“Dune: Part Two” cinematographer Greig Fraser’s work on Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of the classic Frank Herbert sci-fi novel is so beautiful, every image he shot could be framed and hung on a wall — so that is exactly what they did.
A brand-new exhibit, Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Exposures,” runs until the end of the month at the Leica Gallery in Los Angeles, and highlights the work of the cinematographer (currently nominated for an Academy Award for his work). Along with photographs taken by Fraser, the exhibition features text by “Dune” star Josh Brolin. (If you can’t get to the gallery, you can pick up the photo book “Dune: Exposures,” wherever books are sold.)
TheWrap walked around the exhibit with Fraser, who talked about what the shoots were like, what made “Dune: Part Two” different and what his next challenge will be.
[Indicating to image of Rebecca Ferguson, hunched over, with Villeneuve talking to her] Where is this? I imagine in the big pyramid on Arrakis?
This is for the first film. It’s a scene that we shot for the first film. But what I love about it is it’s Rebecca in a very vulnerable place as Jessica, and him being his loveliness to her. Like, to me, this sums up an amazing director. That’s an image my mind sums up an amazing director.
He seems to be a master stylist that is just as attentive to the performers.
He’s beyond fantastic with the actors. One thing that I kind of pinch myself about is that I got to sort of bear witness to a masterful director doing at the top of his craft for two films. And it was amazing.
You have said you were purposefully trying to mix it up for “Part Two.” Can you talk to me about your philosophy?
We deliberately made “Part Two” more Imax-friendly. We really wanted to make sure that the texture came through, but also that we were in an Imax world, so we were really gunning for that large screen, big picture experience, much more so than on “Part One.” We use the Imax to tell Paul’s journey, basically from small, little sleepy Caladan to big city of Arrakis, coming out into the desert growing up.
[Now at a photo featuring the gladiatorial scene with Austin Butler, which was shot using infrared cameras] Is this infrared or just black-and-white?
Just black-and-white. It is a double exposure, though. It looks infrared. You know why, because the film stocks is all granulated, like it’s an old, expired stock. The emulsion starts to peel off and doesn’t sort of sit perfectly.
Can you talk about that scene?
What I love about it is that Denis and I went back and forth a few times about not doing it because it’s very much something you can not go back from. You can’t fix it. If we have a change of heart, we’re not fixing it. We went, shouldn’t we? And then we just went, F it. Do it. Because that’s exactly the type of spirit that this film means, which is, you roll the dice.
[There is a photo of Stellan Skarsgård, in full make-up, sitting in a tent.] Talk about this shot.
I just love the fact that it is so unglamorous. There’s a bit of a narrative that gets built around filmmaking, all the behind-the-scenes are a bit exciting and fun. But the reality is, filmmaking can be pretty relentless and tiring and bland. And you’ve got this, one of the greatest villains, I think, in history, naked, sitting in a tent with a fluorescent light.
How did Brolin come into this “Exposures” project?
As a photographer, I’m now coming up to having done this almost 30-plus years. I don’t get as excited by images as I once did, and I think that’s a natural thing, because if I’m making hundreds of images every day, then there comes a point where images themselves, by themselves, are not as interesting to me. But when I read Brolin’s writing, not for this, but I was reading some of his writing on Instagram, and he gave me some things to read when we were making the movie. It colored my senses. It tickled my senses. I went to see the Van Gogh exhibition with Josh at the National Gallery in London a couple of weeks ago. And whilst we all know Van Gogh is an incredible artist, I was more drawn to the writings on the wall about Van Gogh. And I think what’s beautiful about this, and his writing, is there is color to his words.
Was it something where when you were putting things together, you thought, Let’s get him in here. Or had he already written things that became contributions?
The book [and the exhibit] exists because we did it together. I feel like I’ve expelled my visual urge by making the movie, being the cinematographer, whilst these images, I feel are good, they’re really good, and I’m really proud of them. They are better with his writing. It’s the same reason why we need a film. A film isn’t just images, it’s images and story. It’s a combination of everything together.
