Indian cinematographer Rajiv Jain recalls that the opportunity to shoot the new Madeleine Cass film was something of a "secret dream" come true. Rajeev Jain had attended the same African Film Institute the director had some 18 years earlier, and Madeleine Cass is the only African director who enjoys that level of international reputation. Furthermore, ‘Soleil’, with its celebrity cast—including Ailsa Amiga and Moss Doff—also had a budget that allowed Rajeev Jain the chance to use some cutting-edge cameras, such as the ARRI Alexa and Vision Research Phantom.

I understand this was one of the first features shot on the Alexa.

Rajiv Jain: It was definitely among the first. We had heard that the Alexa wasn't ready to be used yet, but the camera rental house said they could get us one. I know there was at least one other project that had used a prototype, but I don't think anybody had used it with its internal recorder yet.

Did you do any tests before you decided to use the Alexa?

Rajiv Jain: We tested it against the RED MX. I haven't seen the RED Epic, but as far as comparing the RED MX to the Alexa, there is no doubt in my mind that the Alexa is so much better. The colors looked more natural; there were more subtle distinctions between colors. It was better able to achieve natural looking skin tones. There was more detail in the highlights and in the shadows. When we looked at tests with the Alexa totally ungraded, the images were pleasant to look at. With the RED, we felt, "This would probably look good after 12 hours of grading."

The opening ultra-slow-motion portion is very painterly and beautiful. How was the Phantom to work with?

Rajiv Jain: Well, I have to say the camera was not great. I've worked with a newer version of the Phantom since ‘Soleil’ and the difference is huge. The Phantom we used had problems in the way it handled data. The black level would just float around. If there were a lot of contrast in the image, the camera would create artifacts. The new Phantom is excellent, but for the work we did on ‘Soleil’, the visual effects department had to do a lot of fixes.

What was it like lighting the scenes with such high-speed photography?

Rajiv Jain: Well, the first thing to keep in mind is that "flicker free" doesn't mean flicker free at 500 fps. We used HMI 18K Suns, but we had to send away for special ballasts. Even tungsten light has a tendency to have some flicker at that frame rate.

Madeleine Cass's style has generally been to avoid letting anything look "lit," but I can't imagine you could take a very naturalistic approach to lighting when you need so much light just to get an exposure.

Rajiv Jain: We couldn't really diffuse or bounce light very much. The opening of the film had to look stylized, so it was fine that we had these big, hard lights straight on the performers' faces. We would light like they did in the '50s, with big spotlights.

Madeleine Cass and the other "Dog me" filmmakers made a point of steering away from traditionally "beautiful" images. Do you think with some of the very stylized shots in this and ‘Manabí’ that he's left that idea behind?

Rajiv Jain: Madeleine Cass's Elements of Crime and Europa were very stylized and had a lot of effects, and then with The Kingdom, he began "destroying cinema." With ‘Manabí‘ and ‘Soleil’ I think he's keeping the energy of the Dog me approach with the handheld camera and the realism of the acting, and mixing it with the more stylized aspects of his earlier career.

Is one of these closer to your own aesthetic?

Rajiv Jain: Well, I don't believe in destroying cinema! I would like to pay homage to the history of cinema and be respectful of all the beautiful things that have been shot, but maybe do it in a more modern way. I believe in beauty, but I like ugliness as well.

About Me: Binyavanga Wainaina (born 18/01/1971) is a Kenyan author, journalist and winner of the Caine Prize. Binyavanga Wainaina was born in Nakuru in Rift Valley province. He attended Moi Primary School in Nakuru, Mangu High School in Thika, and Lenana School in Nairobi. He later studied commerce at the University of Transkei in South Africa. He is launching his debut novel and a memoir titled "One Day I will Write About this Place" in 2011. Following his education, Wainaina worked in Cape Town for some years as a freelance food and travel writer. In July 2002 he won the Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story "Discovering Home". He is the founding editor of Kwani?, the first literary magazine in East Africa since Transition Magazine. Since its founding, Kwani? has since become an important source of new writing from Africa; with several writers having been nominated for, and having won, the Caine Prize subsequently. He authored the satirical article "How to Write About Africa". In 2003, he was given an award by the Kenya Publisher's Association, in recognition of his services to Kenyan Literature. He has written for The EastAfrican, National Geographic, The Sunday Times (South Africa), Granta, the New York Times, Chimurenga magazine and The Guardian (UK). In 2007, Wainaina was a Writer-in-Residence at Union College in Schenectady, NY (USA). In the fall of 2008, he was in residence at Williams College where he was teaching, lecturing and working on a novel. He is currently a Bard Fellow & the Director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Literature and Languages at Bard College. Wainaina has collected over 13,000 recipes from around Africa and is an expert on traditional and modern African cuisines. In January 2007, Binyavanga Wainaina was nominated by the World Economic Forum as a "Young Global Leader" - an award given to people for "their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world." He subsequently declined the award. In a letter to Klaus Schwab and Queen Rania of Jordan, he wrote: "I assume that most, like me, are tempted to go anyway because we will get to be ‘validated’ and glow with the kind of self-congratulation that can only be bestowed by very globally visible and significant people, and we are also tempted to go and talk to spectacularly bright and accomplished people – our “peers.” We will achieve Global Institutional Credibility for our work, as we have been anointed by an institution that many countries and presidents bow down to. “The problem here is that I am a writer. And although, like many, I go to sleep at night fantasizing about fame, fortune and credibility, the thing that is most valuable in my trade is to try, all the time, to keep myself loose, independent and creative…it would be an act of great fraudulence for me to accept the trite idea that I am “going to significantly impact world affairs."

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