But you know, they just direct (and write, and produce, and more or less a million other things). But their movies wouldn't look nearly as good if it wasn't for this man:
No, wait, I mean this man:
Crap, that's not right either. Let's see here...
No...
No....
Close, but no.
That is Francis Mcdormand. She is not a man.
YES. That's right.
Who is that guy? Keep moving your eyes to the right. It's Roger Deakins. Who is he? No one special, he only makes every movie he touches look totally rad and awesome and [young american lingo].
He's been the Coen Brothers' Cinematographer slash D.P. since Barton Fink, which was a weird movie that I think was supposed to be about hell or something.
But yeah, he's really good at what he does. Remember the opening for No Country For Old Men? He did that. And it was beautiful. Forget youtube, watch it on a good TV. Don't even bother clicking that link.
Whenever you do watch it, notice how dry everything in those shots are. Seriously, if you could take the desert and somehow make it a shot from a movie, it would be any given one of those. It makes my mouth dry whenever I watch it. Be a sport and get me a sunkist.
He also did Fargo, which makes sense seeing as how it was after Barton Fink. Have you been paying attention? Huh!? Here's something from it:
The majority of that clip isn't what interests me (I'm a waffle guy), it's the first two shots. Remember how No Country For Old Men was dry and hot? Well Fargo is dry and FREEZING. Look at that place. It's a desert. Just with snow instead of sand. No one likes sand.
"I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth."
-Anakin Skywalker
And that cold goes on FOREVER. Look at the second shot. Geez. Fargo and Pluto are apparently the same place. Fun fact: The Coen Brothers could probably buy Pluto.
It's easy to lose perspective in all that snow. It all looks completely two dimensional it that opening shot. Which is how everyone besides William H. Macy's character, Jerry Lundegaard, sees his crime. It's completely inept and executed awfully by his "henchmen", and isn't discovered before too long at all.
But yeah, Roger Deakins. He's a master. This guy does everything with a camera, and makes it look amazing. Here he is seen sitting down with two sisters, probably about to blow their minds. They feel silly because they forgot Roger Deakins needs two chairs wherever he goes. They will correct this for future gatherings.
This guy also sums up exactly what I feel whenever I'm shooting something:
"Things usually work out better than you plan. When you're shooting a film you're so close to it, it rarely lives up to your expectations while you're there. You always want it to be better, more perfect. When you see a cut, maybe two or three months later, you come to it fresh. It's generally much better than you thought it would be."
I'm a fairly cynical person when shooting. And I think I may be an irrational perfectionist. I'm constantly telling myself how something can always look better and that I've had a terrible idea and should probably start over with something completely different. Maybe different lighting, or different gels, or the addition of Roger Deakins (just kidding, I always think that). But once I sleep on it and come back fresh, I feel much more like an outsider and usually finding myself impressed with the shot. Or at the very least, it doesn't look as terrible as I had originally thought.
So, to wrap up, conclude, terminate, and otherwise end this pile of words about a guy who rocks, go look up everything he's done. You've probably seen more of it than you think. Here, I'll make it easy for you with
"Keep moving your eyes to the right" is the funniest line on your blog.
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