*Cinematographer Bradford Young is likely to score an Oscar nomination for his latest work on “Arrival,” which boasts some of the most visually arresting imagery you’ll see in a film this year.
His previous work on films such as “Selma” and “A Most Violent Year” caught the attention of director Denis Villeneuve (‘Sicario’), and Young describes their collaboration as, “the perfect collision of two artists coming together who really wanted to figure out how to collaborate with one another.”
In a recent chat with EUR/Electronic Urban Report, Young said the director, “was really high on my list of someone that I really wanted to work with.”
“The script was out and about, and they were looking for some cinematographers, and they had their list of folks who they were interested in, and the script came to me through my agent. I read it — liked it, and that’s how it kinda… fell in my lap.”
“Arrival” is based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. The sci-fi drama stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, and Forest Whitaker, and has grossed over $140 million worldwide.
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“Arrival” has been praised for its storyline and atmosphere, which Young describes as “melancholy.”
“It’s really sort of one of the mantras of the film: simplicity and melancholy,” he says. “It’s what you would imagine it would feel like when people are questioning their own mortality. Especially when people are questing the mortality of their children.”
In the film, a dozen extraterrestrial spacecrafts appear across the Earth, and linguist Louise Banks (Adams) is tasked with learning why they have come. Young says he didn’t have much input in the production design, but noted that, “the way the ship was designed had all of the elements I would have suggested had I been involved with the process early on.”
In order to translate the director’s vision, Young provided Villeneuve with photographs by a Swedish artist as reference for what the “misty” world in the film should look like.
“I kinda presented those really early on. Once I did that, he approved it,” he says. Young then had to do his, “due diligence to make sure I could actually film that look throughout the film. Those photographs were so simple and so mundane, and it was just trying to make sure that we could make a film that could reflect the same quality of the photographs.”
Young and Villeneuve didn’t explore any new technology in terms of cameras, but they did push “the boundaries of what we could do with lenses” in order to “create an interesting texture.”
“We used a particular kind of lens for what we call the procedural part of the film, when she’s decoding the language and she’s in the ship, but then we used another set of lenses that were very old and sort of less responsive for all of the flashbacks, or flash forwards with her daughter.”
“Arrival” is the first foray into science fiction for director Denis Villeneuve, and he’s following it up with the remake of sci-fi classic “Blade Runner.”
Meanwhile, Young serves as the DP on the anticipated Hans Solo movie, set to open on May 25, 2018.
“Its all so new for me. I never imagined that I would be doing this film. I’m just trying to make sure I’m staying true to my voice, cause that’s why I’m there and that’s why they brought me there.”
Young says the Hans Solo project is also an avenue for him to continue “practicing some of the things that I enjoy doing with photography and cinematography.”
He describes the young Hans Solo film as a “massive gig” that’s also a “very nurturing family environment.”
“I feel very encouraged, but I do have to remind myself that it’s a collaboration. There are a lot more moving parts on these kinds of films than there are on smaller films. Every day it’s me chipping away at what I’m hoping will become a film that has its own particular voice.”
Watch below the new featurette celebrating Bradford Young’s work on “Arrival.”
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