American Cinematographer - October 2010 - 46

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Reflecting on a Creative Partnership “Through time and experience, Rodrigo has gained my absolute trust.”

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rior to Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, I worked with Rodrigo on Alexander [AC Nov.’ 04], where he did an elegant job under very difficult conditions around the world, and on the documentaries Comandante [2003], Persona Non Grata [2004] and Looking for Fidel [2004], which were shot on the fly with digital cameras. Through time and experience, Rodrigo has gained my absolute trust, and not only that, but also my liking. I find him to be a gentleman on set at all times, even under the most difficult conditions. He is an elegant man with great dignity and style. He’s able to share his innermost thoughts, as well as assuage my own doubts. He has become a good friend. And we share the travails of having daughters of a young and rebellious age. Our preproduction conversations on Wall Street were always squeezed in between other things, but we’d got through the whole script by the time we shot. Of course, the script changed, but the general format was set. Rodrigo is a highly methodical cinematographer and works inside a certain framework that he creates in advance, but he is also able to improvise. We were always on the run; we ended up doing more than 40 locations in 57 days, which about matched the speed of the original Wall Street, but on that film, we shot on a set a lot, whereas on this film, we worked with existing locations that we hunted over a period of several months. The weather in New York changed constantly, and we had to move quite a bit, sometimes up to three locations a day.

When we had spontaneous eruptions of weather, I always found Rodrigo to be very practical, and he would make adjustments accordingly. If worse came to worst, we knew we could “save” a scene in the DI, but there were not many to save. In fact, it was an economically shot film; I only shot about 350,000', whereas in the past, I would have shot more film to protect myself. We knew we’d have a very short post period — we were finishing the film in early December, and at that time, the studio wanted to release it in April — and the more footage we had, the more we’d have to cut. So knowing what we wanted with the camera was very helpful towards making a quicker edit. Even though we ended up with a later release, I was very happy with the film the way it was, and I don’t feel that we shortchanged ourselves. Modern technology is everywhere in the film. One event that particularly influenced us was a ballgame at Mets stadium, where I saw a stunning new laser system for the scoreboards and video playback. We got on it right away, and Rodrigo began experimenting with ways to create reflections on the actors’ faces at various moments in the trading-floor scenes. It’s a very interesting effect in the movie and plays powerfully. I suppose it’s a modern version of what Bob Richardson [ASC] did back in 1987. The styles of the two Wall Street films reflect the eras in which they were shot. When Bob and I did the first film, I was in love with a tobacco filter for various reasons, and we carried a lot of that into the

film. In the 1980s, the color of greed was yellow, and it all seemed so new, shiny and decadent. By the 2000s, that decadence was acceptable and ordinary; there was no novelty in it. As a result, this film has a harder surface where the richness and the decadence are ingrained. It’s not necessary to highlight it; it’s part of the atmosphere. I think it represents a new generation of visual ruthlessness, if you want to call it that. In the opening title sequence, there’s a wonderful shot we got with a Spydercam that climbed, in a corkscrew motion, the entire side of a skyscraper to reveal Manhattan in a way that has never quite been seen before. It ends with a digital move through a window to get into the story and the dialogue inside an office. It was an amazing shot done in-camera. Another favorite scene in terms of cinematography is the MoMA ball, where we lit the walls of a cavernous hall with LED lights and put very bright, white Kino Flos under the tables, adding a rich visual glow to the entire hall. I also loved the rich, dark interiors in the Federal Reserve Board. [Production designer] Kristi Zea made sure we found the richest locations with great wood surfaces. I kid Rodrigo and call him “Velázquez” when he tortures himself with self-doubt. He has the profile of a Spanish nobleman, which makes me laugh. I shall always think of him as one of those Spanish painters of light from the 16th century. — Oliver Stone

October 2010

American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - October 2010

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