Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
40 DGA QUARTERLY PHOTOS: EVERETT we get more improvisational, based on the elements on set. Q: Do you like actors to improvise? A: We're very performer-orientated. We like to give actors lots of freedom. J: Having worked with improvisational actors on comedies for many years on TV, we've developed a muscle. A lot of times you have to play with a scene for two or three takes before you understand how improv can help shape structure. We sit with the ac- tors and writers for a few minutes, reshape the scene based on the improv, and then that becomes the new scene. It's not really a grab bag of let's-see-what-hap- pens every take. A: That can lead to dialogue changes, and it can lead to set changes. One of the amazing things about working at Marvel and having these kinds of budgets and visual effects capabilities, is we can change a lot on set and fix it later in post. It's an amazing tool, obviously. Q: Does that experimentation work even for a compli- cated action scene? J: Absolutely, as long as you understand what the beats are. A: If we're changing it, we're changing it within reason. Sometimes a stunt, even though you've re- hearsed it in a stunt gym, on set you have to respond to how it looks. You have to be adaptable. J: Take the fight between the Winter Soldier and Cap- tain America in Winter Soldier, where an elaborate highway sequence ends with them in a three-minute fisticuffs. We worked on that fight for months in a stunt vis, where players in a gym executed the fight. You get to set, and now you're burning cars, there's smoke, it's overcast. There's a tactile environment, a mood… A: The set is also a hundred yards long now. J: We don't dress the set according to where mats are placed in a gym. We dress based on what looks good visually. So we'll rehearse the stunt vis in the loca- tion, then start making adjustments based on what props are there and the setting. Does it feel long? Too short? Every fight illuminates character, so how are we doing that? What lenses are we going to use? We spent one day rehearsing it, changing it, adding mo- ments, taking away moments, and altering the cho- reography to fit the location, then the next few days shooting it. A best-captured action plan is to have the plan, then throw it away. Q: How do you decide when to use a low angle or high angle in a fight? J: We operate usually at a 45-degree skinny shutter or 90 on the skinny shutter depending on what our frame rate is. Q: Skinny shutter? J: It's a way you angle the shutter, and the way that the film receives light as it comes through. If you angle the shutter at 45 degrees or 90 degrees, it can create that flickering effect. If actors are executing a fight sequence, we tend to accelerate our frame rate to give it a little bit more pace. It allows them to be a little bit more intentional. So if we're accelerating frame rate, then we can't be at 45 on our skinny shutter. Typically, we'll revert to 90 on that. That's where you're getting that sense of pop and agitation. And we like it because it creates an aggressive image not dissimilar to what Spielberg did in Saving Private Ryan. It creates a skip frame, which allows punches to feel more aggressive. It allows people to feel like they're moving at a faster pace, and if you add foreground to that, you can create a much more dynamic frame, and a much more aggressive image. A: Basically, this is a style we developed on [our] first Captain America movie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Joe and I sort of fetishize action. We love it, and we study it very extensively. Q: Why would you choose a low versus high angle in a fight like that? J: Well, a low angle tends to be a more heroic angle. If you want to diminish a character, you tend to go high and down on them. But also, high angles are great for geography, and a sequence like that, when you're work- ing with that many characters, geography is incredibly important. The visual geography of these movies like Civil War and Infinity War and Endgame is really an art in and of itself, because you have to make sure the "On movies this big (the Avengers series), it's essential that the script is exactly what you want to shoot. It all needs to come from a document everyone can understand." —ANTHONY RUSSO