ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You crafted this film in record time, right?
You came aboard late in production?ANTHONY DOD MANTLE:Its a funny story…
The same month the film collapsed, my mother passed away at age 95.
Netflix
Three days after I fell out of that film with Will Ferrell, the phone rang from Cambodia.
We had to develop a further idea, to build slightly different cameras to achieve this look.
You hadfour daysto do all of this?Yes!
Roland Neveu/Netflix
It was astonishingly abrupt, but maybe that was for the best.
So, you didnt sleep well on this shoot, is what youre saying.
Considering I was thrown out of the plane [and] it was very easy to land.
Pax Jolie-Pih/Netflix
I feel like Im heading toward the catheter and oxygen tent.
[Laughs] I might be experienced, but youcantprep a film in four days!
Its not easy to work there… people were fainting on set.
Netflix
How did you approach getting into the perspective of a child?
Whats the challenge there?Angelina is no fool.
She knows what she wants and wont stop until she has it.
Netflix
Shes quite a perfectionist, and there are limitations also with the Steadicam, as far asemotionalmovement is concerned.
[But I was] thinking as a child would.
So, we added to the Steadicam setup.
Pax Jolie-Pih/Netflix
Its a psychological approach.
So the camera is an actor, here.Its acting, absolutely!
I moved my camera emotionally… Its a protagonists camera.
Angelina and I agreed to hold back on the visible violence, because the book is pretty violent.
The kids are dancing, theyre happy, theyre playing.
The colors are yellows, greens the bright, beautiful luscious colors of Cambodia.
As a child, you live like that.
We started the audience with color and life and vibrancy and affection and gentility.
[From there] the execution [feels] almost like charcoal, like an old Bromide print.
Theres virtually no color left, and its haunting.
A scientist had photographed the DNA of teardrops, and Angelina was open [to hearing] that.
Theres something in the aerial shots that was slightly inspired by that [because] the world was crying.
First They Killed My Fatheris available on Netflix.
