I might go on about Danny’s brilliance as a director and, yea, sure, I probably fawn over Alex and his brain a lot, but do you want to know who blows my mind? Alwin Kuchler the Director of Photography (DOP).
There are a very few films I’ve seen where I am awed by or even notice the DOP’s work. Every shot Alwin does, however, is a piece of art. I’ve been on set when after Danny calls ‘cut’ there is this murmur that spreads ‘how does he do that?!’ ‘that was remarkable!’ ‘Alwin is amazing’. Sometimes after watching a shot on the monitor I’ve actually been left speechless.
Apparently, the company who process the film got in contact to say there was a problem- the shot was all blurry and burnt-out or something – and were taken aback when they were told ‘no, there’s no problem, that’s how it’s supposed to look.’
There isn’t a single shot I’ve seen that can be called ‘normal’. He’s using and playing with light in such a way that it distorts the shots. He’s shining lights and lasers directly into the lens. He’s shooting through warped glass. He’s using reflective materials and shining extremely bright lights into it. There are flares and burn-out and over-saturated colours. Yet still… it’s dark…
Alwin Kuchler, the Lord of Darkness.