Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1097515
22 DGA QUARTERLY We're shooting in New Jersey because I wanted to see Manhattan in the back- ground so that we understood we are no longer in New York. Will is in the background because he's the rookie. What I like about this shot is that it plays out the scene in different depths, with Tommy in the foreground and Will in the background. I find that wide-angle lenses are funny and long lenses are handsome, but not funny. The challenge here is you want a wide lens that doesn't make New York so distant and small that it be- comes unrecognizable. This feels like a 35mm to me, maybe a 27mm, which is an unusual choice for me (I'm usually on 17mm or 21mm). Comedy plays out best in a master shot or in a two shot because you see action and reaction in the same shot. They've stopped Redgick, an alien who's traveled outside of his jurisdiction. I per- sonally feel that wide-angle lenses, which require the camera to be close to the actors, let the audience feel they are right there with them, whereas long-lens movies can be emotionally dis- tancing. The wide-angle Panavision Primo lenses curve straight lines a bit, and the distortion is funny. I love Redgick's outfit—this suburban shirt—and Mrs. Redgick is dressed like an out-of-town yokel. Redgick says: "It's my wife. She's, well, look," and we track to reveal his wife in labor in the back. B A R R Y S O N N E N F E L D H A S highly defined views about the craft of comedic filmmaking, all of which he brought to bear when conceiving what became his fa- vorite scene in Men in Black (1997). The film sees Agent Jay (Will Smith) and Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) unlocking the mystery of why all the aliens living secretly disguised as humans on Earth are suddenly fleeing. On Agent Jay's first day on the job, he and Agent Kay track an alien (Patrick Breen) to New Jersey to discover that his wife is about to give birth in the backseat of a car. Sonnenfeld's concept for the scene was to augment the comedy of the situation by accomplishing two things in one frame: In the fore- ground, a deadpan Jones would interrogate Breen while, in the back- ground, Smith would be flung around by the alien tentacle. Sonnenfeld wanted to do it all in one shot without ever cutting to coverage angles or close-ups of Smith reacting, or to what's happening in the car. "What I loved about designing the shot was that it allowed the audience to find the comedy," he says. "It's a very specific style: self- conscious and proscenium, flat to the camera even though Tommy and Breen are in the foreground and the car is further back. Because there are no cuts [and] the camera is locked down, it's like a stage play, and slightly storybook. It's a very specific style that you see throughout the movie—every frame sort of square to the lens. While he was preparing to shoot, Sonnenfeld showed story- boards to executive producer Steven Spielberg. The only difference from one panel to the next was the tentacle throttling Smith in the background. "Steven starts turning the pages, and the only thing that's chang- ing is the guy up in the air hitting the hood," recalls Sonnenfeld. "I assumed Steven would say, 'You've gotta cut to this, and then I wan- na see this, and then you gotta have a low angle.' But he kept laugh- ing and laughing, and then put them down and said, 'Perfect.' And that was when I knew it was going work." PHOTOS: (TOP) GETTY; SCREENPULLS: COLUMBIA PICTURES S H O T T O R E M E M B E R Never Leave the Shot DURING AN ALIEN BIRTH ON MEN IN BLACK, BARRY SONNENFELD KEEPS THE FRAME MOSTLY FIXED, ALLOWING THE AUDIENCE TO FIND THE COMEDY | BY ROB FELD 1 1 2 2