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Getting the Scoop with DOP Frank Hammond & the Misfit Atom
We sat down with Fudge Sundae’s DOP Frank Hammond, who used the Misfit Atom on his camera rig as it went from Steadicam to sticks – and everything in between.
Even on the most minimal of camera setups, a matte box is still an essential tool to help create the specific look of your film. And for over a decade, our Misfit Atom has been the primary choice for filmmakers needing a lightweight and low-profile matte box.
Fudge Sundae is a deliciously dark short film from Writer-Director Georgia Redman, following Jack (Ed Speleers) as he tries to confess a terrible secret to his pregnant wife Kate (Emer Heatley) – hoping to soften the blow with some soft-scoop. As for what that secret is, Hammond doesn’t want to give it away:
[The script] was an interesting one. Georgia reached out to me, and I think reading it for the first time I didn’t get it.
There are some things I can’t say because it’s easily spoiled, but meeting Georgia and having it explained to me, it clicked. It’s a very interesting pushing of one narrative, but at the last second you realise it was about something else the whole time.
Thinking about it cinematically, I was really interested in how we could portray something one way, by shooting it and framing it one way, then all of a sudden turn that on its head. Building that distrust with the camera was a very appealing prospect.
The caution around giving the game away is valid: at the time of writing, Fudge Sundae is still in its festival run – but has already garnered critical acclaim. Citing filmmakers such as Bong Joon Ho, Ruben Östlund and Damien Chazelle; the film is inspired by an eclectic range of features.
Georgia had lots of great visual references. There was Triangle of Sadness, that was a big one, but there was also La La Land. Those were two of our main influences, but there were lots more.
We shot on the Sony VENICE with the AXS-R7 Recorder on the back – so we could get the RAW capabilities – with Zeiss Supreme primes. Triangle of Sadness was shot on Zeiss Supremes, and we wanted to sort of replicate that look. It’s a sort of clean look, but still has character.
It meant we could allow the performers to do what they were doing, the amazing food that was made for the production could be shown off, and we could let the locations speak for themselves.
Hammond himself is a jack-of-all-trades filmmaker: Director, Gaffer and DOP are just some of the titles sprinkled on his résumé. But regardless of what role he’s fulfilling on-set, Hammond approaches every job with the same proactive and positive mindset.
When I first arrive on any set, I try to say hello to as many people as I can. I also do a lot of commercial Gaffer work, so I usually start there by going up to the camera team and saying: “Hello, I’m going to be in your way for the rest of the day.” [Laughs] But the same goes for the AD, the Director, anyone. Make sure you’re a friendly face to approach when someone needs you – not someone they don’t know.
Personability is so important in our industry: it lends itself to good communication. We’re very lucky to live in a country that has so many different types of people floating around – different religions, different genders, different backgrounds. Having a good personality helps you get along, it’s something that should be adopted more.
Fudge Sundae shot in Director Georgia Redman’s home town of Clevedon, Somerset. The UK’s only Grade 1-listed pier (appropriately titled “Clevedon Pier”) serves as the location for the film’s opening: an ambitious continuous shot.
The first shot of the film is a 45-second to a minute-long Steadicam take of our protagonist [Speleers] as he is walking down the pier. We weren’t trying to match shot-for-shot, but we were heavily influenced by Ryan Gosling’s “City of Stars” number in La La Land.
But with only one January morning to shoot the scene, and British weather being what it is, the shoot was a far cry from the dreamy California coast.
It had been raining, so the pier was slippery, and it was very, very windy. It was definitely one of the more difficult shoots. I don’t remember how many takes we did in the end. We had our Sparks holding a couple of windbreakers just to make sure our Operator Trevor Speed wasn’t absolutely battered by the wind and sent halfway out to sea.
Juggling a range of complex setups in a short span of time, Hammond and his team made sure to trim the fat from their rig. Even with a crowdfunding campaign as successful as Fudge Sundae’s, the crew had to make decisions regarding what they wanted versus what they needed.
We wanted to be nimble. The shooting schedule was reasonably tight, we had a lot of shots to do in not many days. We scrapped our entire dolly rig on day two of pre-production because we realised we didn’t want to be faffing around with it. We wanted to be a little more adaptable to our environments.
Enter the Misfit Atom: with its minimal weight and footprint, the Misfit Atom acts as a lightweight matte box that is easy to attach to lighter rigs. It became a mainstay for the shoot, helping moderate light and add filters in whenever necessary.
With a Misfit Atom, you can just set it and forget it. It was super handy to have. Especially for our close-ups: we ended up shooting a lot of close-ups on slightly wider lenses – a 35mm instead of a 50mm or 85mm. So a matte box that was slimline and not too invasive when close on an actor’s face was really helpful.
In a dining room scene, also inspired by La La Land, we were working with a lot of candlelight. You can get flares and artefacts that are really weird and annoying, and the Misfit Atom helped with that. It’s really light and super easy to work with.
We can’t wait to get a taste of the short for ourselves. Catch Fudge Sundae at a festival near you soon.
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