THE BRUTALIST PRODUCTION
LIKE BRUTALISM ITSELF, THE PHOTOGRAPHY
strikes a balance BETWEEN
minimalism & maximalism ”
handheld, Fellini-esque dance sequence. We show these moments of liberation and an ascent; the characters in some way reaching for the light.” CEMENTING THE VISION The decision to shoot on VistaVision was a bold one, and it came with its fair share of headaches for the team. Popular in the fifties, the system isn’t exactly designed for modern workflows, which might explain why The Brutalist is the first feature film to use it in nearly 30 years. In its time, though, it was groundbreaking. Unlike traditional 35mm film, VistaVision runs the film through the camera horizontally, with a significantly larger negative that delivers vastly superior resolution and detail. During its heyday, it was used on classic films like Hitchcock’s Vertigo and North By Northwest before eventually falling out of favour, usurped by less pricey, more practical systems like CinemaScope and 70mm. While Crawley embraced VistaVision’s ability to capture expansive, visually striking scenes, it created several challenges. “Brady wanted to put the VistaVision camera on a Steadicam,” Crawley recalls with a laugh. “That was a whole ordeal. We had to send the camera assistants to London for a deep prep just to make it workable.” Balancing the camera was also tricky. “Because the film runs horizontally, the weight shifts dramatically as it spools from one side
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