All language subtitles for MasterClass Ron Howard Teaches Directing - 110 - Cinematography

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I've never been a director who wants to

put a personal stamp on a project based

on uh a look or an aesthetic uh I've

always thought of myself um you know

more like a um I guess the way an actor

understands a character tries to inhabit

that character I want to understand the

character of a movie and uh and sort of

inhabit it as a director and try to

fulfill the possibilities that I think

are most appropriate now of

course my personality my taste you know

it's going to influence movies in

similar ways and uh and you know I I I I

try not to work in opposition of that

but I like to try to to understand a

movie and let it begin to talk to me I

like to I like to begin to understand

what's visually

possible um and what would what would

what would most um reflect I suppose the

themes the story it it always keeps

coming back to me to supporting those

those ideas what's it about what's it

trying to convey and you know and how is

it supposed to to transport the audience

audience how is it supposed to feel and

then begin to understand what sort of

visual style will enhance that how will

it help us understand the characters how

will it how will it help engage uh the

audience um there's a kind of an ironic

thing that happens that uh you know

suddenly um you you you know you're

going to you're going to hear a lot more

um you know about that subject so uh now

I'm thinking about becoming a doctor and

suddenly there's a great docu mentary

about you know what it means to be a you

know an ER doctor and oh look at this I

I I'm I'm really noticing that those

people over at Starbucks you know

they've got the their their nurses and I

think I see a doctor over there and

they're talking maybe I'll go up and

discuss you know just talk to them about

what med school they went to it's all

boy this is amazing suddenly you know

the the whole everywhere I look it's all

about medicine and doctors well it's

just that your antenna is tuned you know

and my my my sense of this is that it's

always that that information has always

been there but now you've focused your

train of thought I think as a

director you have the opportunity to do

the same thing to begin to focus on your

subject and you'll be amazed how many

ideas can start flooding your way and a

lot of that comes to you as visual uh

language and it's it's great to start

taking notes you see a photograph pull

it out well don't if if you can if you

already own the magazine pull it out uh

uh and collect it give yourself

something to talk about to think about

to dream about and just begin the

process of understanding what that movie

could be at least that's how I like to

work um and uh you know I I I never have

any interest in having uh you know a

particular kind of shot that I always do

to start the movie or end the movie or

you know it's no signature no signatures

like that for for me it's about you know

a story finding its proper voice it's

it's you know the it's its existence

within the you know the medium of

Cinema a lot of what we perceive in life

has to do with light um

bright uh

shafts um Stark

backlight um so that things are a little

bit muddled uh distance um is is is is

is often about a a you know the way the

Optics work is H you you start to lose

detail and you know you're not the the

the light isn't registering with you on

a distant um figure the way it does a uh

you know a figure that's nearer to you

and U so I've really come to to

understand the power of lighting I think

I grew a lot working with Roger deacons

uh on beautiful mind he's a brilliant

lighting uh DP he he doesn't even think

he is or know he is and he suffers over

it he's a very meticulous man um and his

lighting isn't

stylish but but it's so

psychological and so much about evoking

a feeling and um he he really

understands how to make light um a

character in a scene in a way that I I

didn't really prior uh to to working

with him and I really enjoyed that

collaboration a lot of the

um the warmth of the opening that's kind

of enveloping and welcoming and it's

subtly unreal it's a little too good to

be true and it's the beginning of John

Nash's Journey when we don't know that

he's mentally ill we don't know that

he's already delusional uh but you know

he's full of Hope and angst and drive

and ambition and U so even when it's not

his point of view we created this pallet

we kept calling it The Life Magazine

look that was kind of not only nostalgic

but it was also um it was also in a

naturalistic way very beautiful and very

um sort of inviting in a way um and that

was the world that John wanted to be a

part of he wanted to be in it and he

imagined that he could be um and that

was this you know world of Discovery and

Academia and

genius uh

later shifting to the kind of the

darkness the the the the the bright

light and the Dark Shadows of the Cold

War Noir section now that was that was

my idea I knew I wanted to to move into

something that was um a little bit

artificial and spoke to um you know a

sort of a reference of of uh what a

mystery looks like uh what a cold war

Thriller looks like but the way Roger

deacons executed it was not you know

over the top tongue and cheek it was

still

um it was subtle and and yet you know

really brought a lot of uh intensity uh

to that section and those scenes in in

in a great

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way Don

Peterman was also the first

cinematographer who taught me to

experiment with um

mixing um you know know shooting

modalities so that you'd you'd use in

the same

scene big wide lenses like a 14 see the

whole room put the camera high or low on

the ground almost like a Citizen Cane

sort of shot even though Splash was a

comedy you know make it visual um don't

don't shoot it like a straightforward

you know uh um sort of U you know

everything done with a 50 mimer lens

kind of a kind of a um you know U

storytelling and then crash in with long

lenses so there's no reason to sort of

say this is a wide lens scene and or

this is a long lens scene telephoto

lenses do another thing you know they

draw they compress images and um they're

very beautiful uh in lighting situations

great for for romances and things like

that uh they soften um they they soften

things um and uh very narrow depth of

field they accomplish a lot they creat

intimacy sometimes you know and I found

that that idea of being able to go from

Super wides into these long lenses that

wasn't jarring wasn't jarring at all if

it if it worked

aesthetically um which you could sort of

see in the set looking through

viewfinders and things like that you

could determine it then it would work

and um so that was the first movie where

I became um you know a little Freer

about that I've now come to really look

for opportunities where I can shoot a

scene with wides long lenses and crash

in handheld all on the same scene did a

lot of that in Frost Nixon uh did uh

quite a bit of that in Rush um and uh

and I find it there's something about it

that's um a little energizing because

you the wide lenses give you an

interesting graphic sense so it's not

just that you see a lot you see it in a

particular way that is kind of um

intriguing uh often if the composition

is strong uh and then crash in with a

handheld and suddenly it's it's almost

like you as an audience member you know

have Sly thrown yourself into the scene

and you're into the into the world of

those characters um and um you know you

begin to learn the the grammar of

Photography and what it can mean and

what it says and it becomes almost

second nature cinematographers have

taught me

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that I've done a number of projects with

Salvador doino he's um he's so um

diverse not only do I like him very much

uh as a friend not only is he an

incredibly hard worker but he also has

tremendous range and great taste um and

uh um with with

with

S I began to appreciate the power of of

uh of strong blacks

Darkness with more focused light you

know so it's it's not so much about

lighting whole Figures it's about

lighting the face in a particular way in

a naturalistic way but rooms and spaces

not feeling like they're broadly lit um

and it it gives um a kind of an intimacy

and a focus on the characters and uh s

is very

Soulful um very emotional and very

connected to what the characters are

doing so even though Salvatore is a

great visualist he is is is never trying

to create a showy image or a cool image

he what he really wants to do is

understand you know what what the

scene's about what the character is

going through with Sal Totino I began to

understand more about mixing the medium

more about uh working with various

lenses um not just lens sizes but um you

know from different generations and uh

uh very interesting on a subtle level to

to understand um the the the the the way

different different lenses can sort of

communicate to you and it's subliminal

but as an audience member because we're

all sort of trained to watch

um a screen even if it's your iPhone

it's you know there's a the certain um

um certain textures just give you

certain

feelings another little

trick that I've come to use and

sometimes I just you know I use my phone

but I I used to use my you know just a

home movie camera video camera or Super

Eight even is to even if you're not the

cinematographer you're not going to

shoot it is to while the actors are

rehearsing is to you know begin to

experiment with some little camera moves

begin to just play and and it doesn't

cost anything and it's uh you begin to

sort of see that you know a particular

particular feel just it just does

something the the other thing that

really exciting right now is what

technology is giving us um and it's

there's a there's a new grammar that's

just evolving constantly and um a lot of

it exists on YouTube and um I got to

give credit where credits due I was

talking to David Fincher who's somebody

that I just know we're not we're not

great Pals but we see each other here

and there and I was talking to him about

uh

um something asking a question and he

said uh look it up on

YouTube and said what do you mean he

said well just in any word any any

subject any question you might have as

it relates to your film just type it in

because out there in the world there are

there are people with really interesting

um visual sensibilities unlike yours and

they have they have more time they're

hobbyists they're playing and through

that Freedom they're they're expressing

a lot of a lot of interesting ideas in

really original ways

well I didn't know much about car

engines and I was working on uh rush and

I I wanted the the engine to somehow be

a kind of a character and I didn't

really know what that meant or what it

looked like and I typed in Formula 1

engines and I started to see some macro

photography of engines and Ultra slow

motion and then I finally saw this one

shot of a you know of a piston slamming

down and sort of exploding and um and I

thought oh my gosh that's fantastic

there's a key turning point where James

Hunt is beginning to really get his Mojo

and he's literally I always kind of

think well now he's kind of on fire he's

hitting on all cylinders look at all of

these cliches that are all exist in this

image that I just saw on YouTube so I

borrowed David Fincher's advice I'm

passing it along to anybody uh who's

interested it is another great research

Tool uh and and it is a

reminder that there there is a new kind

of a grammar it doesn't mean that the

old classic ideas don't have tremendous

power but smaller cameras less planned

looking more spontaneous kind of uh

imagery uh sort of cutting patterns

these things are all there to be seen

and and understood and you know

evaluated as it relates to a project

that you planning to make in a very

organized planned

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way I've worked twice with Anthony DOD

manle rush and in the heart of the sea

two very very different kinds of movies

but there is something

so

spontaneous and and um and and um and

and kind of

chaotic uh he he did Slum Dog

Millionaire and 28 Days Later among

other great movies and uh uh and he's

he's he comes out of documentaries uh

and he's he's really the first

cinematographer I worked with who was

first and foremost initially a

documentary director and and

cinematographer and very exciting uh to

work with Anthony I remember having a

great conversation with Anthony who I

didn't know well but I was I was um

interested in him shooting rush and I'd

been following his career for a while

and he talked

about he talked about the difference

between lighting conditions in the

Formula 1 circuit that there's

everything from the the hot sun of South

Africa to you know the fog and the

dampness of of racing in you know in

London uh or or northern Europe he

talked a lot about the cars and the

sexuality of that time and um and and um

the sort of the body language of those

Racers and um and and the sort of sexual

energy of Formula 1 and I was thinking

along those lines but I didn't know how

to articulate it

and so that became very exciting to me

and then I said I know you've done a lot

of

documentaries um I uh I keep

feeling when I look at footage from the

era that I'd like this to not

necessarily be like a documentary about

Formula 1 racing but more like a a music

documentary more like Gimme Shelter so

you know like a great music documentary

from the 60s uh yes sexy but um but you

know a little bit uh unplanned

spontaneous uh and he got very very

excited about that and it it's the first

movie that I've really approached in in

that way uh and we had to work very very

quickly and that that sort of um uh

style of of working is actually very

efficient uh and it really exploits the

moment Anthony DOD manle coming out of

documentaries and lowbudget film making

he's brilliant at looking at the sky

looking at the set looking at the actors

understanding what it is you as the

Director is trying to accomplish and

saying simply if you could move them

over here you know I can shoot this in

five minutes from now we don't have to

light at all and it's going to be

beautiful but you have to you have to

recalibrate your thinking a little bit

can you make it work over here cuz then

you if we do it'll be great

and I I really learned to sort of go

with that because it was it allowed us

to work at a faster pace and still get a

great look and I I realized that

European DPS in

particular you know they they never

really have the the money or the tools

to try to control the light they have to

work with it and there's something very

interesting and fluid and creative about

that and I found it uh very stimulating

and I hope that's something that I

continue to carry with me throughout my

career