Brad Rushing, Cinematographer: Camera movement
does not automatically make a shot better, it can make a shot worse.
Film Courage: How do you decide when to move the camera?
Brad: Well again I primarily defer to the director but I'm not one of those
people who likes gratuitous movement. I've worked on shows there are certain
styles of filmmaking or gratuitous movement and she's like always keep the camera moving I like it
to be motivated I like there to be a reason for it to be moving and and I just intuitively it's like
when I'm in that space I’ll feel that moment where I'm like we really should go from here and then
slide over to that person or just how cool we got to follow them in through this door and outside
I would probably like to move the camera a little more than I do but when you move the camera it can
complicate lighting because you have to hide stands you're seeing more of the space you have
to have a and I if I was given a choice between moving a camera or doing cool lighting I would I
would probably do the cool lighting I know people who do less than cool lighting to permit more
camera movement and that again that's a legitimate aesthetic but it's not my preferred aesthetic
but but in a perfect world you could have both and again like I said I just unmotivated movement
it's a distraction I just I think even with lighting I mean you could do cool lighting that
doesn't complement a scene and and it should never be about making yourself look good it should be
about complimenting the actors and complimenting the story telling telling that story in a way
that the the people lose themselves and it one of the things that visual effects artists often say
is that is that our best work is the work that nobody notices
and I feel that that's that's kind of true for me I mean I always like it of course
when people say well that was really pretty and beautiful but I hope that it's because
it complemented that moment and that they they saw these two people in love and it
was just so beautiful and not that it was like distracting in some kind of way because that's not
that's that doesn't serve the the the higher purpose that we're all supposed to be there for
when you shot the video store one location yeah teens sort of sounds like the thriller
yeah type movie what were you focusing on movement or lighting or how are you making it interesting
within that one space well there was there was a little bit of all of the above the director Rolf
Kanepski is just really passionate about coverage he has lots of different ideas about about getting
a variety of coverage on scenes and again we had motion where we needed to have it
and some of the things that we did to keep that movie interesting
in the beginning of the movie they're all standing up and they're talking and
so we kept like the top half of the walls had colored bands on them and they had colored neons
and the bottom halfs of the walls were gray and so we came up with a design where the lighting would
evolve and in the beginning it's just a very neutral fluorescent lit thing with these these
neon signs and then this this conflict occurs and at first people it's like all fun and games
and so they turn off the fluorescent lights and I'm motivated from those neons I put my own lights
above them and I match those colors and it's like now it's kind of a nightclub so I'm like they're
they're having fun it's kind of a nightclub feel and then then things get more serious
and and those lights go out and there was a there was there was a dramatic motivation for
that to happen and then there's a confrontation where these spotlights are shining through the
windows and it became almost monochrome and and the angles there were a lot of angles like this
so you're not seeing the colored bends anymore you're seeing the gray you're seeing the ceiling
so all of those things it was like I remember thinking man if it looks the same for 90 minutes
it's going to be so boring and and it's not going to be dramatic and so the the lighting
had to be a partner with that story and and and create those those moods and to Ralph's credit he
created that justification in the story and with the characters
and and we had just a hell of a lot of fun with it it was one of the things I love about
both that movie and California Christmas is the variety of looks
I do like I love the look of of cook county but it's mostly this kind of grim raw
look which is a cool look but like in California Christmas you've got the breakfast scene and
you've got the barn at night where they're lifting the food and you've got the party with the red
and you've got the bar with the blue and you've got outside the bar usually you've got all these
different looks and that's just man that's so much fun and and and those are the ones I'm proud of
and and so it was the same thing with this movie tomorrow by midnight as you just have all these
really different looks and and then also as a for an audience member it disconnects them from
what came before because it's like okay this is visually this is a whole new thing we've
gone to another place and and that was important for the story and it was important
to keep the visuals fresh again so people aren't just going oh my gosh it's that wall again
how does camera movement make a shot better the first thing that I would say is that is
that camera movement does not automatically make a shot better it can make a shot worse
that would be like saying how does drinking a margarita make things better
sometimes it does and there are other times that well it probably wouldn't be the best thing
so in in terms of the ways in which it does make it better is for instance if
we if we're slowly moving into somebody as they're having a realization and that that
dawning is happening on their their face and and as they're having the realization we're pushing
in we're getting close we're getting intimate we're getting uncomfortably close to them the
audiences you're like you're carrying them along and you're like oh my gosh I'm right in their face
and that emotion is just huge that's awesome or or if you're discovering something you're you're
in a steadicam and you're following them and it's like what is it what and you see them and they're
looking and what do you say oh my gosh whatever things like that where you were again you are the
audience's proxy and and and how is it interesting to them is it interesting to them to just sit and
watch these people talk blah, blah, blah, blah or or do we feel we want to take that audience and
let's get them in closer or let's do a move where we suddenly don't see this person's face
and they're going to be thinking why don't I see that person's face what what are
they saying what are they doing what are they looking at I have this really f favorite story
from rosemary's baby and the cinematographer was talking about there's a scene where ruth gordon
is on a phone sitting on a bed and and the camera's at the end of a hall
and the director said okay set the camera up so he he got ruth gordon on the bed and she's perfectly
framed within the door and he sets up the cameras this great shot and the director comes and he says
no, no, no move the camera we'll move the camera over and he says okay he moves the camera over
and the director says no move it over some more and he moved it over so far that all you see is
Ruth Gordon's back you don't see her face and this guy's like okay well that's really weird
so they finish the movie they go into the theater the DP’s sitting there watching an
audience watch the movie that scene comes on and the audience goes to see around the door
now that's not an example of a move but that is an example of what where are you taking
the audience with your camera and and and really that's the when you get them to that
point where they are like so engaged with this two-dimensional projection of light that their
primal instincts kick in and against common sense they lean to see around the corner again just like
the the idea of the steadicam where you're leading them through this place it's like you you're
building anticipation what am I gonna see I'm with that character what's gonna happen to them what's
gonna come out of over there or or that emotional moment where you get right up into the face
so again to me to me that's really what it's all about it's about it's about
with the audience like how are you pushing those those primal buttons in such a way that even a
non-verbal proto-humid would respond to what have you been the most terrified on set and what is the
scariest shot you've ever gotten well the most terrified I ever was on set gosh years ago now
I worked on this MTV show called senseless acts of video and the premise was that they took
scenes in music videos crazy scenes that were achieved by VFX and replicated them as stunts
and had some good time shooting that that was a fun shoot but there was this one particular scene
we had this guy named troy he was our stunt man and he had what's called a wing suit and in base
jumping that's people who basically just jump off of buildings and cliffs and crap with a parachute
so pretty scary stuff and and one of the things in base jumping is this this wing suit where
like rocky the squirrel you spread your arms and these little bits of material come out and
I mean it doesn't it doesn't keep you aloft but it lets you kind of rather than going straight down
it lets you get a little bit of soaring before you deploy your your your your your parachute
and we were shooting in the grand canyon where he was gonna jump off and I have a fear of heights
and and part of my fear of heights is because I'm kind of clumsy and and I just
I don't want to stumble over something and go over the edge because I'd be that guy
I'd be the guy in the news that went over the edge
and I remember we were shooting in an area that was that was native American territory
so it didn't have the fences and the railings I mean it's literally just there's the edge there's
oblivion and and and some of the guys are like oh my gosh let's go look over the edge oh that's
awesome 1800 feet down brad come look come look like hell no I wouldn't get within six feet of
that edge I figured if I'm gonna fall I'm gonna have something to land on so I didn't do it and
because of the nature of the stunt we had a lot of cameras and this was these were like tv sports
cameras the ones with the really big lenses the super long zooms we were shooting it on video
and and I think I had gosh six eight cameras plus I had a bunch of cameras mounted on this
there was also a plane and I remember I got there and I and I asked the crew I wanted to be fair I
said who's afraid of heights and nobody said they were afraid of heights and I said fine
I'm going to be on the camera at the bottom of the canyon and you guys are going to be on the
ones around the edge they cabled them in everybody had like a cable tied off to a stake or something
and the cameras were just right there and I was like oh my gosh but but I would take a helicopter
go down which was also interesting because in the canyon because the air is going through the canyon
it's very turbulent so as you go down it's like oh but even I was okay with that because as long
as there's something between me and eternity I'm okay so I even though that was uncomfortable it
was much better than standing at the edge of the canyon but later on after we rap some of those
guys were like I was just myself and I'm like you said you weren't afraid of heights I was I
was being diplomatic because if they had I mean I don't know what I would have done drawn straws
or something but but I wouldn't I would have tried not to make anybody who was uncomfortable
do it but that was that was to me the scariest moment on set in terms of the scariest shot
wow I don't I don't have one offhand but I'm well I do I do have one actually yeah so
we had this was 2002 and there were no digital cameras there were no go-pros
and I had an airy 3 which is big 35 millimeter camera and we were mounting them onto bikes to
get these really hot shots and we had one mounted on the left rear tire of a bike and and it was
mounted with this rigging called doggy cam which at the time was new and it was these thin rails
as opposed to speed rail which is this big big much more rigid stuff and the the stunt was that
the bike was supposed to drive right at this car and at the last minute veer off just a near miss
and so we rigged it now one of the things was we had so many stunt riders on that that that
we had exhausted at least as I was told we had exhausted the experienced people and they had
brought in trick riders people from Vegas who do hot rod stuff that's not necessarily precision
movie stunts and I don't know if this person was one of those I really don't but we did have some
people who were taking chances that the director of the second unit director who was a professional
writer he was like don't do that that's that's not what you're supposed to do but these guys
were hot doggers but anyone this particular one I remember I was sitting standing on the
road and I see in the distance this car coming and I see him just getting smaller and smaller
and then all of a sudden there was like this explosion of black particles and he veered
and I realized what happened is he got so close that the camera impacted the front of the car
blew into a billion pieces and I'm like my gosh if that hadn't been doggy cam if that
had been speed rail it would have twisted him up under the car and he would have been dead
and I'm just like son of a and the the line producer who thank gosh is still a good friend
today but he was so mad understandably that that camera was destroyed and he's like brad
you destroyed a camera and I'm like mike I it was rigged where it was supposed to be it was rigged
appropriately and that dude just did not time his move he did not gauge his distance and I
just I hate making excuses but I'm like I had no control at that point and thank gosh it was rigged
safely so that it fell apart instead of taking him under the car so yeah that was probably one
of the scariest because in that moment I was like my gosh what happened and is that dude gonna die
how long did it take you to get over to where that you saw him get smaller and smaller
I don't even remember I don't even know if I went over there I probably did but it's like
that's the only part of it I remember is like son of a and I and I just remember that thing
blowing into all those I just I wouldn't have thought a camera could do that it just shattered.