Lens choice

We had to go another way because of some technical problems, but one of which arrived out of the original format we decided to shoot on. Going into the movie, we had always planned on doing it anamorphic, and although we weren't going to be the first submarine movie to be shot anamorphically, certainly I think Crimson Tide was shot anamorphically, which is a format.

1:21:25 · jump to transcript →

We realized that with the size of our submarine and the minimum amount of focus, the amount of distance that someone can come close to the lens in an anamorphic format is much farther away than a normal spherical format that it would have been impossible for us to shoot in these small sets. Also, going into the picture, we were going to do a good part of it handheld.

1:21:51 · jump to transcript →

And the anamorphic glass is much heavier. And lastly, you find when you're shooting in these small compartments, you know, inherently you're forced to use a lot of practical lamps or lamps that are built into the set. And you take the risk shooting in an anamorphic lens of a flare, an unseen flare coming across an actor's face or in an inappropriate area. So we chose at the last minute not to go anamorphic and we shot Super 35, which is a

1:22:19 · jump to transcript →

I have a screenwriter friend who said, "What has become of this prop?" I think the editor has it. I'm sure Dino has one. This book? - Yeah, there are two of them. Universal maybe has one. I should have one. - Yeah, and I should have one. You and I should have one. Why don't we have one? We could auction it in 20 years. Anyway, talk a little bit about how you got Ralph Fiennes into this cast. Like I said, I went after the actors that everyone told me I couldn't get. "Ralph's never going to do a movie like this, he's a Shakespearean actor." Basically, I sent him the script. And he loved it so much he agreed to fly in and meet with me. I gave him my vision of it. I told him he was not going to live in a haunted house. He told me he was very attracted to the idea of playing a monster who had a soul. That he had some kind of inner life and was not just a bogeyman. He loved the relationship between him and Reba, Emily Watson's character. He loved that there was humanity in this horrible person doing horrible things, but there was humanity in him. Here's a great sequence. We should talk about the way you staged it. This was originally written, if you remember, as an outdoor exercise scene. I said to Ted, "I can't see Hannibal Lecter "even if there were guards all around and they cleared the whole yard, "I can't see him in an exterior location, out of prison." The scene was originally through a fence. A sort of dog run or something, or a big mesh fence. And the dialogue between Will Graham and Hannibal was through a fence. It was an electrified fence. But I said, "Then there's no threat." There's no real threat. And I said, "Why don't we put him on a dog leash?" And I found this location, which is in an actual location for the mentally disturbed. There are mental patients all over this building. This was another case where Kristi would talk to Brett, and then she would send me drawings for the design for this knowing that it might help me as I thought about the scene and wrote it. Kristi had a lot of fun with the look of this scene and so did Dante. Dante did an amazing job because his interpretation put a lot of smoke in here so that the white lights would... Dante liked the way Lecter goes in and out of the brightness so that he almost seems to be a ghost. Which is like evil light as well. He said, "Evil light doesn't only have to be dark. It can be white as well." This leash thing, I love. He meant to use the bolt cutter to enter the house, but he didn't. That shot I did earlier, where you see the line saying, "Do not cross." It was the last shot of the night, and I almost forgot it, but I said, "In this whole scene, when I shot it, I don't remember seeing the floor. "I have to establish it so that the audience knows there's a do-not-cross line." Why is he standing there? The original idea for the scene was that you'd think it was a dream sequence. If you look, it's shot very close. The way you shot Edward's entrance into the room, we don't know at first where he is or whether it's a dream. And here comes Lecter walking towards him with no bars between them. Then we pop out and reveal that he's on a leash. It's a great moment in the film. When I was working on the first draft, I just thought, "This is a scene that's not in the book." Most of these Lecter scenes are not. I thought, "If I were directing this movie, I'd like to get away from that cell for once. "And give the actor a chance to use his whole body. "And have nothing between the two actors." To me, it was really the parallel of the scene with Jodie and Tony at the museum in Memphis, in that big cell that Kristi designed, which was amazing. I needed a set piece as magnificent as that, 'cause that really opened up the movie. I thought you'd be very grateful not to have the Plexiglass between them for once. And to have them be able to move together, walk together. Sometimes just the technical challenges you face force more creativity. It was only his first time. Already in Atlanta he did much better. Rest assured, my dear Will, this one will give you plenty of exercise. I love Will's reaction to that line. Edward's great when he's not saying lines, actually. You know, the mark of great acting is: How interesting is an actor when he's only listening? He's a very good listener. - Jodie Foster is a great listener. She listens with such intelligence and such engagement, and Edward can do the same thing, and so can Tony. It really is a hallmark of great acting. You see that a lot with Ralph Fiennes here. He doesnt have a lot of dialogue. He's listening, thinking and reacting. It's a very poignant performance by Ralph. It's easy to play the monster. It's hard to be the guy who's a horrible monster... It's hard to make the audience care about the character instead of just dismissing them. This is Azura Skye who is one of my favorite young actresses, who was in 28 Days. She had a small part in Bandits and she was awesome. Again, the importance that Brett gives to casting every part, even if it's an actor who only has a one-page scene. You want somebody who looks like they could star in their own movie. If this movie suddenly became about this bookstore, it would be interesting for the next 90 minutes. Even the voice of the girl on the phone, I cast the voice very specifically. Did you drive the studio crazy by waiting to cast some of these parts for so long? Till the last minute, yeah. ...darn it, she never did. I'm just a temp. Linda will be in on Monday. I have to catch FedEx in about five minutes. I hate to bother Dr. Bloom about it because he told Linda to send it and I don't want to get her into trouble. This was hard for timing because it's one shot and it's a lot of dialogue, and I wanted the camera to land at the right place. The camera and the lens that you pick help with the emotion, intensity, and realness of the scene. Is it hard to move in like this without changing lenses and keep the focus? Yeah. Especially anamorphic. The focus on this move is impossible. Mike Weldon was the AC on this movie. He's a genius. Anamorphic is the wide screen? Anamorphic is wide screen, but there's not a lot of depth of field at all. So it's impossible to focus when you're moving into a subject. It's just the hardest thing ever.

43:19 · jump to transcript →

This is an example of great operating. You go from his face down to that anamorphic... Camera operation? - Camera operation, yeah. We were back and forth about this, remember? My editor fought me on this. I thought, "Let the glove be hanging out of his pocket." When Lecter sees it, then perhaps Lecter starts to think, "Something's up." It doesn't really pay off. It doesn't pay off, but I just thought it would be intriguing. It does in a subtle way. He says, "Nice..." "Nice work with that blackout." So that's what you think tips it off. I think that's what Mark wanted. I'll have to say this. This next cut is my favorite cut in the movie. Not my favorite shot, but my favorite cut. - Going from this scene? Going from this shot, once the camera lands to when he hands him the paper. It's just my favorite edit. It's the most seamless edit in the film. Watch this. It's very subtle, but you might catch it. "_...Luke 1:7." - Code. Watch this. I love that. Only a director could get excited about that. I have to tell you... It's exciting. - lt is a great passing of a piece of paper. It's just cut beautifully. I'm thinking it's a book code. - Code? I like the pace of this. It reminds me of old films with Sterling Hayden in it. Lot of quick talking here. You need to go quickly through this. People do normally talk over each other, like we're doing now... But in a movie it's confusing, unless it's an Altman movie. But in the movies in the '40s, they would have... His Girl Friday. That movie, the script was probably 300 pages long. They got it all in in an hour-and-a-half because they were talking so quickly. Shakespeare, this is a lot like Shakespeare, you have to race through it. If we sweat him, we lose the connection. If the Tooth Fairy picked the book, he knew Lecter would have it in his cell. Can we get a list of his books? - From Chilton, maybe. No! Wait! Rankin and Willingham, when they tossed his cell took Polaroids so they could put everything back in place. Ask them to meet me with pictures of his bookshelves! Where? - The Library!

1:01:58 · jump to transcript →

My dear Will: You must be healed by now. The movie could've ended here, which would've been bold. You didn't know if he was dead or alive. It could've ended here, but then... The movie could've ended in two or three places. In the end, we decided it would end three times. The audience loves this stuff, and they love Chilton. That ending you came up with was amazing. You couldn't go out of this movie without letting Hannibal Lecter have the last word. He always gets the last word in these movies. The problem we faced was, we couldn't have him get away as he did at the end of Silence of the Lambs. We couldn't have him running all over the world like in Hannibal. By the way, what Danny did was, he gave it a Silence of the Lambs ending, where this music here Is saying, Hannibal won. It's not like they'll live happily ever after. This is the natural ending of the movie. This is the sort of poetic or clichéd final shot of the movie, The boat sailing into the sunset. But the music is saying Hannibal's won. But I always wanted there to be one more little beat, so it wasn't quite such a tidy ending, so that it linked up with Silence. A young woman. Says she's from the FBI. This, for me, is such an audience pleaser. It makes me smile every time it comes on, because it's such a great call-back. The only mistake is the wardrobe isn't the same for him. that it is in Silence. I wish I would've got that same wardrobe. It's the only mistake I made. And this music is just like... This family is going to need a lot of therapy. What you don't see after this movie, is the years and years of therapy that the whole family goes through. Danny Elfman is just an amazing composer. I love how the music really becomes more and more assertive. And by two-thirds of the way through the movie, it feels like it's driving the movie to its conclusion. I just want to give some special thanks to Andy Davis... Who was there from the beginning and through every moment through all the shooting, through all the editing. And James Freitag, my associate producer and assistant director. Without these two guys, I don't think I would have been able to make this film, because Andy is not only a great producer but is a creative thinker when it comes to line producing a movie and shooting things, and organizing and hiring the best people that money can buy as far as crews. My special thanks to Dino and Martha who set the tone for the entire production and took a little bit of a gamble on Brett, which paid off brilliantly. And also Mark Helfrich, the editor, because the last draft of any screenplay is written in the editing room. I've not very often been as lucky as I was this time to have an editor who is so sensitive to the script as well as to the performances. And Landaker and Maslow, my sound mixers, who I thought did an amazing job. Hearing this movie and seeing the movie in New York City for the premiere at the Ziegfeld Theater with that sound mix was just a great experience. That's why I dreamed about making movies. Seeing it in a theater like that, in a wide-screen format, anamorphic, it's like a dream come true for me. That, for me, is a defining moment. Seeing my work. That's the best I'll ever see my work. Yeah, with a giant screen. - A giant, giant screen. With a big audience. - 1,500, 1,600 people. I don't know how many seats, but a huge theater with the score and the mix, and the quality and the energy, especially with a New York crowd, you know. - Right. When they're laughing in the right places, they're scared in the right places, screaming in the right places. It was a very exciting project. It was a good experience. Somehow the darkest subjects sometimes turn out to be the most fun to work on. If you have the right kind of atmosphere on the set. I know you, Ted. You and I worked together for about a year. You are not a dark person. You do some decadent stuff occasionally. I don't think either one of us are, but somehow, maybe that's the only way you can get through making a movie like this. A dark director or a dark writer would've gone too far with this movie and made something that was maybe hard for an audience to bear. 'Cause the scary thing about this is that, there really are people out there like this, and there's a lot of... I wanted to tell a story. I wanted to make a film about a guy who... The films I want to make really are about that I enjoy making... Because my favorite director is Hal Ashby... His movies had great relationships. Harold and Maude, Being There, and those movies... This movie has fantastic relationships. And a tremendous amount of heart and emotion. Even though it is a psychological thriller, the relationships in this film are why I'm so attracted to it, why I felt like I had to make it. I think it is unexpectedly moving for a thriller. It's really not just a scare machine. It actually is a movie about characters and relationships and it's moving in a surprising way to me.

1:58:44 · jump to transcript →

really small you make it look really big though this is a 14 mil lens yeah and whenever you whenever you put on a wide lens on that but it was really really i i loved how the satellite it was it was kind of for us it was sort of a nothing yeah it was the last we didn't we didn't really give it that much um and he comes he comes out i think the lighting looks great in there yeah i agree yeah another compliment

20:56 · jump to transcript →

which help that out but I gotta say I do think that it comes you know it does come across much larger than it was yes yes Patrick your set looks very very large he was very tall though it was Tom so 14 mil is a very very wide lens yes 14 I kind of just if I could if I could have surgery and have my eyes turned to a 14 it's about what I would probably travel around and I start with the 14 first I just really like how it looks and

1:22:17 · jump to transcript →

But we used quite a few 12s and 10s on this, which 10 is pretty rare sometimes. It's quite wide. It starts distorting a little bit. Yeah, a little bit. And I shoot close-ups as well. I shoot a lot of close-ups in a 21, which I don't think is common, just because it is fairly a wide lens for a close-up. I just think it...

1:22:47 · jump to transcript →

Jonathan Lynn

and desperately seeking Susan. I've normally seen her in much more sympathetic roles. She really wanted to play this and I was just thrilled. 9 a.m., you better stop pecking. Zoom. Okay, well, when are you coming back? Because I have to reschedule all your appointments. It should be more than a couple of days.

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Jonathan Lynn

A sports utility vehicle is going very close to the exploding car when it explodes, but it wasn't all that close. It's the effect of a long lens which foreshortens the distance. It's one of the ways you can make actions look closer to each other than they really are. Doctor, these men need to see you.

1:18:28 · jump to transcript →

Noah Baumbach

I had another thought, which I lost. Then somebody else might just say, "Well, they built the set. Of course they had to use it twice." For that set, you basically had to move the camera outside Cinecittà to film it? We had to move the camera outside of the stage because we couldn't get far enough back earlier, to see the whole ship. We had to open up the wall and get it very-- I found this 28 mm anamorphic lens. I'd never seen one that wide, the angle of the lens. But then once we had that lens, we used it for the entire Ping Island raid, which comes later. It's a very wide-angle lens. You can't get very close to the people, even. I mean, you can't get a close-up with it, but... Anjelica has such amazing style, the way she even just lifts her hand there. She knows how to move. - She really does. I feel Anjelica's absolutely perfect in the way she-- I mean, anything that's not there for her character is not there because we didn't put it there. Everything we did, she realized. And she also always has good ideas on how to get her character better. And in the case of this, I think we were inspired by her to bring her back, to have her come back in in this way and sort of motivate everybody, and get everybody and rescue them, sort of. This is an odd thing, this shot where they're all lined up. In the earlier part-- Now they have to move. We've zoomed in, they have to move to line up in this row. They had to move while we were on Anjelica. Yeah, exactly. That's a very weird shot. This is too. Here, maybe you can see Anjelica's green contact lenses. You can't really. They're painted by hand. I like the set of the hold, or whatever it is, the engine room. And one thing Mark Friedberg, and especially Stefano Ortolani, our art director, and the whole gang of art department people at Cinecittà, they have a great knack for bringing age, and the details of age, and the Belafonte is such a beat-up kind of rust bucket. They really brought it to it in a very real way where it never felt fake, and it just feels like-- Right, which is a big deal. And again, it's nice, because, like, everyone's outfits look so clean and colorful and saturated, and then they're sort of operating in this, you know, beaten-down jalopy. Right, beat-up jalopy. Yeah, beat-up jalopy.

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Noah Baumbach

Reminding you that they're tracking a shark. Something you can probably lose sight of. We didn't exactly keep it front and center. No. But it's also, you know, some metaphor for whatever it is, it's also not what the movie's about for us in a way. I mean, it represents things that the movie becomes about because of what's happening between the people, among the people. Which is what any good metaphor does. I will say one thing. People always say, "Well, is he the father? Doesn't he shoot blanks?" One thing I would just say, we never felt like we knew. I mean, even after this scene where she says Zissou shoots blanks, that's now. And, you know, she didn't... Ned predates Eleanor. And who knows whether he's his father or not? And I think it just-- There's doubt that he's his father. We certainly don't feel like we know the answer to that within the story. And it's kind of, either way it's good, and there's a connection between them no matter what, and a need for each other. It's something we've talked about also, about sort of surrogates, and that in some ways it's about-- It sounds funny to say, "Well, it's about father figures and not fathers," but I think, in a way, that's true. We all have our relationships with our actual father, but then we also, you know, at least you and I do, tend to recreate these things with other, you know, people in our lives. I mean, yes, it's about fathers and sons, but it is also about, you know, how they both sort of... Both deliberately and unconsciously seek each other out and recreate something that they need at this point in their lives. Or create something they never had. Right. - Yeah. Yeah, fathers and father figures. That's definitely... It seems to always come up. That'll be... You'll find yourself titling a movie that in about 25 years. And somebody will say, "Wes Anderson..." "Losing all subtlety." "In 2004, Anderson never would have called a movie this." That's how people begin to slip. And here's that very wide lens. The music here, we had this electronic piece of music that he plays in his helmet earlier and that plays from time to time. Mark Mothersbaugh I had worked that up a couple of years before the movie, and Mark is, I think, the perfect person to be making electronic music like that, having been one of the founders of Devo. But then when this scene comes up, we decided to do a symphonic version of that electronic, you know, beatbox Casio thing.

1:23:23 · jump to transcript →

No, it's the burial. It's the frame around the grave. I know, but I think it's... There's a dolly right there. No. No, there was no dolly near you. Remember, this was a long lens. Look, there's a... I know. There's no way that you would have seen the camera. I sent you a piece of mail from Berlin and asked us to call you when it arrived. It came this morning.

31:10 · jump to transcript →

That's the Mission: Impossible theme. Michael Giacchino, I was watching the sequence played fast, and played fast, you can hear the Mission: Impossible theme. He's playing it really slowly. Giacchino's a genius. I love this. You kind of realize, oh, my God, he's given me a tool to help me. I love the wide lens.

1:15:31 · jump to transcript →

This is the last shot on that day. It's totally drained. Well, she really pulls it off, I have to say. This is the yellow mountain. And this is always a shot that gets people, when you cut from this telephoto shot to where she's actually climbing up. It's impressive. You climbed that during scouting, right?

1:51:56 · jump to transcript →

So every day he kept repeating, doing the same thing, saying the same things, until we got the perfect shot. Because the lighting is pretty critical, because we started with the anamorphic format. So the lighting, it's got to be very detailed and also more of a contrast. So you need a lot more time to do the perfect light. And he had a lot of great patients. He had never complained. Suppose it was planned for two days' work.

27:16 · jump to transcript →

Simon West

And this is Angkor Wat, and the authorities there let us build this village right in front of the temple itself. I've tried to make it look like there's a river and a large lake or whatever. There's actually a very small ornamental pond in front of the temple. But by using a wide-angle lens and not showing the edge of the water, which is literally where the camera is, it looks like she's paddled up the river and made it to this Cambodian village in front of the temple.

59:50 · jump to transcript →

Yep, this was pretty much one of the first times that the boys were ever together saying dialogue together in the movie. I think we should get off the road. Did you always have in mind that tracking Zoom shot for that moment? Yeah, it's an Alfred Hitchcock shot that he designed it, and then I think Spielberg's used it a few times. It's become a little bit of a cliche, but I thought we could get away with it there.

53:13 · jump to transcript →

This is one of my favorite shots, the creeping down one, which was an idea that we had on the set. We were playing around with the wide-angle lens and the camera on a crane, and we were just looking for interesting angles. And we came up with this angle, and then we decided to make it to really feature it as a shot. This is an image that's off one of Alan Lee's paintings, isn't it, on the Two Towers cover, looking up the staircase. I like the fact that the spider's being really creepy and sneaky.

2:23:14 · jump to transcript →

It's like a gay rumble. Oh. We should get back to short bus. Okay. This is a great moment. That short bus was totally random. It just happened by accident. And we did that shot three times. It just went by. Oh, and the yoga ball. Hilarious. We did that shot three times that zoom in on the character of Caleb the stalker. It happened three times.

9:29 · jump to transcript →