"Atonement" casting director Jina Jay offered extended, behind-the-veil thoughts on what went into populating Joe Wright's film at The Times this week.  Jay is an old pro in the industry, with an impressive list of credits you can read through at the beginning of her piece.

There's plenty of discussion about Jay's career, but the meat of the story has to be her comments on finding the right actresses to portray the 13 year old incarnation of Briony Tallis:

Casting three actresses to play one role in Atonement was very challenging. We focused on the essence, spirit and intellect of Briony’s mind and soul, and applied this to all three Brionys. That they ended up looking similar is a coincidence – or perhaps subconsciously there was design.

Finding the 13-year-old Briony was a huge challenge. Very often one is trying to find a child who, at that point in his/her life, captures the essence of the character. The stunning thing about Saoirse Ronan is that she is not at all like Briony but she understands how to inhabit the soul of Briony. Saoirse had not even read the book and barely had time to read the screenplay in depth when we offered her role.

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Meanwhile, our own David Cohen had a chance to spotlight one of the unsung heroes of the film, camera operator Peter Robinson, who wasn't too happy when he first heard that director Wright wanted to capture Dunkirk in a sweeping steady-cam shot:

The shot would cover a longer distance than any Steadicam shot Robertson had ever attempted, and would ask him to walk endlessly on soft sand while carrying the heavy camera and rig.

"There are so many things that can go wrong in a shot like that," Robertson observes.

But he dived into planning how he could do it, arranging various aids to get him around what amounted to an obstacle course.

"As a camera operator," Robertson says, "I have to be inspired by the shot, because I'm the first person, before even the audience, who has to see and make the shot work. It was an idea that challenged the gods, but once we got used to the idea, I said, 'We're going for this, and it's going to look great.'"

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