October 2022

Lords of Illusion: The Prestige

At top, the movie’s magic show scenes gave Wally Pfister, ASC an opportunity to mix footlights (fitted with gas lamps) with spotlights  (HMI Lekos) in the various theaters used by the production. Unit photography by François Duhamel, SMPSP and Stephen Vaughan, SMPSP Cinematographers often invoke the art of smoke and mirrors, sometimes in a very literal sense, in their visual storytelling. The very science of motion pictures is a kind of cinematic legerdemain, with the director of photography serving as the magician who guides the audience’s eye to a precise area of the frame through the delicate balance of color, light and shadow. Academy and ASC Award nominee Wally Pfister, ASC has been practicing this...more