‘Birdman’ creators on rehearsing the labyrinth-like film
A few minutes into Alejandro G. Inarritu’s black comedy “Birdman,†it becomes apparent that the camera has yet to blink. Over the course of its two-hour running time, the film somehow maintains the high-wire act, never visibly cutting away until the climactic final moments.
Inarritu and his collaborators — including cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and star Michael Keaton — have remained tight-lipped about how exactly they pulled off the feat, but it’s clearly a combination of expert camera choreography and exhaustive rehearsals, with some digital polish applied.
A new video exclusive to the Los Angeles Times offers a glimpse into how the filmmakers conceived of the setting, which snakes around the stage, hallways and exterior of a Broadway theatre, and how the actors learned to inhabit it.
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“It was a very hard rehearsal process,†producer James W. Skotchdopole says. “We had to literally walk through every scene of the movie and know where [the actors] were going to stop and know where the doorway needed to be, so we actually built the set around the scenes.â€
In the video, Keaton can be seen side-by-side in the rehearsal space, delineated by rows of hanging black cloth, and the finished set. Everything had to be “precision perfect,†the actor says.
Watch the video above for more.
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