Cinematical sat down with Wally Pfister who has been a longtime partner in cinematography with Christopher Nolan. He was asked about 3D for the 3rd Batman, and says Nolan and himself havent ruled out the possbility of shooting it in 3D - "What Chris and I have talked about is doing something cool and something interesting," Pfister said. "Brad Bird was saying' you've got to shoot the whole thing in IMAX!' I was like, yeah, I've talked to Chris about that." The whole thing in IMAX? Pfister acknowledged the whole thing would be cumbersome, given that parts of the Dark Knight were shot in the formant and went on to say “"I did it for one shot of The Dark Knight because he said, you have to say you did it, and literally I had this strapped to my shoulder and I was carrying it. But I think Chris is game for doing something interesting like that, Lord knows that the 3-D fad might pass by the time that summer comes around."
Will be interesting to read the full interview, given that neither Nolan nor Pfister have much interest in 3D and a further of Pfisters comments have appeared on AICN – Which are as follows!
- Pfister, just like Nolan, does not like digital cameras: "The image quality of film" exceeds that of the high end digital cameras like "the Genesis camera and the Red camera." He said that he and "Chris [Nolan] are 'devotees' of film."
-- Because of his and Nolan's feelings toward Digital Cinema, Pfister does not want to shoot in 3D. He actually had some pretty harsh things to say about the format, he says that "it's great for like amusement park rides like the 'Honey I Shrunk The Kids' ride at Disneyland." He said that 3D is not realistic and "it's a distraction. Can you imagine Memento in 3D? With Joey Pantoliano's glasses sticking out 'a few feet' with his hair all the way back there?"
--Pfister said that he met with Brad Bird a few days ago and that Bird told him that his teenage sons thought that the IMAX used in The Dark Knight was more realistic than the 3D in these new movies.
--He loves the clarity and latitude that shooting in 65 mm and in IMAX gives him. He can "underexpose by as many as 5 F-stops and overexpose by two. The digital cameras can't do that."
--His heroes include: Gordon Willis, Stanley Kubrick, Roger Deakins, and some French cinematographer whose name is escaping me. He also mentioned loving the cinematography in Terrence Malick's films.
--Tips for shooting digitally: "If you really have to shoot daylight [exteriors, you have to] use as [much] soft light as possible. Shoot at magic hour: Dawn and Dusk. Stop shooting in the afternoon."
--Although he loves the image and large frame provided by IMAX in The Dark Knight, he would much "prefer [everything] to be in 2.35:1"
