1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:05,924
(man) This is commentary by
director of photography Jeff Cronenweth,
2
00:00:06,007 --> 00:00:08,468
costume designer Michael Kaplan,
3
00:00:08,551 --> 00:00:10,720
production designer Alex McDowell,
4
00:00:10,803 --> 00:00:13,181
visual-effects supervisor Kevin Haug,
5
00:00:13,264 --> 00:00:16,017
and digital animator Doc Baily.
6
00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:24,074
Advertise your product or brand here
contact www.OpenSubtitles.org today
7
00:00:29,948 --> 00:00:31,032
Doc Baily.
8
00:00:31,282 --> 00:00:35,119
(Doc) At the beginning of this project,
when it was in preproduction,
9
00:00:35,203 --> 00:00:39,582
there were four main effects sequences.
10
00:00:39,666 --> 00:00:43,920
There was the corporate sculpture
explosion-demolition.
11
00:00:44,003 --> 00:00:47,882
There was the main title sequence.
12
00:00:47,966 --> 00:00:51,135
There was Jack's apartment fire
13
00:00:51,219 --> 00:00:56,307
where the stove and the refrigerator and...
his apartment goes up.
14
00:00:56,641 --> 00:01:01,521
Then there was the closing scene, which
was the demolition of a fictitious city
15
00:01:01,604 --> 00:01:04,065
that just happened to look
a lot like Century City.
16
00:01:04,148 --> 00:01:07,777
It was supposed to be
somewhere like Wilmington, Delaware.
17
00:01:08,236 --> 00:01:12,991
Oh, and then there was another sequence -
the airplane explosion. That was a big one.
18
00:01:13,283 --> 00:01:16,202
So there were four or five sequences.
Maybe another one.
19
00:01:16,327 --> 00:01:17,787
I bid on all of those.
20
00:01:17,996 --> 00:01:22,375
And then, as time went on, the complexity
of the project started to increase
21
00:01:22,458 --> 00:01:25,253
and it actually started to get blocked out
22
00:01:25,336 --> 00:01:28,715
and I figured out how much time
and resources I was gonna have.
23
00:01:28,840 --> 00:01:32,885
Rather than build up
a big factory out of my studio,
24
00:01:32,969 --> 00:01:38,099
I decided to just stay the same size
as I was and just take on the one shot,
25
00:01:38,182 --> 00:01:40,685
which was the demolition at the end.
26
00:01:42,353 --> 00:01:43,730
(man) Jeff Cronenweth.
27
00:01:43,980 --> 00:01:47,483
(Jeff) I watched the whole
process of the title sequence
28
00:01:47,567 --> 00:01:48,776
come together from head to toe.
29
00:01:48,860 --> 00:01:53,656
And so, as each layer built upon itself,
it just got more and more magical.
30
00:01:53,865 --> 00:01:57,994
However, I do have a problem
with how fast my name goes by.
31
00:01:58,244 --> 00:01:59,912
(laughter)
32
00:02:00,455 --> 00:02:03,207
(Doc) I was gonna say the same thing, Jeff.
33
00:02:03,333 --> 00:02:04,834
(Jeff) It's the only problem I see here.
34
00:02:09,005 --> 00:02:10,006
From the lighting standpoint,
35
00:02:10,089 --> 00:02:13,718
this beginning and ending sequence
was a challenge
36
00:02:13,801 --> 00:02:17,639
because it was a vacant high-rise
that didn't have any fixtures built into it.
37
00:02:17,722 --> 00:02:23,394
So, in order to keep the premise of the
all-natural, realistic photography in this,
38
00:02:23,478 --> 00:02:27,482
we needed some practical sources that
could motivate any kind of light sources
39
00:02:27,565 --> 00:02:29,567
in the whole floor of this building.
40
00:02:29,692 --> 00:02:34,364
We used these outdoor
Home Depot work lights
41
00:02:34,447 --> 00:02:37,283
and spread them out strategically
in this building
42
00:02:37,367 --> 00:02:41,913
and used them to motivate our sources
and then cheated around it.
43
00:02:43,915 --> 00:02:45,124
(man) Kevin Haug.
44
00:02:45,249 --> 00:02:49,170
(Kevin) The modeling and rendering
technique for the image space,
45
00:02:49,420 --> 00:02:54,258
it put Michael Middleton, the visual-effects
photographer, to work for quite a while.
46
00:02:54,509 --> 00:02:57,762
It was funny. We hired Michael
to shoot a few pictures for us.
47
00:02:58,054 --> 00:03:01,766
But BUF don't shoot their own stills.
They usually want the DP to do it.
48
00:03:01,933 --> 00:03:04,602
When I talked to Jeff early on
he said he'd love to do it.
49
00:03:04,686 --> 00:03:09,023
But a month into the movie, he had no
chance to walk around with a still camera
50
00:03:09,107 --> 00:03:12,360
while he was doing
what he was hired to be there doing.
51
00:03:12,610 --> 00:03:14,862
So we brought in Michael.
52
00:03:14,946 --> 00:03:17,407
Michael was with Apogee.
He's been around a long time.
53
00:03:17,490 --> 00:03:19,951
We put him in dangerous, crazy positions.
54
00:03:20,034 --> 00:03:22,954
In Century City at night
we had to cross those streets.
55
00:03:23,079 --> 00:03:26,290
And it was the middle of the night,
but still, we had one cop,
56
00:03:26,374 --> 00:03:30,211
and Pierre Buffin was next to Michael
in the middle of the street...
57
00:03:30,294 --> 00:03:34,882
People are stupid. They drive down the
street and people are standing in the way.
58
00:03:34,966 --> 00:03:38,511
But they keep barreling along
as if you're gonna move out of the way.
59
00:03:38,594 --> 00:03:42,598
And the cop is moving them
out of the way. It got fairly crazy.
60
00:03:42,682 --> 00:03:44,899
We had him up on tops
of buildings and all
61
00:03:44,924 --> 00:03:47,294
sorts of other things
to get all these stills.
62
00:03:47,645 --> 00:03:50,565
I think we shot miles of film.
63
00:03:50,690 --> 00:03:54,485
Carrie and Leslie ended up with
a small room filled with still photos.
64
00:03:54,902 --> 00:03:57,905
We'd do three and a half by five stills
and lay them out
65
00:03:57,989 --> 00:03:59,866
so BUF could pick which ones they needed
66
00:03:59,949 --> 00:04:03,494
and David could pick which ones he liked,
if there was something to choose.
67
00:04:03,828 --> 00:04:08,458
It was pretty funny. It was not your usual
visual effects kind of tracking job.
68
00:04:08,541 --> 00:04:10,835
We had to make up a way
of working things.
69
00:04:11,002 --> 00:04:13,087
BUF wasn't a lot of help.
70
00:04:13,171 --> 00:04:15,465
We thought they'd have
all these techniques figured out.
71
00:04:15,548 --> 00:04:17,592
When we started the sex sequence,
72
00:04:17,675 --> 00:04:19,385
the woman looked at
how we were doing it
73
00:04:19,469 --> 00:04:21,387
and said, "Let's do it like this."
74
00:04:21,471 --> 00:04:24,223
I was like, "Fuck.
We thought this was a starting point.
75
00:04:24,307 --> 00:04:26,058
"We thought you could help."
76
00:04:26,142 --> 00:04:28,144
So, anyway.
77
00:05:29,288 --> 00:05:32,416
There are five subliminal Brads
in the movie.
78
00:05:32,583 --> 00:05:37,004
Most people can find three of them,
there's a fourth that's kind of difficult
79
00:05:37,088 --> 00:05:38,881
and a fifth I'd defy anyone to find
80
00:05:38,965 --> 00:05:41,676
unless they worked on the movie
and can find the spot.
81
00:05:41,759 --> 00:05:47,765
He's actually in the video that's playback
on the screen, so it's extra-hidden.
82
00:05:49,016 --> 00:05:52,186
But the theory here was that Brad was
83
00:05:52,270 --> 00:05:57,191
coming out of Ed's consciousness
at that point.
84
00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:00,194
Also, there's this single-frame thing
going on in the movie.
85
00:06:00,278 --> 00:06:04,448
The crossovers and cigarette burns
and all these things are all of a piece.
86
00:06:04,782 --> 00:06:09,579
So the idea of sticking Brad in a couple of
places where he didn't really belong was...
87
00:06:09,787 --> 00:06:11,622
Almost from the beginning of prep,
88
00:06:11,706 --> 00:06:14,959
I think it was an idea
David had talked over with Brad earlier,
89
00:06:15,042 --> 00:06:17,962
and he came in one day and said,
"I wanna do this."
90
00:06:18,170 --> 00:06:21,632
Brad would show up on a day
when he wasn't on the call sheet.
91
00:06:22,925 --> 00:06:25,511
David would have him
stand out there and goof around
92
00:06:25,595 --> 00:06:28,848
and we'd find the frame we liked
and drop him in.
93
00:06:28,973 --> 00:06:31,434
The trickiest part was
some shots were long
94
00:06:31,517 --> 00:06:34,687
and they had to match all the shots
around them.
95
00:06:35,104 --> 00:06:37,315
Technical bullshit, basically.
96
00:06:37,398 --> 00:06:40,985
But we found tricky places to slip him in -
one during a rack focus.
97
00:06:41,068 --> 00:06:45,197
So he's sharp-focus on the frame
where that background is at sharp focus
98
00:06:45,281 --> 00:06:46,532
and everything's out.
99
00:06:46,616 --> 00:06:51,954
A lot of people complained that you
couldn't see it, so why were we doing it?
100
00:06:52,038 --> 00:06:54,582
Basically we were doing it
for the DVD crowd.
101
00:06:54,665 --> 00:06:57,668
Someone would, frame by frame,
find Brad.
102
00:06:57,752 --> 00:06:59,670
Up until you can frame-by-frame,
103
00:06:59,754 --> 00:07:02,715
it's the most expensive piece of dirt
you'll see on a frame.
104
00:07:02,798 --> 00:07:06,344
It just disappears
and you assume it's neg dirt.
105
00:07:07,219 --> 00:07:12,350
The Brads are... The first one's
when he's looking back over the copier.
106
00:07:12,516 --> 00:07:14,518
One when he comes out of the church
107
00:07:14,602 --> 00:07:17,396
and walks around
and looks up the alley at Marla.
108
00:07:17,939 --> 00:07:20,608
One is when they're in
Remaining Men Together
109
00:07:20,691 --> 00:07:23,027
and his arm is around
the shoulder of the guy.
110
00:07:23,110 --> 00:07:26,364
And another's in the hospital corridor.
111
00:07:26,530 --> 00:07:32,954
And one is in a piece of playback when Ed
is in the hotel room early on in the movie
112
00:07:33,037 --> 00:07:37,625
and he's looking forward and everybody's
saying, "Welcome!" and Brad's there.
113
00:07:37,708 --> 00:07:41,963
He's not so subliminal. He's a bit longer,
but he's so hidden that we figured...
114
00:07:42,213 --> 00:07:45,007
We were going to pop him
in and out of that one too.
115
00:07:45,091 --> 00:07:48,386
When David looked at it, it was like,
"Forget it. This is fine."
116
00:07:49,220 --> 00:07:50,388
(man) Michael Kaplan.
117
00:07:50,471 --> 00:07:54,809
(Michael) Talking about Bob, he'd lost a lot
of weight, and we needed him to be obese.
118
00:07:54,892 --> 00:07:59,563
So we created this whole fat suit
out of foam,
119
00:07:59,647 --> 00:08:03,067
and his breasts were actually
made out of silks,
120
00:08:03,150 --> 00:08:05,653
or nylon stockings, filled with birdseed
121
00:08:05,736 --> 00:08:11,283
so that they'd be pendulous
when he was moving and running around.
122
00:08:11,367 --> 00:08:16,205
The nipples were initially not put on
and it looked very strange,
123
00:08:16,288 --> 00:08:21,585
and so we sewed little buttons on,
and they did the trick.
124
00:08:21,711 --> 00:08:24,338
(Jeff) On camera
it looked fantastically realistic,
125
00:08:24,630 --> 00:08:27,550
although it did put a weight on Meat Loaf
126
00:08:27,633 --> 00:08:32,179
and he would be restricted
to the amount of times he could wear it.
127
00:08:32,346 --> 00:08:34,223
It created a lot of heat.
128
00:08:34,306 --> 00:08:40,521
(Michael) Extremely heavy, and it was hard
for him to stand in for long periods of time.
129
00:08:40,980 --> 00:08:45,151
(Jeff) I think that some of this was achieved
when we printed it. We printed it down.
130
00:08:45,443 --> 00:08:49,488
There was quite a bit of latitude
the way that we exposed the negative,
131
00:08:49,572 --> 00:08:51,282
so we had a few choices.
132
00:08:51,365 --> 00:08:57,788
But I thought I would get more heat for
the fact that you don't see a lot of eyes.
133
00:08:58,205 --> 00:09:01,333
It's a bunch of raccoons,
at least in the beginning of the picture,
134
00:09:01,417 --> 00:09:07,465
which was all part of the motif of using
practical sources and realistic locations.
135
00:09:07,965 --> 00:09:12,762
These situations normally have
top-light sources, and so we went with it
136
00:09:13,137 --> 00:09:17,808
and added elements of green tones
to these sequences
137
00:09:17,892 --> 00:09:22,146
to give it this look of reality.
138
00:09:22,730 --> 00:09:26,901
I mean, at least
Edward's reality in this movie.
139
00:09:28,069 --> 00:09:31,238
We created lighting sequences
and lit people dramatically
140
00:09:31,322 --> 00:09:36,660
and created a lot of contrast,
which Michael helped with.
141
00:09:36,994 --> 00:09:41,123
The tonality of the clothes
was rather down.
142
00:09:41,207 --> 00:09:42,917
There was nothing
that popped off the screen.
143
00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:46,378
We treated all the whites
so that we wouldn't have problems
144
00:09:46,462 --> 00:09:51,175
with white, white T-shirts or white, white
sheets or white, white drapes or anything.
145
00:09:51,383 --> 00:09:56,889
And I made a fairly rich exposure,
in spite of where we put the lights,
146
00:09:56,972 --> 00:10:03,229
and then we created a very nice high light
on our printing lights,
147
00:10:03,854 --> 00:10:06,565
which gave us the latitude to then go back
148
00:10:06,649 --> 00:10:08,818
and create contrast -
or not create contrast,
149
00:10:08,901 --> 00:10:13,614
but create the richness of this picture
by stepping on it.
150
00:10:14,740 --> 00:10:17,284
(Michael) All the white
shirts that Edward wears
151
00:10:17,368 --> 00:10:21,872
early on are a pale, pale grayish-beige.
152
00:10:23,374 --> 00:10:27,628
People in Wardrobe know that's called
a tech-white. And there's various stages.
153
00:10:27,711 --> 00:10:31,006
I would say this is about a two tech.
154
00:10:31,465 --> 00:10:36,262
Usually there's one, two and three levels
of overdyeing that you can do,
155
00:10:36,345 --> 00:10:38,389
just so that the whites don't pop.
156
00:10:43,894 --> 00:10:45,187
(man) Alex McDowell.
157
00:10:45,396 --> 00:10:46,814
(Alex) We wanted the ice cave to have
158
00:10:46,897 --> 00:10:50,234
that luminescent glow
that you get from a glacier
159
00:10:50,401 --> 00:10:54,321
and tried to make it
as realistic as possible.
160
00:10:54,405 --> 00:10:57,491
We went to great lengths
with testing of paint
161
00:10:57,575 --> 00:11:00,286
'cause we, at one point,
wanted to cut the foam
162
00:11:00,369 --> 00:11:02,580
so thin that you could actually backlight it.
163
00:11:02,955 --> 00:11:05,166
But it just wasn't practical.
164
00:11:05,249 --> 00:11:07,918
We'd have had to build a structure
to hold it up to do that.
165
00:11:08,002 --> 00:11:11,505
So we ended up doing tests
of transparency and paint
166
00:11:11,589 --> 00:11:17,344
and building layers of paint up and up until
it actually sold the depth and the light
167
00:11:17,428 --> 00:11:21,473
and then did this scalloping which caught
the backlight from both directions.
168
00:11:21,557 --> 00:11:25,019
We were trying to make it
as ephemeral as possible.
169
00:11:25,102 --> 00:11:29,064
But here's an example
of building something
170
00:11:29,148 --> 00:11:31,692
really with no possibility
of doing drawings,
171
00:11:31,775 --> 00:11:34,612
building everything
from a scale model to enormous detail.
172
00:11:35,779 --> 00:11:41,619
The sculptors built it inch by inch
to match the small model.
173
00:11:41,994 --> 00:11:44,538
(Jeff) It was interesting
to light that set as well.
174
00:11:44,705 --> 00:11:49,919
David and Alex had some references,
like he said, of Arctic ice
175
00:11:50,002 --> 00:11:54,298
all backlit in a subtle glow
with a greenish-blue tonality to it
176
00:11:54,632 --> 00:11:59,345
and with the idea that his breath
was always gonna be CGI later,
177
00:11:59,553 --> 00:12:04,725
creating a look that was surreal enough
but stayed in the context of our movie,
178
00:12:05,142 --> 00:12:06,560
and the feeling of the ice
179
00:12:06,644 --> 00:12:11,815
and having some atmosphere
so that the breath played off better.
180
00:12:12,149 --> 00:12:14,235
It wasn't as easy
as I thought it was gonna be.
181
00:12:14,318 --> 00:12:16,695
But I'm really happy
with the way it came out.
182
00:12:17,154 --> 00:12:19,448
(Alex) We built false perspective into that.
183
00:12:19,531 --> 00:12:24,787
It just looked like those backlit ends
were infinitely far away.
184
00:12:25,246 --> 00:12:28,791
(Michael) There's a bunch of little
subliminal penguins in the movie.
185
00:12:28,874 --> 00:12:34,171
Edward has a tie and boxer shorts
and a couple of other things.
186
00:12:34,505 --> 00:12:38,133
We put it subtly into his wardrobe
187
00:12:38,217 --> 00:12:41,720
as maybe some kind of
psychological reasoning
188
00:12:41,804 --> 00:12:45,516
for the penguin to be his power animal.
189
00:13:21,051 --> 00:13:23,971
Generally, I wanted it, as did David...
190
00:13:24,054 --> 00:13:27,683
we wanted the support groups
to look real, you know,
191
00:13:27,766 --> 00:13:30,811
create real characters
from all walks of life.
192
00:13:30,894 --> 00:13:33,147
So, basically, that's what we did.
193
00:13:33,230 --> 00:13:38,235
I think the only thing that might have been
specific about our recipe
194
00:13:38,319 --> 00:13:43,699
is that the colors we used were
a little bit more somber than reality.
195
00:14:06,555 --> 00:14:09,475
Marla arrived from London
a couple of weeks
196
00:14:09,558 --> 00:14:11,643
before she was supposed to start shooting.
197
00:14:11,727 --> 00:14:16,565
She didn't quite know
which way to go or who her character was
198
00:14:16,648 --> 00:14:21,653
and she asked for my help, she asked if
there was any way I could describe Marla,
199
00:14:21,737 --> 00:14:28,202
and I said, "Well, I think I see Marla
as Judy Garland, close to the end."
200
00:14:28,285 --> 00:14:33,332
"That kind of frailness, that vulnerability,
that... She had a birdlike quality."
201
00:14:33,749 --> 00:14:39,671
And everybody seemed to love
that kind of idea and latched onto it.
202
00:14:39,755 --> 00:14:44,343
In fact, during shooting
Fincher would call her Judy.
203
00:14:44,635 --> 00:14:49,973
Helena would be sitting in her mobile
home, waiting to be called onto the set
204
00:14:50,057 --> 00:14:55,771
and she'd be listening to
old Judy Garland records, getting into it.
205
00:15:11,286 --> 00:15:14,790
I love that moment when Helena's
filling up her cup with coffee
206
00:15:14,873 --> 00:15:17,918
and one of the other
support group members
207
00:15:18,001 --> 00:15:19,628
is clearly making a beeline for her,
208
00:15:19,711 --> 00:15:23,215
and then Edward comes over
and he kind of just turns on his heel.
209
00:15:23,757 --> 00:15:27,261
(Jeff) I didn't realize the coffee
was still pouring into the cup.
210
00:15:27,344 --> 00:15:31,473
Take after take, I never saw it until
we were timing the picture. It's hysterical.
211
00:15:31,557 --> 00:15:34,852
(Michael) It's great.
I've seen this movie a few times
212
00:15:34,935 --> 00:15:37,563
and still see things that I haven't seen.
213
00:15:38,021 --> 00:15:44,403
(Jeff) Yeah. Even in dailies, I never
noticed it until we were timing the picture.
214
00:15:44,653 --> 00:15:46,238
At that point you can see a lot.
215
00:15:46,321 --> 00:15:50,200
You can't hear anything,
so all you do is stare at the visuals.
216
00:15:50,701 --> 00:15:56,540
David and I chose to shoot this picture
on spherical glass,
217
00:15:56,623 --> 00:15:58,625
as opposed to anamorphic,
218
00:15:58,709 --> 00:16:04,298
primarily for lens choices
and speed of those lenses.
219
00:16:04,381 --> 00:16:06,884
We found ourselves shooting
in a lot of practical locations
220
00:16:06,967 --> 00:16:10,637
and inherently wanting to use
whatever was there
221
00:16:10,721 --> 00:16:12,806
as a basis for our lighting sources,
222
00:16:12,890 --> 00:16:14,475
and then adding onto that.
223
00:16:14,850 --> 00:16:18,479
Shooting anamorphic
wouldn't have allowed us
224
00:16:18,562 --> 00:16:20,814
to shoot under those low-light conditions.
225
00:16:20,898 --> 00:16:23,609
So we chose spherical lenses
226
00:16:23,692 --> 00:16:29,573
and went on to do
227
00:16:29,656 --> 00:16:31,658
a 70mm extraction of that negative
228
00:16:31,742 --> 00:16:35,579
to get your blow-ups
for your large theatrical releases.
229
00:16:35,746 --> 00:16:39,791
It certainly shows, in depth at least,
on some of our night exteriors
230
00:16:39,875 --> 00:16:42,085
when you see background
city lights pop out
231
00:16:42,169 --> 00:16:46,715
that we couldn't have had happen
with the slower anamorphic glass.
232
00:16:46,798 --> 00:16:49,510
So I think it was a great choice.
233
00:16:49,593 --> 00:16:51,595
David's so familiar with that.
234
00:16:51,845 --> 00:16:56,808
It's just comfortable for both of us
and it certainly worked for this picture.
235
00:16:57,184 --> 00:17:03,941
You end up with your larger negative size
than traditional 35mm film.
236
00:17:04,191 --> 00:17:07,861
With Super 35, it gives you
a little more material for your extraction,
237
00:17:07,945 --> 00:17:11,698
but they make a dupe and then blow it up.
238
00:17:11,823 --> 00:17:17,621
Unfortunately you pick up grain and
contrast in doing so, which I would have...
239
00:17:17,704 --> 00:17:21,708
That's the bonus of using an anamorphic,
'cause you skip a process
240
00:17:21,792 --> 00:17:24,962
and you have
a much cleaner image at the end.
241
00:17:25,295 --> 00:17:30,217
But then you have a tougher time
getting those images to begin with.
242
00:17:30,467 --> 00:17:35,806
So... following through this picture,
243
00:17:35,889 --> 00:17:38,725
this being my first picture
all the way through as a DP,
244
00:17:38,809 --> 00:17:41,436
I was a bit shocked
at the amount of contrast
245
00:17:41,520 --> 00:17:44,106
and grain that we picked up
in the extraction.
246
00:17:44,189 --> 00:17:49,736
It was a bit disappointing, but fortunately
it fits perfectly for this movie.
247
00:17:51,822 --> 00:17:55,534
(Michael) It's rare that you see Helena's
feet - or any feet - in this movie.
248
00:17:55,617 --> 00:18:01,248
But Helena, throughout the entire movie,
wore extremely high platform shoes,
249
00:18:01,331 --> 00:18:03,584
'cause it was right for the character,
250
00:18:03,667 --> 00:18:10,591
and also, Fincher wanted her to be
as tall as possible, and she's quite small.
251
00:18:11,008 --> 00:18:17,389
And I used old vintage shoes
from the '60s and '50s, big platforms,
252
00:18:17,472 --> 00:18:20,642
and she teetered about,
and I think it added to the character.
253
00:18:20,726 --> 00:18:24,187
But also, there were many times
when she fell off of them.
254
00:18:24,313 --> 00:18:25,480
(laughs)
255
00:18:26,064 --> 00:18:31,028
I'd hear her from far away
cursing my name.
256
00:18:51,882 --> 00:18:56,887
(Jeff) I think every DP should be so lucky as
to have a face like Helena's to photograph.
257
00:18:57,054 --> 00:19:00,932
She has such lovely skin
and high cheekbones,
258
00:19:01,016 --> 00:19:03,602
you almost can't light her bad.
259
00:19:03,685 --> 00:19:06,104
Her presence on screen
always comes across.
260
00:19:06,188 --> 00:19:11,151
She's so beautiful that we put her in
some not-so-flattering lighting situations
261
00:19:11,234 --> 00:19:13,236
and she always looked great.
262
00:19:13,654 --> 00:19:20,243
It was inherent to her character, but we
weren't afraid to go there. Nor was she.
263
00:19:20,827 --> 00:19:27,084
Normally, you would have a vanity
problem, which didn't exist with her.
264
00:19:27,167 --> 00:19:31,129
In some situations,
she had reactions to makeup,
265
00:19:31,463 --> 00:19:36,343
and, rather than cover them up,
she was all game to go for it,
266
00:19:36,426 --> 00:19:40,764
and they're there, huge,
on those 40ft screens.
267
00:19:46,103 --> 00:19:50,315
(Michael) Prep time is not what it seems,
268
00:19:50,399 --> 00:19:56,988
because Helena, being English...
I don't think she was on another film.
269
00:19:57,072 --> 00:20:01,118
But I spoke to her in England maybe
eight weeks before she started working,
270
00:20:01,201 --> 00:20:04,413
but I didn't see her
until maybe three weeks before,
271
00:20:04,496 --> 00:20:08,083
so I didn't have
that long of a prep with her.
272
00:20:08,166 --> 00:20:12,087
And, in a way, that worked well
because I started preparing without her
273
00:20:12,170 --> 00:20:18,009
and she kind of liked the idea
that there was remnants of a character -
274
00:20:18,093 --> 00:20:23,098
not remnants, but a character taking form
without her that she could step into.
275
00:20:23,181 --> 00:20:26,393
She liked that Marla was
somewhat developed
276
00:20:26,476 --> 00:20:29,438
and she could collaborate with me
277
00:20:29,521 --> 00:20:35,861
on discarding what was not in the right
direction for her and keep what was.
278
00:21:19,780 --> 00:21:23,784
(Alex) David's very accurate
about his intentions,
279
00:21:23,950 --> 00:21:29,080
both storyboarding, but also
just on a scale - on an early scale.
280
00:21:29,164 --> 00:21:35,712
We would go out, just three or four
of us, for preliminary scouts,
281
00:21:36,171 --> 00:21:40,801
and David would be very clear about the
angle, the lens, the height of the camera,
282
00:21:41,635 --> 00:21:43,970
what he'd want to do in a location.
283
00:21:44,054 --> 00:21:47,140
It makes it so much easier to do your job.
284
00:21:47,557 --> 00:21:49,476
And then the storyboards, I think,
285
00:21:49,559 --> 00:21:52,103
probably all the time,
you could follow them.
286
00:21:52,187 --> 00:21:54,314
The frames would be really accurate.
287
00:21:54,397 --> 00:22:00,946
(Jeff) Yeah, it's fantastic that someone
can commit to that so far ahead of it.
288
00:22:01,029 --> 00:22:07,744
It makes it so much easier for us to design
lighting setups and to design sets.
289
00:22:07,828 --> 00:22:10,705
You don't have to cover yourself endlessly
290
00:22:10,789 --> 00:22:15,085
because you know you're not going to
vary very much from those storyboards.
291
00:22:15,544 --> 00:22:18,505
Occasionally, if something
was better, we'd change.
292
00:22:18,588 --> 00:22:22,425
But, more or less,
we stuck to the original ideas.
293
00:22:22,634 --> 00:22:25,637
(Alex) We did not only
conventional storyboards,
294
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:30,934
but also, David used
a process called pre-vis,
295
00:22:31,017 --> 00:22:36,690
which is kind of a three-D storyboarding,
animated storyboard,
296
00:22:36,982 --> 00:22:39,818
where you build a model of a set,
297
00:22:39,901 --> 00:22:44,823
particularly for the visual-effects shots,
in the computer,
298
00:22:45,282 --> 00:22:51,246
and then David would spend time with
the computer model and place the camera,
299
00:22:51,496 --> 00:22:54,833
work out the camera move,
decide on the lens.
300
00:22:55,125 --> 00:23:00,255
And there were several times
where we had information
301
00:23:00,338 --> 00:23:02,382
maybe four months ahead of time
302
00:23:02,465 --> 00:23:04,134
that was absolutely accurate.
303
00:23:04,217 --> 00:23:09,973
Where we'd make decisions on the sets,
in one instance, down to the half-inch
304
00:23:10,056 --> 00:23:13,560
with a motion-control shot
that never changed.
305
00:23:13,643 --> 00:23:19,399
The plane crash was planned
to a tiny degree,
306
00:23:19,482 --> 00:23:21,943
to the most minute detail.
307
00:24:01,858 --> 00:24:03,902
(Michael) After I read the script,
308
00:24:03,985 --> 00:24:10,700
I knew that Tyler Durden was gonna be
pretty "out there" wardrobe-wise,
309
00:24:10,992 --> 00:24:15,622
to go with how out there
he was as a character,
310
00:24:15,705 --> 00:24:19,542
and I asked David,
who doesn't like color very much,
311
00:24:19,626 --> 00:24:23,088
how far I could go with Brad's character.
312
00:24:23,171 --> 00:24:27,676
And he said, "You can't go too far
with Tyler Durden."
313
00:24:28,134 --> 00:24:30,136
And...
314
00:24:31,304 --> 00:24:35,934
I was amazed that he let me do
a lot of the stuff that I did, compared to...
315
00:24:36,226 --> 00:24:38,144
We worked together
on The Game and on Se7en,
316
00:24:38,228 --> 00:24:41,982
and the palette's pretty restricted
317
00:24:42,065 --> 00:24:46,736
in terms of a lot of color.
318
00:24:46,903 --> 00:24:51,741
I was surprised
319
00:24:51,825 --> 00:24:54,911
that Dave allowed
320
00:24:54,995 --> 00:24:59,916
all those reds and oranges
and vibrant colors that Brad wears.
321
00:25:01,167 --> 00:25:03,962
(Jeff) He's the only person
that wears anything like that.
322
00:25:04,045 --> 00:25:08,008
(Michael) Yeah.
When you'd walk into the wardrobe trailer,
323
00:25:08,091 --> 00:25:10,468
Brad's clothes were hanging
324
00:25:10,552 --> 00:25:16,099
directly across from Edward's.
325
00:25:17,976 --> 00:25:21,938
Tyler's side - Brad's side - was vibrant.
326
00:25:23,148 --> 00:25:27,527
Edward's side was grays and beiges.
So boring.
327
00:25:27,610 --> 00:25:30,739
You couldn't believe those two characters
were in the same movie.
328
00:25:30,822 --> 00:25:36,327
(Jeff) That defines the two personalities
of the two characters perfectly.
329
00:25:46,546 --> 00:25:47,714
But in the six weeks that I had to prep,
330
00:25:48,298 --> 00:25:49,716
amongst other things,
331
00:25:49,799 --> 00:25:54,137
I had the rare opportunity of testing every
light source that we used in the picture,
332
00:25:54,304 --> 00:25:58,058
as well as testing
the clothing Michael was
333
00:25:58,141 --> 00:26:00,977
dressing them in and some of the makeup,
334
00:26:01,144 --> 00:26:07,150
different processes that we used
and some of the prosthetics that we used,
335
00:26:07,233 --> 00:26:09,235
and to find out what looked realistic
336
00:26:09,319 --> 00:26:12,572
and how we could actually
bring out the prosthetics
337
00:26:12,655 --> 00:26:18,536
and make them look like real wounds
as opposed to prosthetics.
338
00:26:18,620 --> 00:26:23,124
And then what angle of light
enhanced all those situations.
339
00:26:23,208 --> 00:26:26,252
We tested everything
from the copy-machine
340
00:26:26,336 --> 00:26:29,422
light sources to the headlights of cars.
341
00:26:30,006 --> 00:26:33,760
And it's a rare opportunity to get
342
00:26:33,843 --> 00:26:37,430
to evaluate those choices
that far ahead of time.
343
00:26:37,514 --> 00:26:40,600
Normally you just have
to scramble on the set
344
00:26:40,683 --> 00:26:44,020
and use experience
to make your decisions.
345
00:26:44,104 --> 00:26:50,944
But two weeks of shooting tests,
film tests, lighting tests,
346
00:26:51,027 --> 00:26:54,364
really helped this picture and helped me.
347
00:27:00,453 --> 00:27:03,915
(Michael) Wardrobe has help
in that I get everyone else's input
348
00:27:03,998 --> 00:27:06,459
and weed things out earlier on.
349
00:27:06,543 --> 00:27:08,670
I mostly know how things will photograph
350
00:27:08,753 --> 00:27:11,214
from having done
what I do for a long time,
351
00:27:11,548 --> 00:27:13,591
and I've had fittings with the actors.
352
00:27:13,675 --> 00:27:16,469
But I think it gives
353
00:27:16,553 --> 00:27:20,807
the DP an idea
354
00:27:20,890 --> 00:27:23,685
of the kind of things
that he's gonna be dealing with.
355
00:27:24,853 --> 00:27:29,649
But also, I think the director can see
356
00:27:29,732 --> 00:27:32,610
if I've gone too far with Tyler's character.
357
00:27:32,694 --> 00:27:35,238
In fact, once I presented
something to David
358
00:27:35,321 --> 00:27:38,283
and he said,
"This time, you have gone too far."
359
00:27:38,825 --> 00:27:39,826
(Jeff) What was that?
360
00:27:39,909 --> 00:27:45,915
(Michael) It was a complete outfit in various
shades of red on red on red on red.
361
00:27:46,082 --> 00:27:52,088
Brad and I loved it, but I think
we did go over the top a little bit.
362
00:27:52,755 --> 00:27:55,425
Maybe we were just testing David.
363
00:28:01,764 --> 00:28:06,186
A lot of Brad's clothes look like
they were just picked up in a thrift shop,
364
00:28:06,269 --> 00:28:09,355
and that's the look we were going for.
365
00:28:09,439 --> 00:28:13,860
But unfortunately it wasn't that easy
366
00:28:14,736 --> 00:28:18,198
since we need so many multiples
for various reasons -
367
00:28:18,281 --> 00:28:24,370
stuntmen and doubles for all the fights
and blood and continuity.
368
00:28:24,621 --> 00:28:29,209
And so a lot of the things
were made and then distressed
369
00:28:29,292 --> 00:28:33,630
to look like they had come
from vintage stores and thrift shops.
370
00:28:56,069 --> 00:28:59,739
(Jeff) These scenes,
especially in David's movies,
371
00:28:59,948 --> 00:29:03,785
the approach to these sequences
are so sophisticated, you don't realize
372
00:29:03,868 --> 00:29:08,623
how many layers of people or action
it takes to finish a sequence.
373
00:29:09,415 --> 00:29:13,670
For example, the car crash is done...
374
00:29:14,045 --> 00:29:19,676
probably over nine days during the course
of the movie, in about six different places,
375
00:29:19,968 --> 00:29:21,970
to arrive at that one sequence.
376
00:29:22,220 --> 00:29:26,557
So, with clothing,
we may have five different people
377
00:29:26,641 --> 00:29:29,811
wearing them for various reasons.
378
00:29:32,063 --> 00:29:37,026
(Michael) The red leather jacket that Brad's
wearing, I think we had about six of them.
379
00:29:37,402 --> 00:29:40,238
It looks like a great find in a thrift shop,
380
00:29:40,321 --> 00:29:43,825
but the leather had to be dyed to get
381
00:29:43,908 --> 00:29:48,288
that old kind of late-'60s, early-'70s color
382
00:29:48,955 --> 00:29:52,417
and the texture of the leather
and the topstitching.
383
00:29:52,500 --> 00:29:55,420
A lot of details went into making it look
384
00:29:55,503 --> 00:29:58,798
like something
that I couldn't have possibly found
385
00:29:58,881 --> 00:30:01,551
in a store today in that quantity.
386
00:30:04,178 --> 00:30:06,097
(Jeff) Did he keep
any of the leather jackets?
387
00:30:06,180 --> 00:30:08,850
(Michael) Uh... He wants one.
388
00:30:08,933 --> 00:30:13,438
The wardrobe is actually still on hold,
but I have to remember to get him one.
389
00:30:13,646 --> 00:30:17,150
He did get one of his black jackets
from Se7en.
390
00:31:19,796 --> 00:31:24,634
(Kevin) The other single-frame thing, by the
way, that came up and is kind of funny
391
00:31:24,717 --> 00:31:26,469
is the penis shot,
392
00:31:26,552 --> 00:31:32,100
or the dirt that you see
at the end of the movie.
393
00:31:32,183 --> 00:31:37,188
So at the very end of the movie,
we had to work something in there
394
00:31:37,730 --> 00:31:40,233
to show that Brad's still
the ghost in the machine,
395
00:31:40,316 --> 00:31:42,735
so we spliced that one in there.
396
00:31:42,985 --> 00:31:46,406
What was funny was
that we never knew where this came from,
397
00:31:46,489 --> 00:31:49,367
because Peter Mavromates
found us some pornography.
398
00:31:49,450 --> 00:31:50,910
I guess he has his sources,
399
00:31:50,993 --> 00:31:53,913
'cause on The Game
he had to find some pornography.
400
00:31:53,996 --> 00:31:59,794
He came back with a 70mm frame
of a guy with not quite a hard-on -
401
00:31:59,877 --> 00:32:03,214
you couldn't really have a hard-on
in an American movie.
402
00:32:03,506 --> 00:32:05,591
We'd bug him about where it came from -
403
00:32:05,675 --> 00:32:08,594
and where did they
screen 70mm pornography?
404
00:32:08,678 --> 00:32:10,721
Anyway, so we got one frame of that,
405
00:32:10,805 --> 00:32:12,890
which we had to crop and fit,
and put it in there
406
00:32:12,974 --> 00:32:14,142
and we had to make it anamorphic
407
00:32:14,225 --> 00:32:16,936
and stretch it back out again
and show the edges.
408
00:32:17,019 --> 00:32:20,189
We had one of the editors
make up a dirty splice
409
00:32:20,273 --> 00:32:24,318
so we could see what a dirty splice
looked like and match it on this frame.
410
00:32:24,402 --> 00:32:26,904
It's in there for 15 frames or so
as it slips by.
411
00:32:27,989 --> 00:32:31,409
But that was the end
of the single-frame events.
412
00:32:43,463 --> 00:32:45,089
I don't know if it actually ever happened,
413
00:32:45,173 --> 00:32:50,636
but we were convinced some projectionist
would cross the movie over right there.
414
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,638
He'd see the first one, go, "Fuck!",
415
00:32:52,722 --> 00:32:56,434
cross the movie over
and wipe out the end of reel two.
416
00:32:56,893 --> 00:32:58,227
But anyway...
417
00:32:58,311 --> 00:33:03,524
(Jeff) The interior
of the theater that Tyler works in
418
00:33:03,608 --> 00:33:08,488
where he splices his
pornography into children's films
419
00:33:08,571 --> 00:33:14,994
was the fantastically old Art Deco theater
in downtown Los Angeles.
420
00:33:15,077 --> 00:33:19,957
It's being renovated right now.
It's probably done now.
421
00:33:20,249 --> 00:33:24,170
Which you don't actually
get to appreciate in Fight Club.
422
00:33:24,253 --> 00:33:28,549
However, we used...
My gaffer's name is Claudio Miranda
423
00:33:28,633 --> 00:33:31,886
and he's created this light source
called a DecaSource,
424
00:33:32,178 --> 00:33:35,973
and it's MR16s all in rows of pods,
425
00:33:36,057 --> 00:33:39,560
and you can put them
on a computerized dimmer board
426
00:33:39,644 --> 00:33:42,313
and actually have them pulsating slightly -
427
00:33:42,396 --> 00:33:47,360
that created the projector glimmer
that you saw back off the people's faces.
428
00:33:47,443 --> 00:33:50,863
So that's what we used,
with a few different colorations on it,
429
00:33:50,947 --> 00:33:55,826
so you could feel the difference
of light quality when it hits them.
430
00:33:55,910 --> 00:33:59,247
And then I believe
we used a projector beam.
431
00:33:59,497 --> 00:34:01,249
I think we used a Xenon in the back
432
00:34:01,332 --> 00:34:04,460
and we created our own
projector feeling through it,
433
00:34:04,544 --> 00:34:08,714
so when you shot backwards you saw
the backlight coming through their heads.
434
00:34:10,591 --> 00:34:13,761
It was at the theater entrance,
not the projection booth.
435
00:34:13,844 --> 00:34:16,389
It was too high
and wouldn't hit the people's heads.
436
00:34:16,472 --> 00:34:20,643
So it was another Hollywood cheat.
437
00:34:21,227 --> 00:34:26,315
(Michael) I love that scene when Brad is
waiting tables at the hotel banquet room
438
00:34:26,399 --> 00:34:28,192
and he's wearing a Walkman.
439
00:34:28,276 --> 00:34:33,155
That really cracks me up.
It's so Tyler Durden.
440
00:34:57,305 --> 00:35:01,726
(Jeff) There's something
about the sound that they chose to use
441
00:35:01,809 --> 00:35:05,271
for the thump of the first hit
when Edward hits Brad
442
00:35:05,354 --> 00:35:08,816
that just cracks me up every time.
443
00:35:09,233 --> 00:35:11,527
It's such a pathetic attempt at a fight,
444
00:35:11,611 --> 00:35:15,281
and then the sound itself
is just this dead thump.
445
00:35:18,492 --> 00:35:22,747
Lou's Bar, the exterior of Lou's Tavern,
was down in Long Beach,
446
00:35:22,830 --> 00:35:29,170
and the idea behind shooting it there was
to get this industrial, isolated background
447
00:35:29,253 --> 00:35:33,215
with the harbor lights in the background.
448
00:35:33,466 --> 00:35:35,551
In wider shots, you can see that.
449
00:35:35,635 --> 00:35:39,263
Especially the first time
you see the Paper Street house,
450
00:35:39,680 --> 00:35:42,975
you see all the factory lights
in the background,
451
00:35:43,100 --> 00:35:47,396
which, once again,
was shooting the spherical 35.
452
00:35:48,522 --> 00:35:53,194
I don't believe you could have picked up
the intensity of those lights or the depth,
453
00:35:53,277 --> 00:35:55,946
had we used anamorphic glass.
454
00:36:00,368 --> 00:36:04,413
I think every picture would want
to tell you what it wants to be,
455
00:36:04,497 --> 00:36:09,335
and this particular one, because of the
style that we chose to photograph it in,
456
00:36:09,418 --> 00:36:14,173
it definitely was an asset to us
to use spherical glass,
457
00:36:14,423 --> 00:36:21,097
to have the luxury of being able to shoot
500 or 800 ASA stocks at a 1.9 or a 2 stop.
458
00:36:21,472 --> 00:36:23,641
We actually didn't shoot any 800 ASA.
459
00:36:23,724 --> 00:36:29,355
We used 5279 for all the night exteriors
and night interiors
460
00:36:29,438 --> 00:36:34,860
and then used 5248
for all of our day exteriors.
461
00:36:37,488 --> 00:36:40,700
(Michael) The detail
in the Paper Street house is so amazing.
462
00:36:40,783 --> 00:36:47,790
Even the wooden stairway
is more worn in the center.
463
00:36:49,667 --> 00:36:55,673
I mean, just little details that, you know,
a lot of them the film didn't even pick up.
464
00:36:56,215 --> 00:36:59,677
We went to Long Beach and saw
this house that wasn't there before.
465
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:05,307
They'd just built the exterior of the house
and matched the interior so beautifully.
466
00:37:05,641 --> 00:37:11,981
(Jeff) We scouted the house several times
as it was growing to its completion.
467
00:37:12,481 --> 00:37:18,738
And the story from some of
the construction guys
468
00:37:18,821 --> 00:37:20,656
that had been there for most of the time
469
00:37:20,740 --> 00:37:26,829
is that there's a planned freeway that goes
right through the lot we built the house in.
470
00:37:26,912 --> 00:37:29,957
I guess that's why we were able
to use the lot.
471
00:37:30,124 --> 00:37:33,711
And as they saw this house going up,
they kept coming by, going:
472
00:37:33,794 --> 00:37:36,756
"You guys know they're gonna
build a freeway here, right?"
473
00:37:36,839 --> 00:37:38,382
(laughter)
474
00:37:39,884 --> 00:37:41,886
"No. We had no idea."
475
00:37:58,486 --> 00:38:00,279
A lot of the night exteriors,
476
00:38:00,362 --> 00:38:04,784
especially around
the Paper Street house and Lou's Tavern,
477
00:38:05,242 --> 00:38:11,707
we used these 8K
tungsten helium balloons.
478
00:38:14,502 --> 00:38:18,631
They have their own light source inside
and you fill them with the helium
479
00:38:18,714 --> 00:38:22,468
and they blow up to...
probably a good 10ft diameter.
480
00:38:22,551 --> 00:38:26,722
Then you can hoist them up in the middle
of the sequence, the middle of your shot.
481
00:38:27,181 --> 00:38:30,142
The tag lines are all blackened out
and they disappear
482
00:38:30,226 --> 00:38:35,189
and it creates
a wonderful moonlit ambience
483
00:38:35,272 --> 00:38:37,566
to a large area.
484
00:38:39,401 --> 00:38:45,658
It's rather... At that point, there wasn't
anything to cut that source with.
485
00:38:45,741 --> 00:38:51,497
And now, since then, you can hang
different material on the backs
486
00:38:51,580 --> 00:38:54,583
to make the light more directional.
487
00:38:54,667 --> 00:38:58,170
But it was just a large, broad source
and kind of went everywhere.
488
00:38:58,254 --> 00:39:02,508
It gave you a good base. Then you'd put
your keys in and your backlight from that.
489
00:39:03,092 --> 00:39:06,428
But it helped enormously
to light large areas.
490
00:39:06,804 --> 00:39:09,431
I know they come in various sizes
491
00:39:09,515 --> 00:39:12,518
but, had we not had our spherical lenses,
492
00:39:12,601 --> 00:39:15,896
we would have had to have
a much larger light source than that.
493
00:39:15,980 --> 00:39:22,570
It just worked out now that, at 500 ASA,
with the balloon at about 30ft in the air,
494
00:39:22,653 --> 00:39:27,992
you'd have a nice 1.4, 1.5,
and we were shooting at 2, 2.3.
495
00:39:28,075 --> 00:39:32,496
So you had a great 2 stop under ambience
that carried a large area
496
00:39:32,621 --> 00:39:34,623
and gives you some really nice depth
497
00:39:34,707 --> 00:39:37,835
in the ground and sides
of buildings and whatnot.
498
00:39:38,085 --> 00:39:41,255
Then, fortunately for me,
because at that time
499
00:39:41,338 --> 00:39:43,215
we weren't able to cut
the back of the light off,
500
00:39:43,299 --> 00:39:47,177
it also front-lights
buildings you may not want lit.
501
00:39:47,636 --> 00:39:52,224
But because of the way
that Alex had aged the buildings down -
502
00:39:52,308 --> 00:39:55,811
usually they were decrepit
and dark in tone anyways -
503
00:39:55,895 --> 00:39:57,563
we didn't have to worry about cutting it.
504
00:39:57,646 --> 00:40:01,817
If anything, the spill helped. Otherwise
the buildings would have disappeared.
505
00:40:02,234 --> 00:40:05,321
Plus the creative use of a stand-by painter.
506
00:40:05,404 --> 00:40:07,239
We had a great stand-by painter
507
00:40:07,323 --> 00:40:11,327
by the name of Billy Hoyt
on this picture, and any time...
508
00:40:11,410 --> 00:40:15,456
We initially lit Lou's Tavern
and we used the ball for the wider shots
509
00:40:15,539 --> 00:40:17,541
to give an ambiance to the parking lot.
510
00:40:17,875 --> 00:40:20,377
It lit the roof of the building way too much.
511
00:40:20,461 --> 00:40:23,339
So he just hops up with a spray gun and,
512
00:40:23,422 --> 00:40:27,301
down two notches,
the building disappears.
513
00:40:31,305 --> 00:40:33,599
I had about six weeks to prep,
514
00:40:33,682 --> 00:40:36,268
of which about half the time
was spent visiting the locations
515
00:40:36,352 --> 00:40:39,688
and going over the sets
and talking with Alex
516
00:40:39,772 --> 00:40:43,859
about plans for the Paper Street house
517
00:40:43,943 --> 00:40:47,237
and how to approach
practical light sources
518
00:40:47,321 --> 00:40:48,822
and windows that allowed us to light,
519
00:40:48,906 --> 00:40:53,202
and ceilings, whether
they were to be fixed or not fixed.
520
00:40:53,619 --> 00:40:58,707
For the Paper Street house we decided
to opt for a real two-storey house
521
00:40:58,791 --> 00:41:03,712
as opposed to splitting the two levels
on a sound stage and having false ceilings.
522
00:41:04,046 --> 00:41:07,549
My attitude about that - something
I watched my father do so well -
523
00:41:07,633 --> 00:41:11,512
is, if you're put into a realistic situation
524
00:41:11,595 --> 00:41:13,639
without the comfort
of taking away a ceiling
525
00:41:13,722 --> 00:41:16,767
and then putting light sources in
that don't really exist,
526
00:41:17,017 --> 00:41:23,565
that then you creatively have to come
to terms with the space that you have
527
00:41:23,649 --> 00:41:27,486
and it becomes
a much more natural feeling.
528
00:41:27,569 --> 00:41:32,324
You can't cheat as much, and I didn't want
to have the luxury of being able to cheat.
529
00:41:32,408 --> 00:41:34,785
Fortunately it worked out
for David and Alex
530
00:41:34,868 --> 00:41:36,662
because it saved a lot of space
on the stage.
531
00:41:37,121 --> 00:41:39,415
And rather than having two houses,
two floor plans,
532
00:41:39,498 --> 00:41:41,583
we put them on top of each other.
533
00:41:41,792 --> 00:41:48,507
And it forces you to be more honest
with your light, for better or worse.
534
00:41:51,301 --> 00:41:54,555
The Long Beach set
was just the façade of a house,
535
00:41:54,638 --> 00:42:00,936
but the actual house that we built
on stage at Fox was two storeys.
536
00:42:01,395 --> 00:42:04,523
And so you're forced to deal with
537
00:42:04,606 --> 00:42:08,444
those dilemmas, which I feel...
538
00:42:08,527 --> 00:42:10,863
If you watch the picture,
539
00:42:10,946 --> 00:42:16,076
you don't disbelieve the light sources
or the directions that they're coming from.
540
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,162
So that was our goal.
541
00:42:43,437 --> 00:42:48,650
Down in the basement of Lou's Tavern,
where the Fight Club initiates,
542
00:42:48,776 --> 00:42:51,779
it was interesting because
we'd strategically placed
543
00:42:51,862 --> 00:42:53,989
a few light sources around the room
544
00:42:54,073 --> 00:42:57,284
so that it could basically
have a pseudo-boxing ring
545
00:42:57,367 --> 00:43:02,081
with a lot of fall-off in the backgrounds,
not much depth.
546
00:43:02,456 --> 00:43:08,170
And we had one work light,
547
00:43:08,253 --> 00:43:15,260
like a metal, domed, household, clip-on
work light that you'd see in a lot of places.
548
00:43:15,761 --> 00:43:19,139
It was such a beautiful light source
549
00:43:19,223 --> 00:43:21,809
and made such sense
that they'd have it in this place
550
00:43:21,892 --> 00:43:23,977
that we stole a bunch of them
from the kitchen
551
00:43:24,061 --> 00:43:26,396
of the Paper Street house next door
552
00:43:26,730 --> 00:43:30,526
and ended up using them
throughout the whole movie.
553
00:43:30,859 --> 00:43:35,489
We nicknamed them "budget-busters"
since they were only $3 apiece to put in.
554
00:43:35,656 --> 00:43:39,827
Basically, all of Lou's basement,
where the fighting takes place,
555
00:43:39,993 --> 00:43:42,496
minus this one fluorescent,
556
00:43:42,579 --> 00:43:45,874
are all lit by these little budget-busters.
557
00:44:35,924 --> 00:44:40,971
This is the first picture that
I photographed from head to toe as the DP.
558
00:44:41,221 --> 00:44:47,352
I had worked on both Se7en
and The Game as a second-unit DP
559
00:44:47,436 --> 00:44:50,856
and had done some operating
on the first unit of Se7en
560
00:44:50,939 --> 00:44:55,903
and shot quite a bit of
second-unit insert work on The Game
561
00:44:56,361 --> 00:45:01,116
and assumed that
my meeting with David was
562
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:03,493
about shooting second-unit for Fight Club.
563
00:45:03,577 --> 00:45:09,333
So I was kind of taken aback when
he asked me to shoot the picture for him.
564
00:45:38,612 --> 00:45:41,240
(Doc) The computer can do a lot of stuff.
565
00:45:41,323 --> 00:45:45,869
Every year, as software gets better,
as technical knowledge gets better,
566
00:45:45,953 --> 00:45:48,205
there will be more
and more breakthroughs
567
00:45:48,288 --> 00:45:50,832
and experiments,
more and more things tried.
568
00:45:51,333 --> 00:45:55,295
The danger with computer animation
and digital effects
569
00:45:55,379 --> 00:45:58,966
is that you see too much, oftentimes.
570
00:45:59,508 --> 00:46:03,720
And there's a lot that goes wrong
with computers, a lot that looks wrong.
571
00:46:03,804 --> 00:46:06,515
There's a lot of artifacts
and strange things in there
572
00:46:06,598 --> 00:46:10,310
and people don't always know
how to correct for those.
573
00:46:10,811 --> 00:46:14,273
I don't know everything about
correcting for digital artifacts.
574
00:46:14,356 --> 00:46:19,861
And, honestly, you don't always have the
time to make things look absolutely real.
575
00:46:20,529 --> 00:46:23,615
So you are dealing with approximations
all the time,
576
00:46:23,699 --> 00:46:27,744
and those approximations are getting
smaller and smaller as time goes on.
577
00:46:28,161 --> 00:46:31,623
However, the demands
upon the artists are being
578
00:46:31,707 --> 00:46:33,583
made greater and greater all the time.
579
00:46:33,667 --> 00:46:36,003
There's stuff being done now that could
580
00:46:36,086 --> 00:46:38,880
scarcely have been dreamed of
five years ago.
581
00:46:39,298 --> 00:46:43,260
So it's kind of amazing to think
582
00:46:43,343 --> 00:46:45,721
what might happen
five or ten years down the line.
583
00:46:45,804 --> 00:46:51,184
I think that there's still many stages
of revolution and evolution to come.
584
00:46:51,518 --> 00:46:53,854
Imagine computers that, for example,
585
00:46:53,937 --> 00:46:58,567
might be 10,000 times faster
or more powerful
586
00:46:58,650 --> 00:46:59,901
than the ones that we're using now.
587
00:46:59,985 --> 00:47:02,112
How is that gonna change things?
588
00:47:27,429 --> 00:47:32,851
(Jeff) This is a perfect example of a phone
conversation between Marla and Jack
589
00:47:32,934 --> 00:47:38,148
when she's laying on the bed there and
she does have a skin irritation going on.
590
00:47:38,231 --> 00:47:41,401
And we went with it.
We thought it fit her character.
591
00:47:41,485 --> 00:47:44,613
And she certainly wanted
to go as opposite
592
00:47:44,696 --> 00:47:49,910
her Victorian stereotype as she could.
593
00:47:54,873 --> 00:48:00,087
(Michael) Although she's all dressed up,
seemingly so, wearing a sequined dress
594
00:48:00,170 --> 00:48:03,215
which looks like it maybe
came from the '60s,
595
00:48:04,299 --> 00:48:10,430
the fabric, of course,
when we made it, was perfect.
596
00:48:10,514 --> 00:48:13,433
And so what I did was
597
00:48:13,517 --> 00:48:18,397
I shaved the sequins off in different areas
598
00:48:18,480 --> 00:48:22,234
so it looked really tattered.
599
00:48:22,317 --> 00:48:25,278
And also, you know, it was kind of sexy
600
00:48:25,362 --> 00:48:29,241
showing parts of her body,
'cause it was unlined.
601
00:48:32,285 --> 00:48:36,581
(Jeff) The lovemaking
sequence in this movie
602
00:48:37,791 --> 00:48:39,501
is such an interesting choice and style
603
00:48:39,584 --> 00:48:41,586
that shows all the passion
without showing
604
00:48:41,670 --> 00:48:45,048
all the detail of actually, you know, sex.
605
00:48:45,132 --> 00:48:48,385
And so I thought it was a brilliant choice.
606
00:48:49,636 --> 00:48:53,890
(Kevin) That was one of those things
we started very early in prep,
607
00:48:53,974 --> 00:48:58,478
and literally almost the last scene to be
delivered was one of the sex sequences.
608
00:48:58,645 --> 00:49:03,233
In the end we had to deliver it all as one
continuous piece, which caused problems.
609
00:49:03,400 --> 00:49:05,610
It was all the usual boring CG things.
610
00:49:05,694 --> 00:49:08,280
Once you'd decided that,
while you're gonna
611
00:49:08,363 --> 00:49:10,490
make everything fit together in one piece,
612
00:49:10,574 --> 00:49:14,411
then David could think of
new transitions between the two.
613
00:49:14,494 --> 00:49:16,455
It got very intricate.
614
00:49:16,621 --> 00:49:20,625
It's a little disappointing
that it goes by in nothing flat.
615
00:49:20,792 --> 00:49:24,713
It was supposed to be shorter,
like a blipvert, where every cut...
616
00:49:24,796 --> 00:49:28,300
I think six cuts made it.
Every cut was three seconds long.
617
00:49:28,383 --> 00:49:31,136
And they ended up as long
as seven or eight seconds.
618
00:49:31,428 --> 00:49:33,638
But now you can't tell
they're moving because
619
00:49:33,722 --> 00:49:35,724
three seconds of motion spread over eight
620
00:49:35,807 --> 00:49:38,018
starts to look like you're not moving.
621
00:49:38,101 --> 00:49:40,395
We added ashtrays flying through the air
622
00:49:40,479 --> 00:49:43,773
so you could see things falling.
Things like that.
623
00:49:44,316 --> 00:49:47,903
Anyway, it was a lot of fun.
It was a lot of hair-pulling on my part.
624
00:49:47,986 --> 00:49:51,406
But hopefully, the result...
The result is beautiful.
625
00:49:51,490 --> 00:49:54,242
I don't know how well it integrates
into the rest of the movie,
626
00:49:54,326 --> 00:49:56,411
but it stands out on its own.
627
00:49:56,578 --> 00:50:01,166
It's the only time we see sex in the movie,
so it can be a little different to the rest.
628
00:50:01,249 --> 00:50:05,337
Part of the rule of working
with David in visual effects
629
00:50:05,420 --> 00:50:08,173
is that they have to look like
they're part of the movie.
630
00:50:08,256 --> 00:50:10,926
He has a lot of experience.
He used to work at ILM.
631
00:50:11,009 --> 00:50:17,015
He knows about effects that go out in
second units and come back looking great
632
00:50:17,098 --> 00:50:19,935
and having nothing to do with the movie.
633
00:50:20,310 --> 00:50:25,649
So number one is to try to make sure that it
fits well and it looks like everything else.
634
00:50:25,941 --> 00:50:29,694
And I tend to get dragged into
all sorts of other technical things.
635
00:50:29,778 --> 00:50:32,531
There's this weird crossover
between me and post
636
00:50:32,781 --> 00:50:35,367
where Peter Mavromates,
the post supervisor,
637
00:50:35,450 --> 00:50:38,203
is very involved in stuff
post supervisors usually are not
638
00:50:38,286 --> 00:50:42,415
and I'm involved in stuff that
post supervisors are, and we kind of mesh,
639
00:50:42,499 --> 00:50:47,003
because David wants it all to fit
so it's a tight-fit kind of thing.
640
00:50:51,216 --> 00:50:55,637
(Alex) We matched downtown hotel with...
641
00:50:56,304 --> 00:51:00,225
In fact, we went and found a bunch of
downtown hotels that we liked the look of,
642
00:51:00,308 --> 00:51:02,352
and then we found a lobby that we liked,
643
00:51:02,686 --> 00:51:08,400
and then we took paint
into the real location
644
00:51:08,483 --> 00:51:09,943
to match some of
the other places we liked
645
00:51:10,026 --> 00:51:13,572
and then took
the combined look of that onto stage.
646
00:51:13,655 --> 00:51:19,661
So the corridor right by her room is stage
and everything else is location downstairs.
647
00:51:21,538 --> 00:51:23,748
We built this room on stage,
648
00:51:24,916 --> 00:51:30,213
based it on the worst of downtown
649
00:51:30,297 --> 00:51:32,799
monthly rental hotels that we found
650
00:51:33,717 --> 00:51:36,928
and then took the look
of what we liked of those
651
00:51:37,012 --> 00:51:41,641
and added paint
in the location that we found.
652
00:51:41,725 --> 00:51:46,980
So the lobby and the stairways
was a hotel on Eighth Street, downtown.
653
00:51:48,523 --> 00:51:54,029
But we added the shine on the corridor
and the floor, pulled up carpet.
654
00:51:58,199 --> 00:52:03,121
(Michael) Wasn't that the night somebody
threw a bottle out of a window at Jeff?
655
00:52:03,204 --> 00:52:04,456
(Alex) Hit you on the head.
656
00:52:04,539 --> 00:52:10,045
(Jeff) Yeah. The exterior that night
of that hotel, Marla's hotel,
657
00:52:10,587 --> 00:52:14,591
one evening, in the middle of the night,
as we were shooting down there,
658
00:52:14,674 --> 00:52:19,012
apparently we alienated
one of the residents of that hotel
659
00:52:19,095 --> 00:52:23,099
and he lobbed a 40oz beer bottle
out the window
660
00:52:23,183 --> 00:52:30,190
and it just happened to clock me on the
head as I was standing next to the camera.
661
00:52:30,357 --> 00:52:32,859
(Michael) Good aim!
(Jeff) Very good aim.
662
00:52:32,942 --> 00:52:36,488
Did you see my shirt afterwards?
You'd appreciate it.
663
00:52:36,571 --> 00:52:38,531
Wonderful pattern all over it.
664
00:52:38,907 --> 00:52:43,995
Yeah, I didn't get to finish that night.
I spent it in the hospital.
665
00:52:44,079 --> 00:52:46,748
But... it all worked out.
666
00:52:47,666 --> 00:52:50,001
(Alex) Downtown's a war zone.
(Jeff) Yeah.
667
00:52:50,085 --> 00:52:53,421
So we all experienced
a little bit of our own Fight Club.
668
00:52:53,588 --> 00:52:56,424
I have a scar to show for it.
669
00:52:56,716 --> 00:52:59,219
We had our own set officers on the set
670
00:52:59,302 --> 00:53:02,055
who apprehended the guy
that threw the bottle.
671
00:53:02,138 --> 00:53:06,518
But the local police that showed up,
as I was covered with beer
672
00:53:06,601 --> 00:53:11,147
and I'm sitting there with a pack on my
head waiting for an ambulance to show up,
673
00:53:11,648 --> 00:53:14,693
his first question is,
"Have you been drinking?"
674
00:53:14,776 --> 00:53:16,069
(laughter)
675
00:53:16,152 --> 00:53:19,489
I wanted to leap at him at that point.
676
00:53:28,498 --> 00:53:32,377
(Michael) Tyler's lavender bathrobe
with the coffee cups was a huge hit.
677
00:53:32,460 --> 00:53:38,550
In fact, I got a call from Edward
this past November
678
00:53:38,633 --> 00:53:44,139
asking if I could have another one made up
for his brother for a Christmas gift.
679
00:53:46,182 --> 00:53:49,728
I think it belonged to...
The original one - we had more copied -
680
00:53:49,811 --> 00:53:53,940
but the original one
came from Brad's housekeeper.
681
00:54:09,205 --> 00:54:13,334
(Alex) This basement set
was built in a tank, on stage.
682
00:54:13,835 --> 00:54:15,253
(Jeff) This whole sequence,
683
00:54:15,336 --> 00:54:19,257
the fact that the Paper Street house
had a faulty electrical system
684
00:54:19,340 --> 00:54:22,594
and forced the occupants,
Brad and Edward,
685
00:54:22,677 --> 00:54:26,181
to turn off the fuse box when it rained
686
00:54:26,556 --> 00:54:28,099
created an interesting scenario since,
687
00:54:28,183 --> 00:54:32,270
when you switch off the power,
what's left, right?
688
00:54:32,437 --> 00:54:36,691
We applied interesting uses of flashlights,
689
00:54:36,775 --> 00:54:39,778
candles and some moonlight.
690
00:54:40,028 --> 00:54:43,531
(Alex) We had to work all that out
from the outside, I remember.
691
00:54:43,615 --> 00:54:46,034
Had to have enough gaps built into...
692
00:54:46,117 --> 00:54:49,370
The house was supposed
to be boarded up and abandoned,
693
00:54:49,454 --> 00:54:53,792
so no light was supposed to get in
because they're in there subversively
694
00:54:53,875 --> 00:54:56,544
and not letting anyone on the street
know they're there.
695
00:54:56,628 --> 00:55:00,882
So you couldn't show a lot of light
coming in from the outside.
696
00:55:33,748 --> 00:55:38,211
(Jeff) We talked earlier, Alex, about
the exterior of the Paper Street house
697
00:55:38,294 --> 00:55:41,005
and the enormous undertaking it was
to build that façade
698
00:55:41,089 --> 00:55:47,303
and how some of the local characters told
you about the freeway that was going in.
699
00:55:47,554 --> 00:55:50,223
(Alex) It was funny 'cause it went up sort of
700
00:55:50,306 --> 00:55:52,267
backwards in time,
'cause it went up brand-new,
701
00:55:52,350 --> 00:55:56,563
and people would say, "You shouldn't
be building a house in this neighborhood
702
00:55:56,646 --> 00:55:59,941
" 'cause they're about to
take this area out for the Port of LA."
703
00:56:00,441 --> 00:56:01,860
So we said, "I think we'll be all right."
704
00:56:01,943 --> 00:56:04,529
As it got older, people would say:
705
00:56:04,612 --> 00:56:08,157
"I've lived here 25 years.
I had no idea this house was here."
706
00:56:08,241 --> 00:56:10,159
(laughter)
707
00:56:10,243 --> 00:56:13,371
We had bus tours going by
708
00:56:13,746 --> 00:56:15,582
But there was always someone every day
709
00:56:15,665 --> 00:56:19,627
who came in, totally innocent,
and said, "No idea."
710
00:56:19,919 --> 00:56:23,089
(Jeff) I think it settled down
after the UFO sighting -
711
00:56:23,172 --> 00:56:26,801
the moonballs that we had
lighting the area.
712
00:56:28,136 --> 00:56:29,971
(Alex) A local San Pedro historian
713
00:56:30,054 --> 00:56:35,143
wanted us to give a talk to his historical
society about the Victorian house.
714
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:40,899
We built the porch, and one wall
of the kitchen was built on location.
715
00:56:40,982 --> 00:56:44,110
Then we brought the entire piece
back to stage
716
00:56:44,193 --> 00:56:48,573
so that you could get those shots
of the garden and match,
717
00:56:48,740 --> 00:56:50,825
and bring people in from the outside.
718
00:56:51,075 --> 00:56:54,078
(Jeff) For example,
the two times Marla leaves the house
719
00:56:54,162 --> 00:56:55,371
and walks through the yard,
720
00:56:55,455 --> 00:56:59,459
or when some of the space monkeys
are gardening.
721
00:57:59,352 --> 00:58:03,231
(Michael) I thought
a bridesmaid's dress would be easy to find
722
00:58:03,314 --> 00:58:05,817
because they're in all the thrift shops.
723
00:58:05,900 --> 00:58:08,236
But to find one that felt right
724
00:58:08,486 --> 00:58:13,908
and had the qualities that were
in the dialog was impossible.
725
00:58:14,075 --> 00:58:19,247
And something that seemed
like Marla would pick out for herself
726
00:58:19,664 --> 00:58:22,166
and related to her other clothing.
727
00:58:22,375 --> 00:58:25,837
They were all too cheap-looking
or not enough detail.
728
00:58:25,920 --> 00:58:28,172
So we ended up having to make this one
729
00:58:28,548 --> 00:58:32,301
and then burned cigarette holes in it
and dragged it through the mud
730
00:58:32,385 --> 00:58:36,639
and made it look like
it's what she was talking about.
731
00:59:12,759 --> 00:59:17,847
You can catch Brad's bunny-rabbit slippers
going up the stairs there.
732
00:59:18,264 --> 00:59:21,392
Another thing
about Brad's character, his...
733
00:59:21,476 --> 00:59:27,273
If you notice, his pants are always hanging
around as low as possible on his waist.
734
00:59:27,356 --> 00:59:33,112
This was a characteristic that,
you know, was conscious,
735
00:59:33,321 --> 00:59:39,786
and he always has a little bit of plumber's
butt if you catch him from the back.
736
00:59:53,049 --> 00:59:58,638
This outfit was Tyler's idea
of a complete camouflage outfit.
737
00:59:58,721 --> 01:00:03,351
In fact, when Brad was outside,
he was even trying to hide among trees,
738
01:00:03,434 --> 01:00:05,520
thinking, since he was
wearing a leaf pattern,
739
01:00:05,603 --> 01:00:09,732
that it was, in essence,
natural camouflage.
740
01:00:50,523 --> 01:00:54,527
The reason for the camouflage
was Tyler's little caper here.
741
01:00:54,944 --> 01:00:58,906
- He didn't want to be noticed.
- (Alex) He looks perfectly camouflaged.
742
01:00:58,990 --> 01:01:00,992
(Michael) So he's wearing orange.
743
01:01:01,075 --> 01:01:02,618
(laughs)
744
01:01:02,827 --> 01:01:09,000
(Alex) The prop master, Bucky Moore,
brought in some real liposuction
745
01:01:09,417 --> 01:01:12,461
just to show David
what it really looked like.
746
01:01:12,753 --> 01:01:16,924
(Michael) That was an example
of why we need multiples for clothing.
747
01:01:20,178 --> 01:01:22,638
(Jeff) It ended up like a combination of
748
01:01:22,722 --> 01:01:25,892
chicken broth and
parts and different things.
749
01:01:25,975 --> 01:01:30,146
(Alex) Yeah. Actually,
I don't remember what he finally put in it.
750
01:01:30,229 --> 01:01:33,900
(Jeff) Some concoction.
(Alex) Really disgusting.
751
01:01:56,339 --> 01:01:57,423
We chose a Victorian house
752
01:01:57,506 --> 01:02:03,554
I think mainly because every room had to
have at least three entrances and exits
753
01:02:03,638 --> 01:02:06,849
for Marla and Brad to do their dance
754
01:02:06,933 --> 01:02:10,770
where neither one of them
was in the same room at the same time.
755
01:02:10,853 --> 01:02:13,314
Or rather, Brad and Edward, I guess.
756
01:02:13,522 --> 01:02:17,151
And as well that it was
a very clean 100-year span.
757
01:02:17,235 --> 01:02:20,404
So this house represented the history of
758
01:02:20,488 --> 01:02:22,740
the 20th century
and what it had gone through
759
01:02:22,823 --> 01:02:29,830
and became, I guess, a sort of a symbol for
the Tyler character's Luddite principles.
760
01:02:31,666 --> 01:02:36,170
We imagined that it was something built
by a captain of industry
761
01:02:36,254 --> 01:02:39,590
in a rich neighborhood,
762
01:02:39,674 --> 01:02:44,136
but the industry that made him rich
763
01:02:44,220 --> 01:02:46,639
got closer and closer
encroached on the buildings
764
01:02:46,722 --> 01:02:51,936
so that, gradually,
the buildings began to be deserted.
765
01:02:52,019 --> 01:02:56,315
So his grandson
766
01:02:56,399 --> 01:02:59,777
had to sublet the house in the '70s.
767
01:03:00,736 --> 01:03:06,409
So we cut the house in half and worked
out which rooms he could have sublet.
768
01:03:06,534 --> 01:03:11,914
An additional kitchen and bathroom
and a backstairs were built in the '70s,
769
01:03:11,998 --> 01:03:18,045
and there's the plush carpet
and the Mylar wallpaper.
770
01:03:18,129 --> 01:03:21,507
Half the house was
totally refurbished in the '70s.
771
01:03:21,966 --> 01:03:25,886
Then that plan didn't work and
he still couldn't afford to keep the house.
772
01:03:25,970 --> 01:03:28,973
So he let it go, and then it was squatted.
773
01:03:29,056 --> 01:03:34,061
And there's sort of a layer of
graffiti and squatting of pre-Tyler day,
774
01:03:34,395 --> 01:03:38,107
and then the security was put on it
and the fence was put around it.
775
01:03:38,190 --> 01:03:43,612
And finally, Tyler got through the fence,
broke into the house and squatted it again.
776
01:03:44,113 --> 01:03:49,076
But it has these many layers built into it.
777
01:03:49,368 --> 01:03:54,415
We've got burn marks on the walls
where previous squatters had lit fires
778
01:03:54,498 --> 01:03:59,378
and, of course, all this time it's rotting,
779
01:03:59,462 --> 01:04:05,926
so the rain's pouring through
and the wallpaper's rotting away.
780
01:04:31,202 --> 01:04:35,206
(Michael) This is Tyler's
idea of business attire
781
01:04:35,289 --> 01:04:41,587
when he goes to Barney's
to sell them the soap which he's made.
782
01:05:08,406 --> 01:05:11,075
(Alex) This whole Corporate America,
783
01:05:11,158 --> 01:05:16,455
we went for the most bland possible
784
01:05:16,539 --> 01:05:19,500
colors and environments.
785
01:05:20,042 --> 01:05:26,590
I think almost all on Wilshire Boulevard,
we got most of Corporate America there.
786
01:05:42,898 --> 01:05:46,610
Those blinds were closed all the time,
and we actually had a view out.
787
01:05:46,694 --> 01:05:51,907
(Jeff) We did at one point have a slight
view. In one sequence you see the trees.
788
01:06:42,875 --> 01:06:46,420
(Alex) This is that Eighth Street hotel.
789
01:06:46,712 --> 01:06:50,090
(Michael) It's pretty hideous,
especially at night-time.
790
01:06:50,508 --> 01:06:54,803
When we were shooting The Game,
there were a lot of alley scenes.
791
01:06:54,887 --> 01:06:56,931
One of my assistants heard a crunch
792
01:06:57,014 --> 01:06:59,767
as she ran to the set
with a shirt somebody needed,
793
01:06:59,850 --> 01:07:04,104
and she looked down
and she had stepped on a rat's head.
794
01:07:07,191 --> 01:07:10,778
(Jeff) Well, it doubles
as anywhere in America,
795
01:07:10,861 --> 01:07:15,157
and it has so much
gritty detail down there
796
01:07:15,241 --> 01:07:19,036
because so many of the buildings
are vacant and have been so for so long.
797
01:07:19,119 --> 01:07:24,458
And there's such a level of dilapidation
that it's beautiful to shoot in.
798
01:07:24,542 --> 01:07:27,002
It's uncomfortable, but it's beautiful.
799
01:07:27,294 --> 01:07:29,922
(Alex) The architecture's
wonderful downtown.
800
01:07:30,005 --> 01:07:32,049
There's nowhere else
in America that I've seen
801
01:07:32,132 --> 01:07:35,844
that has such little respect
for architecture -
802
01:07:35,928 --> 01:07:37,888
for period architecture.
803
01:07:38,514 --> 01:07:44,436
So you get the most ugly buildings
next to the most beautiful buildings.
804
01:07:44,520 --> 01:07:48,607
Also, downtown's interesting
'cause it really only exists at ground level
805
01:07:48,691 --> 01:07:50,818
in the center.
806
01:07:51,235 --> 01:07:55,155
Most of the buildings are dead shells
on the main streets in downtown,
807
01:07:55,239 --> 01:07:57,700
from the ground floor up.
808
01:07:58,492 --> 01:08:02,997
People never look up, and that's where
all the beautiful architecture is.
809
01:08:03,080 --> 01:08:09,169
But we spent months going in and out
of these hotels in the location scouts.
810
01:08:09,253 --> 01:08:10,379
(Michael) So many
times I worked downtown
811
01:08:10,462 --> 01:08:14,091
with David and I'd look up and realize
812
01:08:14,174 --> 01:08:19,471
that it was a location from Blade Runner
many years before with Ridley.
813
01:08:19,555 --> 01:08:23,017
And I think there's
a similar sensibility there.
814
01:09:18,739 --> 01:09:20,032
(Alex) This was a fabulous location -
815
01:09:20,115 --> 01:09:25,162
an office building that was gutted,
ready for renewal,
816
01:09:25,412 --> 01:09:30,751
for being retrofitted
with all the ugly '90s stuff.
817
01:09:31,543 --> 01:09:33,504
(Jeff) Alex is talking about a fight
818
01:09:33,587 --> 01:09:35,589
between Edward's character
819
01:09:35,673 --> 01:09:40,386
and Meat Loaf's character
when they meet again.
820
01:09:41,220 --> 01:09:47,017
We used practical rope strings,
construction lights in a row,
821
01:09:48,644 --> 01:09:50,521
that just happened to be there.
822
01:09:50,604 --> 01:09:54,316
We liked the way they looked and
incorporated them into that sequence.
823
01:09:54,400 --> 01:09:58,654
They look great
and are lighting the sequence,
824
01:09:58,737 --> 01:10:02,700
minus the fact that there's
one or two fluorescents in the background.
825
01:10:03,992 --> 01:10:06,036
It just fit in with the motif
of using as many
826
01:10:06,120 --> 01:10:10,416
practical and realistic
light sources we can.
827
01:10:10,666 --> 01:10:15,379
(Alex) We spent a lot of time looking
at the possibilities of industrial lighting,
828
01:10:15,462 --> 01:10:19,508
and giving each kind of lighting
a character for each area.
829
01:10:19,717 --> 01:10:25,139
I think that work-light aesthetic
came back into the top floor high-rise,
830
01:10:25,222 --> 01:10:26,849
carried on through there.
831
01:10:27,099 --> 01:10:32,104
(Jeff) And I was laughing about the use
of what we nicknamed budget-busters,
832
01:10:32,187 --> 01:10:36,316
the little domed metal lights that we used
throughout, like in the kitchen,
833
01:10:36,400 --> 01:10:40,738
and then eventually
in the basement of Lou's Tavern.
834
01:10:44,658 --> 01:10:48,996
(Michael) In this fight scene,
Brad's wearing a shirt that I found...
835
01:10:49,079 --> 01:10:50,581
Not the one I found in a thrift shop,
836
01:10:50,664 --> 01:10:53,667
I found a similar shirt
in a thrift shop from the '60s.
837
01:10:53,751 --> 01:10:59,423
On it, it says, "Sock it to me."
And when Brad saw it, he flipped.
838
01:10:59,506 --> 01:11:05,512
I think it's a line from
the old Laugh-In show.
839
01:11:06,555 --> 01:11:13,061
And we knew that we needed, like,
a dozen shirts for this scene,
840
01:11:13,145 --> 01:11:17,441
and Brad kind of really,
really wanted to wear it.
841
01:11:17,524 --> 01:11:23,614
And so I spent the weekend
silk-screening T-shirts for him.
842
01:11:24,573 --> 01:11:29,703
Not only silk-screening, but making them,
silk-screening them, dyeing them,
843
01:11:30,412 --> 01:11:33,999
and kind of replicating the one he
loved so much that I'd found, you know,
844
01:11:34,082 --> 01:11:37,503
the Friday before the Monday
when this was to shoot.
845
01:11:43,634 --> 01:11:49,765
(Alex) This basement is a set matching
846
01:11:49,848 --> 01:11:52,810
the location that we found
down in San Pedro,
847
01:11:52,893 --> 01:11:55,062
which was very close
to the Paper Street house.
848
01:11:55,437 --> 01:12:01,610
The bar, Lou's Tavern, obviously
didn't have a basement, being LA.
849
01:12:02,069 --> 01:12:06,406
So we took the same floor plan
and imagined a kind of concrete space,
850
01:12:06,490 --> 01:12:09,993
although it wouldn't really have had that.
851
01:13:12,472 --> 01:13:16,184
(Jeff) Michael worked on Blade Runner.
(Michael) With your dad.
852
01:13:16,268 --> 01:13:19,730
With my dad, yeah.
We were talking about it earlier.
853
01:13:20,063 --> 01:13:23,066
(Michael) That was an
incredible experience.
854
01:13:26,111 --> 01:13:28,989
I was very young and, you know,
855
01:13:29,072 --> 01:13:35,412
just working with a visionary
856
01:13:35,495 --> 01:13:36,496
like Ridley
857
01:13:36,580 --> 01:13:41,543
was a pretty amazing education
at that point in my career.
858
01:13:41,627 --> 01:13:44,963
I mean, it's hard to find futuristic clothes.
859
01:13:45,672 --> 01:13:49,384
(Jeff) Nowadays everything's auctioned off
afterwards, right?
860
01:13:49,468 --> 01:13:55,349
(Michael) I heard this story that... Now
we're talking about Blade Runner, but...
861
01:13:55,641 --> 01:13:59,853
They took all the clothes to England
to do reshoots,
862
01:13:59,937 --> 01:14:05,025
and rather than store them or send them
back, and go through Customs again,
863
01:14:05,108 --> 01:14:09,780
they just burned them all,
which I have trouble believing.
864
01:14:09,863 --> 01:14:11,448
But that's the story,
and I've never seen any of
865
01:14:11,531 --> 01:14:15,869
the clothes in my travels
through the studios.
866
01:14:39,559 --> 01:14:45,315
(Doc) Personally, I like using a computer
to create sort of new worlds,
867
01:14:45,399 --> 01:14:47,818
and I use it as a design tool.
868
01:14:48,402 --> 01:14:52,239
I am now sort of figuring out
how to use the computer
869
01:14:52,322 --> 01:14:54,116
and I've gotten good enough at it
870
01:14:54,199 --> 01:14:57,661
where I can do the stuff I did
with the optical printer in college
871
01:14:58,870 --> 01:15:00,664
on my computer now.
872
01:15:00,747 --> 01:15:04,418
And so I've sort of caught up, in a sense,
873
01:15:04,501 --> 01:15:09,840
to the artistic and technical level that
I was at in college with this computer.
874
01:15:09,923 --> 01:15:13,969
And now I'm sort of taking off,
starting off now,
875
01:15:14,052 --> 01:15:16,179
where I left off back in art school.
876
01:15:16,263 --> 01:15:20,684
And I've been very fortunate in having
some directors and some projects
877
01:15:20,767 --> 01:15:26,982
that have given me free rein and
given me a lot of freedom to experiment,
878
01:15:27,065 --> 01:15:31,653
and to use some of my design skills
and some of my ideas and imagination.
879
01:15:32,070 --> 01:15:38,368
I'm also kind of... I am not
a real big fan of the philosophy
880
01:15:38,452 --> 01:15:45,042
that work should be design-driven
or story-driven.
881
01:15:45,125 --> 01:15:47,335
I'm in sort of a minority group
882
01:15:48,045 --> 01:15:51,590
that believes that
software drives the creative decisions,
883
01:15:51,798 --> 01:15:58,138
that software, by its existence, opens up
new possibilities to experiment with.
884
01:15:58,305 --> 01:16:00,640
If I had to do it over again,
I think I probably
885
01:16:00,724 --> 01:16:03,810
would have studied more programing
886
01:16:04,352 --> 01:16:07,731
when I was getting started,
'cause I'm doing more programing now,
887
01:16:07,814 --> 01:16:12,402
and I feel like a lot of the art
is in the programers' hands now,
888
01:16:12,486 --> 01:16:16,656
not entirely in the technicians'
or the artists' hands.
889
01:16:16,990 --> 01:16:21,745
And that's kind of a funny realization.
890
01:16:22,662 --> 01:16:25,123
And people like Con Pederson will spend
891
01:16:25,207 --> 01:16:29,669
as much time re-programing the
computer or writing new software for it
892
01:16:29,753 --> 01:16:33,548
as he will trying to design something
or develop a new technique for it.
893
01:16:33,632 --> 01:16:35,759
He'll go under the hood
to get the computer
894
01:16:35,842 --> 01:16:38,345
to do something it hasn't done before,
895
01:16:38,428 --> 01:16:42,766
and then use that as a creative tool
896
01:16:42,849 --> 01:16:45,727
to design something
that nobody's ever seen before.
897
01:16:45,811 --> 01:16:48,230
So I believe that
you can work it both ways.
898
01:16:48,313 --> 01:16:51,441
The creative and design side
can push software development,
899
01:16:51,525 --> 01:16:55,570
but I also think very strongly that
the software developers and programers
900
01:16:56,154 --> 01:17:01,284
can offer up tools to the designers that
they never would have thought of before.
901
01:17:33,441 --> 01:17:37,988
(Jeff) A lot of the corporate locations
or sets that we found ourselves in,
902
01:17:38,071 --> 01:17:44,244
we did play that, you know...
Uncomfortable, unnatural light sources.
903
01:17:48,748 --> 01:17:53,044
(Alex) I love the color of this scene. A lot
of the time, we didn't change the colors,
904
01:17:53,128 --> 01:17:58,175
except in this case,
we put that green into this space,
905
01:17:58,967 --> 01:18:03,555
'cause we were spending
enough time in here to justify it.
906
01:18:04,764 --> 01:18:07,142
(Jeff) For a lot of the corporate sequences,
907
01:18:07,225 --> 01:18:12,939
at least in Edward's office
and his boss's office,
908
01:18:14,107 --> 01:18:16,359
we used...
909
01:18:16,443 --> 01:18:21,865
we put in regular Chroma fluorescents.
910
01:18:21,948 --> 01:18:25,994
It didn't correct anything,
it let cool light stay in there,
911
01:18:26,328 --> 01:18:31,791
and then made slight adjustments
on the camera to get this kind of
912
01:18:31,917 --> 01:18:38,131
forced, unnatural kind of greenish tonality
to their skins and to the walls.
913
01:18:38,340 --> 01:18:44,262
We were kind of presenting this unfriendly
work environment that he lives in.
914
01:18:44,846 --> 01:18:49,643
And that helped one way,
visually at least, to transcend that.
915
01:18:49,893 --> 01:18:53,980
(Alex) And I think to suggest
that to really make it iconically
916
01:18:54,064 --> 01:19:00,862
the way that Corporate America works
and try to really find the essence of that.
917
01:19:01,404 --> 01:19:06,076
(Jeff) Yeah, and then, you know,
even intercut, so closely together,
918
01:19:06,159 --> 01:19:09,454
it's such a contrast in Lou's Tavern
for the fight sequences,
919
01:19:09,537 --> 01:19:14,501
which are all lit by these fairly warm
tungsten, small practical sources
920
01:19:14,584 --> 01:19:17,337
that are placed in the ceilings.
921
01:19:18,713 --> 01:19:21,299
In one way it brings you back to this,
922
01:19:21,383 --> 01:19:26,096
their comfortable, wombish world,
even though fighting takes place here,
923
01:19:26,179 --> 01:19:31,476
versus this sterile corporate world
that he's trying to...
924
01:19:33,728 --> 01:19:35,605
push himself away from,
925
01:19:36,022 --> 01:19:37,649
distance himself from.
926
01:19:38,108 --> 01:19:41,027
(Alex) And something to do
with history as well, I think.
927
01:19:41,111 --> 01:19:43,488
In the corporate world,
nothing exists there
928
01:19:43,571 --> 01:19:48,618
that was built prior to 1980 kind of thing,
929
01:19:48,702 --> 01:19:52,998
but in the Fight Club
and in the house, and in Marla's world,
930
01:19:53,331 --> 01:19:57,127
the historical air is all there
and the warmth comes from that,
931
01:19:57,210 --> 01:20:03,216
so the warmth in the light
and in the colors we were using
932
01:20:03,550 --> 01:20:07,178
kind of helps exaggerate that separation.
933
01:20:07,262 --> 01:20:10,807
(Jeff) It's like forced industry
versus this organic fight,
934
01:20:10,890 --> 01:20:15,854
which brings them back to, you know...
in Brad's theory brings them back
935
01:20:15,937 --> 01:20:19,190
to where we've gone
so far away from anyways.
936
01:21:05,278 --> 01:21:10,408
(Alex) I think for us the interesting thing
about the characters in this film
937
01:21:10,492 --> 01:21:16,414
is that they were kind of nonpeople,
you know, they had no personal history.
938
01:21:16,498 --> 01:21:19,334
Very often, when you're doing a film,
939
01:21:19,793 --> 01:21:23,922
you can track the history of a space
the person lives in because they live in it,
940
01:21:24,005 --> 01:21:29,135
they've inhabited that space for years,
you have some sense of their history.
941
01:21:29,552 --> 01:21:34,557
But in this case,
they're all ciphers in a way.
942
01:21:34,641 --> 01:21:40,271
And so what we were able to do,
and kind of needed to do,
943
01:21:40,355 --> 01:21:47,320
was build the characters from...
make the environments into characters
944
01:21:47,404 --> 01:21:52,158
that supported those...
that told the story of those people.
945
01:21:52,409 --> 01:21:57,497
Edward's environment is so much to do
with what he owns and where he lives,
946
01:21:57,580 --> 01:22:01,918
and the IKEA world, and the filing cabinets
947
01:22:02,001 --> 01:22:06,548
for widows and bachelors.
948
01:22:06,840 --> 01:22:11,928
(Michael) Jack, Edward, and his boss,
they obviously live in the same world.
949
01:22:12,011 --> 01:22:14,431
And it's just so mundane and boring,
950
01:22:14,514 --> 01:22:20,270
and you understand the motivation
for Edward to need to get out of it.
951
01:22:20,645 --> 01:22:25,316
And, you know, Tyler is
so effervescent and so colorful,
952
01:22:25,400 --> 01:22:29,821
and you can understand the attraction,
and also, you know,
953
01:22:30,029 --> 01:22:34,534
how polar these two characters are
from one another.
954
01:22:34,826 --> 01:22:37,620
(Jeff) And I think collectively
we all accomplished something
955
01:22:37,704 --> 01:22:43,418
in that every aspect of our contributions
adds to the story
956
01:22:43,501 --> 01:22:48,923
without showboating or distracting
from the story element itself,
957
01:22:49,007 --> 01:22:53,428
and photographically, that was one thing
I always admired about my father.
958
01:22:53,511 --> 01:22:55,680
He never let ego get in the way.
959
01:22:55,763 --> 01:22:58,349
You're always enhancing the story,
960
01:22:58,433 --> 01:23:01,311
but within the context
of what the story's about,
961
01:23:01,394 --> 01:23:03,396
and not something completely separate.
962
01:23:03,480 --> 01:23:07,817
And it always bugs me when you have
this gritty, horrendous story
963
01:23:07,901 --> 01:23:11,654
and this beautiful Disney,
Saturday-afternoon photography.
964
01:23:11,738 --> 01:23:17,076
It just doesn't make sense,
and so I think that we accomplished that.
965
01:23:18,745 --> 01:23:22,916
(Michael) I think the difficult thing about
Tyler's clothes being so flamboyant was
966
01:23:22,999 --> 01:23:28,338
I'm so used to trying to have
the clothes remain in the background
967
01:23:28,421 --> 01:23:32,133
and just kind of
maybe aid the character, you know,
968
01:23:32,217 --> 01:23:34,177
but also kind of remain in their place.
969
01:23:34,260 --> 01:23:37,972
And some of these clothes are a little bit
970
01:23:38,056 --> 01:23:39,849
more attention-getting
than I'm used to doing,
971
01:23:39,933 --> 01:23:41,643
and I kind of got nervous,
972
01:23:41,726 --> 01:23:45,772
because when I'm too aware of
what the actors are wearing,
973
01:23:45,855 --> 01:23:50,318
I feel like I'm not doing my job,
you know, it's almost like upstaging.
974
01:23:50,401 --> 01:23:54,864
But Tyler was this character
that needed that kind of a presence,
975
01:23:54,948 --> 01:23:59,494
and so it was necessary for me
to kind of stay on it,
976
01:23:59,577 --> 01:24:02,372
and kind of push the character
and push the colors,
977
01:24:02,455 --> 01:24:06,668
and the humor of what he was wearing.
978
01:24:09,045 --> 01:24:13,258
(Alex) The clothes so much tell the story
in his character in that case.
979
01:24:13,675 --> 01:24:15,677
I mean, they sort of stand alone in that.
980
01:24:15,760 --> 01:24:17,053
(laughs)
981
01:24:17,136 --> 01:24:20,390
(Jeff) It helps define who he is.
(Alex) The way they support him.
982
01:24:20,723 --> 01:24:25,353
(Michael) It's interesting.
Last week's New York Times
983
01:24:25,562 --> 01:24:29,482
had a whole article
about Donatella Versace,
984
01:24:29,732 --> 01:24:34,988
picking up on the Fight Club atmosphere
and designing a whole...
985
01:24:35,071 --> 01:24:37,740
Her whole fall collection for next year
986
01:24:37,824 --> 01:24:41,286
is fashioned after Fight Club
and Tyler Durden.
987
01:24:58,011 --> 01:25:01,306
A lot of people have said to me,
"Brad looks so great."
988
01:25:01,389 --> 01:25:03,933
"But then again,
Brad looks great in anything he wears.
989
01:25:04,017 --> 01:25:07,395
"It must be easy to dress him."
990
01:25:07,478 --> 01:25:09,897
I think it is probably very easy
to dress Brad.
991
01:25:09,981 --> 01:25:12,358
But that wasn't what we did.
992
01:25:13,651 --> 01:25:15,862
He looks great in everything.
And so, in a way,
993
01:25:15,945 --> 01:25:20,450
it was harder to make choices
that were right for the character.
994
01:25:20,533 --> 01:25:23,161
It had nothing to do
with what was right for Brad.
995
01:25:23,244 --> 01:25:27,415
We tried to whittle away at what
actually looked cool or looked good,
996
01:25:27,498 --> 01:25:32,211
and kind of have things
that were only about the character,
997
01:25:32,295 --> 01:25:37,717
or made a statement about the character
and the way he thought.
998
01:25:37,800 --> 01:25:40,094
Such as the humor
behind the camouflage,
999
01:25:40,178 --> 01:25:43,473
and little things that are
never really spoken about,
1000
01:25:43,556 --> 01:25:46,684
but just something that we liked,
1001
01:25:46,768 --> 01:25:49,520
you know, when we collaborated.
1002
01:25:52,273 --> 01:25:55,526
(Alex) Hopefully, you can
go back to this over and over again.
1003
01:25:55,610 --> 01:26:00,365
The great thing working the way
David works and with a story like this
1004
01:26:00,448 --> 01:26:05,244
is that there is so much richness to
the story that you can kind of run with it
1005
01:26:05,328 --> 01:26:08,122
and enjoy yourself, and build these layers,
1006
01:26:08,206 --> 01:26:14,003
the back story and the depth,
into every sort of environment.
1007
01:26:14,087 --> 01:26:20,134
And just... You know, you forget how
many things you put into these things.
1008
01:26:20,218 --> 01:26:25,139
And you look at it again and you can keep
getting more and more from the story
1009
01:26:25,223 --> 01:26:29,477
out of what you look at,
if you're given that opportunity.
1010
01:26:31,437 --> 01:26:34,774
(Michael) I think if an
actor is aware of the way
1011
01:26:34,857 --> 01:26:38,361
that the character is built with clothing,
1012
01:26:38,444 --> 01:26:43,491
whether or not the audience
realizes that the actors somehow
1013
01:26:44,409 --> 01:26:48,246
ideally become empowered in a way
about the character,
1014
01:26:48,329 --> 01:26:53,000
or, you know, where it might
1015
01:26:53,084 --> 01:26:56,212
help them find the character,
1016
01:26:56,295 --> 01:27:02,260
or deal with issues that
might not have presented themselves.
1017
01:27:04,637 --> 01:27:09,475
(Alex) It strikes me in this film, actually,
just thinking about what you're saying,
1018
01:27:09,767 --> 01:27:12,895
the clothing seems to be more like -
1019
01:27:12,979 --> 01:27:17,066
in this film - for Marla and for Tyler
1020
01:27:17,150 --> 01:27:21,571
that they're carrying their homes
with them on their backs, in a way.
1021
01:27:21,654 --> 01:27:27,535
Because neither one of them
has any effect on their environment at all.
1022
01:27:27,702 --> 01:27:33,708
For us, Marla, in her hotel room, there's
not a single object in the hotel room,
1023
01:27:33,791 --> 01:27:37,920
except the dildo, probably,
that is to do with her.
1024
01:27:38,671 --> 01:27:41,424
You imagine her entire life
could fit in a small suitcase,
1025
01:27:41,507 --> 01:27:43,593
and she could move at any moment.
1026
01:27:43,676 --> 01:27:49,307
And Tyler makes no attempt to affect
his environment, except for the kitchen.
1027
01:27:49,390 --> 01:27:54,395
The soap-making process.
But it's not to do with him
1028
01:27:54,479 --> 01:27:57,982
feeling more comfortable about
where he lives, whereas the clothing...
1029
01:27:58,065 --> 01:28:02,195
It seems like in a reality
their energy would go into
1030
01:28:02,278 --> 01:28:07,283
representing themselves through that,
and not through their environment.
1031
01:28:07,366 --> 01:28:13,623
Maybe in a normal film, that would be
at least probably opposite, I don't know.
1032
01:28:13,915 --> 01:28:16,876
Or at least equally to do
with the environment as the clothing.
1033
01:28:17,043 --> 01:28:20,671
(Michael) They're squatters in this scene.
(Alex) Totally, yeah.
1034
01:28:20,838 --> 01:28:25,593
And Edward, it's such a nonstyle that
he puts in that it doesn't have any effect.
1035
01:28:25,676 --> 01:28:30,681
Even if he's trying to order something
really different out of a catalog,
1036
01:28:30,765 --> 01:28:32,558
it's always the same catalog.
1037
01:28:33,059 --> 01:28:40,066
(Michael) Brad wears three or four different
styles of sunglasses throughout the movie.
1038
01:28:41,567 --> 01:28:47,698
They're all pretty outrageous.
These are his rose-colored glasses.
1039
01:28:51,285 --> 01:28:56,165
(Alex) This building opposite the lobby -
the entrance hall -
1040
01:28:56,249 --> 01:29:01,087
is a trucking company.
1041
01:29:01,462 --> 01:29:03,589
And we had a run-in with them, because
1042
01:29:03,673 --> 01:29:06,342
their drivers would always
park every night
1043
01:29:06,425 --> 01:29:08,261
outside the house while we were building
1044
01:29:08,344 --> 01:29:12,765
and leave gallon bottles
of urine on the sidewalk
1045
01:29:12,974 --> 01:29:17,562
for us to find in the morning -
when they've been driving all night.
1046
01:29:17,937 --> 01:29:21,607
They just unloaded. On the set.
1047
01:29:21,774 --> 01:29:25,695
(Jeff) It's the end of their run.
(Alex) Exactly.
1048
01:29:27,697 --> 01:29:31,784
(Michael) There's a scene where
Tyler tells the space monkeys that
1049
01:29:32,076 --> 01:29:36,622
once they're inaugurated
into, you know, "space monkeydom",
1050
01:29:36,831 --> 01:29:39,834
they need to show up with certain items.
1051
01:29:40,042 --> 01:29:44,922
The idea being that these people
are from all different walks of life,
1052
01:29:45,006 --> 01:29:49,093
and so, although he tells them all
to bring black shirt and black pants,
1053
01:29:49,176 --> 01:29:55,558
it would be, you know, maybe in one case
black suit pants, another case, black jeans,
1054
01:29:55,641 --> 01:29:58,853
and, in another case, black Versace pants.
1055
01:29:58,936 --> 01:30:04,025
And same thing throughout,
shoes, boots, shirts.
1056
01:30:04,275 --> 01:30:07,653
So, this was supposed to be
not just directed
1057
01:30:07,737 --> 01:30:11,407
at one social group or economic group.
1058
01:30:11,490 --> 01:30:16,787
This was lawyers and trash collectors
and teachers, and just everyone.
1059
01:30:16,871 --> 01:30:20,166
We tried to exemplify that
in the wardrobe.
1060
01:30:20,958 --> 01:30:25,421
(Alex) That up angle, did that end up being
on stage or on location? I've forgotten.
1061
01:30:25,504 --> 01:30:30,509
We built that to be shot on stage,
but I think... Maybe it did get...
1062
01:30:30,593 --> 01:30:35,848
(Michael) This is location.
(Alex) The up angle of him in the window?
1063
01:30:36,265 --> 01:30:38,434
(Jeff) That was on location, I believe.
1064
01:30:38,517 --> 01:30:41,395
(Alex) There was an
elaborate fold-down piece
1065
01:30:41,479 --> 01:30:43,272
that we took to stage in order to do that,
1066
01:30:43,356 --> 01:30:45,900
but I think it wasn't necessary.
1067
01:30:46,025 --> 01:30:52,031
(Jeff) No, we mostly shot the entrance
to the house, the feet and whatnot.
1068
01:30:52,698 --> 01:30:56,285
It's the only thing
we duplicated on stage, right?
1069
01:30:56,369 --> 01:31:00,206
Aside from what normally was planned,
the kitchen sequence and...
1070
01:31:00,289 --> 01:31:02,249
(Alex) Right.
1071
01:31:03,334 --> 01:31:07,046
(Michael) The makeup
on that bus driver's nose was so good.
1072
01:31:07,129 --> 01:31:13,135
I had no idea that it was a statement
about the expanding role of fight clubbers.
1073
01:31:13,219 --> 01:31:14,720
(laughter)
1074
01:31:36,075 --> 01:31:40,162
(Alex) We spent a month
trying to bleach this flag
1075
01:31:40,913 --> 01:31:45,835
to be a kind of Jasper Johns
white-on-white American flag.
1076
01:31:45,918 --> 01:31:48,212
Never got it all the way there, but...
1077
01:32:08,274 --> 01:32:12,445
(Jeff) I believe 128 days was
the original shooting schedule,
1078
01:32:12,528 --> 01:32:14,280
or what we shot actually.
1079
01:32:16,282 --> 01:32:18,617
One hundred and 38 days.
1080
01:32:19,118 --> 01:32:25,791
But ten of those days
were additional pickup shots and whatnot,
1081
01:32:26,167 --> 01:32:29,587
some three months
after we initially wrapped.
1082
01:32:31,589 --> 01:32:34,884
(Alex) It was interesting,
'cause David went into the shoot
1083
01:32:34,967 --> 01:32:40,181
knowing that he'd want to shoot that long,
and planning on ten-hour days.
1084
01:32:40,264 --> 01:32:44,143
And I know that our directive
1085
01:32:44,226 --> 01:32:48,397
was to save as much of our budget
as we could,
1086
01:32:48,481 --> 01:32:53,903
that basically, wherever possible the
budget went towards the shooting days,
1087
01:32:53,986 --> 01:32:58,824
- rather than towards, say, the sets.
- (Jeff) I think we all had that mindset.
1088
01:32:59,033 --> 01:33:04,121
(Michael) Did we shoot any ten-hour days?
(Jeff) We actually did. About half.
1089
01:33:04,205 --> 01:33:07,875
(Alex) Surprisingly.
(Jeff) The idea behind that was,
1090
01:33:08,292 --> 01:33:10,419
there were so many makeup changes.
1091
01:33:10,503 --> 01:33:15,674
Initially there were 32 between
the two lead characters, Edward and Brad,
1092
01:33:16,092 --> 01:33:19,303
and I think that probably grew
as time went on.
1093
01:33:19,386 --> 01:33:23,224
And we had so many short sequences
that took place in different locations.
1094
01:33:23,349 --> 01:33:26,310
And you lose so much time
making a company move
1095
01:33:26,393 --> 01:33:30,898
that if we kept it to ten-hour days and took
that overtime and applied it to more days,
1096
01:33:30,981 --> 01:33:33,442
we'd have a much more logical schedule,
1097
01:33:33,526 --> 01:33:40,407
and have some kind of normalcy to life.
1098
01:33:40,825 --> 01:33:45,204
And primarily, the way it worked for me
is that we would...
1099
01:33:45,287 --> 01:33:51,836
usually David, myself, the AD, the actors,
script supervisor, maybe Alex and Michael,
1100
01:33:51,919 --> 01:33:54,922
would get there before the crew got there
1101
01:33:55,172 --> 01:33:58,759
and block out the sequence for that day
and rehearse it.
1102
01:33:59,009 --> 01:34:02,304
Then by the time the crew showed up,
we'd do one last rehearsal,
1103
01:34:02,388 --> 01:34:06,058
let everybody see what's going on,
they'd go off to Makeup, and we'd light.
1104
01:34:06,392 --> 01:34:09,895
And basically,
we'd shoot for the next eight hours.
1105
01:38:01,126 --> 01:38:04,546
There's many layers
to the car crash sequence
1106
01:38:04,630 --> 01:38:07,049
and the driving sequence as it took place.
1107
01:38:07,132 --> 01:38:10,636
Initially it started
the first week of shooting.
1108
01:38:10,719 --> 01:38:12,221
Actually, before we even started shooting,
1109
01:38:12,304 --> 01:38:16,141
we did three nights of plate work to create
1110
01:38:16,225 --> 01:38:18,268
the background plates
for the process stuff,
1111
01:38:18,352 --> 01:38:23,524
and we went on an insert car
and went down by the airport area
1112
01:38:23,607 --> 01:38:26,443
then down into the Long Beach area to get
1113
01:38:26,527 --> 01:38:30,072
a transition from the city
to the desolate area,
1114
01:38:30,155 --> 01:38:31,949
where they have the impact.
1115
01:38:32,157 --> 01:38:36,912
We shot off of a insert car with a Wescam
1116
01:38:36,995 --> 01:38:39,331
on the back of the car
with a VistaVision camera
1117
01:38:39,415 --> 01:38:44,753
to give us a very large format
for our plate work to be projected later.
1118
01:38:44,837 --> 01:38:50,092
After having done that we, you know,
struck prints and timed out the plates
1119
01:38:50,175 --> 01:38:52,886
to the level we wanted,
1120
01:38:52,970 --> 01:38:57,307
and then went to do
the process stuff on stage,
1121
01:38:57,391 --> 01:39:00,519
which was the driving footage
of them in the car,
1122
01:39:00,894 --> 01:39:04,690
tied in to drive-by shots
that we had done out in the locations,
1123
01:39:04,773 --> 01:39:07,401
and the near misses and whatnot.
1124
01:39:07,609 --> 01:39:10,737
I'm pretty happy the way
that the process stuff turned out.
1125
01:39:10,821 --> 01:39:16,034
We had some interactive lights going on.
We had rain that helped...
1126
01:39:16,785 --> 01:39:21,707
diffuse the translight imageries,
I mean the rear scrim imagery,
1127
01:39:21,790 --> 01:39:28,213
so it all blended in a lot better, and segued
into the actual impact of the car itself,
1128
01:39:28,297 --> 01:39:31,425
which we ended up doing,
I think, three different nights.
1129
01:39:31,508 --> 01:39:36,138
We shot originally at the beginning
of the picture in that first week
1130
01:39:36,889 --> 01:39:39,933
out in the location. Where was that?
1131
01:39:40,017 --> 01:39:42,561
(Alex) Sunland. Sun Valley.
1132
01:39:43,061 --> 01:39:45,606
(Jeff) And did two cars that night,
you know,
1133
01:39:45,689 --> 01:39:48,192
which is always four
because of the impact.
1134
01:39:48,275 --> 01:39:51,153
Then a week or two later
we were in Long Beach
1135
01:39:51,236 --> 01:39:54,531
and shot tight stuff of impacts
of the cars' bumpers
1136
01:39:54,615 --> 01:39:56,575
and overhead shots of the impact,
1137
01:39:56,909 --> 01:40:03,332
and then the last week went out and shot
additional footage of the cars going off
1138
01:40:03,582 --> 01:40:07,419
to get an array of tumbling shots
and a different landing for the vehicle.
1139
01:40:07,503 --> 01:40:12,591
'Cause David was never really satisfied
with the way it landed in the first two.
1140
01:40:12,758 --> 01:40:17,930
And then Alex had built
the side of the wash set on stage,
1141
01:40:18,138 --> 01:40:23,435
where Cliff, our effects man,
had actually rigged it
1142
01:40:23,519 --> 01:40:25,854
so it would slide the last 2ft or so.
1143
01:40:25,938 --> 01:40:31,944
(Alex) The last few feet
and the landing was on stage.
1144
01:40:32,152 --> 01:40:37,574
(Jeff) The car landed, and Brad and Edward
and the space monkeys climbed out,
1145
01:40:37,991 --> 01:40:43,956
then we made a half-car that
we shot their... the coverage of them -
1146
01:40:44,039 --> 01:40:47,876
the dialog right before the impact,
and some driving footage.
1147
01:40:47,960 --> 01:40:51,004
And then we did, I guess,
like a washing-machine car,
1148
01:40:51,088 --> 01:40:55,050
where we had cut the back and the front
off the car and put it on a spindle,
1149
01:40:55,133 --> 01:40:59,304
so that we could rotate it, then mounted
a camera to the vehicle itself,
1150
01:40:59,388 --> 01:41:02,558
and then rotated them and the camera.
1151
01:41:02,641 --> 01:41:06,728
And that's how you get the great tumbling
as they're crashing down the side.
1152
01:41:07,145 --> 01:41:09,648
So there was a lot of layers to it.
1153
01:43:36,795 --> 01:43:43,009
(Alex) We spent a lot of time looking for a
soap... somebody who could make it for us
1154
01:43:43,093 --> 01:43:46,805
and also teach Brad and Edward
the process of soap making.
1155
01:43:46,972 --> 01:43:51,393
And we found this lady
who sold soap in the farmers' market
1156
01:43:51,476 --> 01:43:54,855
who came in
and gave a little teaching course
1157
01:43:54,938 --> 01:43:59,943
of how to turn the liposuction into...
how to render fat.
1158
01:44:00,527 --> 01:44:05,657
And the color of the soap was supposed
to reflect the color of the liposuction.
1159
01:44:27,012 --> 01:44:29,765
(Michael) Throughout the movie,
1160
01:44:29,931 --> 01:44:32,684
Helena wears this makeup
that Julie Pearce,
1161
01:44:32,768 --> 01:44:34,186
the makeup artist on the film, found,
1162
01:44:34,269 --> 01:44:40,108
and it gives her skin
this incredible opalescent quality,
1163
01:44:40,400 --> 01:44:45,113
which... I don't know,
it almost seems like...
1164
01:44:45,197 --> 01:44:46,948
It's beautiful, but it almost seems like
1165
01:44:47,032 --> 01:44:50,118
she's in a cold sweat or something
the whole time.
1166
01:44:50,202 --> 01:44:56,208
It's almost like a drugged-like state.
1167
01:44:57,834 --> 01:45:02,214
She appears very Dresden
and vampire-like.
1168
01:45:41,920 --> 01:45:45,215
(Alex) The rolling ball
was a hell of a night shoot.
1169
01:45:45,298 --> 01:45:47,092
(laughter)
1170
01:45:47,884 --> 01:45:51,221
(Michael) People thought
that looked like the Geffen logo.
1171
01:45:51,304 --> 01:45:53,849
(Alex) I know. I'm surprised
we got away with it.
1172
01:45:53,932 --> 01:45:55,392
(laughs)
1173
01:45:58,436 --> 01:46:01,857
This was a fiberglass ball
that basically floated,
1174
01:46:01,940 --> 01:46:08,280
and had to appear to be
a 300-ton ball of brass.
1175
01:46:09,322 --> 01:46:14,911
(Jeff) We had tag lines of guys
guiding it down the fall.
1176
01:46:14,995 --> 01:46:17,831
(Alex) Right. Who had to be taken out.
1177
01:46:17,998 --> 01:46:21,710
And basically, it did hit the water
and float, so it was kind of a problem.
1178
01:46:21,793 --> 01:46:24,212
(Jeff) A challenging dilemma.
1179
01:46:24,296 --> 01:46:25,630
(laughter)
1180
01:46:27,173 --> 01:46:30,886
(Alex) And then we built a Starbucks-like
1181
01:46:30,969 --> 01:46:35,181
coffee bar for it to smash into.
1182
01:46:35,599 --> 01:46:38,226
(Jeff) There were several balls.
Two at least.
1183
01:46:38,310 --> 01:46:39,686
(Alex) Three.
1184
01:46:40,645 --> 01:46:41,605
They were fairly delicate.
1185
01:46:41,688 --> 01:46:45,442
When they went into the glass,
they got pretty scratched up.
1186
01:47:23,355 --> 01:47:28,068
(Jeff) I do think that you'd be a fool
not to acknowledge the technology
1187
01:47:28,151 --> 01:47:31,738
and know that ultimately
it's gonna be digital.
1188
01:47:32,030 --> 01:47:35,283
From one point of view, it's fantastic that
1189
01:47:35,367 --> 01:47:37,410
you could walk into
any theater in the country
1190
01:47:37,494 --> 01:47:40,580
and have a digital image
that's identical to the other.
1191
01:47:40,914 --> 01:47:45,251
For a cameraman, that's
one of the tragic things that happens.
1192
01:47:45,335 --> 01:47:49,172
You go from three theaters
on the same block, watching your movie,
1193
01:47:49,255 --> 01:47:52,592
and it will look three different ways.
1194
01:47:53,009 --> 01:47:56,721
Digitally, there's so much more control.
1195
01:47:56,846 --> 01:47:57,847
You'll be able to time
your picture digitally,
1196
01:47:59,766 --> 01:48:02,268
and they won't have to make
a thousand prints,
1197
01:48:02,352 --> 01:48:05,772
farm it out to some lab in Canada
or somewhere else
1198
01:48:05,855 --> 01:48:09,150
where it's gonna be inconsistent
and every roll changes colors,
1199
01:48:09,234 --> 01:48:12,904
and you won't have to have somebody
making roll changes at the wrong times.
1200
01:48:13,405 --> 01:48:15,949
I think it's fantastic. But at the same time,
1201
01:48:16,032 --> 01:48:20,996
I haven't yet seen digital
that gives you the same feeling of film.
1202
01:48:21,079 --> 01:48:26,126
But I know that it ultimately is coming.
And so I would embrace it and go with it.
1203
01:48:26,209 --> 01:48:28,670
I think it's wonderful.
1204
01:48:29,045 --> 01:48:32,799
(Alex) It may never be the same as film,
but it's gonna be.
1205
01:48:33,466 --> 01:48:35,969
So, as you say,
I think you have to embrace it.
1206
01:48:36,052 --> 01:48:39,764
(Jeff) But along with it, you need to learn
there's certain advantages to it.
1207
01:48:39,848 --> 01:48:43,351
You need to learn the technology,
and then you just run with that.
1208
01:48:43,435 --> 01:48:47,105
There's so many things that you can do
with it that you can't do with film.
1209
01:48:47,397 --> 01:48:51,234
As it is now, when you do
a commercial or a music video,
1210
01:48:51,317 --> 01:48:54,821
you don't make prints,
it's all transferred right off the negative.
1211
01:48:54,904 --> 01:48:58,283
So there's conscious choices
you make while you're shooting,
1212
01:48:58,366 --> 01:49:02,078
to leave things in shots,
to light with this color light,
1213
01:49:02,162 --> 01:49:04,748
knowing you'll do it differently
when you do the transfer.
1214
01:49:04,831 --> 01:49:09,627
So certainly, in a lot of aspects,
it's gonna make life easier.
1215
01:49:10,295 --> 01:49:13,465
I'm hoping to do enough pictures
and make enough money
1216
01:49:13,548 --> 01:49:16,718
so that when it replaces me,
I'll be all right.
1217
01:49:16,801 --> 01:49:18,178
(laughter)
1218
01:49:18,261 --> 01:49:22,390
When it's all done at a switch
and we don't need anybody up there.
1219
01:49:22,640 --> 01:49:25,560
I mean, as it gets more and more digital
1220
01:49:25,643 --> 01:49:27,645
there'll be more and more
motorized cameras.
1221
01:49:27,729 --> 01:49:30,231
I know that David
would love nothing more
1222
01:49:30,315 --> 01:49:33,568
than every shot to be motion-control, so...
1223
01:49:34,152 --> 01:49:36,071
(Alex) He'll need
somebody to program it.
1224
01:49:36,154 --> 01:49:38,406
(Jeff) I'll be a programer.
1225
01:49:39,949 --> 01:49:42,702
(Michael) When Fight Club
was at the film festival in Venice,
1226
01:49:43,161 --> 01:49:46,664
Fincher thought it would
make better use of his time
1227
01:49:46,748 --> 01:49:50,418
to go out every day with a digital camera
and just shoot Venice,
1228
01:49:50,502 --> 01:49:53,630
so that long after it sinks,
he could do a movie set there.
1229
01:49:53,797 --> 01:49:55,673
(laughter)
1230
01:50:54,357 --> 01:50:58,361
(Alex) One thing I love about shooting in LA
is you can still find locations
1231
01:50:58,444 --> 01:51:03,658
that people have never used before that
still look like anywhere else in the States.
1232
01:51:03,741 --> 01:51:06,119
I think David did
an incredible job with Se7en
1233
01:51:06,202 --> 01:51:10,623
just making it look like
anywhere, not like LA.
1234
01:51:10,707 --> 01:51:12,959
And I think it works again here.
1235
01:51:15,336 --> 01:51:19,465
(Jeff) There's very few clues
that would tell you where you are.
1236
01:51:49,162 --> 01:51:54,959
(Michael) What Helena is wearing here
is actually a girdle,
1237
01:51:55,543 --> 01:51:58,254
and the straps are garter belts.
1238
01:51:58,338 --> 01:52:03,426
You can see the little hook
that fastens onto the stockings.
1239
01:52:03,635 --> 01:52:07,639
I just inverted it
and had her kind of squeeze into it.
1240
01:52:07,972 --> 01:52:12,310
It just seemed like
something Marla would do.
1241
01:52:25,907 --> 01:52:27,784
This was something really off the wall,
1242
01:52:27,867 --> 01:52:33,414
Tyler wearing
a politically correct faux fur coat.
1243
01:52:33,665 --> 01:52:35,250
(laughter)
1244
01:52:36,709 --> 01:52:41,089
(Jeff) He definitely wears it
like nobody else could.
1245
01:52:46,344 --> 01:52:49,097
(Alex) We used the same set
for both hotel rooms.
1246
01:52:49,180 --> 01:52:53,559
It was kind of almost to make the point.
1247
01:52:53,977 --> 01:52:58,273
And we used the same
fabrics and wallpaper
1248
01:52:58,356 --> 01:53:01,859
in the airplanes as we did in the offices,
1249
01:53:02,235 --> 01:53:04,779
and in his apartment.
1250
01:53:04,862 --> 01:53:08,199
We tried as much as possible
to use the same textures
1251
01:53:08,283 --> 01:53:09,284
through all the corporate world,
1252
01:53:09,367 --> 01:53:12,954
so there was no difference if you were
sitting in an airplane or at home,
1253
01:53:13,037 --> 01:53:15,039
or sitting in the hotel.
1254
01:53:15,581 --> 01:53:17,709
It was all one big McDonald's world.
1255
01:54:05,173 --> 01:54:10,511
(Jeff) There are so many short sequences
that take place to tell this story.
1256
01:54:10,928 --> 01:54:12,680
It was a little bit of a precarious shot.
1257
01:54:12,764 --> 01:54:15,850
We had to get a crane
to the top of this building,
1258
01:54:16,100 --> 01:54:20,563
and rebuild the crane
in order to get it up there.
1259
01:54:20,646 --> 01:54:23,983
It was a building where
only one elevator was working, so it was...
1260
01:54:24,484 --> 01:54:28,905
(Alex) And there was no parapet
on the building, so it was...
1261
01:54:29,155 --> 01:54:33,409
It felt incredibly dangerous to scout it
and to have a whole crew up there.
1262
01:54:33,493 --> 01:54:35,536
Especially at night.
1263
01:54:35,620 --> 01:54:38,706
(Jeff) I had the fellas rappel,
and with the up
1264
01:54:38,790 --> 01:54:41,501
angle it was Edward looking over the side,
1265
01:54:41,584 --> 01:54:45,129
so he had to be all tethered off,
safety and so on.
1266
01:54:45,213 --> 01:54:49,175
You did have a feeling of nakedness,
'cause there was no parapet, no walls,
1267
01:54:49,258 --> 01:54:53,137
no kind of railings to hold on,
and the wind would pick up,
1268
01:54:53,221 --> 01:54:58,935
and you kind of felt yourself
gravitating towards the edges.
1269
01:54:59,227 --> 01:55:04,190
I have one comment. I'll set
the record straight for one thing here.
1270
01:55:04,273 --> 01:55:07,276
The sequence where Edward actually
1271
01:55:07,360 --> 01:55:09,821
comes to terms with Brad
in his hotel room,
1272
01:55:09,987 --> 01:55:14,700
in the traditional sense of photography,
and for those that are supercritical,
1273
01:55:14,784 --> 01:55:19,247
it's always a sin to have a double shadow,
to have two shadows of somebody.
1274
01:55:19,330 --> 01:55:23,126
And the scene always bothered me
because it does have two shadows.
1275
01:55:23,209 --> 01:55:26,587
But they're justified shadows.
So I'm setting the record straight.
1276
01:55:26,838 --> 01:55:29,966
He's next to a practical light source
casting one shadow,
1277
01:55:30,049 --> 01:55:33,511
and he has a window
that's casting the other.
1278
01:55:33,636 --> 01:55:37,765
It's justified that there's two shadows,
but it's bothered me from day one, so...
1279
01:55:37,849 --> 01:55:40,059
(Michael) Jeff, you fucked up.
Just face it like a man!
1280
01:55:40,143 --> 01:55:42,061
(laughter)
1281
01:55:42,270 --> 01:55:44,355
All right, well...
1282
01:55:44,439 --> 01:55:47,108
No, it's justified. It makes sense.
1283
01:55:57,452 --> 01:56:00,580
(Alex) This was the very first sequence
to sell the idea
1284
01:56:00,663 --> 01:56:05,042
that the space monkeys
had been making bombs in the basement,
1285
01:56:05,126 --> 01:56:07,670
and we did a lot of research.
1286
01:56:08,629 --> 01:56:12,300
We're probably all marked men on
the internet, the amount of anarchist sites
1287
01:56:12,383 --> 01:56:16,179
that we visited to get the background
on how to make bombs
1288
01:56:16,262 --> 01:56:19,599
and what the real equipment would be.
1289
01:56:30,109 --> 01:56:31,319
(Jeff) With all of David's movies,
1290
01:56:31,402 --> 01:56:35,448
there's so much information
loaded into each sequence
1291
01:56:35,531 --> 01:56:40,953
that, you know, even having been
part of every shot of the movie,
1292
01:56:41,037 --> 01:56:45,500
you go back, and when you watch it
a second, third time, you see things,
1293
01:56:45,583 --> 01:56:49,587
you appreciate things differently
or see things that you didn't realize
1294
01:56:49,837 --> 01:56:52,924
how they would come across onscreen.
1295
01:56:54,634 --> 01:56:57,803
(Alex) This is the first time I've seen
a film
1296
01:56:57,887 --> 01:57:01,015
in the rough cut and
felt like I had no part in it.
1297
01:57:01,098 --> 01:57:06,479
There were so many surprises,
so much that I hadn't seen in the process.
1298
01:57:06,854 --> 01:57:08,898
(Jeff) I agree.
1299
01:57:09,232 --> 01:57:11,400
(Alex) It's kind of great.
1300
01:57:13,694 --> 01:57:18,783
Almost all the time
when you work on a film,
1301
01:57:18,866 --> 01:57:21,369
you're so taken back to
what the situation was
1302
01:57:21,452 --> 01:57:24,288
while you worked on it, you can't watch it.
1303
01:57:25,748 --> 01:57:29,794
With Fight Club,
I think I never had that problem.
1304
01:57:53,317 --> 01:57:58,072
(Michael) It's funny how everybody talked
so much about the violence in this movie,
1305
01:57:58,155 --> 01:58:00,950
and nobody talked about how funny it is.
1306
01:58:01,033 --> 01:58:03,369
This is one of
the funniest movies I've ever seen.
1307
01:58:03,661 --> 01:58:05,997
(Alex) It's hilarious, yeah.
1308
01:58:07,206 --> 01:58:11,502
(Jeff) There is an element of violence
to the movie, but its title says Fight Club.
1309
01:58:11,586 --> 01:58:13,170
What did you expect? A picnic?
1310
01:58:13,254 --> 01:58:19,176
It's like you go into it knowing that there
is gonna be an element of violence to it.
1311
01:58:19,260 --> 01:58:22,263
But it's no more violent
than 90% of the movies that you see,
1312
01:58:22,346 --> 01:58:27,435
and there's only one killing in the whole
movie, and it's done by a police officer.
1313
01:58:27,852 --> 01:58:29,937
I have a 2½-year-old at home,
1314
01:58:30,021 --> 01:58:33,441
and I watched Antz for the first time
about three weeks ago.
1315
01:58:33,524 --> 01:58:37,278
There's a sequence
where they're decimating these termites,
1316
01:58:37,361 --> 01:58:41,782
and the termites are whacking ants in half
and limbs are flying across the screen,
1317
01:58:41,866 --> 01:58:43,451
ants are being decapitated.
1318
01:58:43,534 --> 01:58:46,996
And I don't recall anybody
talking about the violence of Antz.
1319
01:58:47,371 --> 01:58:49,707
So it's odd to me.
1320
01:58:52,001 --> 01:58:55,129
This movie's certainly funnier
than when I read the script,
1321
01:58:55,212 --> 01:58:56,797
what I thought it would be.
1322
01:58:57,089 --> 01:59:00,259
(Alex) Yeah.
(Michael) It's a lot funnier than Antz.
1323
01:59:00,384 --> 01:59:01,469
(laughter)
1324
01:59:01,552 --> 01:59:04,221
(Jeff) It's funnier than Antz.
1325
01:59:46,347 --> 01:59:53,229
(Alex) These simple shots in the location
street are always very elaborate to set up.
1326
01:59:53,562 --> 01:59:55,648
Signage becomes
more and more of an issue
1327
01:59:55,731 --> 01:59:57,525
these days with what
you can and can't show,
1328
01:59:57,608 --> 02:00:03,364
and we spent two or three days here
replacing signage, putting...
1329
02:00:03,781 --> 02:00:09,286
Each of the film marquees
has a film that is...
1330
02:00:10,037 --> 02:00:15,710
The lead actor in each of the films
is either Helena, Brad or Edward.
1331
02:00:16,419 --> 02:00:21,757
I think that's... Seven Years In Tibet
is there. And back there is...
1332
02:00:21,841 --> 02:00:24,135
(Jeff) Larry Flynt?
(Alex) Exactly.
1333
02:00:24,218 --> 02:00:27,304
(Michael) And across the street is Wings.
1334
02:00:27,388 --> 02:00:33,394
Three marquees that could be seen from
the front stairs of the apartment building.
1335
02:00:33,477 --> 02:00:36,439
- Or is that the... cafeteria?
- (Alex) It's the cafeteria.
1336
02:00:49,160 --> 02:00:53,748
I've always felt that
this film's like a mirror.
1337
02:00:53,831 --> 02:00:57,835
I mean, the idea that it seems to be
1338
02:00:57,918 --> 02:01:01,255
the perfect end-of-the-'90s film
1339
02:01:01,338 --> 02:01:05,760
in the way it reflects society, and I think
that's really what David captured so well,
1340
02:01:05,843 --> 02:01:09,805
and what the book originally
captured so well, just the sense of...
1341
02:01:10,097 --> 02:01:15,728
sort of ennui and frustration,
1342
02:01:15,936 --> 02:01:18,814
when you're on this road where,
you know,
1343
02:01:18,898 --> 02:01:21,358
there's nothing really wrong with buying...
1344
02:01:21,442 --> 02:01:23,861
everyone buys identical clothes
from The Gap.
1345
02:01:23,944 --> 02:01:25,863
There's nothing really wrong
with Starbucks coffee,
1346
02:01:25,946 --> 02:01:29,700
but it's just like we're on this roll,
1347
02:01:30,201 --> 02:01:32,369
sort of unstoppable.
1348
02:01:43,130 --> 02:01:48,803
I just want to say, that interrogation room
is my favorite set in the movie.
1349
02:01:48,886 --> 02:01:54,517
It's the perfect expression
of what the Jack world is.
1350
02:01:55,226 --> 02:01:58,854
It's kind of a combination
of textures and reflection
1351
02:01:58,938 --> 02:02:05,027
and bad wood paneling,
this kind of rush matting wallpaper.
1352
02:02:05,486 --> 02:02:08,364
And we set it up not as an interrogation...
1353
02:02:08,447 --> 02:02:12,201
It was like they used one of
the teaching rooms in the police station
1354
02:02:12,284 --> 02:02:15,704
as an interrogation room,
so it's got blackboards and TVs,
1355
02:02:15,788 --> 02:02:21,335
and it's there
to teach the police how to do their job.
1356
02:04:10,986 --> 02:04:16,033
(Jeff) We did a ramping as Edward's
running from his interrogation.
1357
02:04:18,077 --> 02:04:21,789
We had a sequence where he comes down
an alleyway between buildings,
1358
02:04:21,872 --> 02:04:25,834
which we actually shot
on the backlot at Fox,
1359
02:04:26,001 --> 02:04:31,674
and we did a speed change,
a ramp change, from 24 to 120 frames,
1360
02:04:31,757 --> 02:04:37,638
which is another reason why it would've
been difficult, a lot more complex shot.
1361
02:04:37,721 --> 02:04:41,433
In anamorphics, we simply
wouldn't have had this exposure to do that
1362
02:04:41,517 --> 02:04:43,936
with the available lights
and without lighting
1363
02:04:44,019 --> 02:04:46,563
the buildings in the background deeply.
1364
02:04:46,647 --> 02:04:51,402
But an interesting dilemma happened
which we were aware of.
1365
02:04:51,568 --> 02:04:53,195
Whenever you're doing a ramp,
1366
02:04:53,278 --> 02:04:57,074
you're out of sync with
any kind of crystal light sources,
1367
02:04:57,157 --> 02:05:02,705
meaning any kind of HMI or mercury
vapor or sodium vapor lights,
1368
02:05:02,788 --> 02:05:06,917
which all those buildings have, that are
all placed on the buildings naturally.
1369
02:05:07,001 --> 02:05:09,044
So in the speed change,
1370
02:05:09,128 --> 02:05:12,131
we actually got a rather aggravating pulse
1371
02:05:12,214 --> 02:05:14,717
coming off the parking structure
to the left.
1372
02:05:14,800 --> 02:05:20,014
And you'd have to ask Kevin
exactly how they technically removed it,
1373
02:05:20,097 --> 02:05:23,183
but they isolated the flicker
and removed it
1374
02:05:23,267 --> 02:05:27,062
with some kind of noise control
or something, and you don't see it.
1375
02:05:27,438 --> 02:05:29,523
Another example of the digital world
1376
02:05:29,606 --> 02:05:33,444
crossing over into ours,
and actually saving us.
1377
02:05:35,904 --> 02:05:41,910
(Michael) I love what Tyler's wearing here.
He's wearing once again the faux fur coat.
1378
02:05:42,202 --> 02:05:47,207
He's wearing a tank top with porno stars,
1379
02:05:47,291 --> 02:05:49,668
female porno stars, all over it.
1380
02:05:49,752 --> 02:05:52,504
I saw the fabric in a shop, and I ordered it,
1381
02:05:52,588 --> 02:05:55,466
and we made the tank tops.
Postal worker pants,
1382
02:05:57,134 --> 02:05:59,553
and some patent leather Gucci shoes
1383
02:05:59,636 --> 02:06:03,223
that I found in a junk store
in Palm Springs.
1384
02:06:56,068 --> 02:07:01,865
A lot of the advertising, though,
a lot of things are obliterated.
1385
02:07:02,407 --> 02:07:04,159
(Alex) I don't think
anyone realizes how hard it is
1386
02:07:04,243 --> 02:07:07,371
to make a film that has a script like this
1387
02:07:07,454 --> 02:07:11,291
that nobody will allow you
to show their product on.
1388
02:07:11,583 --> 02:07:15,254
And you have to remove advertising
everywhere you go.
1389
02:07:15,337 --> 02:07:18,215
(Jeff) I'm surprised
we got away with what we did.
1390
02:07:18,382 --> 02:07:22,344
(Michael) I was amazed that Starbucks
let us use their product,
1391
02:07:22,427 --> 02:07:29,184
although when we were having the ball
go through the coffee-shop window,
1392
02:07:29,268 --> 02:07:30,936
we couldn't use it there.
1393
02:07:31,019 --> 02:07:34,189
(Alex) You're allowed to use it
for somebody drinking coffee.
1394
02:07:34,273 --> 02:07:38,652
But I think they were
actually thinking about letting us do it,
1395
02:07:38,735 --> 02:07:41,321
but somebody had been shot
in a Starbucks last year
1396
02:07:41,405 --> 02:07:44,408
and they thought
the connotation was too close.
1397
02:09:20,629 --> 02:09:25,425
We built a fake set of stair treads
for that shot,
1398
02:09:25,509 --> 02:09:27,844
rubber treads all the way down.
1399
02:09:28,762 --> 02:09:34,601
(Jeff) It was the night before Thanksgiving
and... I can't remember exactly,
1400
02:09:34,685 --> 02:09:37,896
but it was between seven
and 11 times that he got tossed,
1401
02:09:39,564 --> 02:09:44,945
and I believe the last time Brad
tossed him, Brad, not being a stunt man,
1402
02:09:45,028 --> 02:09:48,532
didn't know how much energy to exert
and actually threw him
1403
02:09:48,615 --> 02:09:50,117
a good part of the way down the stairs.
1404
02:09:50,200 --> 02:09:53,078
And each time the guy did it,
you could see
1405
02:09:53,161 --> 02:09:55,956
the welts swelling on his legs and arms.
1406
02:09:56,039 --> 02:09:59,084
Stunt men are so macho,
they'll never tell you that they're hurt.
1407
02:09:59,167 --> 02:10:03,213
But he probably
spent Thanksgiving in traction.
1408
02:10:08,385 --> 02:10:12,973
(Alex) This set's built on a 10ft platform,
1409
02:10:13,473 --> 02:10:19,771
so you could get close to the windows and
still have the translight going out of frame.
1410
02:10:20,022 --> 02:10:24,568
It's a combination of buildings
from downtown LA and Century City,
1411
02:10:24,901 --> 02:10:27,321
put together in a different relationship.
1412
02:10:27,404 --> 02:10:31,742
But you actually have the Century City
Twin Towers and the Fox building in there.
1413
02:10:32,159 --> 02:10:37,289
(Jeff) This is a sequence where we used
more light than I've ever used in my life,
1414
02:10:37,372 --> 02:10:40,876
lighting this translight. We had 148
of these Skypans I told you about
1415
02:10:40,959 --> 02:10:45,005
with different globes for
the two partitions of the translight,
1416
02:10:45,088 --> 02:10:47,007
some 2K and some 5K globes,
1417
02:10:47,090 --> 02:10:51,470
and 18 wall lights across the ceiling
1418
02:10:51,553 --> 02:10:54,931
to give us a slightly cool,
moonlit ambience
1419
02:10:55,015 --> 02:10:59,269
to help separate Edward
from the background.
1420
02:10:59,478 --> 02:11:03,774
We had about eight wall lights
on the ground
1421
02:11:03,857 --> 02:11:07,527
with a slightly CTO correction on
1422
02:11:07,611 --> 02:11:11,114
to give you the sodium vapor light
you had in the streets,
1423
02:11:11,281 --> 02:11:14,826
that warmish orange light
that you saw earlier.
1424
02:11:15,118 --> 02:11:19,831
And then the rest of it was just these, like,
the Home Depot version of work lights
1425
02:11:19,915 --> 02:11:22,209
that we placed around the set.
1426
02:11:22,292 --> 02:11:27,172
And then part of our strategy to balancing
out the color differences of the translight
1427
02:11:27,255 --> 02:11:29,383
was to put a mild correction
into the camera.
1428
02:11:29,466 --> 02:11:34,471
And in doing so, I then had to gel all of
the little Home Depot lights to match,
1429
02:11:34,554 --> 02:11:37,849
and then gel the wall lights
that were the moonlight to match.
1430
02:11:37,933 --> 02:11:43,814
Everything offset something else, and it
was this wacky formula that we survived.
1431
02:11:48,151 --> 02:11:54,324
(Alex) The translight for the beginning
and end sequence in the office buildings
1432
02:11:54,449 --> 02:11:55,909
was a very elaborate process.
1433
02:11:55,992 --> 02:12:02,541
We had to photograph
and make a matte painting
1434
02:12:02,624 --> 02:12:04,793
and make a translight,
1435
02:12:04,876 --> 02:12:09,840
probably six months before
the final visual effects shot was finished,
1436
02:12:09,923 --> 02:12:12,968
where the buildings fall.
1437
02:12:14,344 --> 02:12:16,888
And all our buildings
had to line up exactly with the three-D,
1438
02:12:16,972 --> 02:12:21,643
so David had the three-D artist work
1439
02:12:21,726 --> 02:12:24,438
in collaboration with a stills photographer,
1440
02:12:25,230 --> 02:12:29,484
and build the view of the city
as it was going to be in three-D,
1441
02:12:29,568 --> 02:12:35,282
and then did some really fast pre-vis tests
of how the city would fall,
1442
02:12:35,365 --> 02:12:39,411
so you were clear which buildings would
be revealed by the buildings that fell down.
1443
02:12:39,619 --> 02:12:44,124
And once that was locked, we also did a
test of the camera moves within that set,
1444
02:12:44,207 --> 02:12:48,003
so we knew exactly which part of the
translight we'd see and were able to test
1445
02:12:48,253 --> 02:12:52,716
whether it would stand up realistically
and what the lighting was gonna be,
1446
02:12:53,175 --> 02:12:55,051
what the frame was gonna be
at the widest,
1447
02:12:55,135 --> 02:12:58,180
then went forward
with building a translight.
1448
02:12:58,513 --> 02:13:03,768
- Then literally had to cut with the three-D.
- (Jeff) So you had to commit fairly early
1449
02:13:03,852 --> 02:13:07,939
to the amount of time it took to build
the translight and allow us to test it.
1450
02:13:08,023 --> 02:13:13,653
And then Doc started very soon after that
to start composing the CG work.
1451
02:13:13,737 --> 02:13:16,823
(Alex) Side by side.
(Jeff) It was quite a long process.
1452
02:13:17,115 --> 02:13:21,369
(Alex) But that was fairly unique, 'cause
the translight was almost completed.
1453
02:13:21,453 --> 02:13:23,788
It was a digital image,
which is tough anyway,
1454
02:13:23,872 --> 02:13:25,415
because you have problems with matte.
1455
02:13:25,499 --> 02:13:30,295
There were ten different composite
buildings, I think, in that shot,
1456
02:13:30,879 --> 02:13:33,673
so that the lighting
had to match on all of them.
1457
02:13:33,757 --> 02:13:36,927
And there was elaborate work
in the matte painting.
1458
02:13:37,010 --> 02:13:43,934
It was two translights, actually, but
totally a 40ft by 120ft backlit photograph.
1459
02:13:44,309 --> 02:13:48,980
And we placed one of the translights
a few feet in front of the other
1460
02:13:49,064 --> 02:13:54,319
so there was a parallax shift as the camera
moved in the environment also.
1461
02:13:54,611 --> 02:13:57,948
(Jeff) Create an element of depth,
and three-D imagery to it.
1462
02:13:58,031 --> 02:14:02,369
(Alex) With a translight, you never
have nothing between the camera and it.
1463
02:14:02,452 --> 02:14:05,080
Of course, we had just glass windows,
1464
02:14:05,163 --> 02:14:08,708
no way of really hiding
the usual problems with translights.
1465
02:14:08,792 --> 02:14:12,379
So we did what we could
to try and give that layer of reality.
1466
02:14:12,462 --> 02:14:15,757
(Jeff) We had a bobbinet manufactured
1467
02:14:16,007 --> 02:14:20,136
that covered in between
the windows and the translight
1468
02:14:20,220 --> 02:14:26,643
to add an element of diffusion and to kind
of soften the hard edges of the translight.
1469
02:14:26,810 --> 02:14:29,896
Because the translight
was two pieces and was so long,
1470
02:14:29,980 --> 02:14:36,945
and we only could find a German company
that could manufacture one that large,
1471
02:14:37,028 --> 02:14:40,115
120ft by 40ft without seams.
1472
02:14:40,615 --> 02:14:45,620
So it was a little bit of an elaborate setup.
1473
02:14:46,663 --> 02:14:51,793
It took such a long time
to manufacture this translight,
1474
02:14:51,876 --> 02:14:56,590
and the way the schedule worked out,
it was only fully installed and lit
1475
02:14:56,673 --> 02:15:00,677
two days before we were actually
gonna shoot our first sequence in there.
1476
02:15:00,760 --> 02:15:07,142
And so we had our gaffer go down
and shoot a test shot of the translight
1477
02:15:07,225 --> 02:15:10,604
whilst we were still shooting
other sequences.
1478
02:15:10,687 --> 02:15:16,109
All along the process we had gotten strips
of various pieces of the building.
1479
02:15:16,192 --> 02:15:19,154
What were they?
Six-inch by four-foot strips
1480
02:15:19,237 --> 02:15:23,783
that we constantly lit and checked color
and shot tests of segments of it,
1481
02:15:23,867 --> 02:15:26,453
as it changed colors
and changed densities,
1482
02:15:26,536 --> 02:15:30,081
in order to get the look that we wanted.
1483
02:15:31,041 --> 02:15:34,377
Once it arrived,
the day before we were gonna shoot
1484
02:15:34,461 --> 02:15:37,964
we got to see our test projected back,
1485
02:15:38,048 --> 02:15:43,219
and the two pieces that gave us
the dimension
1486
02:15:43,303 --> 02:15:46,723
were vastly different in density and color
between each other.
1487
02:15:47,015 --> 02:15:49,726
And now we have one night, basically,
1488
02:15:49,809 --> 02:15:53,563
to remedy a dilemma
that's 120ft across and 40ft high.
1489
02:15:55,398 --> 02:15:57,233
It was an interesting approach.
1490
02:15:57,317 --> 02:16:00,945
And we more or less had to do
some simple calculations
1491
02:16:01,029 --> 02:16:03,990
and hope that those worked out on paper,
1492
02:16:04,074 --> 02:16:06,618
'cause we wouldn't have
another chance to test it
1493
02:16:06,701 --> 02:16:08,953
before the day's shooting happened,
1494
02:16:09,037 --> 02:16:11,331
and so overnight we had
a rigging crew come in.
1495
02:16:11,414 --> 02:16:17,921
They changed out, I think, some 80
Skypan lights to different globe densities
1496
02:16:18,004 --> 02:16:21,675
to bring up the exposure on one side
and knock it down on the other,
1497
02:16:21,758 --> 02:16:27,305
and then we added correction gels
to one complete translight.
1498
02:16:27,764 --> 02:16:29,766
Which is an enormous translight to do,
1499
02:16:29,849 --> 02:16:33,561
and fortunately, the next day,
it all worked out well.
1500
02:16:33,645 --> 02:16:39,484
- But... tense moments for a while there.
- (Alex) It's one of the interesting...
1501
02:16:39,567 --> 02:16:44,698
It sort of represents... The cuts
between digital and film actually translate,
1502
02:16:44,781 --> 02:16:49,160
because right now they're at the point
where your original material
1503
02:16:49,244 --> 02:16:51,287
is generally being created digitally.
1504
02:16:51,454 --> 02:16:54,666
But as much as
you can color-control the digital image,
1505
02:16:54,958 --> 02:16:59,587
it doesn't translate into film,
though that wasn't exactly the issue.
1506
02:16:59,796 --> 02:17:02,424
Trying to get accurate color
between digital
1507
02:17:02,507 --> 02:17:05,635
and film in that kind of physical sense
1508
02:17:05,719 --> 02:17:07,721
is really quite hard.
1509
02:17:19,649 --> 02:17:22,068
I think it's great to be able
to work on a film
1510
02:17:22,152 --> 02:17:28,158
that has a sense of really reflecting
its historical moment.
1511
02:17:28,533 --> 02:17:32,996
And ultimately what has been most
satisfying to me about working on this film
1512
02:17:33,079 --> 02:17:40,003
was just being able to immerse yourself
in something that seems kind of accurate.
1513
02:17:40,336 --> 02:17:46,384
And I think probably it won't be perceived
as such immediately by a lot of people.
1514
02:17:46,468 --> 02:17:51,890
But in reflection, I think that we were able
to really capture a moment in time.
1515
02:17:51,973 --> 02:17:54,225
Those have always been
my favorite films to watch,
1516
02:17:54,309 --> 02:17:58,688
so it's very satisfying to have a chance
to work on something like this.
1517
02:17:58,897 --> 02:18:05,028
(Jeff) If rap represents
a certain time capsule of the '90s,
1518
02:18:05,111 --> 02:18:09,365
then this movie visually
certainly captures it.
1519
02:18:10,533 --> 02:18:17,290
(Michael) I just love the idea of having
worked on a film that I wanna go see.
1520
02:18:17,707 --> 02:18:19,292
It's kind of rare.
1521
02:18:19,417 --> 02:18:22,837
(Alex) And a film that almost
all the work you do makes it onto screen,
1522
02:18:22,921 --> 02:18:24,964
which is also kind of rare.
1523
02:18:25,215 --> 02:18:30,220
I don't think there was a set that we built
that didn't make it on film.
1524
02:18:30,595 --> 02:18:35,433
(Jeff) Plus it's nice to know that
the effort that it takes to make a picture,
1525
02:18:35,767 --> 02:18:40,688
that someone... that the director
has the same integrity and keeps it there,
1526
02:18:40,772 --> 02:18:43,900
and it all shows onscreen.
1527
02:18:43,983 --> 02:18:46,653
It's such a pleasure
to work with somebody
1528
02:18:46,736 --> 02:18:50,156
that has that much knowledge
and applies it,
1529
02:18:50,657 --> 02:18:55,119
and uses you to the best of your capacity,
1530
02:18:55,203 --> 02:18:57,872
which I think he certainly did
with all of us.
1531
02:18:57,956 --> 02:19:03,586
(Alex) Yeah, Fincher pushes everybody
to make their best work. It's great.
1532
02:19:03,753 --> 02:19:05,004
(Jeff) But in the end, it shows.
1533
02:19:05,088 --> 02:19:06,089
English - US - SDH
1533
02:19:07,305 --> 02:20:07,845
Please rate this subtitle at www.osdb.link/88cmp
Help other users to choose the best subtitles