How Cinematographer Steve Yedlin Shot Netflix’s Darkest Benoit Blanc Mystery ‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’

benoit blanc mysteryDubbed by Netflix reveals secretsDetective stories are visually inviting. Rian Johnson’s films allow the audience to play the role of detective not only in the whodunit story but in the presentation of the crime. Every sight and sound captures and ignites the audience’s imagination, questioning every little thing.

This is part of the charm of the latest addition to the series, wake up dead manwhich belongs to Father Jude (Josh O’Connor) Story. Johnson and his longtime cinematographer, steve yedlinPicture another search for the truth – this time the death of Monsignor Wicks (josh brolin) – with a Gothic and, almost God or a spy-like, observing eye.

Recently spoke to Yedlin what’s on netflix about inner shadow and light wake up dead manCreating the puzzle pieces, and the end of the movie.

---

When you and Ryan Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) create a mystery, does it start from scratch every time? Or are those elements that you both want to keep consistent through these films?

On all of Ryan’s films, even just these films, we don’t have big photographic rules that we apply to everything. Let’s roll up our sleeves, sit down and design exactly how to tell this story in the best way and be evocative of themes and time and place and space and all of that. And so, to the extent that there is continuity, it does not mean that we are in any way binding ourselves. It’s even more so because it’s us who are solving the problem of how to best tell the story. There will be some similarities and verses because it is the minds of the people who are understanding it. Although there are things that are very different, things are always the same. The fact that you have this group of characters who, at times, are standing in a place where we keep coming back to a circle and thing, sometimes they’re the same type of puzzle that we’re solving.

What are the problems that need to be solved in those design conversations?

Because Ryan and I have worked together for so long, and we’ve been friends since we were 17, 18 years old, we’ve had our whole lives watching movies, talking about movies. We don’t spend too much time talking about any overall thing and get right down to it. Depending on what the challenges of a specific location are, we are always going to be limited rather than growing. It’s not so, WHate this idea? What about that idea? We know what Ryan is trying to do. We are still figuring out the details.

For example?

The last shot of the film where the sun is emerging from behind the clouds or vice versa. And when we’re inside the church, inside the rectory, and in the last shot of the movie, there’s the sun and that thing. [which drives the mystery] It is in a position. Ryan wanted to do this shot that started wide and went deep.

We couldn’t hide stuff inside the church because you have to see the whole church. The window coverings were very dark, meaning you could only do this if there was actually any light coming through the window, so there were only a few spots you could reach because you couldn’t move it. If you take it too far, you will only hit the window casing and it won’t be able to get in.

Specifically for this, we actually did a test where we said, “Here’s how we can hit talk Actually through the window. Let’s see if Ryan and I like it, and if not, we’ll really push the schedule to the point where it’s the last thing we do and we’ll cut a hole in the wall. It turned out that it was actually OK to come through the window, but we checked to make sure.

Another scene in the church that I wanted to ask about was the meeting between Blank and Father Jude. How did you and Ryan determine the movement of light coming in and out of the church?

Well, that’s what we’re doing throughout the entire movie. The first one between Jude and Blanc is one of the funniest. Blank comes in and it’s sunny and he has two speeches about two approaches to faith that are laying the groundwork for the entire character’s interactions throughout the movie.

As Blank gives his speech about the argument on conviction the sun goes away and it becomes this dark, steely cloud, and then as the judge gives his rebuttal speech the sun comes out from behind him and is shining off the lens. Because we did all this work in preparation for making it, the technical part was already taken care of so we could focus on what we really wanted when we were shooting.

How did you notice this?

I have this custom light control software that I’m operating on. I can only make very subtle changes. Ryan knew, okay, when the clouds cover the sun, when Blank starts talking, it will be short. And then when the judges give speeches, it’s going to be very long. With Blank, it’s almost setting the stage for it, whereas with Jude, it’s coming out during that period. We need it to be programmatic, repeatable, reliable where it’s happening on the same lines and in the same duration and for every shot and every take so they can edit the movie together. And also that its credible actors are giving these great performances. We can’t be like, “Oh, sorry, the light queue isn’t working. Can you start again?” It all needs to be repeatable, reliable.

Given that the pace of Ryan’s films is so unique, does he give himself many options for posting knives out movies?

Ryan knows how he’s going to cut it, and it’s not like, “Oh, this doesn’t work, and we’re always figuring it out.” But I think sometimes people think that means you don’t get any options, but it’s the opposite. When you actually shoot it that way, it really gives you more options until something is really a go or usually if you shoot something with a really clear plan of how it’s going to cut together and what it’s going to feel like. Even when you either change the idea or just need to refine the idea to be more suited to it, not less.

Do you and Ryan have a common philosophy about how to best tell a story when your group gets together? What are you looking for?

Well, it’s about feeling the dynamics of how everyone is in the space and how they relate to each other. We very consciously didn’t want it to fall into the ’90s TV cutting pattern, where it’s literally a bunch of close-ups of people isolated in the frame, and then the edit goes to one head being replaced by another. This is not interesting. It doesn’t tell the story of how everyone relates to each other, to the place, and to the drama of the scene.

The other thing is that when you have a lot of people in a scene, especially when they’re vaguely in a circle and all facing each other, it’s easy to get really messed up with the stage line and then get out of control. We need this person with that perspective. Now we don’t have this person from this side. And then when they look at each other, when these two people look at each other, the stage line changes for them.

What we try to do is maintain a strong line throughout the scene. There is a big struggle here. It’s OK if individual shots cross their line, and we even break that rule sometimes, but we try to keep the big line to the right, to the right. It’s okay if individual lines, if someone glances at someone, it’s okay if their own line is wrong, as long as it’s correct for the main stage line.

We’re adding little shots here and there like, oh, you know what? This person takes a look, let’s take a look at him. We usually don’t do that for that one look because of their short stage line. If their stage line is wrong for that one look, it’s okay. The reason we’re actually adding a shot there is because we want to connect them, maybe in the shot that we have of them. It wasn’t about whether the stage line was right or wrong, it was that when they turn their head, they’re actually in profile and that’s a moment where we want to connect with them, and that’s why we’ll do additional shots more than the stage line.

When the truth finally comes out, when a confession is made, how would you like to see Martha Delacroix’s (Glenn Close) story come to light?

Well, there’s a big scene right near the end in the church where I did this work where she really feels kind of tied up and lightheaded. This was inspired by the idea that all the light was filtering through the church windows and bouncing onto the floor. It was also a bit dramatic and high realism.

How great is the line that creates dramatic realism?

It sounds contradictory to describe it, but when you get into the scope of it, it actually makes more sense than doing either of the other two things yourself. If you don’t have anything to hold on to, you can spiral. If a poet has a meter, a foot, and a rhyme scheme that they’re trying to fit things into, it’s not necessarily a straight jacket. This is where creativity comes from and you have to adapt it to that.