*Sigh* Wally Pfister Calls THE AVENGERS Appalling And Illogical

Surprise, surprise. Wally Pfister, the outspoken anti-3D cinematographer for Christopher Nolan has well, spoken out once again. Embarrassingly so in my books. I was trying to keep Pfister out of my editorials because it's the professional thing to do. He's anti-3D. So what? While he's a dying breed he is entitled to his opinion after all. I truly believe that. However...

Pfister told the Sarasota Herald Tribune in response to their question "What's most important when shooting a movie?":

"What’s really important is storytelling. None of it matters if it doesn’t support the story. I thought The Avengers was an appalling film. They’d shoot from some odd angle and I’d think, why is the camera there? Oh, I see, because they spent half a million on the set and they have to show it off. It took me completely out of the movie. I was driven bonkers by that illogical form of storytelling."

It is my personal belief (shared by many others) that Pfister is way outside the bounds of professionalism by speaking out like this. Sure his THE DARK KNIGHT RISES work behind the camera is great, but petty words like this only cause people to imagine that he is deeply jealous of THE AVENGERS box office success and that the world has lovingly embraced 3D. AVATAR is number one. TITANIC (now with a 3D re-release) is number 2. THE AVENGERS is number 3. HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 is number 4. TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is number 5. All 3D. It's fact.

Dare I say THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY surpasses Jackson's other LOTR works? Moves into top 5 all time? Potentially. And yes, another 3D movie.

But it's not just Pfister's stance on 3D that's upsetting. He is bad-mouthing another learned cinematographer in Seamus McGarvey (and director Joss Whedon as well). McGarvey's list of achievements is amazing. Here's his background as taken from Wikipedia: 

[McGarvey] is an Irish cinematographer who began his career as a still photographer before attending film school at the University of Westminster in London. Upon graduating in 1988 he began shooting short films and documentaries, including Skin, which was nominated for a Royal Television Society Cinematography Award, and Atlantic, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, nominated for the 1998 Turner Prize. He also photographed and directed over 100 music videos, for such artists as U2, The Rolling Stones, PJ Harvey, Robbie Williams, Sir Paul McCartney, Dusty Springfield and Coldplay. In 1998, the British Society of Cinematographers invited McGarvey to join. In 2004 he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's prestigious Lumiere medal for contributions to the art of cinematography. His credits as a cinematographer include Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, starring Nicolas Cage, The Hours, directed by Stephen Daldry, starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore, for which he earned the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Technical/Artistic Achievement; the action-adventure film Sahara, starring Matthew McConaughey and Penélope Cruz, for which he won the Irish Film and Television Award for Best Cinematography; Along Came Polly, starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston; High Fidelity, directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Cusack; Wit, starring Emma Thompson, directed by Mike Nichols; Enigma, directed by Michael Apted; The War Zone; Butterfly Kiss; The Winter Guest; The Actors; A Map of the World; Charlotte's Web...

Atonement, for which he has received an Academy Award nomination (2008), a BAFTA nomination (2008) and the Technical Achievement award in the Evening Standard British Film Awards for 2007 and won the 2008 Irish Film and Television Award for Best Cinematography; A 2007 television advert for Chanel's Coco Mademoiselle campaign; and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency directed by Anthony Minghella. In 2008 he shot The Soloist for director Joe Wright in Los Angeles. He shot "Nowhere Boy" for director Sam Taylor-Wood and reunited with director Joe Wright for the short film Cut. He shot the acclaimed Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, starring Tilda Swinton, in New York and Connecticut for which he won the 2012 Irish Film and Television Award for Best Cinematography. He shot The Avengers for director Joss Whedon which is the third biggest grossing movie of all time. He recently shot Anna Karenina for Joe Wright.

...And Pfister thinks McGarvey's highest grossing work is appalling and illogical. Right. Personally I think Pfister should take a long dark stare into a mirror before saying things like this - then again, that mirror may remind him of 3D camera rigs.

All this flying in the face of die-hard Marvel fans and the millions upon millions who paid to see THE AVENGERS in the theater. We all loved an appalling movie it seems. Illogical. Think about Marvel and Disney who have to put up with his comments just as their AVENGERS discs have gone on sale in advance of the upcoming holidays. Warner Bros. should step in here and settle this man down. Poor taste, Mr. Pfister. Very poor taste.

Sources: Sarasota Herald Tribune | Box Office Mojo | Wikipedia
 

MUST WATCH: Cameron, Fincher, Scorsese, Lynch, Soderbergh And More - Talk Filmmaking In Keanu Reeves' SIDE BY SIDE Outtakes!

This documentary is a must see in my books. Keanu Reeves is going directly to the source with this no holds barred approach to understand what is happening in today's filmmaking community. 

Of course 3D, high frame rates, digital vs. film are all going to be huge topics - but to see these titans discuss their bread and butter makes for extremely interesting viewing.

Keanu Reeves of course has his 3D samurai epic 47 RONIN opening in February, 2013.

The videos I have below include outtakes from Reeves' discussions with James Cameron, David Fincher, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Steven Soderbergh, Wally Pfister, Robert Rodriguez, The Wachowskis and John Malkovich.

And these are just the outtakes! The content in the edited documentary must be totally enthralling.

Oh and I have Soderbergh leading into Wally Pfister's clip by design. I think you will see why.

If you have managed to see it, let me know your thoughts! You can view now on iTunes.

Nolan's DP Wally Pfister Puts His Foot In His Mouth. In 3D No Less.

Wally Pfister, director of photography for Christopher Nolan on THE DARK KNIGHT and INCEPTION, obviously he knows what he is doing, right? Well yes, in 2D anyway. A genius even in 2D.

When Pfister compares modern 3D to a viewmaster and to IMAX, either he is being extremely ignorant of just what modern stereoscopic 3D is or he is just being abrasive? Perhaps he is getting hot under the collar because he has to answer so many questions to do with the subject. Who knows for sure?

Obviously a viewmaster is a VERY layered device. To throw all of modern 3D into that small box is indeed quite ignorant. Films shot in native 3D like AVATAR and TRON: LEGACY are far from looking through a viewmaster and are revolutionary movies that should be revered as trailblazers, not a child's toy. Perhaps he was speaking to solely 3d conversions and in that case he may have a slight semblance of a point. Pfister does not specify what brand of 3D,- so naturally the lay reader will throw them all together into just 3D. Shameful. This coming from a professional cinematographer no less.

3D vs. IMAX? Again an ignorant statement. They are not competing formats whatsoever! In fact quite often IMAX movies are shown in 3D and the two are very much intertwined. Pfister says: "I must say I'm a huge IMAX fan. I like IMAX more than I like 3-D." Is he actually trying to get consumers to think that if they like IMAX they shouldn't like 3D? Shameful.

BATMAN 3 will be a 3D movie guys. I don't know this for sure of course, but quite frankly I like how James Cameron words it (paraphrasing): It is in reverse somewhat now. It should be that filmmakers are approaching the studios with their reasons for making a movie in 3D, but in many cases today the studios are demanding 3D. In other words, DPs and directors have been sitting on the fence and not taking action to pick up 3D preemptively. Now they are suffering the consequences and are fighting the tide. Too late.

So it will be with Warner Bros. vs. Wally Pfister. Who do you think will emerge the victor? Consider that Warner Bros. is betting the bank on 3D and that all future tentpoles will be made in stereo. Who pays for the whole shot? Not Pfister. Consumers want 3D - they have spoken through an open marketplace.

If I were Wally Pfister, I would start embracing 3D as a valid medium. I would be careful what I say in public. When he said "Are you really getting more out of the story with 3-D? When you separate those different planes and you’re creating artificial depth, it looks phony to me.", do you think he knows what he is talking about? Is he talking about conversions (bad ones at that) or native 3D? Why is he not clearly defining the difference for the lay person? He must not have seen AVATAR as there was nothing phony about how Cameron was able to draw us into the movie through 3D.

If I were Wally Pfister, I would go get some 3D schooling no matter how embarrassing it would be with his experience. 3D is here, it is staying and will continue to dominate. Get over it. At least Christopher Nolan is much more diplomatic about it and sees what the end game really is: He will be creating a 3D movie at some point in the future.

I find it shameful that posts like this need to be written at all. When movie professionals stop spewing fear, uncertainty and doubt to the general public, I guess I can relent then. I count Pfister right up there with Roger Ebert. Congratulations on that Wally.