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Firstly, I like prep but that is not to say anything that is imagined during prep has to be what is shot. That is certainly not the case. In my opinion, little can be decided before the director has rehearsed with the actors. Therefore, any lighting I plan out, or indeed rig, prior to seeing a blocking rehearsal will not compromise the possibilities available to the actors and director. Naturally, during location scouting the director and I might decide what will be the preferred angle to shoot in and also what might constitute the widest view, but there is always a possibility of change on the day of the shoot.
I too tend to prefer European cinema, and especially Eastern European cinema, but I am not aware that these films, or ‘The Rider’ for that matter, are made with different equipment. We recently talked with Andrey Zvyagintsev and his cameraman, Michael Krichman, for our podcast and delved into how they shot “Loveless’, ‘Leviathan’ and ‘Elena’. None of the equipment they used was any different to that available to any ‘Hollywood’ production. To say that the ‘big studio ways’ of shooting a film are dead is to miss the point. Was the film ‘In Cold Blood’ dead? Was ‘The Wild Bunch’ or ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ or ‘Dr. Strangelove’ dead? While you can easily dismiss the big budget films that are presently being made as, to put it mildly, unexciting, it would be wrong to erase film history altogether. It is not the technology that will change the films that are being made but the mind set of the film makers. Consider Godard. He didn’t work with one of today’s lightweight digital cameras and his greatest films, ‘Alphaville’, ‘Band of Outsiders’, Pierrot le Fou’ , “Breathless’ etc. etc., were made well before Steadicam and stabilized heads. And what about the work of Peter Watkins? What about his ‘War Game’ or ‘Culloden’. For an extreme contrast, consider also John Huston’s ‘Red Badge of Courage’, a film that is made up of extended tracking shots. Look behind the scenes of this production and see the size of the camera and the technological challenges of making those kinds of shots. Limitations can be overcome if the film maker has a vision and a passion.
Glasgow is a wonderful city and there are so many interesting places nearby. For me, experiencing new places and meeting new people is invigorating and part of the life of a film maker.
I have used long lenses and also a zoom on a few occasions. I am not a fan of keeping a zoom on the camera as a standard lens but I wouldn’t say I am not a fan of long lenses. i don’t see how that follows. It makes sense why Conrad used long lenses for ‘Without Limits’. If a project came along that felt like a ‘long lens’ film and that was the effect the director was after, then I don’t see why I would say no.
I rarely soften the sun with diffusion. The problem with doing that, unless you have a large crane and lots of time and money, is the source then becomes close to the subject and ‘wraps’ around too much. I will very occasionally use a net to take down the strength of the sun for a close shot.
As for bounce sources, I would rarely put something in direct opposition to the backlight. Here I might use a small bounce card, maybe a silver reflector, to light from below a subject. But I also might use an array of large unbleached muslin. So many variations and so many different situations. There is no one way to do anything when it comes to lighting.I have used a Lumix. Why not? I don’t believe the ‘brilliance’ of your camera is as important as what you point it at. I like my Leica because it is a very simple camera with manual sttings and a prime lens. The lenses are great and the camera’s resolution is wonderful but that’s not the most important thing.
The practicals have regular tungsten bulbs. There is additional lighting here. I was creating cove bounce sources to the edge of frame for both camera angles. I was using LED Fillex lamps with the Fresnel lens attached for my light source. Usually i would have used more traditional tungsten lamps in this situation but, for cost reasons, I was carrying few lamps in my floor package.
I do use my camera to take reference images on set but that is all. Far too busy to think of anything else!
It isn’t that the director is not concentrating on the story, well it wasn’t in the case in point, just that in discussions we had agreed on a set of ‘rules’ and we each kept each other on track. That kind of back and forth exchange of ideas is when I am most happy on a film.
Yes, I was looking to direct a couple of projects but some years ago now. The problem is I love being on a set and working with a great team, so when offers came up that I couldn’t turn down I didn’t.
They had just been very close! Now, Ellis is feeling confident and satisfied while Hillary is a little confused, probably a little angry and also sad.
Firstly, we imagined shooting under a clear blue shy when we were prepping ‘Sicario’. The kind of cloud formations we had were unexpected, even for tht time of year in New Mexico.
The pacing of the sequence in Mexico is down to a combination of our storyboarding, what we ‘discovered’ on the day, and the editing of Joe Walker. We had to be quite prepared for the shoot in Mexico City as, for financial reasons, production only allowed us a very limited time in the city. We also had to be very very specific in what we asked the authorities for permission to do, what roads we need to have closed etc.. so the sequence was very well thought out in advance. The section at the border crossing point was also worked out in detail in advance as, again, shooting time was very limited. We scene storyboarded this section in great detail and the set was created, in a parking lot outside Albuquerque, with these specific visuals in mind.
I don’t like to do an overall color correction in the DI. I had a series of Maxi Brutes with yellow gel on them but the much larger array of Spacelites were clean. To gel thos lamps would have been expensive so I had the orange filter made specifically so that I would achieve the color combination I was after in camera.
