Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, who has essentially become the Meryl Streep of cinematography at this point after winning the award twice in a row, was happy to reveal his initial thoughts about the one-shot nature of the film.
“Well, the first time he talked about the movie, he said he wanted to do a movie in one shot before I read the script. And at that moment, I truly, honestly thought ‘I hope he doesn’t offer me this movie,'” said Lubezki. “I’m not interested. It sounds like a nightmare.”
Clearly, he has changed his mind since then. “When he brought the script and talked about the characters and why it had to be one shot, he‑‑ you know, he captivated me, and I truly wanted to do the movie,” said Lubezki. “And it was really, really complex, very hard. We had to‑‑ you know, there’s no book that says how do it.”
By far one of the strongest films of last year was the hyper intense and physically impactful Whiplash. We at Hypable were lucky enough to ask the Academy Award winning film editor, Tom Cross, what he did to generate the natural energy that propels you through Whiplash‘s twisted story.
“Damien always wanted to make an action movie first, an action thriller first, and a music movie second,” said Cross. “So he knew that there was going to be some really fast‑paced and, you know, fast‑paced action and a lot of fast cutting. But I think what was really great about what Damien envisioned for the film was that he really had in mind a lot of different editorial styles. So he knew that the musical scenes, and the rehearsing, and the practicing would be fast and would be brutal. He wanted it to be ferocious. He said he wanted the musical scenes to feel like boxing scenes from Raging Bull.”
Indeed, many reviews of Whiplash praised Cross specifically for his sharp eye and his masterful precision. He also revealed a technique that the film’s director, Damien Chazelle, specifically asked him to use to make the film’s most intense scenes really stand out.
“He wanted the other scenes with other characters to have a different editing style,” said Cross. “So the scenes with Andrew and his girlfriend, played by Melissa Benoist, he wanted those to play the opposite. He wanted those to be gentle and‑‑ and romantic; and in that way they’re very traditional. They’re not cutting. And the same to a certain extent with the scenes with his father, Paul Reiser. He wanted those to play at a different pace. And I think that was a brilliant choice on his part, because it enhances the faster paced and more violent cutting that happens in other scenes.”
Graham Moore, who accepted the Best Adapted Screenplay award for his work on The Imitation Game had one of the most touching and meaningful speeches of the night, and when commended for it in the backstage press room, he expanded on why he said what he said.
“Well, you know, the cameras are just little back circles so it’s not like I see a billion people when I’m out there looking around,” said Moore. “No, it was really hard, but it felt‑‑ I don’t know, I’m a writer, when am I ever going to be on television? This was my, like, 45 seconds in my life to get on television and say something so I felt like I might as well use it to say something meaningful.”
Moore was already an expert on Turing long before he was hired for the job writing The Imitation Game. Since he was a teenager, in fact. With so few gay historical icons being taught in classrooms, Moore stresses the importance of having role models like Turing that everyone can look up to for their incredible contributions to society.
“When you’re approaching a story of this magnitude and you’re approaching a life and a person as unique as Alan Turing, there’s this tremendous responsibility on your shoulders and I felt a tremendous responsibility on my shoulders to tell his story fairly and accurately and responsibly,” said Moore.
“Alan is someone who was so mistreated by history. He is someone who, as a gay man, was persecuted by the government on whose existence he provided for. And, as such, I always felt like he needed a film that spread his legacy, that celebrated it and brought it to a new audience of people who might not otherwise have been exposed to this man because history had treated him so poorly.”
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