American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 36

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Moving Pictures

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oday's culture is
obsessed with beauty
and the power of beauty.
It's not just the United
States; it's universal -
although you could say
the preoccupation is
more extreme in the
U.S., because the U.S. is
generally more of an
extreme country on all
levels. It's not even so
much about how we
look, but how we want
to be viewed or
perceived. We no longer
even have an image of
ourselves; rather, it's an
image of our perfect self.
My intention with
The Neon Demon was to
make a teenage horror
film - a funny, melodramatic horror
film - but without a horror film's
DNA. It's about the aspirations of the
illusion. It's about "observed perfection"
- the static [nature] of beauty - and
in order to zero in on what essentially
drives the movie, I wanted to keep [the
images] very static. Camera movement
would have gone against the kind of
artificial life that the frames represent. I
wanted everything to feel like a static
photographic image, which is composition within a single frame.
I find that a moving camera can
feel very unrealistic; on the other hand,
it can add a whole new landscape to the
composition. There is no question that
[camera movement] has to be used
properly; it has to have a function. In
Demon, the first introduction between
Jesse and the photographer is static. The
design I had in mind was that by introducing her static and him static, and
seeing him observing her, it's like turning a page in a photo book. And then
the camera starts pulling back. It tracks
back so far that it becomes out of the
norm - to the point where you say,
"this is an unnatural movement." Jesse

July 2016

gets so tiny that the shot suddenly
becomes subjective.
That first shot - like any first
shot in any film - defines the style,
which then continues through the rest
of the movie. In general, I do very few
setups and I'm very specific about them.
I always shoot chronologically and
prefer using one camera. I love slow
motion and used quite a bit of it in
Demon. When used correctly, it has the
same effect as a moving camera: It's a
visualized unreality. I also love to zoom
and did a lot of zooming in the film. I
find it much more emotional than a
tracking camera, which is more about
the dynamic. But it depends upon what
the scene is about. Moving the camera
is very much about how you want to tell
the story. When I [incorporate] a move,
it is a very specific one, as in Demon's
opening pullback.
I don't like curves as much as I
like straight lines. I always have difficulty working with Steadicam because
once it moves out of its clear lines, it
reminds me even more of the illusion.
A moving camera doesn't have to be a
physical movement, however; it can be

American Cinematographer

an emotional one that
moves subconsciously.
You can move the background and it feels like
the camera is moving. A
change in lighting can
make
the
viewer
subliminally feel that
the camera is moving.
I am partially colorblind. Red and blue
aren't a problem; green
and some other colors
are difficult. But I can
only relate to what I can
see, which means I tend
toward extreme and
highly saturated colors.
And I demand a lot of
contrast. My cinematographer, Natasha
Braier [ADF], was very
instrumental in the film and in [achieving] what I wanted to do - so inventive, and wonderfully talented with
lighting.
I set Demon in Los Angeles for
two specific reasons. The first consideration was a practical one: It was the
only place my wife wanted to go.
Second, L.A. is a magnet for everything. Even though the cultural world
is spread out - the high-fashion
industry is really in New York and Paris
- the dominant cultural aspects of the
Western world [flow into] Los Angeles
and then are beamed out to the rest of
the world via digital link.
Perfect beauty is unattainable, yet
we all strive for it. It's universal. I'm not
saying that's a good thing or a bad
thing, but it is a common denominator.
And it's moving toward an everyounger age. The window when one is
considered beautiful or desirable keeps
shrinking. It's never about aging up; it's
always moving down. What's going to
happen if it continues to flow downward?
- Nicolas Winding Refn

American Cinematographer - July 2016

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