Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice cinematographer Larry Fong was as guest on the ComicBook Debate podcast this week. Fong was asked about the backlash to the movie and admitted that it hurt his feeling a bit because of all the hard work that went into the movie.
“It kind of hurts because, you know, I put almost a year of my life, including my whole crew, you know living away from our families, making a lot of sacrifices to make a movie like that,” Fong replied. “And, everyone has their opinion. Does everyone have to love the movie? Of course not, but it’s like your baby; you put a lot of work into it.”
Even Batman v Superman’s biggest critics can admit that the movie looks incredible, and much of that is due to Fong’s work as the cinematographer. But he went on to explain that those kind of compliments aren’t enough because he looks at the movie as one whole thing, rather than different pieces.
“You know, visually I feel like me and my crew killed it, so when you hear things about it, it kind of hurts,” Fong continued. “But, to be honest the weirdest thing — I’ve never really talked about this — but the weirdest thing, and this has happened a lot, I’ll have a stranger come up and say, ‘You know, Batman v Superman really sucked, but don’t worry, what you did was great. It looked really good. It wasn’t your fault.’
“And I listened to that for a while and was like, ‘Ok, well thanks.’ But then the more I thought about it I thought I’m not going to accept that. Because everyone’s working towards a common goal, right? And Zack’s my brother, I’m not gonna go, ‘Oh yeah, you know, he did a horrible job, but I didn’t! I just did my job. That’s right!’ I don’t accept that. If you make a baby together you’re proud of that baby. And you can’t really divide it up.”
Most people, including fans and critics, can like some things about a movie and not like other things. But it’s interesting to get the perspective from someone like Fong who knows how hard everyone worked together, and sees a movie as just one big thing.
SOURCE: ComicBook Debate podcast (via ComicBook)
