Original subtitles

Hi, my name is Robbie Baumgartner. I was the director of photography on The

Guest.

My partnership with Adam in conjunction with Tom Hammack, the production

designer, Keith and Jess, who are very active, creative producers and, I think,

visionaries, the process started immediately.

into shaping the look and the feel and the vibe and the rules of how

we shot the guest.

And each of those key components.

You just have to vibe, and we did. I love Tom Hammock. He made, out of very,

very little funds, really, really incredible sets to shoot.

To talk about the process more, you know, we started looking at movies.

Adam was a huge fan of Carpenter, you know, and Halloween and the classic

films.

And through this process of working with this whole team who had done a lot of

these films, types of films, and very good ones, from there we just, okay,

is the look we're going for, and we set up rules.

Like okay, we only move the camera if we're moving the camera we move it with

purpose You don't just do it for a flashy shot.

You think I can correct?

I don't care But that's why she wanted me to check out that plastic surgeon in

Florida. She wanted to know what the connection was there. Yeah, I mean Why

would I need a plastic sergeant, right? You want to change your appearance?

Like the bones on your face And the scarped your fingers so they don't have

prints

I mean, at least that's what I figured.

You know, we talked about portions of the film being very highly stylized. My

working relationship with Adam, you know, we talked a lot about, again,

Carpenter's films and other films that he thought he sort of wanted to pay

homage to and use them in a way that's not derivative.

but honoring a certain feel and a look at a time that was a great period of

cinematic history. He's incredibly knowledgeable about films and cinema,

has a clear vision, and I just tapped into that and rolled with him, and

it's been an amazing relationship, one of the great relationships I've had with

a director in my career.

My intent is to always start off with naturalism, and then you build in

surreal, stylized moments with lighting and framing and camera movement.

And this film had great visual components already, already built into

script.

And Adam is just incredibly innovative.

And, you know, I was there for the ride, and it was a great ride.

There's a scene...

I think it's in the first act. I think it ends the first act, I want to say.

David has gone into Chris Harding, who's a

co -producer and producer with Keith Child, played the son that died. And you

see his photo on the mantle, and it's Keith and Jess's partners.

and uh and and david's sitting on the on the bed and there's like a shot we were

just like we came around dollied and then just found him and then the music

comes on

adam

was just had all and you play the music on set you know it's like

There's a bookend move later in the film, and I think they're in almost the

position, but outside of the house, and it's like right before the mayhem. And

she goes into bed, and she realizes that this guy is trouble.

And then we dolly outside the house and we find him sitting, you know, sitting

on the edge of the bed and then it's just like this zoom in, you know. It's

of the few times we use the zoom.

Haunted by yourself.

Haunted by yourself.

And that was paying homage to...

the horror genre films of the 80s.

But you used those in those particular moments. We didn't gratuitously use

like that so that they were impactful.

And those were like rules we set up.

Don't just move the camera for the sake of moving the camera.

Everything has intent.

We had a lot of outside, exterior, and interior locations.

And we were shooting in a small town in

the burbs of the burbs of Albuquerque.

And New Mexico is beautiful.

And the light is beautiful.

The natural, what nature gives you out there is sensational.

And there was nothing.

i think scripted that called for using nothing but natural light outside

and that is my first uh instinct and especially if you're in some place that

incredibly beautiful you'd shoot time of day for whatever you needed i tried not

to light at all bounces may be negative if you're losing the light you start

introducing lights just to maintain a balance but uh i'm pretty good at

determining time of day for things.

And what I do as a cinematographer is really time management.

The clock is running when you come in.

And how I do is how the day goes.

Because I have to figure out the director's vision for that day and

distill it, disseminate it. And how that functions determines how well the day

goes. And I'm very good at the timing of doing stuff.

So for instance, there's a scene.

from the beginning of the film of David running, and it starts off on his boots.

We shot that with absolutely zero lighting at the absolute perfect time in

morning, in dawn, and shot that whole scene of him running in probably 30

minutes. Various tracking, pulling, pushing, inserts, head, over the back,

everything. And I think we shot it over various days.

maybe i think two days two dawns we went back and shot uh to complete that uh

you know almost all the way up to the house and then there's another scene uh

where uh um it's a it's a it's a sunset scene the house that location we picked

had like a perfect westerly facing direction on a hilltop

with like incredible natural vista and and perfect for sunset shots that

driveway

And we hopped out there again and got a crane shot, two dolly shots, I don't

know how many, maybe three or four setups, all within like 20 minutes.

You know, because that light is, you can't slow it down. The earth keeps

spinning.

But you shoot it at the right time and you don't need to do anything.

And I think there's a few scenes where we shot dusk for night.

You know, you just shoot bright.

You start shooting a little early, and it's too bright, and you shoot when it's

too late and the light's gone, and somewhere in that 30 minutes, there's

And we did that quite a bit. The difference, you know, now going into

scenes and dealing with them, obviously, you know, you can't always rely on the

natural light, and you have to mimic it. But in all the scenes before it...

sort of became mayhem and you might amp up the look or or or or feel a little

more uh distinct lighting you know i approach the interior uh with the same

zeal for naturalism uh as the exteriors at first see what's there and what the

set what tom hammock has brought practicals window shades color and then

off of what is naturally there Or create sunlight where you don't have sunlight.

That's very easy to do with film lights.

But I always approached it from a naturalistic point of view. And again,

little can I go with that make the impact and the look that we want?

scene, for instance, there's a scene with Micah that she comes home after

having this sort of very charming exchange with David.

It's in the hallway of the house we shot in, and Micah comes around, knocks on

the door.

Luke, I need to take a shower. And he wants to go into the bathroom.

Luke! And David opens the door, and we had a steamer in there.

You know, I had it backlit from, you know, so he was, like, backlit, and when

stepped out, he looked like a god.

I thought Luke was in there.

Sweaty, you know, he must have done 60 push -ups every time before like we roll

and you know We wanted this to be you know, like hot

Oozing oozing sexuality and you know required the

lighting, you know in the hallway I was very tight. So, you know, I had to have

been innovative ways of creating the sort of beauty lighting in a natural

and that's a lot of fun, you know done well

It doesn't look lit, but it carries all of the message that you want.

On the guest, Adam and I discussed, you know, lenses and camera, and I'm a

very big fan of the Arri Alexa, and I think at the time it was the best camera

out on the market for digital, and I have a very good relationship with

Panavision.

and loved their optics and their glass.

And we ended up shooting on an Alexa, I think it was 2K ProRes

444.

And it was for theatrical release.

And 2K, they don't go higher than 2K, so why worry about it? And it has such a

beautiful look.

Since transitioning from film to digital, I found the cameras just keep

better and better.

and they're almost getting so good all of them any of the camera so many of the

cameras you can use but what isn't interchangeable are the lenses and so

have become way more important component of what you know what a dp uses and i

prefer sort of a vintage older uh 70s glass that's maybe rehoused and

i guess we just did 35 millimeter

spherical lenses. We didn't have the funding.

If I could have, I would have done anamorphic, but, you know, it's

that was a limitation for the guests.

For me, everything comes down to lens choice on a film, and there are really

amazing choices out there in the world.

During the course of filming,

especially a film that's a modest budget.

I have to know while I'm shooting what is possible

when the film is complete and I'm doing the post -color.

I'm thinking about that every day I'm on a film set. What can I do in post and

how much time will that save me right now while we're shooting and will not

impact? the filming negatively.

So I'm constantly thinking about that. The reason why you're doing that is

because there is so much that you can do in post.

For example, if I'm shooting in this loft and there's light that I can't

and it's behind my head, like on these walls, and I ask a

grip, like, okay, so how long to cut that light off the wall? It's not

interfering with the light on me or it's not interfering with anything.

And he says, like, 20 minutes. I'm like, okay, roll the camera. I'm good. I'll

fix that later.

The more you're pushing the button and a red light turns on, the more you're

making a movie.

And that's what I try and do. In post, there is a lot that can be done to shape

and sculpt and fix.

things, you know, you lost the light, but the, you know, when you tried to

at dusk for night shot and you didn't have lighting, and that's the best

performance.

And it's like, you can go into post as long as there's image there and dig it

out. And, yeah, I would have preferred two takes before it, but...

That's the best take, and it's about storytelling.

So, you know, you have to be willing to take chances and not say, oh, my God, I

can't possibly shoot right now. There's no lighting. No, roll the camera until

it's black.

You know, there's something there, and it might be just like magic.

I love doing the color.

I sit for, you know, whatever given time the budget has for me to do it. I think

we had five days on the guest, and we probably added some after some visual

effects were put in.

and you're just sitting there, me and the director and the producers, and

like, oh, yeah, yeah, no, the eyes are a little dark. Let's brighten the eyes.

Okay, power window around the eyes. Boom, boom, you know.

Oh, wow, let's make them a little bluer. Boom, boom.

You know, it's just, you can just, it's like you're reshooting the whole movie

now with the footage, or you're crafting, or you're enhancing the

It's amazing. If you go overboard, it looks bad, so you have to have...

the base exposure and the direction of light and the framing and all of that

to be right. You can't change that, but you can change saturation and contrast

and color and take things out that you didn't see.

You know, some Apple boxes in the background, you know, you're like, fuck,

were like, we were flying that day and like, we're losing it. It's like, okay,

you really don't want it? Goes to visual effects, Apple box out.

It's always interesting to look back, and since this is now a re -release

of a film that has become a cult classic that seems to be timeless,

you always think back to what went on set.

for particular scenes.

Like if I could talk, an exterior scene we shot early on in the film

in a quarry outside of Albuquerque.

It's where David comes to buy guns from the character that he had met

at the party the night before.

And that, again, was all time of day.

You know, like we had one day to shoot that entire scene.

You know, with gunplay and stunts and, you know, quick cuts and all this stuff.

And I just remember having a blast just working with Adam.

You know, like, okay, okay, sun's over here. We want to keep it back lit. We

want to keep it back lit. You know, shoot all this stuff this way, right?

then as soon as it gets overhead, we do inserts.

And, you know, when the light is bad, we do all these things that we can

control. And then, bam, in the end of the day, when the sun's over here.

Flip everything that you shot, and it will look seamlessly like you shot it at

the exact same time. Nobody knows, like, the sun was over here, and now it's

over here, if you shoot it right.

What the fuck, David?

One fucking second.

It was such a beautiful dance early on in the film, which gave me all the

confidence that everybody involved, Tom, Keith, Jess, Adam, the

actors, my crew of grip, electric and camera, you know, that, you know,

my first AC, Steve Cueva, who's been with me on so many films. We are like

friends.

work incredibly well together and we work like a machine and That theme is

particular and it's organic like how we had to manage the day And it was amazing

and the party that we did Which in the script just precedes this theme

we shot in an actual house You know, I like to approach a location and you

the location.

You don't light the shots per se You light the location so that when you come

in, the actor and the director, they can have free play of wherever they want to

craft this scene, and then you add to whatever you have.

That's how I approached the party theme, so that literally we could just roam

around the entire house.

and never change anything and just make some adjustments and go into the close

-up. Oh, I just need to add a little light here and a little light here.

And, you know, that scene is so fluid and we see floor to ceiling, you know,

out any window, in the front door, out the front door, go into the backyard.

You ready to go?

Sure.

And I try and light everything that way.

You know...

We all talked about, you know, that the climax of the film was a total... I

mean, it was severely budgetarily restrictive in so many ways. There's

many shekels in the pot.

And so it wasn't as if I had, you know, everything or anything I could have to

do this. But this moment in the gym, going through the Halloween maze...

It was done on a very, very slim budget.

But we really want that point where I want it overt, stylized, nightmarish.

You know, and we shot in a real high school gym, and we built various sets

connected the haunted house in various locations. And so we shot it over the –

we didn't shoot it consecutively.

We shot it in pieces.

To design that and work with Tom and Adam.

We had to get creative, and it was one of the funnest scenes in the movie to

shoot because I had so much control of what I had, the tools I had.

They could be used in a stylized manner, and that was just fun.

When I first saw a mostly completed cut with some

decent temp sound, I knew that we had an amazing film.

It cut well together.

Adam did a fantastic job.

His sound design, I mean, he did the sound design himself.

And then the final, you know, when I saw the first screening of it in all

of its glory after I did all the color timing, it was a blast.

You know, the film is a great film. Right. And it continues this day to be a

great ride. And that's why it's become like a cult classic.