Clive Owen stepped from one complicated filmmaking
process to another when he went from Sin
City to Children
of Men. Gone are Sin
City's green screens. In their place is a series of long takes
capturing vast action sequences from a single point of view.
Interview: Clive Owen on Children of Men
"It’s one of the elements of making movies that I actually really
enjoy," said Owen. "I love the collaboration of doing shots like
those in Children of Men because there’s something
about filmmaking that, if it was just about putting great directors, great
scripts, and great actors together and you’re guaranteed a great film,
that’s one thing, but that isn’t the case. There aren’t
any rules and there’s something sort of elusive that’s out of
any individual’s control that makes a film work or not work and when
you’re doing one of those hugely ambitious long sequences of one shot,
it’s a genuine collaboration. It’s everybody pulling together
to try and make something happen and the responsibility is a collective
one."
Normally, if an actor misses his mark, they can do another take, but were
that to happen at the end of a 10 minute battle sequence, there'd be no
chance to start over. "The strongest memory from the movie was how
much, how closely I had to work with the [camera] operator on those sequences
because we would rehearse for a very, very long time and it was very painstaking
and specific, but then when we come to shoot it, it has to feel like we’re
catching it on the run. You’ve got to feel like you’re in the
thick of it. And it’s all about pacing. If you hold a beat a bit too
long, it will suddenly feel a bit manipulative like he’s held there
so we see the tank just over his right shoulder so we work very, very specifically
about what we want to see and what we want to catch. And then when we go
for it, we’ve got to shape that up and keep an energy that is much
looser than that. And they’re very adrenalized those sequences because
there’s huge resets. It’s like, some of those big ones are four,
five-hour resets to try and go again for a take like that. So everybody
is very adrenalized gearing up to go in for one of those takes and there’s
something just a bit magical."
Children of Men
Children of Men
Children of Men
Children of Men
Of course, they wouldn't just keep going if a take
was really lost. "Somebody’s there to abort if something early
on goes wrong. There’s no point in going on and carrying on and blowing
up the side of that building if very early on there’s something that
is obviously amiss. No, it was really about rehearsing very, very thoroughly
and then it was very cool of Alfonso because he then hands the trust over
to George and I that we’re going to sort of do that thing. And one
of the takes of the big sequence at the end going through the thing, there
was a unanimous sense at the end of that one that that was the one. Alfonso
was then very worried because the blood spattered on the camera and Emmanuel
Lubezki said, ‘But that’s brilliant. That’s brilliant.’
But collectively at the end of that take, there was a sense – George,
I, everybody – like that was it, we nailed that one. And Alfonso decided
in the end we’re going with it because it worked. That was the best
take."
Children of Men is out in theatres now.
For review, stills, posters, trailers and full synopsis, go to the Children
of Men Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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