Name: BAFTA winning Sam Mendes breaks down tense action scene from award winning '1917' - BBC
Uploaded: 2020-03-26T06:10:40.000Z
Duration: 4 min 4 s
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You go into this room that's sort of lit by the flares outside,

and the complexities of the timing of the flares - that exercised us

We, in a sense, constructed the set in order to create the shadows.

just after the technocrane's pushed through it, and floats down.

The cameras then unhook from the technocrane...

..and then operated by two grips, who follow George down the road.

In the reflection of the puddle on the right there

you can get the flares overhead, and as that goes out,

it reintroduces you to Schofield, who's walking away.

And there's this feeling of triumph, that somehow, even though

he's still stumbling blindly on, and he's going to succeed.

Then, out of nowhere, from the same place that's firing the flares,

you hear these off-camera shouts and these gunshots.

When you're in the cinema, all you hear is his breathing

And then we built in this moment where we pan around as he throws

himself down on the floor, and the two grips climb onto

a small jeep, which accelerates away, pointing obviously the camera

backwards off the jeep, as he runs towards the camera.

And he times it, so that as the light just begins to die,

And again we go into darkness, and again the flare goes up

And here, behind him, on the wall, is a little homage to my grandma.

That is a poster for the circus, because my grandmother

grew up in the circus, in South America, in the '20s and '30s.

There's a blend point when he crosses behind the wall

through the little... There's a little tobacconist.

The flares die and we go into this Main Street.

One of the things I said to Dennis Gassner,

the fantastic production designer, was you need to construct the town

as it would have been before it was destroyed,

so it has a logic to it, and then we can destroy it.

This is Main Street, leading into Main Square, um,

So, we knew where the tobacconist was, we knew where the cafes were,

where the rich people lived, where the allotments were.

And, of course, where the church is and the sort of slightly

cross-like fountain is in the middle of the square.

And you get this De Chirico landscape, this sort of...

These empty towns with these big shadows and big archways

that you feel like you've been to in a dream sometime.

and suddenly...he's open, out. This is the epicentre.

The largest lighting rig Roger Deakins has ever created.

I think it was something like 2,000 lights... That's stunning.

..which then was turned in by visual effects to a burning church.

Out of the brightness of it, just to the right there

emerges this shadow, and because the shadow is relaxed,

And the man assumes Schofield is a friend, until they get so close

And here, behind him, a small motorbike backs up...

and when George starts to run, the motorbike accelerates with him.

There was a fair amount of rehearsals there.

There's so much in that that was required,

You know, when he falls and then waiting for the flare to...

..at that right moment, and knowing when he's ready to move,

when the cinematographer's ready to move,

Does that excite you, or is it terrifying,

or do you like that...? Oh, I loved it. Loved it.

It's like, bloody hell, just for that one shot!

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BAFTA winning Sam Mendes breaks down tense action scene from award winning '1917' - BBC

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