American Cinematographer recently shared an interview with Freddie Francis from its March 1998 issue that included the photo above from the set of David Lynch’s Dune. Francis, a two-time Oscar winner, also shot Lynch’s The Elephant Man and The Straight Story.
It’s an incredible piece that covers the breadth of Francis’ career, from his beginnings as a clapper boy in Britain in the early 1930s to shooting Cape Fear, The Innocents, and Glory.
Here’s one of the many pearls of wisdom from Francis…
“If someone asks me, ‘I loved that shot, how did you light it?’, I’ll think they’ve lost the point. My explanation doesn’t mean a thing because there are 20 ways to light a shot and get the same result. Why you do something is far more important than how.”
The puppeteering magic behind the Gelflings and Skeksis on the original The Dark Crystal (1982). Both were brought to life by puppeteers located below their creations, with monitors used to position the creatures for camera.
To illustrate how the volume of effects shots in a Marvel Cinematic Universe extravaganza has expanded, here’s Marvel co-president Louis D’Esposito from the book Marvel Studios: The First Ten Year:
We started with 487 (visual effects shots) on Iron Man (2008) and finished with 823. For Avengers: Infinity War (2018) it’s over 3,100. That’s almost every shot.
A few set-ups from the new film adaptation of the popular 1980s kids horror anthology books written by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell.
Directed by André Øvredal (Trollhunter, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) and produced/written by Guillermo del Toro, the movie attempts to faithfully recreate Gammell’s unsettling monsters via practical effects (meaning actors in ghoulish costumes) rather than CGI. Below you’ll find the movie’s take on The Red Spot and The Dream.
(Above, photo by Andrew Cooper) Shooting an action scene from a fictional Rick Dalton flick in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood. The behind the scenes pic is featured in the August issue of American Cinematographer magazine, which includes interviews with DP Robert Richardson, colorist Yvan Lucas, and gaffer Ian Kincaid. The story is currently only accessible in the print edition, but if you’re interested in such things I highly recommend subscribing. A two-year digital subscription is only $50.
Here’s Richardson on the film – his sixth with Tarantino – from the American Cinematographer piece:
“It’s about mortality, about the recognition of when we slowly begin to fade from a place in the spotlight to somewhere else. [It’s also] a celebration of a time period in Hollywood that was shifting – as Quentin has said, it is his love letter Hollywood.”
