Revolutionary Road: Window Shot

[benja]

 

Hello Roger,

I was watching Revolutionary Road and noticed a scene with a shot through a window. In the reflection of her eye, I can see something lighting her, and I was curious—did you use a cherry picker or something similar to avoid reflections of the C-stands in the window, or is it the real sun?

 

Topic

[Roger Deakins]

Ah! That’s a question. I never did use a cherrypicker to fake the sunlight on Rev Road so this must have been the real thing.

[Max A.]

Hello Benja and Mr. Deakins, I wonder If I can ask you some other questions about this shot.

Specifically, I would like to ask you if these kinds of shots (like glass reflections) are something storyboarded in pre-production or something that comes from you (or maybe from Sam Mendes on this movie) on the day during the shooting of a scene.

In my poor experience, I’m a very meticulous guy about pre-production and shot-list but on set sometimes things call my attention in framing so with the script “in mind” I let some inspiration come to life and present those to the director.
I write this because this kind of shot, since you don’t light it with an artificial point source, is something that I think has to be planned to have the sun in that specific position to create this kind of quality in her face but also in the building behind.
Even if I think it is a noon light, this is something that (if storyboarded and planned) has a little window of time to set up and shoot, considering also the other shots of the scene (since it is not a single shot like part of a montage but the end of a previous scene), so in a quite big set with great actors, etc. this can sound “scary” for a cinematographer to miss the moment.

I apologize for my bad English. I wish you a nice day.
Max.

[Author]

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