Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC

Roger,

How did you achieve those extremely high angle shots in which Jerry Lundegard is scraping the ice from his windscreen?

What sort of lens did you use on those shots too?

I was watching it last night and a question came to mind of how those shots were accomplished?

I'd love to use those sort of shots in the future...

Thanks,

Jamie McIntyre

Jamie, we just shot off a tall building overlooking the car park. I think we used an 18mm though it could have been a 25mm. We were shooting the old style Distagons then so we only had those two wide lenses - no 21mm.
We had scouted that shot and had some 50 cars ready to place in the frame. When I looked down from the building in the morning I suggested that the shot worked better as Jerry's lone car and the tracks leading to it.

Wow, thats first time I've heard of a DP having such effect on what i feel is an important shot. That particular shit set's the tone of the movie for me...

I'm not familiar with those lens'. What are they like to work with?

The Zeiss Distagons were good lenses. They opened to 1.3 so I liked them a lot for a film like 'Fargo' where I was trying to use practical sources as much as possible.

Roger wrote:Jamie, we just shot off a tall building overlooking the car park. I think we used an 18mm though it could have been a 25mm. We were shooting the old style Distagons then so we only had those two wide lenses - no 21mm.
We had scouted that shot and had some 50 cars ready to place in the frame. When I looked down from the building in the morning I suggested that the shot worked better as Jerry's lone car and the tracks leading to it.

I was reading in a book that the shot you are talking about had to do with Jerry's tracks representing his "crossroads." As I remember, there are tracks running east to west, and he drives past them before he scrapes the ice off. Was this all intentionally meant to be symbolism for his mental contemplation? The way you have it explains sounds like it wasn't thought out until the day of the shoot.

I have never read that kind of explanation for the shot being what it was. Was that in a French magazine???? His own footprints were important but that was separate from whether the lot was full or not.
When I set the camera I suggested to Joel and Ethan that they take a look at the image without the extra cars we had. They would have been covered in snow etc. but I though the shot was just more powerful without them.

Interesting. It was from this book: http://www.amazon.com/Cinematic-Storyte ... 193290705X

I'd photocopy the page but I just returned it to the library.

100 cinematic conventions every filmmaker should know!!! I'm dubious about any book with that premise.

Roger wrote:100 cinematic conventions every filmmaker should know!!! I'm dubious about any book with that premise.

It was actually a pretty neat book. It would explain a cinematic element like direction, size, or color and then give a good example of that element used in a film.

For example, they mentioned the opening of Strangers on a Train and talked about how direction (the protagonist walking left to right) naturally connotes a positive feeling for one of the two men.

That actually brings up a question (though off topic). Roger, do you follow the common convention to tend to frame the protagonist on the left side of the screen, and antagonist on the right? Many books talk about this, but you have stated many times that you don't like to be a slave to the rules.

For anybody who isn't familiar with this, basically it is common to place the protagonist on the left side of the frame and have their movements go from left to right, because apparently this will trigger a subconscious positive feeling for them. The reasoning behind this is that since we read from left to right (or at least in most languages), our eye is more skilled at following motion from left to right. Opinions?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

I recall an interview with the Coens from around the time of Barton Fink. Referencing the last shot where John Turturro is sitting on the beach with the box and the seabird dives into the sea in the background.

I believe they joked about a dissertation/Phd thesis to be written about the significance of the shot (seabirds in Coen Brother film language?) which was a chance moment.

I'm not saying that no thought goes into film-making, just that sometimes too much is read into things that just happen or seem right instinctively at the time.

There was a lot written about that Pelican at the end of 'Barton Fink'. Of course, nowadays it would be CGI.

I could never remember if the Indians were the bad guys and went right to left or left to right. They are, rightly, no longer the bad guys so have they changed direction? That would be interesting. Do bad Indians still go right to left? Do the bad guys come from the bottom of frame in China?

I think that screen direction is more often set by the location and how it works for the staging of the action and the light. John Ford could pick those wonderful landscapes and shoot them at the time of day he wanted so he could be a little more consistent with screen direction when he wanted to be.

And the Coens have yet to tell me what is in that box.

Roger wrote:And the Coens have yet to tell me what is in that box.

I figured the people who worked on the film would know; that's interesting. I wonder if they even have a definite answer.

I don't really think they do. I think they want to leave that to the viewer.

Fargo huh? Just wondering how the topic went from Jerry Lundegaard's tracks to the pilisophical question about birds in the Coen brother's films. I mean the transition to frame psychology makes sense, but birds? (sarcasm) Sounds like a Tarantino script.

Im just kidding around. But I actually had a question about fargo. Its a random question. Roger, do you by any chance know what happened to the Paul Bunyan Fargo sign? I know it was a prop only for the movie, but got any ideas where that thing went? I love that sign.

Thanks

At the end of one interview years ago, after being asked again about what was in the box, the Coens merely replied "the hat from 'Miller's Crossing'".