![]() Khondji adopted this style of using extremely long focal lengths, shooting from far away off an operated fluid head. From early on Khondji made it clear that he wanted to help the Safdies make their movie, rather than imposing his own visual preferences. This allowed him to track the actions of the actors from a far off, voyeuristic point of view. ![]() Heaven Knows What used extremely long, old school wildlife lenses and sometimes shot two whole blocks away from the actors. As the lenses were too large and cumbersome to be able to operate efficiently handheld, Sean Price Williams operated the camera off a fluid head tripod. This time they teamed up with cinematographer Darius Khondji. They borrowed from the visual approach which they had formed with DP Sean Price Williams on prior films such as Heaven Knows What, whose characters were literal addicts with some of the same impulsive, chaotic decision making traits as Ratner. So, how did they use cinematography to represent manic, addictive tension visually? So while a large part of the energy of the film came from casting and performance, another component of it came from the film’s visual style. They used that same spontaneous, realistic energy that comes from improv but structured it through the written scenes in the script. While they did embrace a certain amount of improvisation during production, they noted that improv was a means but not an end. All these people were trying to meet Adam Sandler but here he shows up as Howard and he’s trying to give them enough Sandler so that they’re, like, OK with it but he’s really just trying to open up their personalities so he can feast on them.” We had this viewing room at a sports bar and we filled it with these degenerate gamblers, some real life bookees who we were actually trying to convince to be in the movie still and there was a Celtics game on. It was kind of exciting that all of a sudden he just put on these clothes, put on the teeth and he just clicked. ![]() “It wasn’t all there but it was pretty close. To get a sense of Howard Ratner before production began the Safdies conducted camera tests. They later cast Jonah Hill as the lead, and attempted to age down the character, with A24 set to distribute. The Safdies cultivate this sense of amped up realism in their films through a combination of casting actors with star power alongside first-time actors.Īfter almost ten years, Sandler saw Good Time, got hold of the script in 2018 and agreed to come on board to star, replacing Hill. In 2016 they managed to secure funding for the project from Elara Pictures and RT Features. Josh and Benny initially pitched the script to Adam Sandler’s manager in 2009, who rejected it before Sandler got a chance to read it. Keeping audiences in maximum suspense without losing them due to implausibility. Their other films, such as Heaven Knows What and Good Time, also prioritised a similar chaotic realism which was built around characters more on the extreme side.These movies push right to the limit of what is realistic. It’s a style of filmmaking which they’d spent years cultivating. In the ten years which it took the Safdies and fellow co-writer Ronald Bronstein to develop and write the script, this goal of complete and utter immersion remained at the film’s centre. It adds to the plausibility of, no, this is actually happening in front of me.” That there was no script at all because that adds to the tension. “The goal was to make it seem like it was unspooling in front of you. In this video I’ll break down how they used this subject approach to directing to create a chaotically tense, amped up, social realist thriller which visually represents the manic, addictive behaviour of its lead: Howard Ratner. The Safdies use the camera to create cinematic worlds in this subjective style. Warping the viewer’s emotional perspective into that of the fictional people represented on screen. On the other hand, directors who frame their stories subjectively use the camera to manipulate the audience into getting entangled in the minds of the characters. Hirokazu Kore-Eda is a great example of a director who likes to maintain a wider, objective point of view on social realist stories. There are two ways to present a story: objectively or subjectively.ĭirectors who frame their stories through an objective lens use the camera to create an emotional distance from the characters so that the onus of how the film is interpreted is placed solely on the audience.
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