All language subtitles for 拍攝第1、2部分.eng-1

Second Trimester
Production

Okay. Come back even further.

Come back much fur-- Swing left.

And stop. Okay.

MAN 1:
I don't know what's going on here.

Yeah, it's not gonna be
anywhere near far enough.

They're gonna be right here.

I need to get the camera back about here.

MAN 2: We'll have to find a search lamp.
MAN 3: Okay.

I think we started shooting
October 2006, something like that.

We wrapped May of 2007.

WAGNER: It's 145 days.
Longer than Zodiac by 32 days.

It was eight days longer
than Fight Club.

But it was less than Panic Room.
But Panic Room is a different story.

Not only are we talking 200 locations,
we're also talking a change...

...from turn of the century
to present day.

Show me what you want.
I'm gonna figure out what we can do.

FINCHER: Anyway,
that's what we're doing for the train.

So these cars go down how many?
How many do you want?

It's.... Uh.... Twelve.

Anytime you take a movie
that transcends that kind of time span...

...those kinds of cities and locations,
you know it's gonna be big.

Put them down.

WAGNER: But with David, he's not a guy
who wants to work 19 hours.

He knows that you get to a point
of diminishing returns.

So if he can do 140 days...

...and they're 11-hour days
or 12-hour days, it--

You start doing the math,
and you start crunching the numbers...

...and you're doing a 90-day
or 100-day shoot...

...and you're working 15, 16, 17 hours...

...it's almost the "Peter pays Paul,"
you know, principle.

And it's a wash.

For me, there's the beginning,
then middle, then the end.

So the time didn't feel arduous
in any way.

Cutting.

Let's walk through and say, "Gas mask."
And I’ll have them raise their hand.

We'll get them masked up.

KUPETSKY: Okay, background.
Everybody look this way.

We're gonna just walk through
and assign gas masks to certain people.

Remember that, because I'm gonna
ask the people with gas masks...

...to raise their hands
so we can mask them up, okay?

Just walk through and say,
"Gas mask, gas mask," okay?

WEST: All right.
KUPETSKY: Go ahead.

Make sure you mention to Props
if you have a gas mask, okay?

That you were just assigned.

So your gun-- You wanna make sure
your gun-- In real life...

...doesn't hit the mud,
and the muzzle doesn't get clogged.

If you have to shoot at somebody, and you
got a gun that won't fire, you're gonna die.

WEST: You do it with your stunt guys--
-I’ll handle it for you. Yes, ma'am.

WEST: By what they're doing.
I don't want anyone to get hurt.

Yeah. It’s good that they have
the visions hit the bombs.

-I know.
-And they'll fog up.

-Yeah.
-But we'll get plenty of gas masks out.

-That sounds good.
-Okay. I'm sorry, Hope.

Did he get a--? He could use a gas mask,
this guy right here.

MAN 1: Here we go.
MAN 2: Okay.

MAN 1:
Ready and action.

[GUNFIRE]

DALTON:
David's very particular in what he wants.

So you need to be able to give him
multiple takes...

...so he can get those nuances
he needs to make it just right.

MAN:
Way to stay with it.

So even though it's a flashback sequence,
we still needed to have 20 takes available...

...that we could do
one right after the other.

So to be able to build a couple-acre set
that has this many soldiers running across...

...that have 20 explosions
and 20 takes...

...and have it all, be able to do it
in one day, becomes a challenge.

MAN 1: And roll it.
-Hold on.

MAN 2:
Ready. And action!

[YELLING]

DALTON:
Our actors were three, four feet away...

...when the explosions were going off.

So we built every one of these...

...into the ground in mortar, so we could
control where the debris went.

Using all lightweight materials,
hand wrapping our own lifters...

...and using just a flash of light...

...as opposed to using liquids
like flammable gas...

...or any of the other combinations where
you could get someone hurt or burned.

To simulate the look,
but still get the action.

MAN: These are our two mortar beds
which we are responsible for, C and D.

And that's the layout
for each individual mortar in the bed.

And this is a layout of the whole field.

This is where our two beds are,
in correlation to the other.

DALTON: In between myself
and the stunt coordinator...

...we had to work out
where the entire crowd of soldiers...

...some extras and some stuntpeople,
could run through this...

...with never stepping on
where our explosions were going to be.

And having them go off
at exact points for certain soldiers.

Certain individuals were supposed to be hit
at certain times, at certain cues...

...while the camera's on the move
in a trench...

...so we could have camera
at ground height.

So it was
a very well choreographed sequence...

...very well thought out.

And all went real well.

MAN:
Thank you very much. A great hand.

How about a good round of applause
for our stuntmen...

...and our special-effects guys?

[PEOPLE WHOOPING AND CLAPPING]

BURT: You know, when you do a film
that's period and realistic...

...in terms of sets and settings,
you don't wanna do something...

...that overtakes the characters
in the story.

But you wanna do something that
supports them. That's what I see my job as.

We talked about doing flats
down the walkway.

Okay, where is our bench?

BURT: This is what we were gonna do
on the exterior.

Already ventral sconces there...

...and maybe something just right up above
on the capped ceiling there.

There's so many other elements
into expressing that.

It's where the camera is placed,
what lens is used...

...what they see in the room,
how much set dressing is left in the room...

...how much isn't, you know.

A room can feel lonely
with one or two pieces.

There are many things that contribute to it.
The lighting and the actors.

Yeah, so we bring him in here...

...bring him in here, and he goes this way,
and then he walks along here...

...and then he stops,
and he goes through that door.

And he comes in, and this is her place.

BURT: It's one of many elements,
and that's what's so fun...

...about filmmaking, I think, is that,
you know, in the end...

...when you see the film,
you go, wow.

You know, all those pieces
came together.

The interior of the train station...

...that was a build with a blue screen
for set extension...

...CG set extension.

We researched train stations,
in general, of that period...

...and we combined some different elements
that we felt comfortable with...

...that sort of evoked the feeling
that we wanted to present.

And roll, please.

GATEAU:
I hope you enjoy my clock.

-That's it.
-Curtain.

[CROWD CLAPPING]

BURT: We looked at period clocks,
in particular, French period clocks...

...because the clockmaker,
himself, was French.

And we felt that there should be
some sort of influence to it.

But again, it was a process...

...of drawing up several hundred, probably,
different clocks...

...and sort of, you know, fine-tuning
what we wanted it to look like.

And make it as wide as you can.

MAN 1: Okay.
MAN 2: Okay, here we go.

-It’s running backwards!
MAN 3: Earl, let me see your point.

-I’m pointing at the banner.
MAN 3: Okay, a little lower.

It's running backwards!

MAN 3: There.
MAN 4: Better.

Yep. Let me present
how shooting is compromised.

Because we could get a little glint
in the glasses.

We could get just a little liner.
We could do all these things.

And we just never have time.

MAN 5: But, you know,
the broad brushstrokes are right.

That looks nice. That was nice.

Flash.

MAN 6:
Okay, here we go.

[CHEERING]

DALTON: One of the things we had to
make look real in the film were...

...the period fireworks,
1917, Armistice Day.

So we're trying to do fireworks
in a town that's built out of wood.

Where they don't want any flame,
any spark of any kind.

So we went out and tried to find
the most period realistic.

They still make some
of the same kinds of fireworks...

...they did at the turn of the century.

We were gonna try and do additional
fireworks, actual mortar bursts into the air...

...but the Historical Society of New Orleans
said: "Not over our wood city."

So all that's gonna be CG.

So basically, we have Roman candles ready.
You'll hear it on the "action."

Repeat after "action."

Action, Roman candle.

MAN:
Action!

[CHEERING]

WAGNER: With this too,
it was a period movie...

...so that means wigs for all the extras...

...and haircuts and mustaches and fittings
and, you know, cars, 1919 cars.

They didn't have cooling systems...

...so they would overheat
in the middle of the shot.

And you'd run up to an extra and say,
"Don't stop and, like, look at the camera.

Act like you're driving
and your car overheated...

...and get out and keep it going
until you hear 'cut."'

-You know, stay in that moment.
MAN: Background.

[CHEERING]

WAGNER: Extras tend to do silent-film
acting, really, just over the top.

And you finally just tell them, you know,
"Hey, guys, less is more, less is more."

And with David, you know,
you're on take 15...

...and they're bored already,
and that's when it's genuine.

Take one and two, they're all smiles
and happy and overacting.

U.S.A., baby. Whoo!

But then you get to take 15 and 16,
and it's been beaten out of them...

...and they're good.

Do it again.

-You beat them off with the baby.
-Oh, did I?

"Get out of my way, out of my way."

FLEMYNG:
"I've got an ugly baby."

FINCHER:
It's kind of great.

Bob, make Ashley run
a little bit more crazy...

...like just going through people.
I just need to--

His shadow's not spectacular enough
for Jason.

FLEMYNG: I had met Fincher and Ceán
socially through Brad...

...because I met Brad during Snatch.

Uh, you know....

And he's Fincher and Brad's Brad,
and they're pretty good at what they do.

And I was just this kind of English guy
that Brad knew, who was an actor.

So I sort of found a script,
got hold of a script...

...and put myself on tape for it
and sent it out to Fincher, because I--

Honest truth, I didn't think I’d get a chance
to get the part.

But I just wanted him to know
that I could act and that that's what I did.

Rather than just be that English bloke...

...who's at those dinners,
who drank too much.

And so he looked at it,
and he asked me to come out and see him.

I kind of knew that the studios
wouldn't necessarily be interested...

...in me playing that part.

When I came out,
I knew he'd have my back...

...as much as he could as a friend.

I thought he was going to instruct me
about what I had to do...

...in order to have a chance
of getting the part.

I was chatting away to him.
We were here, and he took me through the--

It was like, "Come and have a look
at what you could've won," you know?

He took me through all the designs
and through props...

...and showing me pictures of the sets
and Lake Pontchartrain.

And I was just, in my head, going,
"This is agony.

This is agony. It's making it worse."

MAN 1: We'll step back,
pull in the bag.

MAN 2: Flemyng,
you're starting on the other side.

You're left to right, dude.

FLEMYNG: At the end of the day--
We spent 6 hours together.

At the end of the day, I said, "David, what
do I have to do to improve my chances?"

And he went, "Oh, no, you got the part."
I was like: Ah.

So that's what happened.
And it's been an incredible ride.

I got involved when I didn't know
I was getting involved, um.

Laray Mayfield, apparently,
had gone to see Hustle and Flow.

And, um, she called David Fincher.

I think at that time
the project wasn't even green-lit yet.

She calls David Fincher
in the middle of the film...

...and she says, "I found Queenie."

This is all happening
while I’m at home poor...

...and, you know, without a job,
thinking it's the end of the world.

And I’m having this huge garage sale.
My agent calls, and she's like:

"You have to go in tomorrow
and meet Fincher." It’s on a Saturday.

I'm like, "Well I'm having a garage sale.
How do I...?" Heh, heh.

I'm no idiot. You know,
David Fincher, garage sale, come on.

So I go in. I'm like,
"Okay, who are the usual suspects...

...I’m gonna see in the waiting room?"

Nobody. It's just me.
She takes me right into David Fincher.

And I read it a couple times.
He and I basically chitchat.

And after I finish the last scene,
he's like:

"So have you ever been
in prosthetics before?"

So in my mind I’m trying not to lose it,
because I’m like:

"Okay, is he telling me I got the job?"

Apparently, um, he was.

You know what I mean?
It was just something that I said.

CANNOM: It’s interesting. I talked to
somebody 15, 20 years ago about it.

They were talking about another big actor
at the time.

I read the script, and I was just like,
you know:

"How can you build all this stuff?

How are you gonna do somebody...

...76 years old, you know,
three, four feet high?

And the actor and match it all?"

And it never happened,
because you just couldn't pull it off.

So it's pretty amazing
that after all these years...

...and now, with the technology,
it was the perfect time.

It's the type of film you can't turn down
no matter what.

And it's the biggest film
I've ever done, makeup-wise.

We did a mechanical baby,
which is used in the beginning of the film...

...when he's a new young born.

And my idea
was to do it like a shar-pei dog.

We did all these little shar-pei wrinkles
all over him...

...and put age spots on him,
and it was really fun.

HENSON: I remember
when I was doing my makeup test...

...they were building
the animatronic baby.

And I remember I said,
"I wanna see this baby."

Because I like to see...

...so I can really fall in love
with what I'm gonna be working with...

...since it's not gonna be a human
or a real baby.

They have the baby sitting on a pole...

...and the pole is, like, in the baby's rectum.
That's like, "Wait a minute."

Then I walk around the table,
and I see the face...

...and I’m like, "Oh, this thing is ugly."
Like that's-- It was just--

It was hideous.

And every day I would go back,
just so I could attach.

And the more and more
I looked at the baby...

...the more and more
it started to look cute.

And I guess it's so ugly that it's cute.

You know those little fish
with the big eyes, and you're like--

After a while, you're like,
"Oh, he's cute."

[LAUGHS]

MAN 1:
That does look like Brad, doesn't it?

-From the bellybutton down.
MAN 1: Yeah.

Okay, um.

So what lens is that?

MAN 2:
That's a 21.

-Go to a 20.
MAN 1: Okay.

FINCHER: So we need to take a little bit
of the sheen out of the forehead.

Just a teeny bit. It's just a little much.

Yeah, we need to add a little bit
in here and a little bit here.

And then we need to take this out,
because this is too wet-looking.

MAN 3: There you go.
MAN 4: And action.

DOCTOR: He shows all the deterioration,
the infirmities not of a newborn...

...but a man well in his 80s
on the way to his grave.

HENSON: This script, to me, is
the ultimate meaning of unconditional love.

And that's a gift from God that we have.

That's basically what we're put
on this planet Earth to do, is to give love.

At the end of our cycle, what do you do?

You move on from the flesh,
so that's life.

But I think the best part of life is loving
as much as you can while you're living.

MAN 1: Cut it.
MAN 2: Nice work, guys.

MAN 3: Good, good, good.
MAN 4: Okay, now we unpack it.

MIRANDA: I was the first one
that did the Viper stuff with David.

And we started with a Libra.

It was the first spot that we did,
and I tested the camera.

And, um....

Then we did a bunch after that, though.
The Heineken beer on spots.

MAN:
Roll.

MAVROMATES:
David has used the Viper for...

...going on four years now,
probably, with this commercial--

It's a tool that he really knows very well.
It has been very dependable.

It worked very well on Zodiac, and when
it came to working on Benjamin Button--

We always revisit what we've used...

...and to see if there's anything, you know,
greater out there, anything better...

...anything more unique
that relates to the current project.

Chin up. And then some intense acting.

Surprise, and laughter.

-Cut it. All right, good.
MAN: Good.

MIRANDA: We were trying to shoot 4K,
so we looked at the Dalsa.

The Red wasn't ready at the time.
The D-20 wasn't ready as well.

I mean, we needed multiple cameras,
you know.

And so there was, like, one D-20 ready,
so we didn't make that an option at all.

MAVROMATES: We actually did go
and test the Dalsa camera...

...which was still in some ways
under development.

And it still hasn't quite matured.

But it was attractive in a few ways.

One of them
is that it had a larger file size.

It was somewhere between 3K and 4K,
depending on how you measure it...

...and what lenses you use
and that sort of thing. That was one factor.

The other thing that's different
about the Dalsa is the sensor is larger.

The Viper sensor is really almost
the equivalent of shooting a 16mm movie.

So that's a different look.

MAN 1:
Good, play it back.

MAN 2: Check this out,
it's looking pretty good.

MIRANDA: Sometimes it's not about, like,
4K or 2K or 35 or two-thirds chip...

...it's actually,
"How does it look in the end?"

I think that's just
kind of more important...

...and the Viper looked good, you know.

So that was kind of--
You know, people are saying, like:

"Oh, you should have shot Red."

And I saw Red,
and there was issues that were not....

That I need more latitude, you know,
that was not presented there.

Many factors came
into the final decision for the Viper...

...but probably the one
that was the tipping point...

...is actually the familiarity with it...

...and that we had gotten so good at it
on Zodiac.

And David was still happy
with the look of it...

...that there was not a great incentive
to change that...

...because, despite the size of the budget,
the budget was extremely tight.

And so that little margin of error...

...might be the difference of using a camera
we know versus one that we don't know.

Give it a little moment, because I wanna
play it in a close-up of, like....

You go, "Is he gonna go bullshit
for this whole thing?"

Or then he kind of goes: Ha, ha, ha.

God bless you.

He's 7.

In the revival tent, we were using
these 60-watt old-fashioned bulbs.

You know, that are from, like--
You know, the period-made gloves.

Kind of the way they did in the old days.

So okay, well, I'll let this room light itself
with 60-watt bulbs.

Should be no issue.

I mean, I've never had issue
on film before.

But when I get there on the day...

...and it's too late
for me to change anything...

...I go to the gaffer. I go, like, "Chris,
are these all, you know, 100 percent?"

Uh, heh....

And he goes, "Yeah, yeah,
they're all 100 percent."

"Shit, I don't have enough light."

There's nothing I can do. This was
the whole idea for lighting this thing.

It was like, you know,
these bulbs light the scene...

...and we're calling it this.

I don't do anything, anywhere.
This is it.

And, you know, pulled it out,
running at about, like, 140 volts.

Just trying to get every single ounce
of light from this thing.

I might even increased the shutter,
open more from the 180...

...to the 230 or something like that.

And I said, "Really, these are 60 watts?"

You open them up. Normally, you could
light a scene like that comfortably...

...with, like, 25 watts,
you know, standard.

I mean, you'd be totally fine,
but that one was just--

That was a little bit of a, "Oh, God."

I need you to pay a little bit more attention
to this area of the room.

Project into here, because it's so nice
if we have you on both.

You know, kind of looking over
the congregation here.

HENSON: The first day of shooting for me
in New Orleans was the revival tent.

And for some reason that day,
it was extremely cold.

The wind was whipping.
I thought Katrina was back.

Think I got sick that first day too,
because it was so cold.

So Lance, let's see pushing Taraji back...

...and let me just see Taraji fall.

-Praise God!
CROWD: Praise God!

Hallelujah.

FINCHER:
"In the name of God's glory, rise up."

Forget the wheelchair.

-He's gonna walk without anything.
NICHOLS: Right.

There's not gonna be-- It's not like
he's gonna go from a wheelchair...

...to a crutch. No.

We're gonna go-- We're gonna bypass that.
We're going right to run.

[CHEERING]

Walk on. Yes.

That's right, Benjamin.

Let the Lord carry you.

HENSON: I actually developed a certain love
for each different stand-in.

Which only helped
when they superimposed Brad's face later...

...because it looks consistent.

Hallelujah.

[CROWD CHEERING THEN GASPS]

[WOMEN GASP]

I'm a mother, and my son is 14 now.

So, you know, they have different--

You have different phases
of your relationship.

And that's just how it reads, you know.

Because the shortest guy, Peter,
I had a certain love for him.

And then the next guy, Robert, when he
came in, then it turned into something else.

It reads, like,
just a normal mother-son relationship.

"When am I gonna die, Mama?"
"Tomorrow. Now go to sleep."

HENSON:
You would never know that:

"Oh, she's acting opposite
someone that's not Brad."

FINCHER: Okay, and you're reaching up
for comfort. And action.

Too fast. Once again.

And action.

BADALAMENTI:
It might be difficult for them...

...because you're looking at somebody
like me, with nodes and blue dots.

And if they were looking for available
stimulus in some aspect like that...

...it might be confusing or dis--

You know, it might be irritating
for them to look at or just funny.

There you go.

Okay, nope, eye line's too wide.
Have him look right here.

Just look at right here.

DOYLE:
One of the biggest issues we had...

...along the lines
of a location manager's problem...

...is that this is a city
that had 800 people...

...in their Public Works Department
before the hurricane.

And on November 15th, 2005,
they had 14.

Because they had zero tax base,
and they couldn't pay them.

So they, literally, laid off 700 people.

So Public Works, for a location manager,
you so rely on them.

They're the people that deal
with your street signs and all that other--

But I’m also dealing
with a period picture.

There's no parking meters
and electronic parking kiosks...

...and those new cobra heads.

These are all things
that we would normally pay...

...a city's Public Works Department
to remove.

And we'd put up our fake things.
Well, there is nobody to pay.

So it was a huge problem. And it lasted
straight through all of production.

We would have to get
our own contractors...

...some of them staffed
by former Public Works workers.

Doing as much as we can, so David
had to do as little as possible in post.

He already had so much to do in post,
anyways, and visual effects.

All right, let's clear. This is picture.
Everybody clear, please.

MAN 1: I’m ready.
-The sun should hold for a minute.

MAN 2:
Thank you. Here we go.

Officer Kauffman, lock it up, please.

David, effects, you cool?

DALTON: In the script, it has a simple scene
calling for a trolley car.

I go, "Great. They'll get a camera...

...they'll hop on the trolley car,
I'll have a nice day."

No way.
Trolley cars were out of commission.

DOYLE: The cantanary system
was badly damaged in Katrina...

...and then it was finished off
at Hurricane Rita...

...which had much higher winds that hit
right there in the middle of New Orleans.

So there was no running streetcar...

...in a movie that had
five or six streetcar scenes.

I mean, it's iconic for the city.

So there was another thing
that the special-effects guys...

...and, in some part, the location team,
but everyone, had to overcome.

DALTON: So we had about a three-block
sequence of a trolley car...

...that has to start, stop, run
and take off...

...as if it was fully controlled
by the overhead wires.

DOYLE: We shut down three different
crossovers on St. Charles Boulevard...

...and put cable down on the ground.

So we could pull the streetcar
back and forth in the shot.

And they could stop it on a dime,
like a ski lift.

Which costs a lot more than just having
the streetcar go by and do the shot.

DALTON: We couldn't tow it with
a vehicle, because it'd be in the shot.

It would be hard
to remove a tow vehicle.

The camera watches it come into frame,
cross frame...

-...and then follow out of frame.
-Roll, please.

DALTON: So we ran about a 600-foot,
half-inch cable through a pulley system...

...run by a hundred-horsepower motor.

The cable car weighs
about 45,000 pounds...

...and had to get going
about 12 miles an hour.

So you figure what it takes to start
and stop this mass once it's moving...

...and to stop it within one foot
of where our character's supposed to be.

He's supposed to be able to walk, lift his
foot up, step onto it without a pause...

...not catch up to it, not walk back to it.

And then have it take off again
right away.

So, uh, to build that whole system,
just for that sequence...

...was completely unexpected.

I thought, "Well, heck, we'll just
tell the trolley guy to run the trolley car."

Didn't happen.

DOYLE: Back in the spring of 2005,
before Katrina, David came out...

...specifically, to help pick out
what was gonna be our main location.

-Love this.
MAN: Yeah, that's the old style.

-That's what we want.
MAN: Yep.

DOYLE: We looked at examples.
David liked them...

...but there was always
one or two things wrong, and we literally...

...got in our car
and drove around the Garden District.

And, you know, he saw two or three houses
that he wanted further investigation.

And one of them was a house
at 2707 Coliseum...

...intersection of 4th and Coliseum.

We went up. We knocked on the door.
There was nothing.

You could see that really,
nobody really lived in that place.

There was furniture, but there were sheets
over all the furniture.

It was our mission to find out
who owned it, how I can get into it...

...at least photograph it,
to see if it'll work.

And it ends up being Mrs. Nolan...

...who, through her husband's side
of the family...

...had occupied that house
since the 1870s.

One of the longest contiguous
single-family ownerships...

...of one of the houses
in the Garden District.

She was in her 80s and had evacuated
the house because of Katrina...

...and gone to Houston.

So now, we chased her down...

...to her youngest daughter's house
in Houston.

And they were kind of hesitant.
So that's when I went on the Internet...

...found an original edition
of the Jazz series...

...with a special little bookmark
where the "Benjamin Button" story...

...is in the Jazz series.

It was the first edition
and sent it to them.

And that's when Mrs. Nolan
gave me a call...

...and said
in a beautiful Southern accent...

...because I believe she was
the Cotton Maid of 1937 out of Mississippi.

Beautiful accent.
Said, "Well, we could talk about this."

So that's what we did.
I got on a plane, flew to Houston.

And we had a great conversation
about what we were trying to do...

...how long it might take...

...and the fact that it's perfect timing,
because she's not there.

And she's got a little soft spot
for Paramount, which helped a lot.

Because she had had a screen test
at Paramount back in the late '30s...

...with Fred MacMurray.
And they had offered her a contract.

And she decided she wasn't cut out
for Hollywood...

...and she wanted to stay in New Orleans
and start a family out there...

...for the betterment of New Orleans.

And in the end, it helped us out as well.
She always had a little soft spot for us.

So that's the layout here.

-Okay.
-Okay.

So then back here--

You know, there's always some kind
of activity going on around here.

So even in the background and stuff,
we wanna, as much as possible...

...see kids playing, people doing laundry
and stuff over there.

DOYLE: The beautiful part of that house,
literally, 360 degrees around you...

...was all pre-1900, every building.

So all the scenes that you see filmed there,
there's no cheating.

You're in the house, you walk out
the front door onto the porch...

...and everything you see there is real.

BURT: For the Nolan house, what we did,
we built a porch around the back corner.

That would afford us the ability
to go out the side doors...

...and go out onto a porch and have
vistas into the backyard and so forth.

And it had quite a bit of yard space
in the back.

So we were able to build
a servant quarter...

...which is sort of a two-story,
double-gallery home in New Orleans...

...where, in the early days, servants
would often live behind the houses.

And we also built
a exterior kitchen there.

Imagine that this house in that period,
the kitchen would've been outside.

So all the food's prepared here,
and it goes into the warming pantry.

MAN 1:
Background and action.

MAN 2:
For each new morning with its light...

...for rest and shelter of the night....

ZOLFO: My favorite set in the whole film
was the Nolan house...

...because, to me, it's as big a character
as Benjamin.

I was able to think about that set...

...in ways that I've rarely been able
to think about any other.

Because it lives,
it goes through so many transitions.

And every time we come back
to that house, it's slightly different.

It's just a really fantastic experience
and a lot of fun...

...to sort of take a building
and make it a character...

...and make it change and evolve
and get sad and be joyful.

MAN:
Here we go.

And roll it.

ZOLFO: And clearly, in a movie like this
that's so vast...

...you can't shoot it in sequence.

So it was a constant, you know, jumping
from decade to decade, and era to era.

MAN:
Just so everyone's on the same page.

We do this shot, then we're done
with this area for today.

It will be first up tomorrow.

Let's bring the dark furniture
in a little bit.

ZOLFO:
Logistically, it was tricky.

I mean, we were fortunate
that we had our storage nearby...

...and we sort of had every version
of the house sort of--

We tried to keep it organized
and always be able to:

"Okay, we're doing 36 tomorrow.
Let's bring that in."

MAN:
Okay, stand by for another rehearsal.

-As soon as you hear them clap.
FANNING: Okay.

-And then you-- Okay?
-Okay.

MAN:
Here we go.

MRS. FULLER: Benjamin, might I say
you are looking strikingly youthful.

Grandma! Look at me!

MRS. FULLER:
That was really something.

Come over here, you.

MAN 1: Cut it.
MAN 2: Cut.

Can we just see her on the mark, please?

For some reason, the last time
you ran like Charlton Heston.

I have to have you run
a little bit straighter.

WOMAN:
Line up.

Here we go. Back to one. The sun's out.

MAN 3:
Here we go.

Watch this. You think you're so great.

Can you do that?

Sweet Jesus. Benjamin. Benjamin!

Get up from there, right now.

You are about
to break your old fool neck.

Usually, if you're playing a character
who ages, you play a small section of it.

Um.... And the very fact that I'm the voice
of Daisy from the age of 6...

...all the way through to 86.

So there's a part of me
in every aspect of her...

...and I pick her up,
I think, when she's 17.

That is an incredible, um,
almost impossible opportunity.

So that was the challenge.

And not to shy away
from the intense self-involvement...

...the narcissism of youth.

Oh, my God.
I've just been talking and talking.

No, no, I've enjoyed listening.

I found that probably the most
painful part of the film to inhabit...

...because, you know, when I look back
on myself as a teenager...

...particularly now I’m a parent...

...there's something quite abhorrent
and self-involved about it...

...that hopefully you move beyond
as you get older.

MAN 1: Background.
MAN 2: Background.

BENJAMIN:
And so I went to sea.

HARRIS: It was a little bizarre, because
I'd tell my friends back home and my wife:

"I'm working with Brad Pitt." You know?

And then it was like,
"How was it with Brad today?"

"No, he wasn't there. It was this guy
Robert with a blue hood on his head."

Did I ever tell you I was struck
by lightning seven times?

-Stop.
MAN: Okay.

MIKE: So Jared, not quite at the eye line
that you gave me.

You're looking at him,
he stands up, look at his face...

...then look at his feet,
then look back at him, like, "What?"

HARRIS:
The tugboat, it was called the Jupiter.

But I think David found out
that I was a Manchester United fan...

...so he changed the boat
to the Chelsea.

Just to wind me up.

Anybody wanna make $2
for a day's work around here?

-Nobody wants a job?
BENJAMIN: I do.

You got your sea legs about you,
old man?

I do.

I think.

DOYLE: We shot the tugboat early on,
maybe week one or two in Morgan City.

Meanwhile, Don Burt and his crew were
back here building enormous sets at Sony.

DALTON: The ship was 90 feet long,
almost 30 feet wide.

It's 20 feet in the air...

...by the time you build the base
and have it above the trunnion.

It's built into a tank that's 20 feet deep.
It weighs about 140,000 pounds...

...above the trunnion, not the base,
just the actual ship.

That was like a movie in itself,
just building this entire structure.

MAN:
Cut, cut. Go it again.

Hey, Burt, do one with you
panning around in the gunfire.

FINCHER: Do one where the light's
panned on to him more.

MAN: Yeah, yeah.
FINCHER: Okay.

And do one more.
You have to pan the light over.

DALTON: It has to do a multitude of
things. It had to be lazy...

...on the Mississippi River.

It had to be able to pitch and roll
as if it was on the ocean.

It had to be able to pitch, roll and heave
as if it there was heavier seas.

And ultimately, when it crashes...

...it actually has to be able to hit the
submarine and ride up out of the water...

...without the stern of the ship...

...dipping below the surface of the water,
because it wouldn't look real.

The stern of the ship wouldn't just drop
below the surface if the front goes up.

The bow of the ship would rise up
about 20 feet...

...so we were doing
about a meter a second...

...with our lead actor on the bow,
at maximum height.

He's 40 feet from the concrete below.

You're really concerned
about safety, function and realism.

Finally, we're making a movie
with a theme-park ride, finally.

And all the interiors for the tugboats
were separate sets.

The galley, the bunk area, the wheel house,
all those were separate sets.

And those were all on gimbals as well.

So that we could replicate
the movement of the boat.

ZOLFO:
Most directors aren't like Fincher.

Fincher thinks about every prop,
every piece of dressing, every flit of hair.

You don't get that with most directors.
Most directors look at the big picture.

When you give them a set,
it's either working for them or it isn't.

And David is looking at what's written in
the notebook or what the palette is doing.

And while all those things are usually...

...something a good Art Department and
a good production designer will control...

...and a director will never even notice...

...David Fincher is not that guy.

Cut it.

MAN: Cut.
WOMAN: Cut.

ORMOND: What is extraordinary
about him, from my perspective...

...is that when somebody has
a particular leaning as a director...

...that usually takes away
from another aspect of them as a director.

If they're very technically minded...

...they'll be at the monitor,
they'll never come out from it.

They're not so focused on the acting,
or that's not their strength.

Or, not that it's not their strength,
it's not their interest.

MAN:
Action.

FINCHER: I think he is 40 percent left,
40 percent on that frame left.

And then as the car pulls in--

ORMOND: So for me, what was amazing
about him and also slightly alarming...

...was that he kind of-- He has all of it.

He's not afraid
to continue to challenge you.

He has very specific ideas.

FINCHER: Can we do one more pick-up?
MAN: Okay, cut, reset, straight away.

All right, once again. Here we go.

FLEMYNG: People are frightened of him.
I think he's got a reputation for:

"If you're not really brilliant at what you do,
you will be found out...

...and I will rip you to shreds." You know:

"Take all your clothes off
and beat you with a stick."

I think that's unfair.
I didn't really see that happen.

But he knows what he's doing.

You can't pull the wool over his eyes.
And he's quite direct.

Thank God.

If someone says they can't do it,
he'll go, "Well, why?"

And that can be unnerving, you know.

Turn and let me see your look.

Okay, step in back.

Okay, slide three inches
to your right.

Do you want me to go further?

FINCHER:
No, no, a little bit more left, if anything.

BLANCHETT:
The thing that David has in spades is rigor.

You know, he's a perfectionist.

But not for its own sake.

My manager warned me.
My agent warned me.

I heard other actors tell me, "Man, David
does, man, 40 takes just to open a door."

I'm going, "Wow, really?"
And I’m kind of getting a little nervous.

I was coming down some steps,
and the shot was just on my feet.

We did that at least 20 times.

I'm just going down the stairs.
"Nope," going down, "Nope.

Not that kind of step,
more this kind of step.

Try it like this."

And I’m going,
wow, like, this is really specific...

...but I got it, because he's telling the story
even down to the feet.

I think the bench has to go camera left
a little bit.

Greg, six inches, camera left.

Camera left on the bench,
six inches, please.

MOHADI: I didn't count most of the time
how many takes I'm taking.

He's the director, he knows what he wants.
If you don't give it to him....

Then, you know, if it means
that he drills it out of you, then why not?

MIKE:
You gotta be what you're meant to be.

And I happen to be
a goddamned artist.

You're a tugboat captain.

I've done lots of independent films,
and you get three takes or something.

Barely. In fact, you hardly can afford
to do one take.

You know,
on some of these things, now.

So I loved it.

You don't get to act that often
as an actor.

You know,
most of the time you spend waiting.

I loved the amount of time,
the amount of takes.

He'd let you go until you felt
that you were happy...

...he was happy, you know. I loved it.

Most times, in film, you get your takes,
and you go away, and it's like:

"I wish I could have tried it this way."

But with David, you have enough time
to try it as many ways possible.

Finch lets you go
through the whole gamut, like, so--

If it's like, you know, "you're my son,"
it goes from--

It would go--
We did, like, 30 takes and....

Using it as an example of the scenes...

...but I’d be like, "You're my son!"...

...all the way down to:

[WHISPERING]
"You're my son."

[IN NORMAL VOICE] And the whole arch
that that takes you through.

So you get to try it in every single way.

And then Finch just takes the 35th take...

...which was the simple one, which you
should have done in the first place.

But he kind of lets you exercise
your need to act.

So, Taraj, you can go a teeny bit slower.

HENSON: Slower?
FINCHER: Yeah.

HENSON: Okay.
FINCHER: Eight-tenths of a percent.

MAN 1: We are rolling.
MAN 2: You do the math.

FINCHER:
And action.

No, no.

She really gets up ahead of speed.

And the sun came out.
Okay, here we go one more time.

Uh, TJ, you left a little bit early.

Let him get a little bit over
to the pile of leaves.

-Let him go another 10 feet.
HENSON: Okay.

FINCHER: Okay, here we go.
MAN: Rolling.

MAN:
Okay, we lost her there.

FINCHER: Cut it.
-I’m being called into the principal's office.

Come. Now, what is that?

Aah! Heh, heh, heh.

FINCHER:
That's pretty good.

I'll take that one. We can do better.
Here we go.

-Once again.
HENSON: Teamwork.

CANNOM: We did two weeks of makeup
tests with Taraji and Elle and Cate and Brad.

That's one thing you have to do
with makeup...

...which was so nice on this,
is they gave us time to test.

HENSON: They started telling horror stories
about these big muscle guys that came.

And they would pour the molding over,
and they would start to panic and shake.

They would have to take them
out of the mold.

And I said, "You know,
I really just wanna do this process once...

...so I’m gonna be really still.

If I start to panic, I will just find a way
to work through it."

[INAUDIBLE DIALOGUE]

FLEMYNG:
If you're not really a Method actor...

...to really transform through makeup
and costume and hair...

...is really good fun to do.

I had, like, I think it was eight
prosthetic pieces...

...but over the patch, what was it,
with eight pieces.

And Finch comes to the test,
and he'd be like, "Yeah.

The forehead is kind of
ridiculous, though." And I was like:

"That's my forehead,"
and he was like, "What?"

"That's the only bit that's actually me."
And he'd be like, "Oh, okay."

It's just this chin. It's not bad.

-It’s more-- I’m, like, spongy.
-A little bit, yeah.

CANNOM: We take Brad over at 62,
and that was the full silicone makeup...

...with the transfer forehead
and upper lip.

I did him at that stage,
and then I did 58...

...and then down to 56 and 52 and 48.

I did him down to about 45.
And at that stage...

...I was just doing a little stipple
here and there, just slightly age him...

...which is where you take the skin
and put on the aging rubber...

...and you powder it, and it creates wrinkles
in their own skin.

To take all of those stages
and make them work together...

...the little differences you have to do
with the coloring and matching...

...and the age-spots matching every day.
It's insane.

Each character has its own reality.

As long everyone's part of that reality...

-...that's what you buy, I think.
MAN: Right.

CANNOM:
Cate, she ages the most.

We took her from the 40s to 85...

...and the 85 makeup was very difficult...

...because it's 14 appliances.

And the transfer on that forehead
covered her eyebrows...

...because we thought
it looked really good without eyebrows...

...because we really want her
to look sickly at that point.

She has these incredible cheekbones.
They're just amazing...

...and it's the hardest age makeup
I have ever done in my life...

...because you can't put age into them.

If I tried putting any lines into it...

...it just looked ridiculous.

So I ended up basically
keeping them the same...

...and trying to put all the age down
around the mouth and into the neck.

And I think I would go there anyway.
That's my stretch mark there.

CANNOM: The great thing about Cate,
she's so professional...

...that she's like, "Can we put more lines
in here, so I look sadder, you know...

...and more wrinkles?"

If someone's wearing a bad wig...

...or they have terrible makeup,
prosthetic pieces...

...you don't believe a single thing
that comes out of their mouth.

-And this film is about life.
MAN: Roll. Rolling, rolling.

You go on the journey of a man
from his strange birth to his death.

And you need to know
that the parallel physical aging process...

...that's being done by the makeup artists
is as great as Brad's performances...

...which it absolutely was.

DALTON: In the film,
a scene takes place in Paris...

...and the closest thing
that looked like Paris...

...that Location Department
could find was Montreal.

MAN:
Ready and action!

DOYLE: Shooting it in Paris, one, is
expensive because of the Euro is killing us.

And, two, logistically, it's difficult.

It makes shooting in downtown Manhattan
seem easy in a lot of ways.

Our scope,
or how much control we needed...

...we're talking cars, it's the costumes,
it's people...

...it's closing down blocks and blocks
of sections of Old Montreal...

...which is much tighter
than the French Quarter.

Not something the city was real keen
to doing...

...but assisted in any way,
shape or form that they could.

But we needed a lot of people and
a decent amount of money to pull it off.

To me, it reinforced how much easier
I had it in the French Quarter after Katrina.

Because here, a place was untouched
by any disaster.

It was just as dense,
and I needed just as much control.

I think we shot eight days there...

...and I, personally, was there prepping
for almost two months.

Other than that, wonderful people,
and it looked beautiful...

...and they were all happy to see us go.

[LAUGHS]

DALTON: And in the Russian sequence,
it was supposed to be snowing.

So great, we're gonna be in Montreal.
It's cold in Montreal. So we fly up there...

...and realize that we're gonna be shooting
in the tourist part of the town...

...the old part of town.

That you can't do anything to the town,
because of, you know, pollution...

...or residual or any effect
it might have on the downtown area.

So the normal paper products or some
of the foam product we would use...

...that expedite all this, that you can make
this happen quicker, can't be done.

So we did the entire thing
in real crushed ice...

...some foam that we were allowed to use
in background sequences.

And some poly product
that we could put along the sills...

...as long as we vacuumed it all up,
so none of it got into the drain system.

MAN: That's what I'm saying. Don't.
Go back to base, and we'll talk to Brad.

See how things are going.
Give me half an hour. It’s 7:15.

Just trust me, it would be the best
for both of us.

DALTON: That was daunting, we have to
bring in hundreds of tons of ice...

...and crush it and place it
in multiple locations on the same day.

And then, when we actually go
to film the sequence...

...we have all the manpower in place,
truckload after truckload...

...a 40-foot truckload of ice trucks,
three ice-grinding machines...

...double crews. It’s in May, and it's
90-something degrees in the daytime.

It's 70-something at night.

It's T-shirt weather at night
in Montreal in May.

And the ice is melting, so we constantly,
between takes, have to refresh the ice.

Refresh the ice, grind more, grind more.

As it's melting away,
you're trying to cover it up.

David's trying to jokingly say:

"World's most expensive wet-down.
Hey, Burt, why is your ice melting?"

Well, it's hot, that's why.

MAN 1: It’s Murmansk, Russia
at 4:00 in the morning.

MAN 2:
Hey, guys!

Clear, get out of the shot!

BURT: The Winter Palace Hotel, the exterior,
we actually filmed that in Montreal...

...in the old city.

And then,
we used that exterior as a template...

...for an interior
built here in Los Angeles.

With a working elevator and a dining room,
and a kitchen and a bar.

MAN 1: Where did Brad go?
MAN 2: Well, you've already done the....

MAN 1:
No, I understand.

DALTON:
They're exposed, practical elevators.

They were designed
and built by the Art Department...

...but the function, that's our job.

There's a lot of dialogue,
so they had to run quietly...

...they had to run at the speed
we wanted.

Let's say the dialogue is going on, and it's
ending on the wrong word by half a second.

Reprogram it to be a half a second faster,
half a second slower.

ZOLFO: The hotel needed to be a place
of former glamour, a place stuck in time...

...much like Elizabeth Abbot,
but still romantic and melancholy...

...and appropriate as a place for Benjamin
to have his first serious love affair...

...with an older woman who thought
she was with an older man.

Two, we're gonna go right from you sitting,
and then dissolve, and you'll be asleep.

-I think so, right?
FINCHER: Okay.

-That's fine.
-Was that too Se7en?

No, I think it should be something
that can evolve in a dissolve into:

[IMITATES SNORING]

MAN: Slouch over, thinking.
PITT: Yeah.

MAN:
We can dissolve, you'll be asleep.

-You know what I mean?
-All right.

-Just gotta have some screen direction to it.
-Fantastic. Amazing.

PITT:
The ways one works.

ZOLFO: In order to create a believable
environment for the actors...

...I like to take closets...

...and drawers and rooms
that are sort of on the set...

...but not intended to be played
any action in and finish them...

...so that we could be
in Los Angeles at Sony...

...on stage and still have this vibe
of this romantic, lost-in-time...

...small little hotel in northern Russia.

It's not a matter of overdressing.

It's sort of a matter
Of just really wanting to walk away...

...and say, "When they're in there,
they're in the Winter Palace Hotel."

MAN 1: And crazy Irish rant.
MAN 2: Check his hair.

MAN 3: Rip van Einstein.
MAN 4: Looks like it's on fire.

WOMAN:
Rocky.

[PEOPLE CHUCKLING]

MAN 5: Like Barbara Bush.
MAN 6: Let's go with it.

BLANCHETT: The thing I found fascinating
about shooting digitally...

...which I hadn't done before is that you
develop a different performance rhythm.

I think I'd been used to the celluloid rhythm,
where you do a take or two...

...you stop to reload,
the actors decompress.

They go back to their trailer,
because it's gonna be--

You know, there's a malfunction
with the camera.

Whereas, once you were on set
with this film...

...you stayed there the whole time,
which meant--

It was more like a theater rehearsal.

And oftentimes we would shoot
the rehearsals.

So it wasn't necessarily
that we did take after take after take.

It's just that we harnessed the rehearsal
time into the performance time.

DAISY:
I want this.

I want it with you.

And I won't deny you that.

[PEOPLE SPEAKING INDISTINCTLY]

FINCHER: We had been talking about doing
Benjamin Button long before Babel.

And actually before The Fountain...

...because Cate was originally
gonna do The Fountain with Brad...

...until, you know, as my movie
would fall apart--

You know, somebody would say,
"Hey, did you hear?

Brad's doing this movie
with Darren Aronofsky."

"Oh, great," you know.
"Yeah, with Cate Blanchett."

I'd be like:

[GROANS]

And, uh, then that would fall apart.

I'm sorry about that, Darren, and I’m--
But gleefully.

And then came Babel.

Which when I saw I didn't think
was treading anywhere...

...in the area of Benjamin Button.

It's like, that's not just the problem.
It's also this and this and this.

FINCHER: The rapport that they have
was very much like siblings.

Well, he's totally juvenile,
which is, of course, why we get along.

And she is so prepared and thoughtful,
and she's taking notes...

...and she's done this and that,
so they're wonderful together.

You know, they're just so easy.

You don't turn his opinion of it.

It's just: "If we're gonna acknowledge it,
let's acknowledge it.

Here's the thing.
Scares the shit out of me.

I don't wanna create my own babysitter.

I don't wanna be a burden
for somebody else."

Isn't that what it is?
It's an elaboration on that thought.

FINCHER: I think that we're all--
"I'm going a different way"...

...can be the thing that leads into,
"We all end up in diapers."

-Doesn't matter which direction you go.
MAN: Yeah.

We all end up in diapers.

No. How do I not become a burden to us?

FINCHER:
The feeling-out process was way over.

So in that way, I was glad
that they were in Babel even if....

It was kind of the pairing of them
was really my idea.

MAN 1: And roll, please. We're rolling.
MAN 2: Rolling.

FINCHER: In between my movies with Brad,
I forget how stupid the world is around...

...and about him.

I guess, because I know
how uncomfortable it makes him.

I guess, I just sort of hope
that it's receding...

...or in some way diminishing...

...because it certainly doesn't make his life
any easier or any more enjoyable.

And then door opens, ba-boom.

We were shooting this commercial
in downtown L.A...

...it's the middle of the night,
and we'd shut down most of the street.

And I was talking to Brad,
as he sort of stepped off this curb...

...and these two women who were walking
were intense in their conversations.

They realized they were about to run
into somebody...

...and they both turned,
and they looked at him...

...and they both drop to their knees,
screaming.

[CHUCKLING]

And he sort of, like, reached--

Like, I think he thought he had tripped them
or something.

And he sort of reached over
to touch them...

...and they both sort of recoiled from him,
screaming.

And then they got up,
and then they stood there...

...unable to move, screaming.

These weren't, like, 17-year-olds.
These were, like, you know...

...late 20s, early 30s.

Okay, here we go once again.

These are responsible adults.
Like, these are not, and it was, it was ju--

It was horrible.

Cut, very nice.

Camera right.

Keep going.

There you go. I need somebody there.

And action.

FINCHER: Cate is so stunning to look at
that you can literally lose minutes...

...where you just find yourself:

"Oh, I’m sorry. I came to your trailer...

...and I was gonna talk to you
about this thing.

I can't remember what it is,
so I’ll come back."

You literally lose moments of your life
where you're just sort of:

FINCHER: You guys speed?
MAN: Yes.

FINCHER:
And action.

[WHISPERING]
But I think it's a girl.

FINCHER:
And cut. Very nice.

So Cate, do you think--? So it doesn't--
I guess it doesn't bum you out at all...

...that he doesn't chime in with like:

"Yeah, that's great." No, I guess not.
You're just riding--

-Because the next scene is--
-We're getting to the next.

I know. In the next scene,
you're gonna say, "I'm not gonna--

I want this more than anything."

So I wish I could have reservations
about it, but I don't have any.

-You know what I mean?
-No. I think I do.

FINCHER:
Yeah.

It's just I think there's so many beats
where I could play.

And there's so many of these little vignettes
where it's, like, it takes some time to--

FINCHER: No, I’m not looking for that.
I kind of like the idea...

...that you are so on top of the wave
that maybe you don't even sense his--

PITT: Sense and try to bring him--
BLANCHETT: Back.

FINCHER: Yeah.
-Try to bring him back.

I see what he's looking at.
And then I say, "Come on."

Then what happens
is over a course of months...

...this continues on.

So then we have to have dinner and say,
"Okay, what's the problem?"

FINCHER: Yeah.
-I can deal with that.

FINCHER: So the dining sequence, though,
is shortly hereafter...

...maybe a week later or something,
and it's....

I don't think that it's, "Okay, wait a minute.
What's the deal?"

It's, "I can see that you're troubled."

And he says, "Oh, believe me,
I am not trying to hide it at all."

And you say, "I got enough enthusiasm,
and I want this enough for both of us.

BLANCHETT: Yeah.
-So I'm sorry if--

I'm sorry if I can't kind of see it
as a glass half-empty, like--"

Because the very fact that I’m looking
at what he's looking at...

...means
that I'm registering the problem.

FINCHER: But I also think you can see it
in two different ways which is:

"Sometimes it's wonderful
to do things...

...that you're not necessarily
comfortable with...

...because they show you
great new things."

So I look across the aisle and I go,
"That's gonna be great for you."

-That'll be great for you.
BLANCHETT: And I think like we say--

The power of my positivity is that
I can just drag him along.

FINCHER: Yeah. Yeah.
-In the diner scene it's not my kind--

FINCHER:
You are the sperm donor I want.

-Yes.
FINCHER: Okay. Good, here we go.

And action.

FINCHER:
As I was watching, I was thinking...

...they're something special to look at.

They're beautiful, beautiful people.

And when he finally croaks,
looking at her old face...

...that will be irony.

ROTH: First rule,
if you're gonna write a love story...

...is how you're gonna keep them apart
at the end.

You get them together,
it's like, so what?

You know, we have to have
this sort of yearning that goes on.

I don't want anybody together.
I want to see everybody as unhappy as me.

-What are you thinking?
-Well, I was thinking how nothing lasts.

FINCHER: Everyone in this movie dies,
you know, so, of course...

...that's how I was able to stomachaphy
all the rest of it.

On November 16,2007, after one hundred and twenty six days on location,
and twenty seven days on stages, principal photography wrapped.