By Fred Topel | Images property of Columbia Pictures.
Forest Whitaker portrays the everyman's point of view in Vantage Point. As a tourist in Italy during a political summit, he is videotaping the president's speech when he captures an assassination attempt. Miraculously, through all the action, the camera remains intact.
Whitaker Explains His Vantage Point
"That's a really good handicam," bragged Whitaker. "It's like a HD camera as well. It's got some high resolution."
Alas, Whitaker was not actually the cinematographer when we see what his character has recorded. "They posted that in later. I shot it all along the way but I think they wanted to shoot it with a different camera, so they shot it with a regular HD camera and they shot it without me too."
With eight different points of view to portray, Whitaker held that camera up for a long time, but it was not the most physically strenuous act of the film. "It was okay. It was all right. The running was tougher than holding my arm. The running was mostly days and days of running, chasing behind people and stuff."
Vantage Point
The crowd sometimes involved 5,000 extras, but Whitaker handled them like a pro. "People were pretty nice. It wasn't a problem really for me. Everybody was pretty cool. They were controlling them pretty well too, as far as what they needed to do. They were pretty focused. They were really working hard to be actors, so I think it kept the focus."
Add to Heffee!
