I guess one of the responsibilities that we have as a DP is that everything around
us might be perfect. The performers might be perfect, the design might be perfect,
the script might be great, the director might be great, but if we're not in tune
with what it is the director is trying to achieve then we can royally balls it up.
Dan, thank you so much for giving up a little bit of your time
for this event. I want to start about talking about your collaboration with director Guillermo
del Toro. You've collaborated together a number of times already, the latest one obviously being
Nightmare Alley, can you describe the way that you two work together a little bit?
You know we started to work together on Guillermo's first American movie and my
second American movie down back in I think it was '96 or something like that, some some years ago.
And there was a pretty dark movie called Mimic and you know we didn't really know you saw that a lot
not at all actually but both of us like these like dark shadows of the life and you know deep shadows
and bright highlights and moving the camera a lot and try to tell the story with the camera
and the lighting being a part of the dramatic storytelling. We are still very much the same
like we like to move the cameras a lot we want to think about where the camera is like very precise
and the lighting should be a part of the dramatic storytelling and that's especially
a Nightmare Alley that was a challenge because the camera is moving so much ,we are moving
this takes us much longer this time comparing to with the last on Shape of Water.
And especially when you're coming into the admirable
with Cate Blanchett and Brad Cooper in in Cate's office, because the camera's moving so much and
the light has to be so precise and if the access are like a little bit off it doesn't
work you know it's like five centimetres to the left or right it's, uh, then it's not working.
So there was a kind of a ballet between the actors, the camera and the lighting,
and it was super challenging and of course you have you can only do that when you have a
director that wants to go that way and actors that are so precise and really like to do the same.
The film is drenched in darkness in so many ways. Can you talk a little bit about
the importance of these very dense black tones in the film?
Yeah, when we start to prep the movie of course we talked a lot about, you know,
how should the movie look, what way we should go... and we decided to go
longer takes, more wide angle and a lower angle which it's not much more wide angle compared to
what we did before, so you know all that might have to be outside the set most of the light
was also outside the set except that light on Cate when there was a 1k very close to her.
And a lot of that stuff was handheld, but you know it's just when you see some of the
Orson Welles' the older movies, I was thinking about that, you know; ceilings,
ceilings, ceilings, wide angles so that was like... and we never talked about that,
Guillermo and me and Tamara it was just my... I thought about that a lot.
You know we have a good really really good crew up there with fantastic people you know, and
you know how this ride goes you know you do a half a rehearsal and then you just shoot it, and
then of course the focus puller Doug Lavender was fantastic because the camera was moving so much.
We never shot one single shot where the operator still was looking into the camera; everything
was a steady camera or remote hits, so that's a real challenge for the focus pull of course.
But it was a fun movie to do, except we got shut down in the middle of because of the Covid,
so we stopped in the middle of a scene and then we get picked up like six months later in the
same scene. I was like, "excuse me, can we not reshoot that?" "no no we love what that was!"
There's got to be a documentary made about all the films that shut down halfway through
and like where it shut down, you know to show exactly in the movie. Because I'm desperate
to find out, like I know where our film shut down but I want to know when everyone else's
film shut down like if someone noticed the ageing on the actors or something.
In an interview that you gave that you don't even consider a project
unless you absolutely fall in love with the script can you
talk a little bit about what was it about Jane's script that really struck you?
I mean I guess when someone like Jane calls you, you can probably trust that
it's going to be a great project because I think she's the same in that she's
very selective with the kind of story she chooses to make.
Jane's a kind of amazing director in that she's very...
she loves prep and then she's completely open on the day to like a better idea coming she's
very kind of playful with the ideas and that ideas kind of keep coming and the best one's
going to rise to the surface and it's not until the end of the last take that you can kind of
stop accepting ideas you know an idea might come after take six or something you know.
It just happened to be like a two weeks that there was just so much other stuff to do like we did the
tech scout. Jane very wisely managed to say very early on that she wouldn't be on the tech scout
and so we were doing that kind of thing but I mean throughout the whole year.
Jane is very incredible in that she can, at any moment you can
find yourself improvising a kind of scene and you find yourself playing a role or another
and she does as well and anyone that happens to be around is is kind of implicated in this scene.
I hope you've got video of that! You have to have video, that's got to be behind the scenes.
You know, one of the joys that I have being a cinematographer is not necessarily creating
a lovely image, or doing a wet landscape at dusk. It's getting into the 'that' of some incredible
performance, particularly when you realise at this point in the movie this is required and you...
I mean again, I can tell you so many opportunities that I've had... Like in this, what did you find
the most rewarding? I mean don't single out actors necessarily but like what was the most rewarding
part of capturing this film? Forget the images but just in terms of those actors?
I mean I think it's also like you know a script really well by the time you come to shooting,
and you've kind of been unconsciously reading it in your mind,
you know the dialogue and stuff and you're imagining what a theme will be. And then when
you actually see the actors do it you realise what a crappy actor you are in your head, because all
these lines that you've been kind of reading and then you actually see someone that can actually
act really well, and adding... I don't know, just you think you're the master, like you really know
a scene incredibly well because you've read it so many times and you've talked about what it means,
and what its purpose is, and you think there could be no one that would understand the scene
better than you know me and the director do and then you have someone come in and actually
do it and it's it's just so much bloody better than anything my mind could have come up with.
There are little hurdles that have to get overcome, and there'll be a moment of crisis
that's not quite working, and maybe you can't find the shot and the actors not quite finding it,
and it's not quite there, and then suddenly something will all kind of... get back you know...
the wheels will start moving again, and and you get there but that that's a real privilege I think
as a DP to actually be right in the centre of it watching these incredible people who
really know their craft work on something together, also when the clock's ticking.
Yes and the sun's going down.
Tiy have to begin to figure it out and see what happens it's like,
no we have to get this by 4 p.m. That's also really fascinating and sometimes terrifying.
When you take on this project Greg you're already kind of living up
against an imagined world that's in a book. A huge fandom that's imagined this world
and a film that already exists. What is your starting point for crafting it and how much
of a vision for Dune did Denis already have when he approached you?
Well he had been reading it since he was 13. I think he read it multiple times,
I had never read that book before. I was born a touch after I think the heyday of the book,
so my influences, my references were all post 1980s Dune.
I'd seen the original David Lynch version a long time ago but I hadn't watched it recently.
I think that was one of the first things Denis said to me, he goes "listen, this is not that".
As much respect as he had for that because this is not that this is completely different
and so I just allowed him to speak and to listen. And he's a very eloquent,
sophisticated speaker if you've ever had the chance to chat to him
and this was so clear in his mind. This mood, this feel, this world was so clear in his mind.
When Denis spoke to me about that it was very clear he wanted to focus very, very closely
on character. One of the things I've enjoyed throughout my career is being able to work with
some fantastic actors and ironically with Jane on Brightstar back in 2008 and you know like just
learning about the fact that a film doesn't take place outside of 'that', like 'that' is a film.
And even if you have 'that' without dialogue you can have a film like 'that' without dialogue and
it's still a beautiful film because you've got these amazing performers to film.
I guess one of the responsibilities that we have as a DP is that everything around
us might be perfect. The performers might be perfect, the design might be perfect,
the script might be great, the director might be great, but if we're not in tune
with what it is the director is trying to achieve then we can royally balls it up.
That is my biggest fear is that I walk away from a project not giving 100 percent to it for a start,
which I always would, but also just ballsing up their vision
So it was a very much an honour for me to be able to sort of not necessarily make a film
that millions of people will see, it was an honour for me to be able to help
bring to life this man's vision Denis Villeneuve who's an extraordinary, extraordinary director.
A secret weapon that I have and I think Ari has as well. We both come
from Melbourne in Australia of this tiny little town, well it's not tiny
I shouldn't say tiny because people will... I'll be assassinated when I go back there.
But it's a small city, right, it's a small city in Australia and filmmakers in this city
I think are very sort of heart-based filmmakers. Australia also, but generally filmmakers in
Australia I mean it's not just Australia of course, but I'm generalising, but it's kind of
we don't have anything else except that. That's the problem. There are none of resources, all
we've got is the heart so if it's at all possible to approach every film like that, I mean it it
does sound ridiculous when you know I'm saying that but then we've got sand worms the size of
you know the empire state building, we've got like ridiculously oversized things in the
frame but ultimately those things are just eye candy for the story that takes place.
And I could relate to exactly what Denis was asking of Timothée which was;
he's in a place and he wants to get out of this place. Do you know what I mean? Like he
he knows he has to be somewhere else and he's not in this place where he needs to be,
and you know he has dreams he had visions and Ii could easily put myself in that place you know,
I could easily put myself to say well this is where I need to be this is where I want to be
and sometimes it is because of a place sometimes.
The exciting part for me was that we went off type a little bit. I Hate genre labels,
and genre identities you know. And again Ari just touched upon that
going that her film is not a western, their film is definitely not a western
just happens to be set with horses and in the Midwest right?
Our film I don't think as a sci-fi just happens to be set in the future
with things that we can't imagine. So I Believe that humans can relate to what they know and see
and like if we can give them that, if we can give them humans,
sorry it's very disrespectful to all the humans out there, but if we can give the audiences
what they know they can take a leap and go yes this is 8,000 years in the future.