Tina Kakadelis
Leah McKendrick’s recently released Voicemails for Isabelle is as much of a love letter to romantic comedies as it is to the cities that make up the setting. Jill (Zoey Deutch) is an aspiring chef living in San Francisco who grew up in Austin. That’s where Wes (Nick Robinson), a real estate agent, still resides. Their paths cross by way of voicemails. When Jill’s sister, Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), passes away, Jill keeps calling her phone number. Unbeknownst to her, Wes has inherited Isabelle’s number for his new work phone. While much of these early feelings of a crush exists in the airwaves, it’s up to cinematographer Julia Swain to capture the magic of the unfolding romance.
You’ve done a lot of horror genre work, and I read that you enjoy surrealist directors like Alex Garland. Voicemails for Isabelle is on the opposite end of the spectrum. Do you feel like there’s any surprising overlap between the way these two genres use light and camera work?
I think there’s quite a bit of overlap. The horror films I do are true character studies. I think about them the same way I would about Voicemails for Isabelle or anything that isn’t horror, in that I think about the characters and how the camera is connected to them. I always ask myself, what does the camera know or not know? Is it omniscient? Does it only know what our character knows? How much are we viewing this through a specific character’s perspective? That all dictates where I put the camera, what lens I’m on, etc.
Lighting-wise, sure, I wrapped faces more on Voicemails for Isabelle and kept my darkness levels a touch higher. At the same time, I wasn’t afraid of contrast. I lean into what I feel is right for the tone of the film and each scene within it. I want beautiful lighting ratios, no matter the genre.
We’re in an age of renaissance for the rom-com genre. How did you capture that warmth for modern audiences?
We wanted to bring back aspects of the classics that we love, and warmth was a big one. I’ve seen a lot more sterile, cooler rom-coms nowadays, but we sought to light with warmer fixtures, have shape on faces, and see a lot of warm light in the frame. I wanted the color palette and light to be as rich as the script was. This movie makes you feel everything there is to feel, and we wanted it to be colorful and beautiful.
You worked with Leah on Scrambled a few years ago. How has your working relationship changed since then?
Leah and I learned early on that we’re both very intuitive storytellers. We let the emotionality of the characters guide technical decisions, which keeps us connected to the truth. Our relationship on Scrambled was a very close one because often it was just her and me in a small space with the camera. She was starring in a very personal story she’d written and was directing, while I was operating the camera and the cinematographer.
It was the perfect first movie for us. We got to know each other so deeply and learned what’s important to each of us. It made for a seamless transition to Voicemails for Isabelle, where we had more days of shooting and a bigger crew. However, we still had to move extremely quickly. For example, when we went to shoot in San Francisco for a couple of days and had an impossible amount of scenes to get, the trust and speed we developed on Scrambled with a small crew became our superpower. We can do anything. We’ve only become stronger as a team. We fight for the same things, we believe in the movies we make so profoundly, and we elevate each other in the process.
Voicemails for Isabelle was shot in 35 days across 79 locations. What was the pre-production process like? How much time did you have to prep in these locations?
Coming from Scrambled, we were able to prioritize in prep and know where to put our energy. We knew what our biggest challenges would be and how to allocate our time. As with any production, you have to make all your locations work within the schedule and shoot them out efficiently. We definitely didn’t get loads of time in them beforehand – some more than others – and we definitely didn’t get every location we wanted. To make everything fit in your schedule and maximize your shooting time, you have to make other options work sometimes and get creative. Leah and I can walk into a space and know almost immediately whether it will work or not.
Even though this is a rom-com, there’s still a need for VFX shots. Can you talk about the role of VFX in a film like this and about the collaboration between your role and the VFX supervisor?
We worked with a truly incredible Visual Effects Supervisor, Chris Van Dyck, at Niche. Leah and I are all about authenticity and doing things as practically as we can, but most of our shoot took place in Vancouver, while the story takes place in San Francisco and Austin. There was no way (with the San Francisco fog, which we learned is affectionately called “Carl,” and a very bland overlook that was a logistical nightmare) we’d be able to shoot two straight night exteriors back to back for Jill’s bench scenes in San Francisco.
We decided to shoot it in a park at night, so we were in the elements, but built the angles of the bridge with a blue screen. Chris and his team were amazing in prep, and I worked with them to map out exactly where this overlook is in real life and how we would see the bridge with our ideal camera angles. We took our bench and placed it in the Vancouver location, then Niche built San Francisco around it digitally so we could go in during prep and look around with a virtual camera. Chris and I shot plates at the real overlook for us to temporarily place in during scouting and production. Our collaboration went all the way from the beginning of preproduction to the end of color. It was magical to see it all come together.
The characters of Wes and Jill are at very different points in their lives. How did you distinguish the two? How did you combine them as the story progressed?
We talked a lot about Jill and Wes before they met – Wes as he becomes invested in Jill while he listens to her voicemails, and then their relationship when they’re physically in the same space. We see Wes as a slick real estate agent who’s very in control before he meets Jill. We kept the camera controlled and smooth, always on dolly or steadicam for him. It’s always looking up at him to make him more powerful in the frame. The moments of Jill leaving voicemails are tapping into her inner life in a very intimate way, so we reserved extreme close-ups for those moments, and the same for Wes listening. As they become closer in San Francisco, we connect them in the frame more, and the eyelines become tighter to the camera. A shot that was very important was when they first met in real life at the bench. We rack focus from Jill to Wes as he sits beside her – a rack focus and angle that are later recreated from Andy to Wes at Andy’s wedding, where Wes realizes he’s witnessing true love.
