Crafting Vulnerability with Soft’s Liam Higgins
Director of photography (DOP) Liam Higgins talks with Layered Butter about his collaboration with director Joseph Amenta, and how they create the raw, authentic visual identity of Soft.
LIAM HIGGINS is an accomplished cinematographer based in Toronto, Canada. His career has spread across a variety of mediums including commercial content, short films and feature films. His style and cinematic eye continues to get better with every piece of work and we wanted to help highlight his creative process.
For those who don’t know you and your work, can you tell us a brief history of how you got into the business and what made you want to decide to be a cinematographer?
Previously to cinematography, I was working as a writer, [a freelancer] for a variety of agencies and publications. Through a lot of the work I was doing, a lot of these places required me to have photography as a skill set to go along with the writing - it helped a lot with the visual element of articles. Since I was mainly working on entertainment beats, I shot a lot of artists on tours and shows that required me to do writing about them, so from building the relationships with a lot of hip-hop artists in Windsor/Detroit where I grew up, it got me interested in photography and music videos. From there it was a slow progression into movies and commercials. But, I was filming far before that when I was skateboarding with friends as well growing up.
Image Credit: Kirk Lisaj @largecrewneck
Was narrative film something you have always strived towards, or cinematography in general regardless of the platform?
Definitely, I was a massive fan of movies from a really young age. I was a huge fan of comedy when I was a kid, and then that taste developed a bit more into sci-fi and dramatic films. But I think the thing that made me realize that I really wanted to work in storytelling and narrative from a young age was Katsuhira Atomo’s Akira. That film really blew my mind as a kid and opened me up to what was possible from there.
Does your approach change from medium to medium?
Absolutely. I think I try to leave my mark on everything that I do, but sometimes that’s harder to do on commercials where the client is fitting the bill and expecting something particular. I think that’s true with every medium where someone has a specific story in mind, but i find with narrative or music videos, there’s usually a bit more creative leniency.
Image Credit: Kirk Lisaj @largecrewneck
Do you feel a need to craft a specific look to allow you to stand out or are you more concerned with the medium and how it will look based on that? For example would you be more stylized than usual in a music video to fit a song or try to keep your look for whatever you are filming?
I live by the standard of substance over style with all things creative. Whatever is necessary to craft an approach properly is the best way to go. Sort of like occam’s razor, the simplest solution is usually the correct one. I think there’s a lot of focus on standing out and trying to go over the top with the visuals, but I think it has to be grounded by asking yourself first if it is the right fit for the project. I think as the cinematographer, I strive to make the most honest images, and kind of fall into the background of a movie. I never want the images to stand out ahead of the story, that seems contradictory. But overall, there has a to be a philosophy to the visual style that’s embedded and cohesive to the philosophy of the story.
You grew up and have viewed Canadian film and film cinematography, what was your opinion of it?
I didn’t really think too much of it to be honest. I feel like I just watched movies with a perspective of enjoying them or not enjoying them. It wasn’t until much later that I understood the nuances and politics of a particular region of the world’s filmmaking and what that meant for what was possible. I don’t try to think too much about it, but at the same time, I understand now that there’s a particularly small, but thankfully not insular, approach to Canadian filmmaking. I think there’s a lot of incredibly important viewpoints that are starting to come to life through Canadian filmmaking that I’m all for, but it’s just a matter now of seeing how far these visions can go on a global scale.
A cinematographer and director have such a close relationship on set, tell us what it was like collaborating with Joseph Amenta (director of Soft)?
[Amenta] became a very close collaborator on the set of Soft. They really guided me into a world I didn’t understand by allowing me to be a guest in their space. At the core, I may not directly understand, via experience, the struggle of someone experiencing life from a queer perspective, but from a much larger view, the story is about our chosen families; and how they help guide us through this world. That’s something I was very familiar with growing up when I left home very early in life. That was the truth I connected with in the story, and besides my catalogue of work, ultimately led to Joseph trusting me as the eye of Soft.
Image Credit: Kirk Lisaj @largecrewneck
What are some of the things you felt most important to stress or convey through the cinematography when telling this story?
Joseph was very persistent about the film living majority in a close up, which definitely was outside of my comfort zone. But, through reading the script more and more and understanding where they were coming from, it made me realize that our actors carry such a particularly biased view of the world - one where their youthfulness is a sense of innocence that shields them from the reality of the world. Close-ups helped us intimately know these characters and all their details and subtleties while shutting out the rest of the world around them. As an audience we sort of live in the similar perspective that they do while being able to empathize with them much deeper.
Hand held and close ups are something that is prevalent throughout the movie, what made you choose this particular style?
Kind of relating to the question above, our closeups varied in two major ways. Panavision’s Primo L glass made this so much easier for us, their support was massive on this film. But we bounced back and forth for our close up sequences particular between the 75 mm and the 17.5 mm. The 17.5 mm was something we called “4th person perspective.” where we wanted to be close in relation to the talent in moments where they felt incredibly youthful and free to just live without pressure or stress of the real world. These are sort of our montage sequences throughout the film. When we were on the 75 mm, it was more for our dramatic moments. Handheld was something for us to have flexibility with the kids in our movement, but also to give it this rough almost documentary feel. We wanted to feel like the world was flexible and constantly on the move just like our kids were. It had to be imperfect.
Did you disagree on certain aspects of the look? Or was it something the two of you were on the same wavelength with? If you did, how did you resolve your disagreement and what was that compromise?
I think we had 7-8 shotlist meetings, and they were more therapy sessions for [Amenta] and I to really connect on the meaning of every shot. So as the film developed, it was really more of a conversation of perspectives and finding that middle ground for the film to live that felt like both of us had a say in where the camera went and why. At the beginning I was just listening and trying to understand [Amenta]’s perspective, and once I did, it flowed really easily after that.
I find it interesting that you also live in the city that the story takes place in, how did you go about separating yourself from the city? Or did you feel that because you lived in Toronto you were able to highlight specific aspects of the city as you felt would influence those characters?
This is a great question particularly for this film, because this film featured a lot of spaces that I had never seen before or wasn’t familiar with although I have lived in the city for 7 years. I kind of got to view it through the same lens as the kids did, which was an idealized version. I wanted to just photograph these spaces that were very new to me as authentically as possible, and when Joseph gave me a little bit of the history of these spaces, it helped me photograph them in a way that felt real and honest. It was a really cool part of the filmmaking experience.
Are there certain aspects that [Amenta] brought that were specific to the script that you didn’t think of or vice versa? Do you have an example of that from the movie?
Absolutely, [Amenta] brought their own personal experiences and deep understanding of both queer and ballroom culture. They introduced me to Jennie Livingston’s film Paris is Burning. Which introduced me to a whole new perspective of queer culture that I had never seen before. This was one of the most vocal parts that influenced the voice of the film. The film focuses on trans women and ballroom culture in New York City, and showcases what feels like the after hours of New York City. Despite the spaces feeling run down and vagrant-esque, it’s open, accepting and a place where people can just be themselves to whatever extent they wish too. The film touches a lot of on racism and poverty - It was a really unique experience of a film. It reminded me a lot of the work of photographer Diane Arbus, as she photographed a lot of performers within ballroom culture through the ‘50s to ‘70s.
Also growing up spending a lot of time in Detroit as a kid, my friends and I would get into trouble skateboarding and drinking in the streets, similar to how the kids do in the film. So I felt a lot of my childhood energy in the mischievousness of the kids in the film. It’s kind of funny because my view into this world and how these kids acted was seeing the film through the lens of Harmony Korine’s Kids, which takes places in New York City, similar to Paris is Burning.
Image Credit: Kirk Lisaj @largecrewneck
I know it is also important as a cinematographer to work with lighting and color, who were your main contributors to gaffing and color correction and how did they compliment your look on Soft?
In terms of the visual style of any project, I never try to overlight, I want to keep things as minimal as possible, and in the instance of this, it worked particularly well because I wanted the world to feel very dark and imperfect. A lot of our interior scenes are very naturally lit and mainly from windows, and at night, it’s heavily practically lit.
In terms of the grade, we were so blessed to work with Clinton Homuth and Kevin Wu at Artjail. It was a huge blessing to get them. We had 2 meetings prior to shooting with Artjail, and Clinton/Kevin helped us create a LUT for the film that reflected the warmth of Kodak 2383 print stock and the grittiness.
What was your most used lens on this particular feature, what about that lens made you feel was able to express the characters emotions in the scenes you were filming?
Going back to what I said above, the 75mm was probably the lens we used most consistently on the film. We wanted to create a narrow perspective of the world where we were seeing it the way the kids are, and almost never getting to see the reality around them if it isn’t from their perspective. The 75 mm also allowed to give our actors a ton of power and seriousness, which as a child, you almost never have. We wanted to make sure they felt real and powerful in the film.
Soft deals with adolescence and focuses on the three main characters over the course of a summer. I am curious if you looked at how other films embrace childhood and filming it and drew inspiration from that?
There was a lot of films that came up that I went through in preparation for the film visually. But the two that stood out the most for me was Korine’s Kids and Livingston’s Paris is Burning. I felt they both understood the true unapologetic nature of the film.
When starting such a long project how did you go about shaping that look for scene to scene, how did you keep a consistent feeling throughout the entirety of the film?
It came down to mainly deliberate choices of lenses, framing and lighting. We grounded ourselves in a philosophy very early on in the filming process to make sure we were adhering to something higher than our own egos right off the bat. This was really important for [Amenta] and I in moments where we might have felt a little stuck. We had questions we’d ask each other and put a lot of trust into each other in moments where we wanted to be more bold and frank in our decision making.
Image Credit:
What are you hoping to explore next? Would you like to do another feature or are you wanting to explore another medium?
I’m amped to do my next feature. There’s some conversations going on right now for my next one, and fingers crossed they go through, but I’ve always wanted to shoot a sci-fi, and more dramas of course. Hoping that I can continue on that path and continue to shape my look more and more.
Layered Butter is a community dedicated to the art inspired by film. Through essays, interviews, and artwork, our mission is to celebrate and champion what we love about the movies. If you like our work, please considering subscribing to our Patreon, purchasing a digital issue, or pre-ordering a physical issue through our store. With your help, we'll be able to grow this community and support the artists and writers who make Layered Butter possible.
