Jeremiah Kipp interviews Russian Ark director of photography Tilman Büttner

Left: d.p. Tilman Büttner. Right: Alexander Sukorov (center) rehearses for Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Drifting through the great halls, staircases and chamber rooms of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Alexander Sokurov reflects on Russian cultural history and identity in his audacious one-shot, one-take feature film, Russian Ark.

The unseen modern filmmaker — Russian Ark is ostensibly shot from the director’s own POV perspective (with reflexive voice-over also provided by Sokurov) — begins his adventure through the Hermitage lost in a crowd of eager courtiers en route to the Great Royal Ball. As his long trek through the “artistic labyrinth” of the museum continues, the filmmaker encounters an acid-tempered 19^th-century French Marquis (played with enormous pathos and charm by Sergey Dreiden), who tangles him in debates on European paralysis and Russian progress (or vice versa).

Sidetracked by a series of fleeting vignettes, the filmmaker and the Marquis don’t pass through history so much as they become enveloped in it: Peter the Great assaults one of his generals; Catherine the Great observes rehearsals of a play before dashing off to the toilet; Tsar Alexander III dines with his family, unburdened by talk of Communist revolt; and they are greeted by the Hermitage’s director, Mikhail Piotrovski, surrounded by present-day tourists. Past and present intertwine in ways that question nostalgia as well as our progressive march into the future.

Sokurov’s Russian Ark is a vast philosophical achievement that came about through an exhaustive two years of preparation involving 867 actors, three live orchestras and a Steadicam shot that covers 4,265 feet of Hermitage floor space. The project would have been impossible without the Sony HDW-F900 24p High Definition camera, which provides mobility, a gorgeous visual palette, and flexibility in low-light situations. While video will never be film, this new technology has become an art form in its own right — a fitting metaphor for Russian Ark’s old leading into the new.

Left: Alexander Sukorov. Right: d.p. Tilman Büttner reheases tracking shots. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

The man behind the camera that weaves us through Russian Ark is Tilman Büttner. A renowned specialist when it comes to operating the Steadicam, Büttner received critical acclaim for the hyperkinetic, hard rocking motion scenes in Run Lola Run. After speeding through Berlin fast on Lola’s heels in 1997, Büttner ran Steadicam on several German films including Gigantic, Gripsholm, and Highway. With Russian Ark, Büttner expands his camera operator responsibilities to full director of photography status.

Remaining modest in his pride, Büttner submits that with Russian Ark he was part of something much larger than just a film production: “I’m amazed by the vast spaces of the Hermitage… I was entering an atmosphere in which the Russian Tsars had walked — people of another world, of another century, of unattainable status, which I, a simple mortal, would never have been able to penetrate.”

Alexander Sokurov has described Büttner as a strong and hardy man who diligently prepared for the physical work of Russian Ark months in advance (having to carry 30 kilos on his person for the length of a feature film). Büttner himself has likened the preparation to training for the Olympics. Now, having photographed the longest Steadicam shot in history , he holds his own world record.

Filmmaker met with Büttner shortly before Russian Ark screened at the New York Film Festival earlier this fall. The film opens in New York on December 13, followed by a national release through Wellspring Media.

Left: Alexander Sukorov and d.p. Tilman Büttner. Right: Sergey Dreiden, who plays the French Marquis in Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Filmmaker: You attended film school at the Konrad Wolf School of Film & TV in Potsdam. How did you find yourself in the specialty of working with the Steadicam?

Tilman Büttner: Originally, I wanted to be a pilot. But it didn’t come to that. The next most adventurous thing was film and photography. I had [comprehensive] training in film school, and was often an assistant cameraman as part of my studies. Writing and directing my own films was a prerequisite, but I took a deeper interest in cinematography.

I enjoyed sports, and that’s one of the reasons why I liked working with the hand-held camera so much. One of my colleagues told me that I might be interested in the Steadicam. It was smoother, with less trepidation and less movement. There were only two Steadicam systems available to students in my school at that time, so it was very special and very new. This drew me in even more, and eventually the Steadicam became my specialty. The essence of doing it, for me, was to combine the artistic with the physical.

Filmmaker: Did you have any mentors at the time?

Left: Sergey Dreiden as the French Marquis. Right: A scene from Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Büttner: Yes. My instructor was Harald Goebel, who was very influential and instilled in me so much respect for the medium. He was a professor at the film school, but was not simply a teacher [behind a desk]. He was also an active cinematographer, so he was able to put his theories into practice. He taught me especially to be free, to have my own ideas, and to not lean on anyone else’s artistry or be bound by preconceptions. This encouraged me to be self-reliant. Through [Goebel], I learned the basics of the camera.

We also had a particular emphasis on lighting and how to handle light. The way you use the light is, so to speak, the spice of the film. This was all from a technical point-of-view, but having that foundation is important. You can learn the craft, but as for the artistic process… the personal style from which you are able to bring the light… that is something that no one can teach you. It’s entirely subjective and remains an instinctive process. It doesn’t matter if the cinematographer is young or old, shooting on film or video. Every time you work, it opens up a wider spectrum of possibilities.

Filmmaker: For Russian Ark, you had 33 different rooms in the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum to light. Do you feel each room had its own personality that dictated how you would photograph them?

Büttner: One big issue was that there were main halls of the museum that had absolutely no daylight at all, and then there would be other rooms containing huge windows. Since Russian Ark was a film done entirely in one shot, without cuts, we were unable to use any filters on the camera to compensate for the different rooms. I wouldn’t be able to change the filters once we started shooting. Most of the color matching was done later, in postproduction. But while filming, it was most important to provide a basic look for the project. All of the information had to be there in the image, and we went warmer because it’s easier to lose the warm tones in postproduction than to recreate them.

Sokurov would explain to me what he imagined should be done in each room, detailing what he wanted with certain paintings — like Rembrandt, where certain shadows are essential. But he also wanted to show the warmth of the light through, as I said, warm color tones. We would achieve this by mixing our own lights with daylight. Whatever was necessary to preserve the ambience of the museum and the art pieces.

Scenes from Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Filmmaker: What was your preproduction schedule like?

Büttner: We only had one shooting day, and one day before shooting for preparing the lights for the 35 different rooms there. For my crew, I had 40 lighting men with only 36 hours to prepare. There was absolutely no possibility to rehearse for lighting at all. All of that was conceptualized theoretically on blueprints of the museum.

Filmmaker: You didn’t have time to rehearse for lighting, but you had some time to rehearse the movement of the camera.

Büttner: We were in preparation for Russian Ark two years before shooting, and I met with Sokurov about seven times in St. Petersburg. He and I walked the course we would take through The Hermitage, but only with a little MiniDV camera — not the Steadicam. I was blinded by the beauty that was all around me, all of those works of art, and it was a fascinating experience even then. We would do little rehearsals of the camera movement, just the two of us. Only much later in preproduction did we work on special transitions with the main actors. Actually, that was only in the last week right before shooting began. We were only able to rehearse with about half of the actors and extras performing the waltz, planning out the choreography and where they would go. But we never had a full run through. I must tell you, everything came together only on the shooting day. In a sense, it was a filmed rehearsal. I remember, after working so hard the night before, we were already very tired at the moment we started shooting. [laughs]

Left: Alexander Sukorov rehearses a scene for Russian Ark. Right: A scene from Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Filmmaker: Were you concerned about getting lost in the sheer size of the spectacle, particularly during the waltz where you were faced with hundreds of extras?

Büttner: I had no fears whatsoever. I listened to the music beforehand and was able to get to know it inside, feel it, and allow my instincts to respond to it. When shooting, I would consciously pull myself into the movement of the dancers, not step against it. I would become one of them. When filming in this way, it’s like improvisation. You have to give yourself up, as though you are falling back into a bed of water—and you must go with the waves. Somehow, I found myself in the right positions to capture the music and movement when I was supposed to. Of course, Sokurov was always next to me during shooting. He also knew the music by heart.

Filmmaker: What size crew did you have on the day of filming, walking through the museum?

Left: Alexander Sukorov rehearses a scene for Russian Ark. Right: A scene from Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Büttner: We had eight or nine people during the shoot. There was a cable connecting the camera assistant and focus puller, the script supervisor, the translator, and one or two lighting men as grips. We had no sound, using only the working sound from in-camera. The actual sound design was done during postproduction. Incidentally, we took the sound mixer out shortly before filming because there were too many people. If you remember the scene going up the small staircase, attempting that with another crew person would have simply been too crowded.

Filmmaker: You said that you had a translator on the set. Was that for you and Sokurov?

Büttner: Yes, because I speak German and Sokurov speaks Russian. But this was only for security. He and I knew what we wanted to achieve from all our work beforehand, and during the shoot we were able to communicate by eye. The translator was only for jumping in as necessary, even for some of our German technicians.

Filmmaker: Did you feel like the camera was a participant in the action?

The Great Royal Ball in Russian Ark. Photos: Alexander Belinky, Egoli Tossell/Hermitage Bridge Studio

Büttner: Actively. The camera is always active. It’s the eye of the narrator and is always involved. Even when the narrator is standing on the outside looking in, he still has a presence there.

Filmmaker: The idea of the long take has technical considerations but it is also a philosophical choice. But what did this experience mean to you?

Büttner: For me, of course, it was an artistic challenge to do a feature-length project in one shot. I suppose you can make a one-take movie with a camera on a tripod or table, but it’s less adventurous to do it that way. To do it in motion is far more daring. But it is a dream for any cinematographer when given the chance, to do everything I did on Russian Ark. That made this a special project for me. It would have been much too complicated to divide the responsibilities among three people: Steadicam operator, director of photography, and lighting designer. And I wanted to prove that I was not just a Steadicam operator, but a full photographer as well.

Jeremiah Kipp is a freelance journalist based in NYC.