Cinematographer Danny Ruhlmann’s work on thriller The Raven will screen in the United States starting April 27. The Relativity picture is directed by James McTeigue and features John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe whose fictional slayings are being copycatted by a serial killer in 19th century Baltimore. Co-starring are Alice Eve Luke Evans Brendan Coyle Brendan Gleeson and Oliver Jackson-Cohen. During the four-week shoot Ruhlmann filmed in and around Budapest in Belgrade and Novi Sad Serbia. “It’s great being in that part of the world ” says Ruhlmann “although very cold at the time – our biggest challenge. Fortunately James and I were really well prepared. I don’t think things changed at all from our initial pre-production. “I arrived in Hungary without any crew and worked with a great team made up mostly of locals. However one of the best decisions I made came in the form of gaffer Albrecht Silberberger from Berlin. James had worked with him before on V for Vendetta and Ninja Assassin. Albrecht brought a huge amount of his experience to the film. I was fortunate to have him there.” Ruhlmann used the Arri ST LT and 435 cameras with Arri Master Prime lenses to shoot the film; he is very comfortable with Arri’s cameras and lenses having worked with them numerous times before. He chose Fuji 500T Eterna stocks for the same reason. “I love its richness and filmic texture ” he says. “We chose film over digital because like Poe’s work film has a timeless quality which we wanted to capture. The lighting plan is to keep it dark but see the eyes. We always want the audience to feel there may be something lurking in the dark. To do this we kept the light off the walls lit most sets from above primarily and created fill to highlight the actors’ eyes. In regards to framing I use more negative space to increase the feeling there may be someone in the shadows.” Ruhlmann is the DP behind some of Australia’s major features of the past few years including Little Fish The Night We Called it a Day The Nugget and In a Savage Land. Little Fish earned him Australian Film Institute (AFI) and Film Critics Circle of Australia (FCCA) Best Cinematography nominations in 2005. In 1999 he received an AFI nod and won the FCCA award for In a Savage Land. Ruhlmann is represented in the United States by DDA.
