Mezzotint Film

[Lilly Solo]

Mr. Williams, the curator of a university art museum (implied to be Oxford), receives a mezzotint from an art dealer. The very disturbing engraving changes each time Mr. Williams and the colleagues he enlists look at it. In the end, it is suggested that the nighttime engraving depicts a vengeful poacher named Gawdy, returning from the grave to kidnap and murder the infant heir of a Mr. Arthur Francis. Gawdy had been hanged for shooting a gamekeeper while poaching on Francis' land.[1]

"The Mezzotint" has been adapted for television as The Mezzotint, written and directed by Mark Gatiss, as part of the A Ghost Story for Christmas series. The drama was made by Can Do Productions and Adorable Media for BBC Television and was broadcast on Christmas Eve 2021. Filming was completed in February 2021.[2]

"The Mezzotint" is a short film which serves as the fifteenth episode of the British supernatural anthology television series A Ghost Story for Christmas. Produced by Isibeal Ballance and written and directed by Mark Gatiss, it is based on the ghost story of the same name by M. R. James, first published in the collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904), and first aired on BBC Two on 24 December 2021.[1]

Set in 1922, it stars Rory Kinnear as Edward Williams, a curator of a small university museum who receives a seemingly-innocuous 19th century mezzotint whose details appear to change whenever it is viewed, hinting at an old tragedy which has connections with Williams' attempts to uncover his family history.

"The Mezzotint" was chosen for adaptation as a replacement for an original story written by Gatiss, The Night Wedding, which had been intended to air in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gatiss shelved the story due to concerns about the subject matter. "The Mezzotint" was picked as it was well-suited to the limited budget and shooting time and the need to follow COVID restrictions. It was well-received by critics.[2][3]

In 1922 the middle-aged and bumptious bachelor Edward Williams (Rory Kinnear) is living an uncomplicated life as the curator of a small museum at an Oxford-style college. His life revolves around his work, golf, playing cards and trying to solve a family mystery - why his great grandfather had two surnames on his birth certificate. Specialising in the topography of England, he is initially disinterested when an art dealer sends him details of an early 19th-century engraving, a mezzotint, of an old country house. The engraving has a very high price - two guineas - for so average a piece - and Williams sends for it on approval to see if it justifies the amount being asked for. When the picture arrives his golfing friend Binks (John Hopkins) comments on the wonderful play of moonlight across the lawn in the picture. And a figure on the edge of the engraving. But there hadn't been a moon - or a figure - when Williams had first looked at it. Williams encounters the eccentric Mrs Ambrigail (Frances Barber), the wife of the local vicar, and discusses with her his attempts at solving the mystery about his ancestor's two surnames.

Binks discovers that the house in the picture is Anningley Hall in Essex, where the infant child of a former owner disappeared mysteriously one night, soon after the child's father had Gawdy, a local poacher, executed. The heartbroken father, who was discovered dead three years later, turns out to be the artist who created the mezzotint. Williams discovers that the mezzotint changes every time he looks at it - with something sinister and "rather too grotesque" appearing in the image with links to his own family.[4][5]

The film was made by Can Do Productions and Adorable Media for BBC Television. Gatiss had penned an original story, The Night Wedding, which was intended to air in 2020 as the follow-up to "Martin's Close" (2019). However, production was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and he felt that the subject matter would be inappropriate due to it involving the deaths of elderly residents at a care home. The Mezzotint was chosen as a replacement due to the original story lending itself to a bottle episode, which suited the restrictions still in place when it was filmed in February 2021 on a small budget and with limited shooting time.[1][6]

As with most adaptations in the series, additional material was created which diverged from the story. A subplot was added tying Mr. Williams's family to the events depicted in the mezzotint, leading to the appearance of a gory apparition. The adaptation also added female characters, with a subplot involving a debate over whether or not the college should grant degrees to women, and the character of Nesbit was portrayed as being of South Asian descent. The acrobat and contortionist Tommaso Di Vincenzo, whose skills had previously been used in Gatiss's Dracula (2020), appears in the final scene.[1]

"You know, I think what you usually end up doing with an adaptation, say, of an M.R. James story, is trying to preserve the stuff that works best as dialogue, and isn't too chewy, but still has a wonderful period flavour, and then expanding the parts which need expanding.

"The Mezzotint" was filmed in early 2021 in Southern England, mostly in Harrow, London. "We were very blessed with Harrow, because it was like a studio," the writer and director Mark Gatiss said in an interview with Radio Times. "I mean, everything was within about a quarter of a mile, even the golf course. That's the sort of creative thinking that is very useful."[7]

The golf course was Harrow School Golf Course in Harrow on the Hill, London. The museum Williams cycles to at the beginning of the drama was filmed at the Chapel at Harrow School. Williams's home was filmed at Deynecourt on Harrow Park, Harrow on the Hill, while the church visited by Williams where he encounters Mrs Ambrigail and discusses tracing his ancestors was filmed at St. Mary's church on Church Hill in Harrow on the Hill.[8]

"...there was some genuine horror to be had, as the Thing from the picture turned in to the Thing on our screen and it was a lot more disturbing than anything Doctor Who has come up with this year. Usually the power to shock resides in jump starts, or in explicit imagery or busted taboos. Here, you knew what was coming - the picture had told you - but the climax still had me jumping out of my seat."[2]

"The Mezzotint (BBC Two), an M. R. James short story adapted by aficionado Mark Gatiss into a glittering half-hour nugget, is an absolute treat. These two masters of their forms can nudge even the most committed sceptic into willingly suspending their disbelief for a tight 30 minutes, especially when the plot runs like clockwork and is as stuffed with actors as a stocking is with gifts."[3]

Bychrome Products, Caprock Development and Dico (Direct Imaging Co/Corp, I think), there are possibly others that make the special effects screen tints that are used to produce mezzotints and steel etch as well as many more textures in lithography or offset printing.

A screen tint is a sheet of mylar or acetate with the high contrast pattern on it. It is contacted with the continuous tone image onto high contrast litho films to produce the effect. They generally come individually in 20 x 24 inch sheets or in sets in 9 1/2 x 11 1/2 or 12 x 15. You might come up with a way to photograph the screen tint with backlighting to your give you a digital version. I suppose you might even try scanning it. Then it could be combined in your imaging software.

Google search will give you Bychrome (see the link to screen tints) and Caprock. Neither has a lot of information on what you need but they do have contact information. You are looking for special effects screen tints not contact screens, camera screens or white dot screens. You might also try graphic arts suppliers in your area. Chances are unlikely that they will stock the special effects but they might be able to order them for you. I don?t think any of the three companies will sell direct so you will need to go through a dealer.

Gary, Thanks. Yes, you're technically correct, except that those tint screens could produce otherwise-unscreened halftone simulations using nothing but black ink...I've got one over my desk right now that got me a lot of commercial business back in 1980..looks like classic 2474..seems full tonal scale but there's not a grey in it. As I recall the small service lithographer struggled to accomplish good results, but did. Now that I think about it, he first shot the image with paper, then a negative. Something like that. A "halftone" paper intermediary was definitely involved somehow.

Patrick, Thanks, close but maybe no cigar...unless those "dots" can be printed effectively as 100% black while still rendering a full tonal scale. I'll bet they could work if inkjetted on overhead projector film and contacted...which is exactly my goal.

John, I am confused as to exactly what you want to do. However, additional opinion. In your reply, it sounds like you talking about camera/contact screens, also known as halftone screens, rather than screen tints. Contact screens are used to convert continuous tone into a litho halftone. You are correct there is no gray because you cannot do continuous tone printing on an offset press, only an illusion of continuous tone by controlling the size of the dot when contacted to litho film, which is only black or clear.

The "paper" process you mention is either Kodak PMT or Agfa Rapidoprint. It was a down and dirty diffusion transfer process, somewhat like Polaroid, for short run work which probably accounts for the struggle you mention. Generally it was only used for line work and you are correct it could be very difficult to produce a creditable halftone using that system. Quality halftone work was done strictly with estar or mylar based film materials to prevent swelling or stretching both of which are critical in halftone work.

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