Among the DPs profiled in this issue’s Cinematographers & Cameras Series is Eigil Bryld who shot the first 11 episodes of House of Cards. Bryld’s work on the pilot earned him a primetime Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Cinematography For A Single-Camera Series category. House of Cards garnered a total of nine Emmy nominations, the others for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Directing For A Drama Series (David Fincher), Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing For A Drama Series (Kirk Baxter, ACE), Casting, Music Composition, Original Main Title Theme Music, Lead Actor and Lead Actress In A Drama Series.
From this week’s Cinematographers & Cameras feature story as well as this year’s ongoing The Road To Emmy coverage, the collaborative nature of filmmaking and the pivotal contributions of the cinematographer are crystal clear.
Discussing what Bryld brought to Netflix’s breakthrough House of Cards, showrunner/executive producer/writer-creator Beau Willimon–who works closely on the series with executive producer David Fincher (director of the pilot and the second episode)–observed that the DP took “a very classicist approach. No pans. No unmotivated moves of the camera. No long lenses. No Steadicams. A very specific color palette. Puts the acting first and foremost–doesn’t try to ‘create’ energy with the camera. Let’s the action dictate the motion.”
Willimon added that Bryld “mostly worked with the directors using a visual language he created with Fincher that was consistent throughout the series. Our interaction was about discussing the feeling of given scenes, and sometimes practical problem-solving if we were short on time or had to switch a location unexpectedly. Or talking about ways to shoot a recurring location or set differently to keep it fresh.”
In terms of Bryld’s impact on him as a writer, Willimon said, “At a certain point you start to see the way Eigil would light it and shoot it as you write. You get a sense of his frame, his mood. It informs the writing because you start to think cinematically…Eigil has a deep, expert sense of craft but more importantly, he brings a creative vision to it that elevates the drama. He is nimble and adaptable when necessary. He never thought of this as a ‘TV show.’ He thought about it in terms of cinema.”
“Mickey 17” Tops Weekend Box Office, But Profitability Is A Long Way Off
"Parasite" filmmaker Bong Joon Ho's original science fiction film "Mickey 17" opened in first place on the North American box office charts. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Robert Pattinson-led film earned $19.1 million in its first weekend in theaters, which was enough to dethrone "Captain America: Brave New World" after a three-week reign.
Overseas, "Mickey 17" has already made $34.2 million, bringing its worldwide total to $53.3 million. But profitability for the film is a long way off: It cost a reported $118 million to produce, which does not account for millions spent on marketing and promotion.
A week following the Oscars, where "Anora" filmmaker Sean Baker made an impassioned speech about the importance of the theatrical experience – for filmmakers to keep making movies for the big screens, for distributors to focus on theatrical releases and for audiences to keep going – "Mickey 17" is perhaps the perfect representation of this moment in the business, or at least an interesting case study. It's an original film from an Oscar-winning director led by a big star that was afforded a blockbuster budget and given a robust theatrical release by Warner Bros., one of the few major studios remaining. But despite all of that, and reviews that were mostly positive (79% on RottenTomatoes), audiences did not treat it as an event movie, and it may ultimately struggle to break even.
Originally set for release in March 2024, Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning "Parasite" faced several delays, which he has attributed to extenuating circumstances around the Hollywood strikes. Based on the novel "Mickey7" by Edward Ashton, Pattinson plays an expendable employee who dies on missions and is re-printed time and time again. Steven... Read More