By Robert Goldrich|Road To Oscar Series, Part 2

LOS ANGELES --

Cinematographer Dion Beebe’s working relationship with director Rob Marshall dates back to Chicago, the winner of six Oscars, including Best Picture, in 2003. Their collaborations have helped to define bringing musical fare to the big screen, from the dramas Chicago and Nine to the upcoming fantasy Into the Woods, slated for release on Xmas Day.

Also in Marshall and Beebe’s shared filmography–and outside the musical genre–is Memoirs of a Geisha for which Beebe, ASC in 2006 won the Best Cinematography Oscar as well as the ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in a Theatrical Feature. Beebe additionally earned ASC nominations in 2010 for Nine and back in 2005 (shared with DP Paul Cameron) for the Michael Mann-directed Collateral.

Beebe recalled how he first came together with Marshall. The DP was in London when a feature he was working on got postponed because its star, Winona Ryder, was arrested for shoplifting. The circumstance put Beebe on hiatus in the UK for a couple of weeks as producers scrambled to keep the project afloat; one night he was headed to take in a London stage production of Bob Fosse’s Chicago when he got a call from his agent about a script–the feature film adaptation of Chicago with Marshall attached as director.

“When I saw the production in London, I thought to myself, ‘How in the hell are we going to turn this into a movie?’” recollected Beebe whose concern was later eased when he met Marshall over the phone. “We talked for about a half-hour and hit it off–based on that conversation I felt better about bringing Chicago to the cinema. Rob had gotten his hands on some obscure showreel I put together some years ago and he thought I’d be right for the movie. A few weeks later we met up in New York and it was like walking into A Chorus Line as he was casting for Chicago, working with incredible dancers and singers. I realized that from his work in stage, dance and theater, Rob was a master in choreography–not just for a musical but for the movements of actors. Rob’s ability is not confined to musicals. His understanding of choreography, of movement, applies to all filmmaking. He uses movement to advance the story. He’s simply a wonderful storyteller.”

Marshall and Beebe’s latest teaming is on the movie adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical (from Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine) Into the Woods, a modern,  magical, heartfelt twist on several beloved fairy tales. Lapine also wrote the screenplay for the film which interweaves the stories of Cinderella (Anna Kendrick), Little Red Riding Hood (Lila Crawford), Rapunsel (MacKenzie Mauzy), and Jack and the Beanstalk (Daniel Huttlestone)–all tied together by an original tale of a baker and his wife (James Corden, Emily Blunt), their wish to begin a family and their interaction with the witch (Meryl Streep) who has put a curse on them.

“Always a big part of my early discussions with Rob [Marshall] was the fantasy world we were creating,” related Beebe. “We had to find a sort of visual style to represent the woods. We built these woods on a big stage in London and blended them with the woods on location. The huge ambitious lighting of our stage woods had to be carried over to the location. Rob and I had to identify the look of the woods–the shape, color and the light and how the light would work. We made some stylized lighting choices with shafts of light cast through the woods. There’s a fairy tale element to the light and how it works through the trees, particularly at night in the Black Forest. We wanted a magical place but at the same time a place where the characters could be grounded. It was important to put that fantasy world on firm ground.”

Beebe deployed the ARRI ALEXA XT with Panavision anamorphic lenses on Into the Woods. “The camera helped us capture the scope of the woods, the wide format,” said Beebe.

Asked to compare his experience and the creative challenges posed by the Marshall-helmed musicals Chicago and Nine with those he encountered on Into the Woods, Beebe observed, “For Chicago and Nine, we transitioned from dialogue and dramatic spoken pieces to the music. For Into the Woods, the songs begin in mid-sentence–dialogue and lyrics are together. It’s a fantasy but the songs are part of the reality we are in. And it was an incredible reality to watch this remarkable cast. It was a joy and a privilege to watch performers like Meryl [Streep], Emily [Blunt] and Anna [Kendrick] at work.”

As for what’s next, at press time Beebe was headed to Sweden to lens the thriller The Snowman, an adaptation of the Jo Nesbo crime novel which is being directed by Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy).

Dariusz Wolski, ASC
Like Beebe with director Marshall, cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, ASC, has enjoyed a close working rapport with director Ridley Scott. “The first time I worked with Ridley was on Prometheus and then The Counseler–two dramatically opposite films, from sci-fi to contemporary cinema, and now we have moved onto an historic epic.”

The epic Wolski alludes to is Exodus: Gods and Kings, which brings new life to the story of the defiant leader Moses (Christian Bale) as he rises up against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton), setting 400,000 slaves on a monumental journey of escape from Egypt, which is besieged by deadly plagues.

While taking on an such an iconic story is inherently fraught with challenges, Scott was undaunted, related Wolski. “He’s done twice as many films as I have–and I’ve done a lot. Ridley is such an enthusiastic filmmaker. I’ve never seen anybody like him. His energy, how he can get excited about a frame, a shot, a light. He’s involved in a constant process of things changing while he looks for the best scenario. And once we get there, he shoots the scene so that actors can just take off and do what they do best without interruption. Ridley knows what he’s doing, where he wants to go and how to get there. At the same time he absorbs every suggestion. He’s extremely collaborative.”

Wolski went with the RED Epic on Exodus, noting that it provided a measure of flexibility and portability for even this 3D movie. He also related that for Exodus he and Scot departed from the soft light, beautifully back lit norm. “We used a lot of hard light for the Egypt that we built on set at Pinewood Studios. We were intentionally uncosmetic with hard light, which made the scenes and the movie look real. We didn’t go for an overly stylized look but rather a realistic look. Ridley has a great eye for what looks right and real. And that’s where I came in to help capture that realism.”

Exodus: Gods and Kings is slated for wide U.S. release on December 12. Meanwhile at press time, Wolski was in Budapest prepping another film with Scott–The Martian with a cast that includes Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig and Kate Mara. The film is based on Andy Weir’s best selling novel about an astronaut–left for dead and stranded on Mars–who struggles to survive.

The Martian comes on the heels of The Walk, which Wolski shot for director Robert Zemickis. The film tells the story of Philippe Petit (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the French high-wire artist who attempted to cross the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

Wolski was nominated for an ASC Award back in 1996 for Crimson Tide directed by Tony Scott. And in 2009,  Wolski won a Special Award at Camerimage for his Immense Contribution as a Polish Cinematographer to the Art of Film. His filmography also includes director Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Alex Proyas’ The Crow, and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Alice in Wonderland.

This is the second 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 December and January print issues (and PDF versions) and on SHOOTonline.com.  The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards. The 87th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 15, 2015. 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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