7 Questions with AQUAMAN Cinematographer Don Burgess

IMAX In Frame  ‌ ‌ ‌ Welcome to the story behind the story. This is IMAX In Frame   From Alabama to Atlantis In conversation with cinematographer Don Burgess   Don Burgess has shot pretty much every type of narrative and setting you can imagine. He's gone from the backwoods of Alabama in FORREST GUMP, to chasing puppets down the street with THE MUPPETS. From the haunted halls of horror movies like THE CONJURING 2, to looking up towards the sky in CONTACT, and even dodging through rooftops with everyone's favorite web-slinger in 2002's SPIDER-MAN. Over this time, he's collaborated with absolute box office legends— Robert Zemekis, Sam Raimi, Billy Crystal— to name a few. His latest, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, finds him teaming up once again with director James Wan to tell a story from within the undersea depths of Atlantis. Burgess took some time to tell us about his journey to cinematography, artificial intelligence, and why this AQUAMAN sequel is like the first film, but "on steroids." 1. AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM is “Filmed for IMAX”. Director James Wan tweeted that the film is 90% in IMAX’s exclusive Expanded Aspect Ratio. How does your process and approach change when you are shooting for IMAX’s exclusive Expanded Aspect Ratio? James loved the expanded frame format and so we always kept the aspect clean so he could choose later what scenes to use. That complicates the lighting and operating because you have to frame for all the aspects the film will be released in. Just an added challenge to the film making process. The 2D&3D release had not been decided yet while we were shooting and so another reason for James to always shoot for the bigger picture. 2. This is the third film you’ve shot with James Wan—What keeps drawing the two of you together? What is your working relationship like? This is the third film James and I have shot together and I look forward to more.  He is a pleasant very hard-working director who is always looking for interesting visual ways to tell the story.  I like the challenge to collaborate and figure out how to execute the concept in a unique way. The first film you do with a director you build trust and eventually it becomes shorthand of what needs to be done. James and I hit it off on CONJURING 2 and asked If I would like to shoot AQUAMAN.  He’s a wonderful guy with a great since on humor and a great filmmaker.  I've really enjoyed working for him. 3. When working on a sequel like AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, how do you think about the visual language of the movie? Is your goal to have a continuation of the previous film’s look and feel, or do you try to break away and establish something new? James is very involved with the visual style of the film. He pushes the narrative with conceptual artists and produces the art we have in preproduction to get all of us on board to make the film. So much of a film like this is taking a shot of what we think the backgrounds are going to look like and try to make what we shoot organic with the backgrounds. It’s a bit trial and error as we are lighting the set and tweaking until it feels right and then show to James and get his notes. It’s all what feels right on the day that we go with. AQUAMAN 2 is not AQUAMAN 1. Its [AQUAMAN 1] on steroids… 4. You’ve worked in pretty much every genre of film – from awards season darlings like FORREST GUMP, to horror, rom coms, drama, and even animation with 2004’s POLAR EXPRESS. Is there a genre or even type of scene that you have the most fun shooting? Related, what are you most proud of having shot? I would have to put FORREST GUMP at the top of the list. It was my first big movie with Robert Zemeckis and a film that touched lots of people. I still do interviews today that all people want to talk about is FORREST. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve been involved with the visual style of CONTACT , SPIDER-MAN, THE TERMINATOR, AQUAMAN and the first motion capture film, THE POLAR EXPRESS. I really enjoy being involved with teams of people trying out new technology to tell stories. My last film, HERE, was shot with the use of AI to make actors look the age of characters they were portraying. Great film makers push us out of the box with their visions and I cant wait to see what James Wan comes up with next. 5. Speaking of POLAR EXPRESS, we recently asked fans to tell us their favorite holiday movie in IMAX, and it was their top choice. What was it like to have worked on that film? Why do you think it's become such an enduring, modern, holiday classic? THE POLAR EXPRESS started with a beautiful children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg. Zemeckis then wrote the screenplay with William Broyles Jr.and directed the first motion capture film. It’s a beautiful film that brings out the child in all of us.  6. How did your career get started? How do you think the field and the tech has evolved over time? Is there anything you miss from the days of celluloid, and what are you excited about for the future of cinematography? After High School, I attended Art Center College of Design, always with the desire to shoot the films. My first jobs were shooting documentaries, usually very action and sports oriented. That led into shooting action scenes and 2nd units on feature films. I worked my way up to being a DP and have loved every minute of it. After all these years, I still enjoy going to work almost every day. Do I miss shooting film, yes, but I don't miss waiting for the lab to open the next morning at 6:00am to see what I did yesterday before I start today.  The future of cinematography is full of technology changes, but we cant forget what our main job is and that’s to tell stories with the control of the image we are creating. Great shots are forgotten soon if they are not telling a great story. 7. We like to ask everyone this—if there was one movie you could experience again, or for the first time,in IMAX, what would it be? Why? If I were to repeat a film with the opportunity to shoot it in IMAX film, it would be CONTACT. I shot 1/2 the film in 65mm and looked at contact daily prints projected at the lab. It’s still the most beautiful images ive shot. I would love to see those images projected from IMAX film. Large format film is still the best image to see on a big screen. 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