Film Courage: What factors into you saying yes to a project and what factors into you saying no?
Brad Rushing, Cinematographer: Let me limit my answer to a
narrative (to scripted narrative) because there's so many other manifestations but
the one thing I would say is that it's just got to be a great script.
I've learned the hard way that that no amount of talent behind or in front of the camera,
no amount of money can compensate for a bad script. Meanwhile you can take a really,
really good script and and have shabby technical values and still have a really entertaining movie
so I look at what I do as as window dressing you know and I think it's important of course but but
if I don't have the skeleton to hang my pretty pictures on then it's just gonna be
vacuous so the first thing is that is that I want to see a good script the other thing is
that I want to know that these people have enough money to do justice to that script
you know I'm not going to be biased if you come at me with you know 10 million
dollars or if you come at me with 200,000 as long as you can do a good job on your script
with that money if you're being unrealistic to me that's like buying a ticket on the titanic
and I do not want to go down with it because I'll be blamed you know if there aren't the
resources for the crew if there aren't enough days if there are unrealistic expectations
if there are tons of visual effects and not enough money to pay for them it's going to look like crap
and my name's going to be on it I don't care how much they pay me I'm not going to do it
so so you know a good script and the ability to do a good job with it
and then I look at the collaborators you know who is the director who is the producer who are
the other keys the production designer who's the talent you know the the cast
and if there are people I'm excited to work about if they've done or if I'm if
there are people I'm excited to work with if they've done good work if I know them
you know if they give me a really compelling pitch I mean all of that you know can
can play to getting me excited and you know just like with the money I wouldn't know that
they have enough time I don't want them to tell me they're going to do a movie in three days
you know because that's again I probably should have said resource instead of money I
just want to make sure they have the resources enough money enough crew enough time and that's
not saying you have to have a ton of any of those things you don't have to have a ton
of money you don't have to have a ton of crew or a ton of days but you know you can't have
a shoot with three location moves in a day and two crew people and you know it's just unless you're
shooting guerrilla style in which case I mean that's a legitimate form of filmmaking but for
me as a cinematographer what does that do for me I mean does that show anything that I want to show
there are some DP's who will embrace that because that's their jam and that's wonderful but for me
I'm a very you know painterly and interactive I mean I want to affect the image and if I don't
feel I'm you know if I feel to me that would be damage control if there's too many location
moves and it's just like set up an exposure set up the camera focus get an exposure shoot move
I'm like where's the creativity for me and that you know again somebody else maybe it's there
but for me I don't necessarily feel it's there and I might be wrong somebody might pitch me a movie
and convince me oh yeah here you know you can do it this way in that way again this is the whole
malleable thinking I mean I'm okay well I would I would break that rule because you've convinced me
but just as a general thing I want to see that I can
practically achieve something I'm going to be proud to put my name on
and won't be embarrassed by and then you know the last thing is is money you know I mean
is it a friend asking me to come help out on a weekend is it a movie asking me to go to Brazil
and shoot for two months you know what is it and so you know I would I would I would consider that
and if it's something I really really want to do well I at least have to make enough to make
my bills you know but ideally you know we want to make enough to have some savings and and have fun
and especially when I do travel jobs you know I like I like bringing you know Kathy with me and
or you know and then we have some vacation days and you know like if we go to Canada or or
you know wherever just you know turn it into a little mini holiday because most of the
traveling I've been all over the world I've been to every continent except Antarctica and it's 95
work travel and what I do is I'll build in extra days you know I'll stay a little
longer or I'll go early or you know if there's a break in the middle but I turn it into these
little vacations and you know it's just super fun have you ever turned down work and then when you
looked back on it realized maybe it was a mistake oh yes I have a great story and this is a money
thing too and it goes the opposite way of what I've been saying so yeah I had a friend of mine.
A casting director who I really got along with and he had cast some movies that I shot and he
pitched me he said you know Don Coscarelli the guy who did
Phantasm is doing a horror movie and it's a horror comedy and and they would like you
to shoot it and it was this movie called Bubba Ho-Tep and I thought well that sounds
fun because you know I like ancient Egypt and I like horror and I like comedy and they
called me up and we talked and I said oh that's great and they said you know what's the rate
and they said 400 and I'm like okay 400 a day I can you know I can make that work and I said
okay yeah four hundred dollars a day is fine and they said no it's four hundred dollars a week.
And either this was right when I was starting music videos or right before but anyway I was
making a lot of money at the time and I'm just like I'm just like I just can't I can't see that
happening you know and I turned it down and I was fine with that well turned out that they
cast Bruce Campbell and Aussie Davis in it you know two amazing legendary actors and it's a cult
classic and and and I just kick myself I'm like oh my goodness I wish I had done that movie you know
I just in retrospect I don't give a shout. I would have done it for free but but you just never know
I mean I've I've done movies that I took a chance on and then they came out crappy I don't know I
hey that was that's just my experience that was that was one that I wish I had made a
different decision but but when I looked at the cards on the table they just didn't make sense.
Question
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