The Cinematography Podcast Episode 118: Dariusz Wolski
Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski prefers to take a realistic, documentary approach to most of the movies he shoots. His latest film, the western News of the World, is primarily shot outside using natural light, in a style Dariusz likes to call “well-observed” documentary. As with many of director Paul Greengrass’s films, News of the World relies on a Steadicam and hand-held cameras to give it a more realistic and intimate feel. Daruisz watched a few Westerns to get ideas for his approach to News of the World, such as The Searchers and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Dariusz got his start after film school shooting music videos back in the 1980’s and 90’s, such as Suzanne Vega’s “My Name is Luka.” One of his influences was the late cinematographer Harris Sevides, whose approach to music videos for Madonna and R.E.M. was softer and more cinematic. Daruisz and several future icons of cinema were all working on music videos at the time, and he worked with directors David Fincher, Alex Proyas and Gore Verbinski. They all wanted to make movies and were just making music videos to stay employed. As trained filmmakers, Dariusz feels they elevated the music video to an art, bringing a film sensibility to it with longer shots and cinematic lighting.
Though Daruisz found it hard to break into film at first, his work on music videos and commercials eventually got him there. Director Alex Proyas hired Dariusz as director of photography for the films Romeo is Bleeding, The Crow, and Dark City. The two used a dark and gritty music video aesthetic for shooting 1994’s The Crow. Tragically, star Brandon Lee was killed by a faulty blank bullet during filming and the movie was finished without him, using early face replacement digital technology. For Dark City, Dariusz’s next film with Proyas, he was influenced by films such as Metropolis and German expressionist art. He used sodium vapor lights on the set, which created a very orange and surreal glow. To add to the sickly green colors in the film, they decided not to use the correct fluorescent tubes in the automat scenes, or color correct the result.
Dariusz went on to work with director Gore Verbinski on The Mexican and Pirates of the Caribbean. At the time, Pirates was anything but a sure thing. It was up against the biggest stigma in Hollywood- every pirate movie that had been made up until that point was a huge flop. Plus, the character Captain Jack Sparrow was a complete antihero, and though Johnny Depp was a known actor, he wasn’t yet a huge movie star. After shooting several Pirates movies, Dariusz went on to work with Tim Burton on Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland, then with Ridley Scott on Prometheus , The Martian, and Raised By Wolves, all science fiction movies or series that are heavy on special effects. For Dariusz, even if a film is science fiction, it needs to feel as though it is grounded in its own reality, so it was important to be in constant communication with the VFX supervisor to figure out how they would collaborate on set.
News of the World is playing in some theaters and is available to stream on VOD.
Find Dariusz Wolski: @dariusz_wolski_official
Close Focus: The Academy Awards may not air in China, as the country is angry over the nomination of the short documentary film “Do Not Split,” about Hong Kong’s protests against China in 2019. Additionally, Nomadland director Chloe Zhao made statements critical of China, where she was born, several years ago in two different publications. Her statements have since been removed from the magazines’ websites. Nomadland has not played in China, and her next project, Marvel’s The Eternals, would suffer if China’s government censors choose to block it from showing in the country.
Illya’s short end: Panasonic will have a raw recording format available in some of their cameras, such as the Lumix S1H and the Lumix BGH1 with the Braw format recorders by Black Magic. Also, the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro is pretty incredible for its price. You can buy them all at Hot Rod Cameras.
Ben’s short end: The YouTube channel Video Revealed with Colin Smith, which features mostly Premiere or Adobe-centric editing tips and tricks.
Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras
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Podcast Credits:
Editor in Chief: Illya Friedman@hotrodcameras
Instagram: @illyafriedman @hotrodcameras
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Producer: Alana Kode
Editor: Ben Katz
Composer: Kays Al-Atrakchi
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