MAN ON FIRE

Greg Gross · September 25, 2004

Has anyone had opportunity to view Man On Fire yet?

Director-Tony Scott

DP- Paul Cameron

I thought the color saturation and contrast in the low lit interiors was just

awesome. Framing and use of camera was just superb. Story was told well

with camera. Everything contributed to story and it just kept moving.

Mike Williamson · September 28, 2004

I enjoyed the film as well, saw it a few times in theaters and bought the DVD when it came out, though I've now heard there's a special edition being planned, arrghh! I posted on it on this board under "Cinematographers", heading of the post would be "Paul Cameron", so there's some discussion there of Cameron's style.

Personally, I'm blown away by a lot of the film that have been shot in South America because of the vibrant color palettes they use. The first film that caught my eye was "Frida", but there are a number of others, "City of God" of course, "Before Night Falls" I remember being very interesting as well. "Man on Fire" has another take on that type of color palette, very beautiful again.

The low lit interiors were pushed two stops if I recall (shot on 5284), which probably helped to bring that saturation and contrast to those scenes.

DavidSloan · September 28, 2004

The more I watch for lighting and image quality, the more I'm disocvering that the pushed look is what I love. Doyle and now Cameron. Something about the ruggedness of a pushed image just gets me.

Rolfe Klement · March 23, 2005

To bring this post back to life...

I can imagine the stress at Dailies if there were any inexperienced producers in the audience - saying "umm - is it supposed to look like this?" :)

I just watched the DVD a couple of times. I think it is very inspired by the shooting style of "PowderKeg" one of the BMW short films - not the one that Paul Cameron shot. All handheld crash zooms etc. They even used the same song at the end.

I thought the lighting, exposure was fantastic (one of the best in a long time.) The operating was technically fantastic but sometimes detracted from beautiful performances by Denzel, Christopher and the young girl

I have some questions for anyone who knows about it - it looks like Company3 did loads of Inferno work on the film. And I was wondering if anyone knew what was done in camera and what in FX. I am aware of Pauls love of push and Fuji.

Has anyone a list of things done in camera. It looks like handcranked in some places, intentional eyepiece fogging, some focus stuff which might even be mounting the lens into the body while filming (unless it is an inferno FX) , Cut (EDL'ed) to keep in flashes

Lots of grads on the lens - or once again maybe TK or Inferno FX, Neg Scratching, Off the point - Some very nice ADR work (in the car with Chris Walken)

Focus pulling must have been a nightmare - did they use Cinetape? Lots of handheld on long lenses and ND'ed right down - looks like T2ish on 85 or 100mm's. Did the op pull focus for themselves - as is the case with some doco DOPs

What did everyone else think and any detailed information would be great. I would like to do a test and shoot something similar for a music video I am doing in April - so any feedback would be well appreciated!

thanks

Rolfe

Michael Nash · March 23, 2005

The 1st AD I'm working with attended a DGA screening/discussion with Tony Scott. Aparently there were a great deal of practical and in-camera effects done, including hand-cranking. I wish I could be more specific, though.

DavidSloan · March 24, 2005

That film really had an impact on the cinematographic community. I haven't seen bold work like that since: In The Cut. Bless Cameron. If I find out anything I'll be sure to post it.