The key shooting style is to have the camera in the background of the story. Director of Photography Roger Deakins "1917" [Director's Interview Vol.54]

create one cut

Q: What was the most difficult thing about making the entire film look like one cut?

As with any work, not just 1917, it's all about how to place the camera in order to connect each scene. This is the most important and difficult thing. What determines this is technology and creative ideas, but first of all, the former is something. Most technical problems can be overcome by gathering talented staff, challenging them, training them, and rehearsing them frequently.

The problem is the latter: what kind of collaboration should the actor and camera have? Or what should we focus on? What images do these images conjure up in the viewer's mind? Decisions about these things are the key to the quality of the work. This is the most difficult. This work differs greatly from other works in that it begins with deciding on the script.

Q: So, did you decide on the collaboration between actors and camera before filming began?

In the case of this work, what was most different from other works was the block rehearsal. In a typical movie, blocking (accurate movement and positioning of the actors to facilitate the performance) is decided with the actors on the morning of the scene, then rehearsed, and then the actual shooting begins. However, in the case of this work, this had to be done at the pre-production stage. In other words, when the actual shooting began, the shooting plan had already been made in detail.

In other words, I decided what kind of set I wanted after considering the movement of the camera. That means we have to decide on all camera movements from the stage where we only have a script. This is my first time doing something like this (lol).

Q: How did you decide on the visual image of your work? Please let me know if you have any references.

Regarding the visuals of World War I, I did a lot of careful research. I had a lot of discussions with Sam as well as the production designer. Among all the materials, one black and white photograph grabbed my attention. A number of soldiers are just standing in a casual place, and a young man among them is staring at the camera. He seemed at a loss. I thought that photo was everything. It touched my heart so much that I thought that this is what I wanted to convey in this work.

I'm not saying that's all the inspiration for this movie, but I think it was at least my inspiration.

There are no easy scenes!