American Cinematographer - November 2015 - 52

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Questions of Perspective
Right: Petit takes
a knee above
Manhattan.
Below: The
greenscreen
setup for the
shot.

he's Bob Zemeckis, a pretty prolific
filmmaker, and I've studied his work for
years and know his movies well, so I
knew his style and what he likes. There
was no 'Ah-ha!' moment in our discussions about the movie. I knew Bob
would want to design these very long,
atmospheric shots as he had in movies
like Forrest Gump [AC Oct. '94]. That's
his visual style.
It was the same situation with
Ridley when I shot my first movie with
him. I was a student of Blade Runner
[AC July '82] and Alien [AC Aug. '79]
and all those movies. I knew I would
have amazing visuals to photograph. As
a cinematographer, you grow up studying the films of your favorite directors,
and I have been lucky enough to work
with two of mine.
Zemeckis is one of the few
52

November 2015

feature-film directors who has also
directed animated features - The
Polar Express [AC Nov. '04], Beowulf
and A Christmas Carol - so does that
give him a different way of working
with the camera?
Wolski: I think those mo-cap
films Bob made were very interesting
experiments, but he was telling stories
with those long takes and elaborate
camera moves well before that - as I
mentioned, in Forrest Gump and also
Cast Away [AC Jan. '01]. But the
animated projects were a way for him to
learn new technology and try a different
storytelling approach. That said, what's
great about Bob is that his experience in
doing his 3D animated movies -
where he had complete control over
camera and performances - taught
him exactly how to compose in 3D, and
American Cinematographer

I've done enough 3D work so that the
two of us could really do it right in The
Walk and fully take advantage of the
format.
The Walk has a very whimsical
framing device - featuring GordonLevitt directly addressing the audience
while standing on the Statue of
Liberty's torch - which gradually
transitions to a magic-hour look at the
end of the picture. Can you describe
shooting those sequences?
Wolski: It's a little theatrical, but
I think it works nicely because of the
character of Philippe. He is a showman.
We also shot our close-ups on Joseph
quite wide with the camera very close to
him to bring the audience into the story,
into this personal space and his perspective. That's Bob's style. Having an actor
directly addressing the camera is not
usual, but, interestingly, Matt Damon
also does quite a bit of it in The Martian
as he is recording his video diary. In that
case, of course, there is a device, and that
supports the realistic approach to the
story; there are cameras everywhere,
documenting everything. And this gives
us a way to communicate what he is
doing and feeling to the audience, as he
is alone - while in The Walk, this is
purely Bob's storytelling device. It's
funny that both movies have this direct
performance.
The height of the Trade Center
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2015
