arm of a 30-foot Technocrane. It gradually moved up past the gallery, then tuned to look down from behind the suffragists just as they unfurled their banner over the side of the gallery.” Greenberg had the grips build a 10-foot tower and put the Technocrane on top of it. He explained that the crane gave him the ability to put the camera where it had to be both at the beginning and at the end of the complex shot. Alice Paul’s group picketed the White House during the early days of World War I. Those scenes were filmed in the open field with the façade of the White House and the fence surrounding it in the background. Computer generated images of Pennsylvania Avenue backgrounds were composited into the reverse shots. At first, the lines of picketers stood peacefully in front of the White House holding banners and signs. Then, they began to attract hostile attention. When the suffragist picketers, and later Alice Paul, were arrested on the bogus charge of obstructing traffic, they chose to go to jail rather than pay $10 fines, because that would be an admission of guilt. Sets for the prison cells and lunchroom were built in a warehouse. After shooting several tests, Greenberg decided to use hard and soft light with a combination of green and blue gels. “I didn’t want to use fluorescents, but I did want to find that particular color of uncorrected fluorescents for the general ambience.” he explained. “We created a pale, almost green tinge to augment the pasty pallor on the prisoner’s faces. When Alice Paul staged her hunger strike and refused to eat, authorities brutally force-feed her. Even when we stripped away the cosmetics, the perfectly applied makeup and the eye light, you can feel the strength of Hilary’s character – the depth of her pain, her deep commitment and determination. It was quite affecting.” There were a number of visual effects sequences, including some staged on a moving train. The train was a set built on a stage with a green screen background behind it. Greenberg created the illusion of movement by passing flags in front of the lights. Background footage, filmed by the second unit, was composited into the train windows. Greenberg supervised the scanning and timing of the title sequence and visual effects at EFILM in Los Angeles. CG and other visual effects were provided by The Orphanage and GVFX. Greenberg timed the answer print at Deluxe Labs. Prints for press and other cinema screenings were recorded on Kodak Vision Premier film, because it retains subtle details in contrast and texture that are engrained in the fabric of the story. Greenberg also supervised the telecine transfer and timing for air on HBO in collaboration with colorist Lou Levinson at Post Logic Studios. “The HD formatted versions for broadcast on HBO were made from the interpositive,” Greenberg says. “In telecine, the highlights go a little hotter, so there’s a little more snap to the images.” Iron Jawed Angels was Greenberg’s third film for HBO. “The truth is that talented people choose to work on HBO films because the network nurtures and supports creative filmmaking and doesn’t shy away from telling important stories,” Greenberg notes. “It’s the most high quality entertainment anywhere – comparable to many feature films. The sad truth is that this story wouldn’t have been made as a feature film in today’s Hollywood.”
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