MPB Meets: ‘The Power of the Dog’ Stills Photographer Kirsty Griffin

With more than twenty years of experience in the movie industry, unit stills photographer and filmmaker Kirsty Griffin has worked with production companies including the BBC, Warner Brothers and Netflix. In Otago, New Zealand, Kirsty worked on the set of the multi-award-winning film The Power of the Dog. So far, millions of people around the world have seen her photography. We caught up with Kirsty to discuss her kit choices, tips for aspiring stills photographers and experiences working alongside Jane Campion, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst.

MPB: Could you tell us about yourself and your creative background?

KG: I’ve always been interested in photography ever since I was a child—I had a plastic Diana camera. In my early twenties, I worked for a photographer, mainly in the darkroom, processing and printing all his black-and-white work. I eventually ended up in the New Zealand film industry, initially working in the art department, decorating sets, etc. I was one of the Art Directors for Xena Warrior Princess, which was such a great job. So, when that finished, I knew it was time to take the leap into photography, so it was a natural path into on-set photography. I took a year off work and studied Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at the International Centre of Photography in New York City. I had a blast.

MPB: What advice would you have for aspiring film stills photographers? 

KG: If it's something you’d like to try, I suggest contacting producers or directors of low-budget short films and offering your services. It’s important to get a reasonable body of work together, showing a variety of film genres and styles.

MPB: What makes a great film stills photographer?

KG: In my experience, you need to be very aware of the filmmaking process. Having been on set for many years, it is now instinctive for me to understand what is going on within the scene for the actors—as well as what the crew need to do. You quickly learn when to take a step back, or even sit the scene out. Go and have an espresso. It’s really a relationship between the photographer and the actor. I tend to approach film stills from a photojournalist's point of view. You’re telling a story and you need to move quickly. You certainly need to leave your ego at the studio door, so being invisible is your best plan of attack. As a middle-aged woman, it’s not difficult!

For me, the most useful stills are the ones that capture key relationships within the story. I try and get one iconic image that captures the essence of that character, like the first image released of Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank. I had a few minutes and shot nine frames in total. It could have been very easy to just not bother in that short time available, but that's how it rolls as an onset photographer. The framing puts Phil very much in his environment, his relationship to the ranch and the fact that his hands are behind his back—looking a little bit like he is handcuffed—gives it more weight. But, for me, it really only works because he is looking straight down my lens, which gives us a sense of unease.

MPB: Could you give us an insight into the day in the life of a film stills photographer? Is it as glamorous as it looks?

KG: There is absolutely nothing glamorous about working on a film set! You get up early, wear your most comfortable shoes, and spend your day in the blistering sun or in a howling wind. Or, if you’re in the studio, you’re tucked in some dark corner with a lot of smelly blokes—even though I love them dearly. Film crews are the hardest-working people I know. It requires a lot of synergies to work with each other on set, and we all need each other's gear and muscle at times.

I usually get to set a little later than everyone else—which is a constant joke on set, I’m sometimes known as ‘half-day Griffin’—totally untrue! I watch the block through with the director, DOP, crew and cast, then work out where the best place for me to stand to cover the key action in the scene. Generally, I find the second camera position, so there is always a bit of jostling that takes place and I have to concede to the big cameras. So, you have to work out how to get the shots without too much compromise. Or, many times, it is a matter of just being patient and calmly waiting your turn. That's the skill in the job really.

MPB: What was in your kitbag for The Power of the Dog shoot? What qualities are key for kit when shooting on a film set?

KG: I use Sony mirrorless cameras, the Sony A7R and the Sony A9, with a mix of Canon DSLR lenses and Sony E lenses. The camera needs to be silent. I used to shoot with DSLR cameras, housed in a soundproof blimp, which was very cumbersome and took a lot of the pleasure out of shooting on set. So the mirrorless systems have made me love my job again.

I always have a tripod and monopod on set with me, in case I get a chance to do anything fancy. But I very rarely get a chance to use them. I use Adobe Lightroom to catalogue and process the RAW files. This can take quite some time at the end of each day, as I can easily shoot more than a thousand shots a day. To compare when I first started shooting onset, I shot on transparencies with a budget of six rolls a day. So while digital has made many things so much easier, and instantly gratifying, it has created so much more work. Hence starting a little later than the crew, as I work late into the night once home.

MPB: The Power of the Dog features some stellar names, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. Could you tell us more about what it's like working with such acting royalty? Is it ever intimidating?

KG: Initially it can be a little intimidating, but I feel confident in my work and the professional approach is always best. It’s always a bit weird the first time you're looking at such great actors down your lens, but very soon it just becomes normal. Jesse Plemons said to me that he can sense me there, but that my energy seemed to fit with his, so it wasn’t a problem for us. That was a nice thing to hear.

The first conversation I had with Benedict was on day one. He rode up to me on his horse and said “I really like your shoes”. So that was really just a fairly normal conversation. He was so great to work with and very accommodating in giving me a few minutes when I needed it. Kirsten was good too. Generally, I find that the better the actor, the less they notice the crew. Filmmaking is such collaboration and requires everyone onset to do their job well, otherwise, it can gradually unravel.

MPB: The stunning location of The Power of the Dog plays a key role in the visuals of the film. Could you tell us more about where it was shot? It must have been a dream from a photographer's point of view!

KG: We shot all the ranch exteriors in central Otago, on the South Island of New Zealand. Apparently, it was more ‘Montana’ than Montana! The light there is amazing. We shot in the summer so we have very long twilights, which are stunning. We would start shooting mid-morning so we could shoot into the twilight every day. It just gave the film, and my stills, that beautiful quality.

MPB: The film has gone on to be nominated for Oscars, making it one of the most talked-about films of 2022. How does it feel to have been involved in a project that big? How does it feel to see your work everywhere because of that?

KG: It did feel like a special project at the time, and Jane Campion has such great energy and puts a lot of trust into her crew. It’s what you hope for on any job, to be trusted to do your job well. I have to say, it’s the best job I’ve ever worked on. There was a great production team, which makes the whole circus work. It is fantastic seeing how many images they used. And Assouline has just published a 300-page book with a lot of my images, so that’s pretty fantastic. 

MPB: Your work on sets sees you capture film stills and more promo/portrait shots. Is there a type you prefer to work in? What are the key differences between the two?

KG: I do a few set-up shoots on films. The marketing team send you a lot of artwork of ideas, for posters and promo material, they’d like to have to fit with their marketing strategy. Personally, I prefer to do on-set stills. It just seems to fit my personality, as I’m a photojournalist at heart—not so much a studio photographer. I do enjoy them when I get a chance to shoot them, but it is a whole different kettle of fish and it can be a very intense couple of days.

In fact, Billy Bob Thornton put it well. “The stills photographer on set is one of the most underappreciated members of a movie crew. They capture something no one else does. Reality. They document the actor in a private moment, the moment just before the action, the nerves, the preparation, everything the public doesn’t see in the movie. The soul of the set. Furthermore, they sometimes take photos in the moment, which should be the poster. Key phrase: ‘In the moment'. And then the studio hires some high-dollar photographer to come in after the fact to recreate the moment. A moment that has already been recorded perfectly.”

MPB: You describe yourself as an ardent supporter of the New Zealand film industry. Could you tell us more about why that is so important to you?

KG: Who is going to tell NZ stories if we don’t? It’s very, very important to tell our own stories and to have our own identity in the world of film. I really love working on New Zealand films and that will always be my choice. Magic over money, every time.

MPB: Could you tell us more about your film projects, including your most recent work, the multi-award-winning production House of Champions?

KG: I also make documentaries in my spare time. It is a labour of love but satisfies my urge as a storyteller. My partner Viv Kernick and I have worked together as a two-person crew on four documentary projects. We have spent a lot of time with a community of intellectually disabled adults all living together on one street in the small town we live in. The web series can be seen at amystreet.net. It went on to win web festivals worldwide. It was such a great feeling, giving these underrated people a voice and showing the similarities of their lives with our own. It certainly gave them more of a presence in the small town we live in.

We then went on to make a film for our local TV network. House of Champions is about one of the houses within the community where the three flatmates were training for the Special Olympics. We used the training and the games as the vehicle to tell their story as hot-blooded partying individuals, facing the same difficult decisions about love and relationships.

MPB: Do you have any other projects you are working on at the moment you would like to tell us about? What are your plans for the future?

KG: Our latest short documentary Pluck is about to screen on our indigenous television network here, Maori TV. It’s about a traditional weaver with a potty mouth and nasty cancer. She is weaving her ultimate Maori feather cloak, or korowai. Facing her own mortality, she comes to the realisation that she hasn’t yet made a cloak for her daughter. The pursuit of feathers takes her to an island 1,000km [261mi] off the coast of New Zealand to hunt weka [native birds].

Pluck did well in Indigenous film festivals around the world, and won two festivals here in New Zealand. We particularly enjoyed being part of the Big Sky film festival in Montana and had some great Q&As—our film seemed to really resonate with Native Americans. It also played at ImagineNative in Canada and we got some great feedback, including a poem about our protagonist Jean Neshausen.

During our latest lockdown, I’ve started working on a book of behind-the-scenes photos of my years on set, so that's been fun. An ongoing project. But, for now, I am enjoying our summer swimming in the pacific ocean and in the rivers around our place.