\tThe making of \u201cNickel Boys\u201d \u2014 a film that follows two young Black boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), as they navigate a brutal reform school \u2014 presented a unique set of circumstances for cinematographer Jomo Fray. While Fray always wants his camerawork to feel vulnerable, director RaMell Ross\u2018 vision of shooting the film with the camera\u2019s first-person point of view blurred the usual roles on set, meaning that Fray would directly interact with the actors. <\/p>\n
\t\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just shooting Aunjanue [Ellis-Taylor] playing Hattie,\u201d Fray told Variety at the film\u2019s Los Angeles premiere on Monday night. \u201cWhen the camera needed to imbue Elwood\u2019s consciousness, if I was operating, it was about taking that in and seeing the image, not as Jomo, but as Elwood \u2026 Having that physical intimacy fundamentally changes the way you make images.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\tBefore making the film, Ellis-Taylor, whose character Hattie is Elwood\u2019s grandmother, never felt comfortable working with cameras. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t \t\t\tPopular on Variety\t\t \t \t\t \t \t\u201cI had to let go and let the universe handle it \u2026 Hello cameras!\u201d the Oscar-nominated actor explained on the red carpet at the DGA Theater. \u201c[In the film], I had to make them as a proxy for my grandson. That was uncomfortable, difficult and frustrating but it was working, hopefully, because that\u2019s what Hattie was feeling. She felt removed from the love of her life, so we had something in common.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t\t\t\tAunjanue Ellis-Taylor at the Los Angeles premiere of \u201cNickel Boys.\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\tEric Charbonneau\/Amazon MGM Studios via Getty Images \t\t \t \t\t\t \tThroughout the film, based on Colson Whitehead\u2019s 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Ross also uses archival footage to juxtapose Elwood and Turner\u2019s abusive experience at Nickel Academy (which subs in for the real Dozier School for Boys in Florida, where more than 100 students died from abuse) with the social and technological advances of the \u201860s, like the Civil Rights Movement and the Space Race. As a filmmaker, Ross explained, his approach is to let the form emerge from the content.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI think that gave us permission to use the Dozier School Boys images from that document, which then opens up the film to other archival footage,\u201d Ross said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t let us hold steady to notions of fiction film that may close off possibilities and connection with the audience and the real world.\u201d \t<\/p>\n
\tWhile the film\u2019s unique perspective required extensive rehearsal and camera tests, Wilson and Herisse were able to naturally develop their friendship outside of filming.<\/p>\n
\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t\t\t\tBrandon Wilson and Ethan Herisse at the Los Angeles premiere of \u201cNickel Boys\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmazon MGM Studios via Getty Images \t\t \t \t\t\t \t\u201cIt serviced what we were able to do on screen in such a beautiful way,\u201d Herisse said of bonding before they arrived on set. \u201cBecause when it did get to exploring those characters, so much of it is already given to us, so all we have to do is to go in and explore and be open with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFred Hechinger said that the experience of watching \u201cHale County This Morning, This Evening,\u201d Ross\u2019 Oscar-nominated 2018 documentary, changed the way he thought about an image\u2019s power, so he was keen to sign on for \u201cNickel Boys.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhen I read RaMell and Joslyn [Barnes, the film\u2019s co-writer]\u2019s script and talked with RaMell about it, I just felt adamant,\u201d Hechinger said. \u201cThere are those experiences where you\u2019re like, \u2018I have to be a part of this.\u2019 Where you can\u2019t imagine a world where you\u2019re not \u2026 You just feel that this is going to be the kind of creative experience that will change you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t \t\t\t \t\t\t \t \t\t\t\t\tFred Hechinger at the Los Angeles premiere of \u201cNickel Boys.\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmazon MGM Studios via Getty Images \t\t \t \t\t\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The making of \u201cNickel Boys\u201d \u2014 a film that follows two young Black boys, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), as they navigate a brutal reform school \u2014 presented a unique set of circumstances for cinematographer Jomo Fray. While Fray always wants his camerawork to feel vulnerable, director RaMell Ross\u2018 vision of shooting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieetv.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}