forgiving; you need more accuracy, you pick up more nuances. We moved up to 24 frames, I realize, because that’s the minimum to carry soundtrack. Fortunately, I found a way to survive, and it was successful. We’re in the beginning of something we don’t know what it is yet. 3D, digital cinema, frame rate with clarity. We don’t even know how to make a movie where you see clearly. It seemed full of potential, and very exciting. On the other hand, you open a can of worms.
“I don’t want filmmaking o feel like work. I want to give everything I have for this, and it becomes existential.”
Peter Jackson made the attempt to shoot HFR at 48 frames-per-second, and it took people
You will follow this with Thrilla in Manila, a fil
time to get used to it. Now, you’ve shot Billy
about the bout between Muhammad Ali and
Lynn in 120.
Joe Frazier, shot in the same immersive tech-
He paid for that himself, and I really admire the guy.
nology. Do you foresee yourself playing in this
But everything that has been done so far has only
sandbox for the rest of the films you’ll make?
just scratched the surface.
I don’t know. Each time you search, you find an wers and raise more questions. I find that in eresting. And
What is the payoff?
otherwise, it feels like work. I don’t want filmma -
An immersive experience. It’s more like how our eyes
ing to feel like work. I want to give everything I have
are designed to see. I think people are so wrong to
for this, and it becomes existential. I become the
see 3D and HFR as tricks that only hacks use for
movie I’m making. I live that life and I want to keep
action or spectacle. I think it’s the opposite. What
progressing. I also don’t want to do this and find tha
3D gives you is intimacy, and what 3D does best is
only people in fi e theaters can appreciate it. When
portray faces. I’m so eager to show that. That’s what
you can see things on a screen more clearly, your
3D is about, not action. We haven’t even gotten
mindset in making the movie becomes different. It
there yet. My Dinner With Andre should have been
all takes effort, and it takes time.
shot in 3D. A lot of the discussion about disruption has What most frustrates you when you are trying
been about initiatives like Netfli and Screen-
to break ground in 3D or with frame rates?
ing Room; alternatives to the movie going
Technically it’s hard because the industry doesn’t
experience. How do you feel about all this?
WHY DOES RYAN Coogler warrant a place
have a pipeline for this. You can get beat up really
I want to bring people to the theater, and give them
here as disruptor? He put himself on the
badly and you have to be independent. But then
a reason to go to the theater instead of watching
A-list by knocking on Sylvester Stallone’s
because it’s a little bit more expensive, you need a
at home. Something special, like when we were
door, until he wore Stallone down enough
studio, you need an ecosystem to help you. The big-
kids and you’d go to the theater and it was not
to entrust him with his greatest character
gest thing is the cynicism. People still look down on
casual. It was very exciting. I want to go back to my
creation, Rocky Balboa. The result was
3D, as if they won’t call it art so they can feel better
childhood, when I watched movies, and you have to
Creed, and Stallone’s fi st Oscar nomination
about themselves. So nobody really helps you except
raise your game to get people to feel that childlike
in 40 years. Coogler infused the film with his
your comrades, and you struggle technically.
innocence. It gets harder and harder to get people
ening ailment he watched his father bear. Coogler’s debut Fruitvale Station was
And then the next level of difficu y is the sci-
willing to believe in these fantasies. From day one, in
ence. We don’t have the equipment. Even how you
the dawn of history, this is what we want. We want
hold a camera and how you shoot, the physicality
to get together for some special event, something
all heart, and so will be his biggest job yet,
and how computers do this. We didn’t have a lab
that is theatrical, that is inspiring, that will make
bringing Black Panther to the screen with
until we invented one. It’s like reinventing the wheel
you cry over your feelings, and you share it. But you
Chadwick Boseman for Marvel. Here’s
and physically it’s hard to go from one step to the
have to give people good reason to do that. If they
screenwriter/disruptor Max Landis on why
next. You see, 2D is sophisticated, but 3D? We
can watch it on an iPhone, why would they go to
Coogler has earned his place here: “He used
haven’t begun yet. So that’s the fi st level.
the theater?
his outside-the-system movie, Fruitvale, to
The second level is, what are you doing artisti-
come in with such an intensity of emotion
cally? I’m pretty good at this, but who’s qualifi d
So the challenge in Billy Lynn is making me
that was relevant right now in America.
to use this for art? There is no 3D aesthetic yet.
feel, in a theater, what it’s like to be in war, and
And he came in and said, ‘Here’s what the
How do you invent that? All I want to do here is
in Thrilla in Manila, I’ll feel what it is like to be
new Rocky is,’ and he nailed it, and it fucking
move away from 2D and try not to think like a 2D
punched by a heavyweight boxer.
kicked ass. And now I think he’s just going
[filmma er]. It’s very difficu . The artistic part is
I hope so. I think there is a big difference in the
to get bigger and bigger, because he’s a
the next level of difficu y. Beyond that, what’s really
high frame rate in 3D and that is involvement. You
genius and everything he does comes from
hard is commercial applications. How to show it
engage in the theatrical experience as more of an
a complete place of real passion. He used
in the theaters, how to change viewing habits and
insider, rather than watching something else and
Fruitvale to break him in a way that if you
people, culturally. That’s the hardest thing. So tech-
peeking into someone else’s business. That’s the
say no to him, it becomes, ‘What are you, an
nology is fi st level, and the second is art. Above
biggest change with 3D filmmaking and we haven’t
asshole?’” —Mike Fleming Jr.
that is the commercial application.
quite gotten there yet. But we will. ★
RYAN CO OG L E R: RE X /S H U T T E RSTOC K
personal story of struggle, and a life-threat-
48 | D E A D L I N E .C O M
S2 - Disruptors - Lee.indd 48
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