Xavier Van D’huynslager on the film The Last Front
Set in rural Belgium during the eve of World War I, The Last Front follows local farmer, Leonard (Iain Glen) as his life is turned upside-down after German forces advance through his village. With no end in sight and after a family tragedy, Leonard must lead the resistance to take back everything he’d worked so hard to build. Xavier Van D’huynslager served as cinematographer on the film.
Van D’huynslager didn’t initially study to be a DP, instead studying directing which led to his interest in cinematography. “After finishing my studies, I started doing some work on set and really teaching myself the art of cinematography and what the tools of cinematography are,” he begins. “That consisted of reading lots of interviews in all the known magazines, such as American Cinematographer and British Cinematographer and watching lots of behind the scenes clips that I found interesting, to see how they did things and to try and analyse it. It was watching lots, reading lots, talking to people and experimenting with new stuff on set.”
In 2021, D’huynslager received a voicemail from director Julien Hayet-Kerknawi, with apitch to shoot The Last Front. “He explained that there was still a slot open for a cinematographer and he was interested in my work. I didn’t know Julien at first, so it was a nice surprise.”
When it came to his initial research for the film, Van D’huynslager looked at photographic references and paintings from World War 1 and the period leading up to it.“Everything before 1900 is not really documented, especially not in Belgium,” explains Van D’huynslager. “It’s only after the war started that there were lots of pictures. And if so, they were mostly black and white. So, I started off by looking mostly at paintings for colour references and a few photographs and I looked at all the databases of Belgium that are out there. Looking at a few restored pictures in colour was also interesting. I never really start with looking at references from other films, or recently made things because it narrows your vision a bit too much. I think it’s better to start wide and look at textures, contrasts and colours that will suit the narrative and then find a way to translate that in the tools and sets you have and the screenplay that’s given to you. I have a folder with over a thousand pictures, articles and art pieces and I started from there and narrowed it down.”
The production was ultimately postponed due to Covid, during which it was impossible to get the actors over to Belgium for the shoot. “It’s an international cast and a completely independent budget. With the risk of Covid hitting the set it was impossible. That was one of the main reasons for the delayed start. We did lots of prep during Covid and lots of location scouts. We had the idea that we would start right after the pandemic would end, but that took more time than expected so we had to postpone it for almost a year,” says Van D’huynslager.
Van D’huynslager opted to shoot the film using the Alexa Mini and Hawk V‑Lite Vintage´74 Lenses. “One of the more interesting things I did was try to find a way to translate the texture and the mood that you find in a lot of paintings from that era. So, I looked for lenses that held their contrast, but were soft in a way like a romantic painting would be. The photography was very raw and so it was finding a merge between the lenses and the references. The lenses are uncoated, which was something I found really interesting because it creates a dynamic feeling when you use them outside. Once the light starts to hit the lens everything starts to breath” observes D’huynslager. “It creates something very organic which I really like. Also, these lenses, even if they are uncoated they still hold a lot of their contrast and that’s something I tend to search for in lenses when I shoot. Unless the narrative really needs it, I don’t like it when the image gets smudged out or when there are too many imperfections which could deviate the attention from the performances. We also shot lots outside and so we couldn’t control everything, so I needed a lens that was reliable in these terms and held strong.”
In terms of camera language, Van D’huynslager ultimately decided to stay mostly mounted on heads. “I did this because I wanted to be able to “deconstruct” that stability once the world around our characters started to crumble apart. Starting the film off in a very subjective manner keeping the camera mostly in control on a dolly or Steadicam. To create tension, we switched to handheld giving everything a more subjective feel, especially when close to the action.”
One of the most challenging sequences to capture came towards the end of the film. “It was the end sequence with horses and fire,” notes Van D’huynslager. “We had three days to shoot it and we only had the fire for two nights, the horses and lots of shots and not much time. You can’t ask horses to run 40 times in the evening, so you have to plan ahead. I used three cameras there and tried to block sequences together as efficiently as possible. To create tension and rhythm in the montage I opted to keep one camera un-stabilized, embracing the speedbumps as it’s hard mounted on a vehicle or the imperfections when going handheld. The third camera was always on a crane to create an overview of the scene. We also had lots of restrictions as we were working with fire and nature, which is very time consuming and you can’t light the fire for every shot. If there wasn’t any fire in the shot, we’d use lights instead. We only had two of threenights with real fire and the other night was all lit.”
The overall duration of the shoot lasted 28 days, with an additional shooting day later on during production. The team had to plan for daylight because of budget constraints. “That was always a big challenge to make a schedule that worked for the cinematography that didn’t compromise too much on the story,” notes Van D’huynslager.“We had lots of exterior scenes in the forest and the woods. It’s not as easy to find the right locations because most of the time when you go into forests in Belgium, it’s a mix of all kinds of vegetations. I wanted to create uniformity throughout the entire film, where vegetation stays more or less the same, but also to create a more balanced feel that wouldn’t create too much chaos. That was hard to manage, but in the end we found the right spots. Also, shooting in forests created a lot of logistical issues in terms ofgetting all the equipment there. So, we had to make some compromises there as well. We shot a lot of the film in natural daylight and that’s where the lenses really helped because as I said, they create a very organic feel when you shoot outside. Mostly all the exterior daylight scenes were shot with natural light. We didn’t use any lights, but we always had one or two Fly Swatters overhead to create contrast or to diffuse the light if needed. That meant that we really had to plan for shooting with the sun and the positioning of the sun.”
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to shooting a period piece is ensuring that everything within the frame is historically accurate. “For a period piece, everything has its complexities because you can’t shoot anything you want,” adds Van D’huynslager.“Every location was more or less a challenge because you always have the aspect of modern things that are everywhere. You have to make sure that it is accurate with the period that you are capturing. So, there’s all this modern stuff in the background that’s impossible to shoot and so you have to make compromises for where you would like to shoot backlight in a town or street for example, but you can’t because it’s full of modern stuff and on a budget it’s impossible to remove it all in post and clean it up. Everything needs a lot of thought and a lot of preparation, so it was a lot of prep in that sense. Additionally, as it was a costume shoot, you always lose lots of time on putting the costumes on and doing costume changes. We only had eight hours a day to shoot and so, that was also quite complex.”
For Van D’huynslager, one of the most enjoyable aspects of the production were the research stages during preproduction. “I really like to dig deep into the research and to try to understand how that time period worked and how people looked at things. I’m also interested in how people lived. The research was very important for me,” he recalls. “I had the luxury that because it took a lot of time for the film to kick off, I had lots of time to research the time period. It was also a real pleasure to work with the cast. Iain Glen is not only a good actor, but he has lots of knowledge in terms of cinematography and the blocking and he was a very nice guy to work with. We had a good dialogue and understanding on set. I also enjoyed working with my gaffer Patrick Haegheman. We really had time to bond during prep and find the right tools to fit the project. Every day going to set that’s a period film is like stepping into another world and you are not used to seeing people in costumes from the early 1900s. It’s exciting but challenging and that’s part of the joy of being on set.”
You can watch The Last Front trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opa6eJ_2XV4
Camera Crew
First Assistant Camera: Joël Bervoets
Second Assistant Camera: Pauwel Billiau
Additional: Steadicam Operator: Sander Blok
Additional Grip: Wannes Briké
Technocrane Operator: Gerrit Callens
Best Boy Grip: Jannes de Leest
Additional Grip: Koen De Winne
Video Assist: Ilton Kabassa Do Rosario
Additional: focus “b” camera: Jeroen During
First Assistant: B camera: Florent Freyens
Key Grip: Pieter Gaelens
Gaffer: Patrick Haegeman
First Assistant Camera: Robin Herinckx
B-Camera/Steadicam Operator: Sven Joukes
First Assistant B Camera: Patrick Nishimwe
First Assistant B Camera: Simon Noynaert
Electrician: Alexandre Sandyck
Best Boy: Steven Soete
Lighting Technician: Toon Soetewey
Electrician: Eva Somers
Electrician: Maarten Stoop
Lighting Technician: Wim Swinnen
Electrician: Andries Van de Gucht
Grip: Stevev Van den Broecke
B Camera Operator: Bart van Otterdijk
Crane Camera: Philip van Volsem
Additional Grip: Joris Vandezande
Additional Grip: Daan Verwimp
By Oliver Webb