Film Courage: How did you like the movie Oppenheimer?
Illya Friedman, Founder of Hot Rod Cameras, Entrepreneur, Inventor, Podcaster: I just saw it
actually. I did really like it. I did really enjoy it. I think I'd say this to anyone who's involved
in it, I probably could have cut 40 minutes out of that movie and I think I would have liked it even
more but I understand and it definitely feels like a Christopher Nolan sort of style now to really
go into some of the minutia and some into these I didn't I know it's based on existing material
it's based on a book haven't read the book so I don't know how true it is to it but but I liked
it a lot I was a little had some trepidation about seeing it because both of my grandfathers worked
on the atomic bomb project and because of that I wasn't exactly sure exactly how I was going
to feel but no I thought they did a great job did either of your grandfathers tell you about this or
maybe you didn't interact with them or I don't know no my paternal grandfather actually died
when my father was 15 of cancer and he was one mile from ground zero at the first Trinity test
so he was there with a few other people and was out in the desert the very next day picking out
sand that had fused and turned into a new material it's it it's not surprising that he died of cancer
my maternal grandfather he died in the 70s and I did get to meet him but I was very young at the
time I was I was still a small child and I don't have too many memories of my maternal grandfather
he also died of cancer so and did you have any relics or you letters or things like that yeah
there's a there's a letter from Oppenheimer to my paternal grandfather and it was sort
of a treasured document actually in the in my grandmother's home growing up and so I got to
see the letter and stuff it was a it was basically a letter of thanks for all the contributions to
the project so did you have reservations going to see it you said because of this or just the timing
it's a three-hour movie yeah I think that I had a little a little bit of psychological trauma just
not really growing up with grandfathers because be I think even though they just didn't know
very much about radiation and radiation exposure back then and the cumulative effects of radiation
poisoning back in the era of the atomic bomb the atomic project the Trinity project Los Alamos
all of that stuff it was it was very very new and they thought they knew a lot more about it
than they did so I guess I have some feelings that ultimately that work probably led to their deaths
and so I have some some feelings about that yeah so what can you teach us about the cinematography
of Christopher Nolan movies oh wow that's a great question well I think it kind of depends on which
era you're talking about because he has very distinctive styles that sort of span different
years talking about like the following in Memento it's definitely has a bit more of an indie and
gritty and granted some of that has to do with resources and then really really big shifts to
slick and glossy IMAX and really incredible incredible talent that he was working with
behind the camera from probably the eras of like Inception it like the the budgets have just gotten
so huge he's one of the singular filmmakers of of his generation where he kind of gets whatever he
wants technically and can command can command an unlimited it seemingly amount of resources when
it comes to I know that I know that there for a fact that he is sometimes very specific about
cutting down some of those resources to be able to do other things but because he gets to start
off with IMAX and he gets to start off with a lot of the technology that other filmmakers only dream
about he can do amazing things he can he can work with this canvas that most people can't
even dream of what is documentary style lighting oh documentary style lighting documentary style
lighting generally is not the same as narrative lighting so when you're talking about a narrative
production quite often lights are set up very specifically for a shot or maybe for a specific
or an area when you're talking about documentary style lighting you're usually giving all of the
people who are the subject of your documentary free reign to move you you're not boxing them
or limiting them you're not rehearsing blocking quite often with documentary style lighting so
it really is sort of a fundamental shift between a very controlled very aesthetic style of narrative
film making and a I want to say I don't want to say Lucy goosey it's not Lucy goosey but it is it
provides the subjects much more freedom and if they might if they move into Shadow they might
move into shadow in narrative film making there's it's almost always very intentional there there's
an intention if someone moves in the shadow there's an intention of someone's in the light
there's an intention if someone is if there's refract light or reflected light or anything else
that's going on so it's different with documentary have you ever been on a Christopher Nolan set no
I've never been on a Christopher Nolan set but one of his camera operators Michael FitzMaurice
is a client of my mine my company hot rod cameras he worked a lot on The Dark Knight he's worked on
other Christopher Nolan movies and we've gotten to hear some great stories from from Michael on
our podcast where he he talks about some of the work that he's done so so yeah we have
quite a few connections but but he's probably the one I would know know most responsible for
the the work except except for maybe Wally Pfister. Wally Pfister I've spoken to for
hours about his work with with Christopher Nolan was Oppenheimer your favorite Nolan
film it's a good question no probably not my favorite I do really like the prestige but and
I know it's probably a less popular choice but but yeah I don't know that might be the
prestige how would you compare and contrast Christopher Nolan versus David Fincher their
styles yeah very different styles David Fincher is very exacting and very controlling and I know
he does a lot of takes I've spoken with Claudio Miranda about working with David Fincher quite a
bit and I have some insights into this process I've met David Fincher a few times in over the
courses of different projects He was working on back in the era of Benjamin Button and then
also again with gong girl and we talked about cameras and Camera technology David Fincher
has very very clear goals clear thoughts about how it is he wants to achieve it and I believe
that when David Fincher is deciding about the the look for a project he wants collaborators
that are absolutely in his same sort of mindset about technology and his same sort
of mindset about what he wants to achieve he suffers no fools and I get the impression that
Christopher Nolan is very much a collaboration and he wants other people to come to the table
and bring what they're good at and to bring their own insights and to try to find ways to
get the absolute best technology and the best quality out of of the team so I would say it's
definitely sort of maybe a a hard driving versus a more collaborated collaborative but this is me
speaking se third hand I was not there I have to you get the information from somebody else.