Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Here’s another reader who was at the Michael Mann/Tom Cruise/COLLATERAL event on Friday. My sister-in-law was there, but her whole report to me was “I MET TOM CRUISE! HOLY SHIT, I MET TOM CRUISE!” which hardly seemed like it needed its own article. We’ll leave it up to The Earthling to describe what went on:
Harry,
Tonight I attend the L.A. Film Festival's program "Michael Mann's Los Angeles: Realizing Collateral" at the Pacific theater in Hollywood. Extended scenes from the film were shown as LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan moderated, and director Michael Mann and star Tom Cruise talked about the making of COLLATERAL and offered some Q&A. Thought you might be interested in the highlights.
The majority of COLLATERAL was shot digitally, as it turns out, with only a few interiors being shot on film, and Mann went on to talk about the benefits of the digital medium over film. His primary focus for shooting in this format was "seeing into the night" and apparently a great deal of R&D was spent on achieving certain looks for a film that takes place entirely after sundown. Very little lighting was used, apparently, and a great deal of the film's overall look and color was actually keyed into the camera itself, much like you might do in Photoshop; something he says film can't do without lab processing. However, he went on to say that the technology moves so fast that all his hard work will probably be available at Radio Shack in the next 18 months, but at the time of shooting the digital techniques they utilized were rather groundbreaking. Have no fear, Mann's eye for detail has not been lost in this format. The images are striking, as to be expected from this director.
One sequence shows Jamie Foxx's character, "Max," getting harassed by his boss at dispatch for reportedly damaging his cab; something Cruise's cold-blooded character "Vincent" is responsible for, (remember the body getting thrown out a window in the trailer and landing on top of the car). Foxx has already become Vincent's hostage at this point, but in this well-written scene the assassin comes to Foxx's aid, grabs the radio, claiming to be a district attorney, and threatens to sue the cab company for "taking advantage of a working man." Defusing Foxx's boss, Cruise then binds the poor cabby's hands to the steering wheel and leaves him there while he goes inside to whack a guy. Foxx tries to summon help by hitting the horn, and unfortunately for him a gang of white "supremacist types" approach, (of all people) threaten to kill Foxx and proceed to rob him, taking Vincent's briefcase from the back seat in the process. Needless to say, Foxx is having a pretty shitty night.
But as the thugs leave, Vincent comes out and coldy, but politely, asks for his suitcase back. The leader of the gang pulls a gun on him and gets in his face, at which point Cruise swiftly and ruthlessly eliminates them all. The shooting sounds were turned up extremely loud, most notably the bass, making the gunfire particularly deafening and more violent. Cruise then warns Foxx that "involving others will only get innocent people killed who don't need to be." It's a great sequence.
They also showed a shootout scene in a club that was equally well orchestrated. Vincent's target is a certain Asian businessman surrounded by bodyguards, whom Cruise picks off in rapid succession one at a time in front of hundreds of people. Mark Ruffalo is convincing as the cop intent on capturing Cruise, but Ruffalo just so happens to be on the assassin's hit list as well. I won't spoil the outcome but it doesn't disappoint. The theater was packed and it was a pity we all couldn't see the entire film, especially after being baited by such intense sequences.
Finally, I have to admit being impressed at how eloquent and intelligent Mann was, with great command of the English language, and a vast knowledge of specifics and little known facts about the city of Los Angeles and its diverse culture; all right at his fingertips. Location scouting is a big part of his filmmaking process and he broke off at one point to talk about the making of HEAT in Los Angeles as well, and they even showed some scenes from that film.
Cruise then talked about meeting Mann for the first time 15 years ago and how they have been wanting to work together ever since. Mann commented on the star's abilities as a gifted actor and told an interesting story about how Cruise did this exercise where he would look at Mann, never taking his eyes off him, all the while unloading his handgun, stripping it apart, then reloading it to make the gun "field ready" as he simultaneously told a different "made up" story from Vincent's troubled childhood. Of course, this all goes into the background of Cruise's character but it is something we never actually see played out on film. Everyone was impressed.
It's too bad really that audiences in general don't know more about what it takes to bring these images and performances (from the cast and crew on down) to the screen. Only in a setting such as this are the rest of us ever made privy to what really goes into making motion pictures, (quality ones at least) and how extremely well crafted they are. It's a cliche, I know, but films of this sort really are Art.
Anyway, it sucks we all have to wait until friggin' August 6th to see COLLATERAL. But there it is.
Best,
TheEarthling
P.S. And for those talkbackers who will think me a plant, I'm not.
Just a guy who works for a little non-profit organization and happens
to love the movies.
Thanks, man. Sure would be nice if they showed the whole movie sometime soon like, say, later this week, and we got a whole bunch of reviews of it. Yep... sure would.
"Moriarty" out.
