Hold on to your hats boys and girls because this week on BEHIND THE LENS we’re going from the race track of 1960’s Le Mans to a modern-day Western thanks to GRAHAM PHILLIPS and PARKER PHILLIPS, and our exclusive interview with PHEDON PAPAMICHAEL.
First up, take a listen to our prerecorded exclusive interview with Oscar-nominated cinematographer PHEDON PAPAMICHAEL as he puts the pedal to the metal with FORD V FERRARI. Focusing on the friendship between legendary automotive designer Carroll Shelby and British race car driver Ken Miles, the film is set against the backdrop of the battle between automotive titans Henry Ford Jr. and Enzo Ferrari as Ford readied itself to compete against Ferrari’s award-winning racing team at Le Mans in 1966. Key to the high octane success of the film is Phedon’s work as he puts the moviegoer in the driver’s seat of the race car, making us feel the car corner on rails or catch the sun flares rounding critical course turns. Phedon and I go into great detail about the lighting and lensing of the film, including the challenges of eye-level camera placement with cars that stand no higher than 40 inches from the ground, feeling the G-Force through camera positioning, the use of close-ups, the priority consideration of using the camera to understand character emotion, camera and lens choices (and yes, Phedon shot with old Panavision expanded anamorphic lenses), reteaming with director James Mangold, along with some fun tidbits about the cars themselves and Phedon’s own knowledge and experience with rally race cars, and more!
And then we shift gears as we welcome GRAHAM PHILLIPS, “Prince Eric” himself from Disney’s “Little Mermaid Live!” tv special, and his brother PARKER PHILLIPS to talk about their new feature collaboration THE BYGONE. Co-written and co-directed by the brothers with Graham also starring in the film, THE BYGONE is an ode to the old westerns but more truthful in fact and events. Listen as we discuss the similarities of the oil pipelines and fracking occurring in North Dakota today with the Gold Rush of old while exploring the fate of Native Americans both then and now with the fate of the “Cowboys and Indians” tied together. With this serving as a backdrop to the film, with this story Parker and Graham explore the lawlessness that comes with the territory of greed and how it turns brother on brother and opens the door to the sex trade in the remote oil regions. All is told through the eyes of young rancher Kip Summer (played by Graham) as he navigates the waters of goodness and integrity in an ever-changing modern landscape. We dig into detail on the film’s beauteous production design and attention to detail which serves to a large extent as tacit exposition as it is exquisitely captured and brought to life through distinctive cinematography. Of course, the brothers also talk about their collaboration both on the film and in life. And we get a lot of insight from Graham into not only his performance as Prince Eric in “Little Mermaid Live!”, but the challenges and the process of melding a film with live-action and performance numbers in a live show. As you will hear, talk about a learning curve! And we learn a little known fact about Graham. He’s an admitted and avid gearhead!
