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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.
Who is to say that an idea is better or worse? My ideas might be as bad as anyone else’s! A different idea may cause some change in the plan for the day but that all comes with the territory. It would be stultifying if we worked as if we were robots.
In my opinion being a cinematographer requires a high level of fitness. Age probably is a consideration when a producer and/or a director is hiring but, as I only learn of the offers that come to me, I have no idea if I miss out on a job because of my age.
If we are going to recommend books of any description here I will put forward ‘Nights of Plague’ from the Turkish author Oran Pamuk. This is quite a relevant read given what the world has been (and is still) going through.
We initially talked about the sky being empty and not very present in the imagery. However, we were shooting during the monsoon season and it became obvious that we would frequently get ‘interesting’ skies so our approach changed. Then the landscape definitely became a character for us.
I needed a lighting system built in to the sets that I could dim without a color shift and that didn’t create heat. Besides that LEDs are more energy efficient. There are also LED panels and Fresnel/open face lights that have a full color range and full dimming control. That saves time putting scrims in a lamp or adding gel to the barn doors.
Blocking during prep or on the night before can work well if the location or set are available, but a problem can arise when an actor comes in the next day with a different idea. Mind you, that can happen when they come back from their make up trailer or after take one! There is no ‘right’ way!
I have worked with storyboards but never with any extensive pre-vis, if you are referring to an animation of the action. We did do a pre-vis for the opening of ‘Skyfall’ as we were working with a second unit and wanted to be very specific as to what we wanted. Personally, I would just as soon discuss a script with a director in a more general way and leave specific shot choices for location scouting and blocking rehearsals.
If you have seen the images of that lighting rig we constructed for the ‘church’ in ‘1917’ you will note it was quite large. Although each of the Dinos, Maxis and Mini Brutes may have flared in the lens if they had been individual sources the fact that there was a mass of these lamps and that they were dimmed down to different levels lessened the problem. There were inevitably the odd lamp that was problematic, just because of its angle to the shot or because a few lamps did carry spot bulbs. If I saw a flare during a camera move I would dim the light or ask for a little more smoke at that particular point in the action.
