♪♪
Foreman: Keep moving!
Foreman: Get that rock outta there!
♪♪
What you see on camera, it's a hard thing to explain, but it
set me into a mindset of the seriousness of the material.
Will Smith: It's like these environments are talking to me.
♪♪
This movie looks completely different than any other film about this subject matter.
Antoine Fuqua: Aesthetically and also the journey that Peter went on.
The idea is that in every frame it’s evocative and informative.
Trying to capture the beautiful and the brutal in the landscapes of Louisiana.
It really is an energy.
You can really feel it.
♪♪
Naomi has done a brilliant job of recreating the reality of that time.
Todd Black: From building the horse-and-buggy carts,
Todd Black: recreating slave shacks,
Todd Black: to building the railroad site,
Todd Black: to building the battlefield. On and on and on...
I love Naomi, she’s so passionate.
Antoine Fuqua: You give Naomi direction, she’ll build you the world.
The windmills pump water,
which then goes into the cistern,
which then feeds the, um, steam cars when they come through.
Naomi Shohan: I build in shots, lighting when it’s interior.
I build in a lot of stuff
Naomi Shohan: that a cinematographer can then discover.
He is my strength,
and my defense.
Overseer: That still ain't fast enough!
He has become
my Salvation.
Naomi Shohan: I am completely motivated by the way
that the story is going to be received by the world,
Naomi Shohan: but I measure my own success on whether it shoots well.
(Grunts)
(Chains clanging)
♪♪
For me as a cinematographer,
Robert Richardson: I search for something extraordinarily real.
Robert Richardson: Antoine and I felt that what had been accomplished in the
Robert Richardson: past with color is something we didn’t want to repeat.
Robert Richardson: So we looked for a palette that was black and white,
Robert Richardson: yet allowed certain colors to come out of it.
Robert Richardson: So it’s not a completely black and white,
but it’s a heavily desaturated feel, a grittier feel.
Will Smith: The desaturation of the film and the look,
that was really critical for capturing the brutality.
Robert Richard: Peter’s constantly on the run,
so his camera is virtually always the same:
Robert Richardson: always in motion.
♪♪
Dodienne: (French Creole)
♪♪
The scenes in which we’re shooting Dodienne,
Robert Richardson: we slowed it down, and were more stable,
Robert Richardson: so that you have the fixture and a more
Robert Richardson: structured background for her
Robert Richardson: in combination with the race that’s taking place between Peter,
Robert Richardson: trying to avoid Fassel and his men, who are hunting him down.
Runner.
(Bell rings) Runner!
Little girl: Runner! (Bell rings)
(Bell rings) Runner! Runner!
(Bell rings) Little girl: Runner! Runner!
Runner! Runner!
♪♪
Well I’ve always been a history buff.
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: I’ve always been interested in the origin of things,
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: why things are the way they are.
Francine kept it honest as far as the
Antoine Fuqua: wardrobe and the look.
♪♪
There were fabrics back then, they were called “Negro cloth,”
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: now called "Osnaburg," and it is a rough grain, very scratchy.
So I like the fabric, but let’s get something that is a bit more comfortable.
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: And that’s where I really wanted to go with cotton and linen blend.
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: Peter was running from these vicious
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: people who are trying to capture him.
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: To go on that journey with him, we actually had seventy shirts,
seventy trousers—all of these things had to have a multiple of seventy with his first outfit.
(Dog barks)
The first time those iron collars got put onto my neck,
Will Smith: it was like comprehension slightly beyond your rational mind,
Will Smith: where things come through that you haven’t thought about.
Will Smith: It was like stuck on my neck for probably fifteen minutes.
People were running around looking for a key to get it off of my neck,
but Peter was being beaten while he had it on his neck.
♪♪
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: To see my journey through this industry
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck: as a Black woman, and a Black American woman,
I think my ancestors would be very proud.
Antoine Fuqua: Obviously we still deal with things today,
but I think part of healing is trying to find some truth in it.
Antoine Fuqua: And so that’s my journey.
Antoine Fuqua: That’s the journey that all my crew came to join.
Antoine Fuqua: So hopefully that’s what we did.
♪♪