Wally Pfister, director/cinematographer PART 2: Inception, Moneyball, The Dark Knight Rises, winning an Oscar, moving into directing, and listener questions

We continue our conversation with Oscar winning cinematographer
Wally Pfister- don't miss Part 1. When much of the film world was
going digital, Christopher Nolan and Wally began to experiment with
large-format IMAX cameras. They had used the IMAX format for some
of the visual tricks on The Prestige, and Wally was excited to try
shooting more on The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. Wally
did lots of tests with lighting and specially created IMAX lenses,
which have a massive frame and shallow depth of field. Just after
The Dark Knight, Wally was hired to DP Moneyball with director
Bennett Miller. He decided to take a more dramatic and moody
approach for lighting the baseball games, rather than using
conventional, flat stadium lighting. After doing some tests, he was
able to convince Miller that the scenes still looked like a
baseball stadium, only better. Once Wally saw the script for
Inception, he knew there would be several logistical challenges:
shooting hand-held chase scenes in the snow, and of course, the
rotating hallway scene. Christopher Nolan still preferred to do
most of what was seen on-screen in camera, as a practical effect
rather than with computer generated VFX added later. Nolan wanted a
James Bond aesthetic for the film, with naturalistic lighting and a
loose, hand-held feel. It was Wally and Nolan's sixth film as a
team, so it was easy to work together during pre-production, even
while working out the most technical scenes. A huge rotating rig
was built for the famous gravity-defying hallway scene. Wally
installed practical lighting into the rotating cylindrical set,
with one camera affixed to the floor, so it does not appear to
rotate, and a second camera that rotated with the set. Wally won
the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Inception, after
being nominated four times. It was a huge honor, and he was very
proud of his work on the film. Once he'd won, it changed his life-
so much so, he decided to move into directing. He directed his
first feature film, Trancendence, starring Johnny Depp and
executive produced by Nolan. It was a huge challenge for him to let
go of being in control of the photography and to find the right DP
and a good camera operator. Since directing Trancendence, Wally has
enjoyed directing commercials. But on set, he'll still act as
director of photography, lighting the sets, and directing the
actors and the camera operator while watching on the monitors. Find
out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and
links: http://camnoir.com/ep102/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras:
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