On the basis of Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Emmanuel Lubezki ASC, AMC earned his seventh career Best Cinematography Oscar nomination and fifth nom for the ASC Award recognizing Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Feature Films.
Lubezki won his first Oscar last year for Gravity. He was previously nominated for A Little Princess in 1996, Sleepy Hollow in ‘99, The New World in 2006, Children of Men in 2007, and The Tree of Life in 2012. He has won the ASC Award three times–for Children of Men in ‘07, The Tree of Life in 2011 and Gravity in 2014. His first ASC nomination came in 2000 for Sleepy Hollow.
Birdman (Fox Searchlight Pictures) marks Lubezki’s first feature collaboration with director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, for whom he lensed various commercials over the years. In addition to Lubezki’s nod for Cinematography, Birdman garnered nominations for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (Iñárritu, Nicolas Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Jr., Armando Bo), Actor in a Leading Role (Michael Keaton), Supporting Actor (Edward Norton), Supporting Actress (Emma Stone), Sound Editing (Martin Hernandez, Aaron Glascock), and Sound Mixing (Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montano, Thomas Varga). The nine nominations tied with The Grand Budapest Hotel for the most for a single film this year.
Birdman stars Michael Keaton as a washed-up actor who’s famous for portraying an iconic superhero (Birdman). He tries to shake that comic book type casting as he struggles to mount an esoteric Broadway play. In the days leading up to opening night, he battles his ego and other inner demons while attempting to recover his family, his career and himself. The movie plays out as if it is one continuous scene with one scenario moving right into the next, a seemingly constantly running camera approach that’s designed to depict how people see the world around them.
While hindsight is 20-20 and in this case yields a view of critical acclaim and nine Oscar nominations, Lubezki initially wasn’t all too eager to shoot Birdman–although he very much wanted to team on a feature with Inarritu. “When we first talked about Birdman, he told me he wrote the movie thinking it should appear like it was done in one continuous shot. Once he said that, I thought, ‘I don’t want to do this movie.’ I had just finished a very challenging film, Gravity, with very long and complicated shots, and I didn’t want to repeat myself and jump right in again on something so complicated. Also, I distrust ideas like that–it sounded horrible. Wanting to do a movie in one shot sounded like a gimmick–like an acrobat doing something cool but with no meaning. Then I read the script and I softened a bit. I liked it but still not enough to say, ‘yes, I really want to do it.’”
This changed, though, “once I sat down with Alejandro and he shared why he wanted to do Birdman, who the lead character is and his relationship with his daughter. I have daughters and little by little Alejandro was convincing me. I got closer and closer to the idea of shooting the film. I was dying to work with him for many years. The first feature we talked about doing was The Revenant but that fell through. So he came back with another project, saying, ‘I’m not sure you’re going to want to do something like this.’ That project was Birdman.”
SHOOT caught up earlier this week with Lubezki who is now shooting the since resurrected The Revenant, marking the second straight feature he’s shot for Inarritu. The Revenant stars Leonardo DiCaprio.
Lubezki described Birdman as being “the daughter or son of modern times. We would have not been able to make it on film. The takes were so long, which made digital technology the way to go. A clear video assist allowed Alejandro to analyze everything about the scenes. I needed a small camera–doing handheld long takes with a heavy camera wouldn’t have worked for me.”
After testing various cameras, Lubezki went with the ARRI Alexa. “It had the most dynamic range, which is usually what I care about more than other factors. Some care more about resolution. Some care about high speed. To me the most important is dynamic range and the Alexa was the right fit [for Birdman].”
Lubezki noted that Birdman was “one of the most challenging movies I’ve known. Nothing is written about how to do a movie like this. Alejandro was going against all common knowledge about how to make a comedy. This was a great experiment. Many times when we were doing the movie, we felt we were on the verge of catastrophe. Now to see Birdman so well received by the industry and audiences is fantastic. The Oscar and ASC nominations make you feel that all the madness paid off.”
Lubezki has also found helpful his experience directing commercials. “The more things you do as a collaborator, the more you can bring to the next movie. I’ve found directing to be enriching, helping my cinematography and collaborations.” Lubezki is handled by Park Pictures for spots and branded content.
This is the 11th in a multi-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies, SHOOT’s January print issue (and PDF version) and on SHOOTonline.com. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards. The Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.
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