Cinematographer Wally Pfister shares the journal he kept while filming the summer's megaremake The Italian Job in Venice.
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December 15, 2002
This evening as I walked though the historic square of St. Mark's Basilica, which dates back to 1094, the soft glow of the incandescent storefront lights of Venice warmed the otherwise bluish tones that engulf the square. The light in this city is a great inspiration. Though our time in Italy represents the final days of shooting, the bulk of work we're here to do is actually for the beginning of the film. In this part of the story, the characters played by Mark Wahlberg, Donald Sutherland, Seth Green and Mos Def pull an elaborate gold heist in Venice, only to be double-crossed by Edward Norton. This sets the plot in motion and spins it across the Atlantic to L.A. Because most of our work on the film is complete, the atmosphere is more relaxed than during our months in L.A. My wife, Anna, is with me; many members of my crew have spouses here, too, and a lot of the actors brought loved ones as well. The sun goes down at 4:30 each afternoon, which effectively shrinks the amount of workable time in the day. Venice is a unique place to film. In a normal city, all equipment is stored on 40-foot trucks, but here, the roads are water.
December 16, 2002
The sun started to pop out a bit as Donald Sutherland arrived, and I asked everyone to pick up the pace so we could shoot before the light got too bright. Glimpsing Donald's preparations, I recalled the conversation we shared a few days ago about his experiences filming Don't Look Now here in Venice 30 years ago. I eagerly lapped up the details about that film's director, Nicolas Roeg,
VENICE RISING: (clockwise from top) Charlie (Mark Wahlberg) play-fighting with John Bridger (Donald Sutherland); the crew gathers for the heist at Campo San Barnaba; Stella (Charlize Theron) and Charlie on the water; Sutherland with producer Donald De Line; the crew filming Stella and Charlie's ride; gondolas of Venice; Charlie strolls across Piazza San Marco; Pfister with the ubiquitous pigeons; the gang en route to the heist. who is one of my favorites. By the time we started filming the conversation between Mark and Donald, the fog had rolled in, creating an interesting mood for the scene.
December 17, 2002
This morning, I wasn't sure whether to expect sun, clouds or fog, but those questions became less important in the face of a new obstacle: the set near San Marco square where we were to shoot the second part of Mark and Donald's conversation was slowly filling with canal water from an unusually high tide. We decided just to wait it out.
December 18, 2002
Today we shot the scene that introduces several more main characters. Soon after I arrived at the set, I was joined by Jason Statham, Mos Def and Seth Green, who began rehearsing the scene amidst the 15th-century buildings of San Barnaba square. It turned out to be a fun day of shooting--Seth is hilarious. This evening I took Anna to dinner, and we watched a string quartet play Vivaldi in a spectacularly ancient church.
December 19 and December 20, 2002
These were our last days in Venice. We filmed part of a boat chase on the Grand Canal, which was a huge undertaking. The final shot on the schedule happily reunited us with Charlize Theron, whom we last saw in L.A. three weeks ago. In this shot, she and Mark glide gently through the Grand Canal in a gondola. I sat in the gondola with them with a hand-held camera and two crew members. Tomorrow I'll move on to Rome for a few days with Anna before returning to the States.