English Version
This is your second collaboration with director Zack Snyder, so you know him well. How did your cooperation evolve during the making of this movie?
I would have to say our collaboration really started when we met at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, where we were both film students. That was about 20 years ago. I shot several films for Zack there, and after we graduated, I shot a lot of music videos and commercials for him as well. As a result of our friendship and history, we're pretty good at understanding each other. The best skill a cinematographer can have is to be able to read the mind of his director. When he's one of your best friends, its much easier!
What has been the biggest challenge for you in this project?
The scope of 'Watchmen' is incredible. It spans decades, countries, even planets. We had enormous sets, both on stage and outdoors, bigger than I've ever worked with before. We even built part of New York City. So that means a lot of lights and equipment and manpower. But in the end, the same rules apply: try to have interesting light, composition, movement...
For this movie, did you use the graphic novel as reference or did you talk abuot it with someone directly involved in the comic-book, as i.e. Dave Gibbons?
The graphic novel was definitely the 'bible' of the show. I'd have to say the production design, props, and wardrobe probably drew more directly from the material visually. Although people sometimes think of a graphic novel as 'cinematic', in truth we have a fixed aspect ratio that cannot be changed, as well as numerous other factors....not to mention the translation from 2D to 3D is not absolute. As a side note,
Dave Gibbons visited the set and seemed to be quite ecstatic as far as I could tell.
Watchmen is unanimously considered a comic masterpiece and the fan expectations for the film is much higher than other adaptations of comic-books. How does the staff deal with this situation and how does it influence the work?
Firstly, Zack is more of a fan than any of the critics will ever know. He didn't just jump on the bandwagon when Hollywood decided to travel down that road. He grew up on comics and graphic novels. From the day I met him he was always talking about, and even drawing, comics and characters that I never heard of. He was the first one to make me aware of Frank Miller. Everyone involved with 'Watchmen' already had, or soon gained, great respect for the material and took it very seriously...and yes, we were very aware of the fans and felt a responsibility to them as well...being fans ourselves.
For a cinematographic director, lights and shadows are something very important, but in case of using the green-screen (as in 300) how do you proceed?
'300' used greenscreen much more than 'Watchmen', but even then, you are absolutely right: light and shadow are still present in every frame, and for me, it's the priority. You can't just throw someone in front of a green piece of cloth, turn on the camera, and expect the image to be interesting. As I said before, always, the basic rules apply: light, composition, camera movement, and all of the other principles of filmmaking are still necessary with or without CGI.
Did you use any particular technique in Watchmen? If yes can you describe it?
There isn't an underlying template on the movie per se. In fact one of the most exciting things about it is that it's kind of all over the place, visually. We had so many opportunities to explore different looks and there's even a few scenes that pay homage to other films...I won't give anything away just yet, of course.
What impressed you most about this movie during its making?
The production design was fantastic.
Alex McDowell, whom I was thrilled to finally be working with, took things so far beyond what I could have imagined that the mind reels.
You joined the achievement of some Lost episodes, the first ones, if I can remember well. Is there any difference between those works and a movie like Watchmen?
Television is interesting because a show takes on a life of its own and is unstoppable. The work also appears in front of its audience fairly quickly, for better or worse. Helping set the visual tone for Lost during the pilot and the first season was an amazing experience but it's almost more exciting to see how the show evolves each season. Even though I have nothing to do with it, I still feel proud every time I watch an episode somehow. The pace of TV production is intense, shooting five or six pages of script a day, while on Watchmen we did maybe three or four. Remember though, TV can often be dialogue-heavy. Watchmen has a LOT of action, stunts, and effects which always takes longer to do.
In the Watchmen comic-book the structure of the panel has an essential importance. It's like the single illustration is the basic unit that generates all the further dimensions. Regarding your part of the job, did you try to recall this layout some way?
In Zack's storyboards, there are frames that are very similar to those in the graphic novel. But photographically, it was more important for me to capture the spirit of Watchmen. That's more of an intuitive process.
As readers know well, Watchmen takes place in different periods of time. Did you somehow adapt the cinematography to the different moments a times considered?
Of course there will be photographic differences in time periods but not in the expected way I think. I trust it will be fairly clear through production design, makeup, and wardrobe where we are in regard to the timeline, so that allowed us to be more subtle in our choices.
What are your future projects?
Zack is planning to make another film next year based on an original story he's had in his head for a long time. It's crazier and wilder than all his films put together... hopefully I'll be working on it too!
[by
Redazione Comicus] [27-04-08]
