Another End by Piero Messina is set in the near, undefined future. Much of the narrative takes place in the apartment of Sal (the protagonist played by Gael Garcia Bernal) who, after losing his wife Zoe in a car accident, sinks into depression. His sister Ebe (Bérénice Bejo), concerned about his state, works at a company offering a revolutionary technology: a system that allows the consciousness and memories of a deceased person to be temporarily transferred into the body of a living “lessor” (Renate Reinsve), thus offering family members a last chance to interact with their loved one.
Filming was done entirely in Rome, with the exception of three days in Paris for some night exteriors. The apartment was entirely built at De Paolis Studios, by set designer Eugenia Di Napoli. The exterior is never seen in the film, but the views from the windows suggest that the apartment is on the upper floors of a skyscraper in a modern metropolis.
Among the visual references, the director had pointed me to Spike Jonze’sHer, shot in a real apartment with large windows overlooking Shanghai. To achieve a similar effect, I had initially proposed using Led Wall in virtual production, but budget and time constraints led us to opt for Rosco Softdrop scenic backdrops, made of digitally printed natural cotton. The result was surprisingly effective. A distinctive feature of these backdrops is the “Day/Night” technology, which allows a daytime image to be printed on one side and the corresponding nighttime image on the other. Illuminating the backdrop frontally provides the daytime scene, while back lighting reveals the night scene; combining both illuminations can create sunrise or sunset effects.
In the gallery, De Paolis theater, backdrops and pantographs
For daytime scenes, we placed 8 Skypanel S60s (four on the ground and four on trusses) so as to achieve uniform lighting throughout the backdrop.
To light theinterior of the house, I used 4 more Skypanel S60s on trusses, one for each window, adding some De Sisti LED floodlights for the scenes I wanted brighter.
In the night scenes, the 8 S60 Skypanels were turned off and the backdrop was backlit with 6 ETC shapers. To give more realism to the skyline, I placed a few red flashing LEDs in contact with the backdrop, simulating the signal lights on the taller buildings and reinforcing theillusion of citydepth .
For a more realistic rendering of the interior, I decided to close the ceiling and insert 16 Astera Titans mounted on pantographs, used for both day and night with different color temperatures. When the pantographs were raised, the light fixtures disappeared behind a wooden frame with frost 216 and could be framed as diegetic light. When needed on narrower fields they could be lowered and with their grid oriented without the encumbrance of the stands on the set.
All lights were connected to a control console, next to which was Paolo Furlanelli’s DIT Station that allowed me to monitor light levels in real time.
This system made the preparation of scenes more agile, allowing the director more time to work with the actors and offering more freedom of movement for the camera. The end result is lighting that accompanies the emotional tone of the film, with a focus on creating an intimate, melancholy atmosphere in keeping with Sal’s story and his grieving process.
