Matthew Libatique, ASC, PART 2: Tigerland, The Fountain, working with Spike Lee, Straight Outta Compton, Iron Man, A Star is Born

In Part 2 of our interview, we continue our conversation with
cinematographer Matty Libatique. After Pi, Matty couldn't believe
that such a small movie shot on 16mm black and white film opened so
many doors for him. He began to get calls for large Hollywood
movies, such as Tigerland with director Joel Schumacher.
Schumacher, known for big-budget, glossy films like Batman and
Robin, was looking for a new look for the gritty Vietnam training
camp film, starring an up and coming Colin Farrell. Matty and
Schumacher decided to shoot hand-held 16 mm for Tigerland so that
it would amplify the anger, stress and pain of preparing for war.
Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing influenced Matty's path to a
career in cinema, and he had the honor to work with Lee on four
films, including Inside Man. Matty found Lee's approach to film to
be incredibly unique. Lee would decide scenes with multiple cameras
could become one camera done in one shot, or plan that a single
camera scene should be done with multiple cameras and angles. Matty
thinks that as a DP you are a collaborator and need to be present
as a fellow filmmaker and not as a fanboy, so he resisted telling
Lee that Do The Right Thing was the reason why he went into film.
Matty also got the chance to work with another hero of his,
director and cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, who shot Do The
Right Thing, on the film Never Die Alone. Matty teamed up again
with director Darren Aronofsky on The Fountain, an incredibly
surreal sci-fi love story that takes place across space and time.
It was a big challenge for Matty to bring Aronofsky's vision of The
Fountain to life, bouncing ideas off Aronofsky's astrophysicist
collaborator, who described what other universes might look like.
By contrast, their next movie together, Black Swan, was a stripped
down thriller, focused on taught performances and choreography.
Black Swan earned Matty his first Academy Award nomination for
cinematography. Surprisingly, working on the first Iron Man movie
felt to Matty just like working on a giant independent film. With a
comedic star like Robert Downey Jr. and an experienced comedic
director like Jon Favereau, the two often reworked the script
before shooting scenes. Matty had never worked on a project with
such a large budget, and he helped create the look of the Marvel
cinematic universe. When Matty heard Straight Outta Compton was in
developement, he immediately asked his agent for a meeting with
director F. Gary Gray, because he was such a big fan of the hip-hop
group NWA. The film is about the origins of NWA's
generation-defining album and the story of the band, but it was not
a straightforward biopic, and Matty wanted to make sure the movie
had the right look and feel for the era. For 2018's A Star is Born,
starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, Matty and Cooper, who also
directed the film, wanted to pay homage to the other two versions
but Cooper's take on the story was definitely different. They
decided to feature more musical performance in their version, and
early into shooting, Cooper changed the ending so that the main
character, Jackson Maine, doesn't die in a motorcycle accident.
Matty found that Bradley Cooper has the ability to clearly explain
what he sees in his imagination, and his acting experience enabled
him to be aware of where the camera was positioned so he didn't
have to watch playback of his scenes. Matty's film, The Prom, can
be streamed on Netflix. He is currently shooting the film, Don't
Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde. Hear Part 1 of our
interview with Matty Libatique: https://www.camnoir.com/ep120/ Hear
our 2019 interview with Matty Libatique:
https://www.camnoir.com/ep33/ Find Matty Libatique: Instagram
@libatique Find out even more about this episode, with extensive
show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/ep121/ Sponsored by Hot
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