All language subtitles for 09 Cinematography Manifesting David s Vision

I've used these
shots from time

to time where people come out
of darkness, and I love that.

I love seeing just black,
miles and miles of black.

And then from it
comes something,

and it keeps coming
forward and reveals itself.

It's very beautiful.

So people coming out of
darkness visually is beautiful,

but the idea of
coming out of darkness

is really what life is about.

So it's something
to think about.

I have this thing
about darkness.

You know, if there's part of
the frame that's really dark,

again, it's like room to dream.

You don't know
what is back there.

If you see everything,
it's more safe.

It is the unknown, this
darkness, things coming out

of the darkness.

Herb Cardwell
started the lighting.

This world of "Eraserhead" had
to have a certain feel, sort

of back in time, other
world, and Herb lit mostly

with these little inkies,
many little, little lights,

little pools of
light, so beautiful.

Took forever, but
it was so worth it.

In the lovemaking scene, we
first lit it with the inkies,

and then the mood
was totally wrong.

So we reshot that
with soft light,

but still really
dark, but soft light

where they just sort of
glowed in the darkness.

It was so beautiful.

It was magical.

And black and white they say is
much harder to light than color

because you have
to separate things.

Colors separate
automatically, but you

get a pair of black pants
against a black dresser

like we saw many
times in "Eraserhead",

you've got to rim
light those pants

or they just blend
right-- it looks

like doesn't have any legs.

It's tricky business.

Every move is plotted out.

All the lights are set.

And with Jack Nance playing
Henry, it was, like,

choreographed, you
know, down to the n-th--

Jack loved doing
this, you know, just

to know every
single little move.

And it was so good.

Herb could just, you
know, dial in the lights

to catch this and let
this go into darkness

and come out and get this.

It was very beautiful,
very, very beautiful.

Freddie Francis shot
"Sons & Lovers."

Freddie knew black and white.

And Freddie also is British
and knew those times

with gas lights and
early electricity,

these kind of hospitals and the
mood of them, the whole thing,

Victorian England.

So this was the beginning of
the Industrial Revolution.

And smoke, smokestacks,
machines, all these things

were coming into
being, and so they

had to be in the world
of the "Elephant Man."

Philadelphia is my
greatest influence,

and all the architecture
I fell in love with.

I fell in love the
smokestack industry.

Smoke and fire, all the noise,
the machinery, the steel,

the houses they lived
in, the imagined life,

it just was thrilling to me.

That all came out
of Philadelphia.

The only problem
I ever had-- you

know, a lot of times
Freddie didn't want to make

it as dark as I wanted it.

And he would always
say Lynch wants

it so dark you can't see
it, but that's not true.

There's a mood.

And also, London, you know
in those days, you know,

they say the fog and smog,
you know, was so thick.

You know, you want that
kind of feel everywhere,

and a lot of times
really, really dark

and a mood, especially at night.

Freddie was
absolutely fantastic,

became a great,
great friend of mine.

And after the "Elephant Man",
he shot "Dune," and after "Dune"

he shot "Straight Story."

The play on the stage was
shot many different angles.

So all the pieces were
there, but, you know,

the play, if it had just shot
straight, was, you know--

even though it was a nice
play, it was quite boring.

And this is seen through
the eyes of, you know,

John Merrick, and
it's magical to him.

So it had to feel much more
magical than just a live thing.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

It would be so easy to do that
today in digital, so easy.

But then it was so
difficult. All these things

have to go in an optical
printer and get, you know,

all the little
dissolves and fades

and all these different things.

Putting it all together
had to be planned out

to the frame and sort of really
kind of guessed and talked out.

And it was getting near
the end of the mix.

That thing still wasn't
cut into the film.

It took weeks.

And if something
goes wrong, you would

have to start all over again.

It was a thing that was
built and took a long time

on the optical printer.

In "Eraserhead," I would
do these little storyboards

and kind of work
things out for myself

and show them to Herb or Fred,
but mainly I just drawing them.

And I would change
them sometimes too.

But I always say, you
know, like, again,

common sense for special
effects shots or things

involving lots of things
that need to come together,

everybody needs to
know, those things

are talked about and
drawn out and organized

so that lots of different
people know exactly what needs

to be done and when and how.

I had printed up like
these little 1.85 squares.

They're all up
and down the page.

And then I would, say,
have the dresser here,

and then I would have
Henry, his suit here.

And I'd have the box on the
wall here and a plant here.

And maybe he would be
reaching out to get something.

So it would be like that.

Yeah, they were a little
bit bigger than that,

and I was using a pen
rather than a marker,

so they were a little
bit better detail.

But then Henry-- the thing
about the widescreen,

pretty widescreen, is
Henry's hair is tall.

So I would, you know,
have to, you know--

his hair probably
would go out of frame.

And I'd go along, you
know, do the sequence.