THR finishes up their annual pre-Oscars roundtables with a fascinating discussion with this year’s leading cinematographer’s including Oscar nominees Roger Deakins (“Blade Runner 2049”), Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound”), Dan Laustsen (“The Shape of Water”), and Hoyte Van Hoytema (“Dunkirk”) in addition to previous Oscar winners Robert Elswit (“Suburbicon” and “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”) and Janusz Kaminski (“The Post”).
The wide ranging discussion touches on everything from the film vs. digital — with Deakins remarking, “I’m fed up with this conversation. I think it’s what’s in the frame” — to their various collaborations with directors.
Deakins notes that “the more money the budget has, then the more expectation and the more you push yourself to do stuff,” and observation that Hoytema agrees with. “We did a lot of tinkering, coming up with mounts and rigs to put cameras in places where you normally wouldn’t see them,” the latter said.
Discussing lower budget filmmaking, Morrison reveals she knew “Mudbound” director Dee Rees “from the indie circuit” and they decided that to use “Dust Bowl-era photography” as inspiration for the picture. Laustsen had to navigate a smaller budget to make “The Shape of Water” look “pretty big” saying “we had to fight for all the equipment … and we had to fight for every crane day.”
When discussing how he changed up his approach to “The Post,” longtime Spielberg collaborator Kaminski said, “The idea of deglamorizing the images, I’ve been always interested in that, though the work speaks against what I’m just saying. But I’m interested in the gritty aspects of things. In this movie, I wanted it to look a little bit different that what’s generally expected from me.”
While everyone else was struggling while filming their movies, Elswit actually had an easy time on both his pictures saying, “I feel terrible because everyone’s had a struggle. Everyone’s in the mud and it’s raining and it’s cold, and I just had a great time. It was like 80 degrees, and we were outdoors.”
Be sure to check out the whole conversation below.
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