- I remember when I got to the stage in commercials when I finally had enough time and enough money, I would shoot something really pretty, but it was like, 'So what?' If you have enough time, enough money, the right equipment and the right filter, it still doesn't necessarily make for a better picture. You can do an average painting with 40 colors, or you can just take a pencil and make a great drawing.
- We compose the shot carefully. Ridley is quite precise about composition. He is a visual director. [2015]
- Lately we're seeing a film reaction to the digital world. It's like, "Oh, digital is not pure, so to be pure, we're going to shoot film." I've shot lots of film. It's not like I'm some new kid on the block; I've shot a lot of movies on film, and I love film. But everyone forgot about bad baths on Monday. And things could go wrong. Was it the camera? Was it the lab? Or was it Kodak? Was it the wrong batch? Everyone forgot about those details. Remember green dailies? What happened? First, fire the cameraman. But then it was learned that some guy fell asleep at the lab. Everyone has forgotten about those stories. (...) Unfortunately, we are losing people with skills to run a film lab. Nobody who is 30 years old wants to be a lab technician any more; they're all working on their computers, shooting movies on GoPros. Who's going to be the guy in the lab at two in the morning making sure the temperature in the bath is okay? Don't get me started on the film vs digital world. I love those last purists who shoot film and they do such a heavy DI manipulation, you wonder where's the film? Give me three printing lights like we used to do. Then let's talk about film. It's a sentimental notion. [2015]
- Using a zoom is just simpler. Even in the [35mm] film world, I use Optimo short zooms all the time. Why not have a zoom lens that is as small, or smaller, than many primes? Some people have to have a lot of big, heavy equipment, but for me it's not necessary. When it comes to the quality of the Optimo lenses, they are wonderful. Of course, you can debate that certain primes made your shot or gave it a look, but, as you know, everything is so sharp these days. Film stocks are sharp, the digital images are sharp, and as long as you treat these zooms well, they're absolutely beautiful. (...) There is a stigma that goes way back to the 1970s, when the earlier zoom lenses came. Some of them breathed, they were not that sharp, not that fast, and during a zoom, they could go out of focus. There were all those issues. It was a very complicated optical thing. Actually there were two stigmas - the first was technical, that the image was not good enough. The other was artistic. The idea of zooming in and out made people think of television. But when you look at all the great movies, people used zooms. William A. Fraker and Vilmos Zsigmond used zooms in the '70s. That's how it was. (...) You can make a statement out of it and make the zoom noticeable. Or you can just do it gently. If we watch various movies, most of us won't even notice whether a zoom was used or not. Using a zoom has become a classic way of telling a story. (...) Basically it's a variable prime. But you can zoom in and adjust the frame slightly during the shot. You can sneak in or out. It holds up, even in 3-D. And it totally works. [2015]
- Since my early 3-D days, we used RED cameras because of the size. Now we're using RED Dragons. Our lenses are small Angenieux Optimo zoom lenses, so we don't have to change lenses to change focal lengths. The biggest problem in 3D is changing lenses, because that takes forever. Basically we devised a system with lots of multiple cameras. This movie [The Martian (2015)] has four rigs. On Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) we had five rigs. We have two wide rigs and two tight rigs. That's why those little Angenieux Optimo zooms are basically indispensable. They are the best thing that could happen for us. We have 15-40 mm T2.6 Optimo zooms for the wide rigs and 28-76 mm T2.6 Optimos for the tight rigs. With that range, we don't change lenses, which is great. We line up the shot and adjust the focal length. (...) It's a fantastic modern lens right now. I mean, their short zooms are revolutionary. If you have to make a low-budget film, you can take one camera, and you can take those two zooms, and you can shoot the entire film with two short zooms. You can hand-hold, you can use them as variable primes. They are practical. That's how we do our big 3-D movies. But we are pretty much shooting our whole film with two lenses. The bottom line is that's pretty much all you need. Unless there's an effects shot that needs a super long lens or super wide lens. And I think if you talk to every experienced director, that's what they will tell you. [2015]
- [on News of the World (2020)] Maybe it comes from working with Ridley Scott and using multiple cameras all the time, but I basically try to light the space, then you can put the camera wherever you want. I mean, put the camera in the place where it looks good too. (laughs) [2021]
- [on News of the World (2020)] Shooting at magic hour can be very nerve-racking. It's living on the edge, but it pays off even if the light doesn't match perfectly throughout the scene. For day exteriors, it's also much better to go with real light, even if it doesn't match perfectly, than to just use some big silks to have exact consistency in lighting. It's consistent, but it's boring. [2021]
- [on News of the World (2020)] When we first talked about the style of the film and how much of it would be handheld, Paul [director Paul Greengrass] mentioned this movie by Pier Paolo Pasolini called The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964). It's a black and white film from the early '60sshot handheld-not as a style, but probably because they didn't have any money. It has these beautiful compositions in this very sparse Italian landscape. He threw that film at me completely out of the blue and I kind of said, "Hm, that's interesting." So, that was our starting point. I like to call "News of the World" a movie about restraint. We didn't want to use cranes and helicopters and camera cars. We wanted to keep things basic and try to find great compositions within the locations. There's so many ways to skin a cat, but I think we found the right way to tell this story. It was funny, though, during prep in order for me to communicate with Paul - because he wasn't there yet - I bought a tiny drone and started shooting locations and sending the footage to him so he could start thinking about how he wanted to stage things. His first response was, "I just don't like to have the camera from that perspective." And I said, "No, I get it. I just wanted to give you a sense of the space." But then when we started shooting the movie he said, "I think maybe we should have some helicopter shots." (laughs) We had a great relationship. Just teasing each other, throwing out ideas. [2021]
- [on News of the World (2020)] I used the Alexa Mini LF, which I was very curious about. It had just come out so it was a little nerve-racking to get it on time. I think Tom Hanks's and Paul Greengrass's names helped a little bit in getting the cameras. (laughs) But we did get them last minute. It's smaller than an Alexa 65 but larger than the normal Mini, so you have a little shallower depth of field. For lenses, I used short Angenieux zooms and Panavision 65 vintage primes, especially for nights to have [a faster] stop. The Panavision 65s are very fast and I like that they are not perfect. They're pretty, but not perfect. That's what I always look for. [2021]
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