All language subtitles for 110 - Cinematography

I've never been a director

who wants to put a personal stamp on a project based on

a look or an aesthetic

uh I've always thought of myself

um you know

more like a um

I guess the way an actor understands a character

tries to inhabit that character

I wanna understand the character of a movie and uh

and sort of inhabit it as a director

and try to fulfill

the possibilities that I think are most appropriate

now of course

my personality

my taste you know

it's going to influence movies in similar ways and

and you know I I

I try not to work in opposition of that

but I like to try to

to understand a movie and let it begin to talk to me

I like to I like to begin to understand what's

visually possible um

and what would what would

what would most um

reflect I suppose the themes

the story it all

it always keeps coming back to me

to supporting those

those ideas

what's it about

what's it trying to convey

and you know

and how is it supposed to

to transport the audience

how is it supposed to feel

and then begin to understand

what sort of visual style will enhance that

how will it help us understand the characters

how will it

how will it help engage uh

the audience

um there's a kind of ironic thing that happens that

you know suddenly um you

you you know

you're gonna

you're gonna hear a lot more

um you know

about that subject

so now I'm thinking about becoming a doctor

and suddenly there's a great documentary about

you know what it means to be a

you know an er doctor and oh

look at this I I I'm

I'm really noticing that those people over at Starbucks

you know they've got the

their nurses

and I think I see a doctor over there

and they're talking

maybe I'll go out and discuss you know

just talk to him about what med school they went to

it's all boy

this is amazing

it's suddenly

you know the whole

everywhere I look

it's all about medicine and doctors

well it's just that

your antenna is tuned

you know in my

my my sense of this is that it's always that

that information has always been there

but now you focused your train of thought

I think as a director

you have the opportunity to do the same thing

to begin to focus on your subject

and you'll be amazed

how many ideas can start flooding your way

and a lot of that comes to you as visual

uh language

and it's it's great to start taking notes

you see a photograph

pull it out

well I don't

if if you can

if you already own the magazine

pull it out uh

uh and collect it

give yourself something to talk about

to think about

to dream about

and just begin the

process of understanding what that movie could be

at least that's how I like to work

um and you know I

I I never have any interest in having a

you know a particular kind of shot

that I always do

to start the movie

or in the movie

or you know

it's no signature

no signatures like that for

for me it's about

you know a story

finding its proper voice

it's it's you know

the it's its existence within the

you know the medium of cinema

a lot of what we perceive in life has to do with light

um bright uh shafts um

start backlight um

so that things are a little bit muddled

uh distance

um is is is is is

is often about you know

the way the optics work is you start to lose detail and

you know you're not

the light isn't registering with you on a distant

figure the way it does a

you know a figure that's newer to you

and so I really come to

to understand the power of lighting

I think I grew a lot working with Roger Deakins

uh on Beautiful Mind

he's a brilliant lighting uh DP

he he doesn't even think he is or know he is

and he suffers over it

he's a very meticulous man um

and his lighting isn't stylish

but it's so psychological

and so much about evoking a feeling

and he really understands how to make a light

a character

in a scene in a way that I didn't really

prior uh to

to working with him

and I really enjoyed that collaboration

a lot of the um

the warmth of the opening

that's kind of enveloping and welcoming

and suddenly unreal

it's a little too good to be true

and it's the beginning of John Nash's journey

when we don't know that he's mentally ill

we don't know that he's already delusional

um but you know

he's full of hope and angst and drive and ambition and

um so even when it's not his point of view

we created this palette

we kept calling it the life magazine look

it was kind of not only nostalgic

but it was also um

it was also

in a naturalistic way

very beautiful and very um

sort of inviting in a way um

and that was the world that John wanted to be a part of

he wanted to be in it

and he imagined that he could be um

and that was

you know world of discovery and academia and genius

um later shifting to the kind of the darkness

the the the bright light and the dark shadows

of the Cold War noir section

now that was

that was my idea

I knew I wanted to

to move into something that was a little bit artificial

and spoke to

you know a sort of

a reference of

of what a mystery looks like

what a Cold War thriller looks like

but the way Roger Deakins executed it was not

you know over the top

tongue and cheek

it was still

um it was subtle and

and yet you know

really brought a lot of intensity to that section

in those scenes

in a great way

Don Peterman was also the first cinematographer

who taught me to experiment with

um mixing um

you know shooting modality so that you'd

you'd use in the same scene big

wide lenses like a 14

see the whole room

put the camera high or low on the ground

almost like a Citizen Kane sort of shot

even though splash was a comedy

you know make it visual

um don't don't shoot it like a straightforward you know

sort of you know

everything done with a 50 millimeter lens kind of a

kind of a you know

storytelling

and then crash in with long lenses

so there's no reason to sort of say

this is a wide lens scene

and or this is a long lens scene

telephoto lenses do another thing

you know they draw

they can press images and um

they're very beautiful

uh in lighting situations great for

for romances and things like that

uh they soften

um they soften things um

and very narrow depth the field

they accomplish a lot

they create intimacy sometimes

you know and I found that

that idea of being able to go from super wide

into these long lenses

that wasn't jarring

wasn't jarring at all

if it worked aesthetically

which you could sort of see in the set

looking through viewfinders and things like that

and you could determine it

then it would work

and so that was the first movie where I became

you know a little freer about that

I've now come to really look for opportunities

where I can shoot a scene with wides

long lenses

and crash in handheld

all in the same scene

did a lot of that in Frost Nixon

did quite a bit of that in rush and

and I find it

there's something about it that's a little energizing

because the wide lenses

give you an interesting graphic sense

so it's not just that you see a lot

you see it in a particular way

that is kind of intriguing

often if the composition is strong

and then crash in with a handheld

and suddenly

it's almost like you

as an audience member

you know suddenly throwing yourself into the scene

and you're into the

into the world of those characters

and you know

you begin to learn the

the grammar of photography

and what it can mean and what it says

and it becomes almost second nature

cinematographers have taught me that

I've done a number of projects with Salvador Dotino

he's um he's so um diverse

not only do I like him very much uh

as a friend

not only is he an incredibly hard worker

but he also has tremendous range and great taste

um and um with

with with Sal

I began to appreciate the power of of

of strong blacks

darkness with more focused light you know

so it's not so much about lighting whole figures

it's about lighting the face in a particular way

in a naturalistic way

but rooms and spaces

not feeling like they're broadly lit

um and it gives um

a kind of an intimacy and a focus on the characters

and um Sal is very soulful

um very emotional

and very connected to what the characters are doing

so even though Salvatore is a great visualist he is is

is never trying to create a showy image or a cool image

he what he really wants to do is understand

you know what

what the scenes about what the characters going through

with santotino

I began to understand more about mixing the medium

more about working with various lenses

not just lens sizes

but you know

from different generations

and very interesting

on a subtle level

to understand the way different

different lenses can sort of communicate to you

and it's subliminal

but as an audience member

because we're all sort of trained to watch

um a screen

even if it's your iPhone

it's you know

there's a certain um um

certain textures just give you certain feelings

another little trick that I've come to use

and sometimes I just

you know I use my phone

but I used to use my

you know just home movie camera

video camera

Super 8 even it is to

even if you're not the cinematographer

you're not going to shoot it is to

while the actors are rehearsing

is to you know

begin to experiment with some little camera moves

begin to just play and

and it doesn't cost anything and it's

you begin to sort of see that

you know a particular

particular feel just

it just does something

the other thing that

really exciting right now

is what technology is giving us

um and it's there's a

there's a new grammar that's just evolving constantly

and um a lot of it exists on YouTube and um

I got to give credit where credits do

I was talking to David Fincher

who's somebody that I just know we're not

we're not great pals

but we see each other here and there

and I was talking to him about

um something

asking a question

and he said

look it up on YouTube

and so what do you mean

he said well

just in any word

any any subject

any question you might have as it relates to your film

just type it in

because out there in the world there are

there are people with really interesting

um visual sensibilities unlike yours

and they have more time

they're hobbies

they're playing

and through that freedom they're

they're expressing a lot of

a lot of interesting ideas in really original ways well

I didn't know much about car engines

and I was working on

uh rush and I

I wanted the

the engine to somehow be a kind of a character

and I didn't really know what that meant

or what it looked like

and I typed in Formula 1 engines

I started to see some macro photography of engines

and ultra slow motion

and then I finally saw this one shot of you know

of a piston slamming down and sort of exploding and

and I thought oh my gosh

that's fantastic

there's a key turning point

where James Hunt is beginning to really get his mojo

and he's literally always kind of think

well now he's kind of on fire

he's hitting on all cylinders

look at all of these cliches that are all exist

in this image that I just saw on YouTube

so I borrow David Fincher's advice

I'm passing it along to anybody

uh who's interested

it is another great research tool

uh and and it is a reminder that there

there is a new kind of a grammar

it doesn't mean that the old

classic ideas don't have tremendous power

but smaller cameras

less planned looking

more spontaneous kind of imagery

different sort of cutting patterns

these things are all there to be seen and

and understood

and you know

evaluated as it relates to a project that you are

planning to make in a very organized

planned way

I've worked twice with Anthony Dodmantle

Rush and in the heart of the sea

two very very different kinds of movies

but there is something so spontaneous and

and um and and um

and and kind of chaotic

he got he did Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later

among other great movies and

and he's he's

he comes out of documentaries

and he's really the first cinematographer I worked with

who was first and foremost

initially a documentary director and

and cinematographer

and very exciting uh

to work with Anthony

I remember having a great conversation with Anthony

who I didn't know well

but I was I was um

interested in him shooting rush

and I'd been following his career for a while

and he talked about

he talked about the difference between

lighting conditions in the Formula 1 circuit

that is everything from the hot sun of South Africa to

you know the fog and the dampness of

of racing in

you know in London or northern Europe

he talked a lot about the cars

and the sexuality of that time and um

and and the sort of

the body language of those racers and um

and and that sort of sexual energy of Formula 1

and I was thinking along those lines

but I didn't know how to articulate it

and so that became very exciting to me

and then I said

I know you've done a lot of documentaries

um I uh I keep feeling

when I look at footage from the era

that I'd like this to not necessarily be

like a documentary

about Formula 1 racing

but more like a music documentary

more like a gimme shelter

so you know

like a great music documentary from the 60s

yes sexy but um

but you know

a little bit unplanned

spontaneous uh

and he got very

very excited about that and it

it's the first movie that I really approached in

in that way uh

and we had to work very

very quickly and that

that sort of

um style of

of working is actually very efficient

and it really exploits the moment

Anthony documental

coming out of documentaries and low budget film making

he's brilliant at looking at the sky

looking at the set

looking at the actors

understanding what it is you

as the director

is trying to accomplish

and saying simply

if you could move them over here

you know I can shoot this in five minutes from now

we don't have to light at all

and it's gonna be beautiful

but you have to

you have to recalibrate your thinking a little bit

can you make it work over here

cause then it

you know if we do

it'll be great

and I I really Learned to sort of go with that

because it was

it allowed us to work at a faster pace

and still get a great look and I

I realized that

European DPS

in particular

you know they

they never really have the

the money or the tools to try to control the light

they have to work with it

and there's something very interesting and fluid

and creative about that

and I found it

um very stimulating

and I hope that's something

that I continue to carry with me throughout my career