Billy Williams - How we shot the climactic scene in 'On Golden Pond' (105/172)
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- Опубліковано 25 сер 2024
- Born in London in 1929, cinematographer Billy Williams shot more than 40 high profile films throughout his career, being nominated for an Oscar for ‘On Golden Pond’ and ‘Women in Love’, then winning the Oscar for ‘Gandhi’ in 1983. He received an OBE in 2009. [Listener: Neil Binney]
TRANSCRIPT: Now the climax to the picture is when Henry Fonda and the boy, Billy, go out fishing intent on catching a huge fish that they've nicknamed Walter that's been eluding Henry Fonda for years and he's determined to catch this great fish. And they go fishing in to an area known as Purgatory Cove which is dangerous and full of rocks, but Hank has this idea that this fish might be there. And so off they go. Well the weather changes and it becomes stormy. And Kate gets very worried about their safety and so she drives to the... the local boatman who delivers the nail... the mail and they go searching for the missing couple who have been fishing and have... haven’t caught Walter of course. But they decide that because it's getting so dark that they ought to be going home. And they have this difficult problem of getting out of Purgatory Cove because it was getting dark and because of all the rocks. And so Henry Fonda goes up the bow of the boat to navigate and point out where the rocks are and give instructions to young Billy who's... who’s driving. And... and Hank sees a rock coming and he says: ’Reverse, reverse! and by mistake the boy goes into forward gear and the boat hurtles forward straight into this massive rock. And Hank is catapulted off the front of the boat into the water and comes up with great gash on his head. Young Billy jumps in to help rescue him and they manage to get to a... another rock which was already there in the lake. It was in the right position as far as the action was concerned, and they hang on to the rock there. And of course during the whole of this process it's gradually getting darker and darker. So, some of it I had to do at the magic hour and some of it I had to do earlier in the day but filtering it down. I used the 81EF instead of the 85 to give it a little bit more blue and I underexposed a bit. The stunt of course, was performed by a stuntman, but we had to put Henry Fonda into the water on two occasions.
Now, he was a sick man, he'd got a pacemaker and only one lung and he was 76 years old and quite frail, but very game. And for weeks we'd been considering how we were going to do this sequence. And at one... one time there was even talk of shooting it in a tank in Hollywood, which filled me with dismay because I thought, oh this is never going to look right. But finally we agreed to go for it. Well the climax of the... of the scene is when Katharine Hepburn and the boatman discover them. And it's... it’s by then getting very dark and they're using a flashlight - a torch - to look for them and they spot them clinging to this rock. Well in the script, the boat draws alongside the rock and there's a conversation between Kate and Hank about... you know, what's he doing out... she says... he says to her: ’What are you doing here... out here at this time of night?’ And it's a... it's played for laughs, the scene. So in the script the boat was to draw alongside. Well prior to shooting the scene, we have a... a discussion - a... a unit meeting - about how it's going to be done you see. And Kate said, ’Well’, she said, ’Why don't I see them from a distance with the flashlight and take off my coat and dive into the water and swim towards them?’ And... and I thought well what a marvellous idea. Everybody agreed it was a great idea, but I realised I would only ever get one take, this could ever only happen once. And so, when it came to the... to the day we prepared everything, we got our raft in position by the rock, we lined up with the stand in, we got the rescue boat with Kate and the boatman about 50 or 60 yards away in position with two frogmen in the water behind it holding it in position and pushing it forward. And I had to shoot it at the mag... magic hour because I wanted the flashlight to show up with a good strength of beam and I wanted the running lights on the rescue boat also to show up, but at the same time I wanted the reflection on the water and the distant mountains.
And it was a re... it was a re-enactment really of... of the time of day when I shot the... the scene in... on the lake in Woman in Love, but I would only get one go at this, I wouldn't have more than one attempt because it was... it was the sort of thing that, you know, it couldn't be... there wouldn't be a chance with the health of Henry Fonda and all the drama that was involved. So we set up two cameras and I had a bit of fill light coming from the raft with tungsten lights with blue on to match the daylight, so I had a bit of filler so I could see some detail in the faces...
Billy Williams, in all his video interviews is always a gentlemen, but it never gets in the way of directness and honesty. Truly refreshing and insightful to look and listen to this filmmaker.
StephenKMackSD
I never realized how important the cinematographer is until now. They are every bit as important as the director and the editor.
Film is a visual medium. The person in charge of what you (the viewer) sees is going to shape how you respond to the story.
I am loving this man! This is the very first time I have focused and have begun to understand what and who the cinematographer is. I am so glad to have this, Billy Williams be the man to let me see about this. What a sweetheart he seems to be; I am so glad now to see that he has nominations and even a win for his work.
Great interview
Amazingly interesting man
"The Magic Hour", brilliant, the man is remarkable, great story.
Billy Williams, the cinematographer, was also apparently the lighting director for this movie, because the credits do not list a separate lighting director. Many feature films list a lighting director in their credits. Maybe it has something to do with the Screen Actors Guild or some related union rules.
His evident technological knowledge and know-how of filming and lighting in combination with his creativity is quite impressive.
Great video!
hypnotic
In a lake scene with grandson he appears on both front seats of the boat.
Oscar-nominated for Best Cinematography of 1981.
Oscar winning 1983 Gandhi.
He also was the cinematographer on The Wind and The Lion. Gifted cameraman. In fact in Wind and Lion, he had a cameo as Sir Joseph, the man who is Candice Bergen’s guest, who pulls out the gun when the Arabs attack her house at the beginning of the movie .
That's not exactly the climax of the picture.
Just couldn't stand this movie. Henry Fonda and his ugly potty mouth. But Hepburn flying off that boat was hilarious. She showed Jane how to do a dive! Lol.
I loved the movie. Seen it at least 15 times. When a movie can make u laugh and cry, that's a rare thing.
It was realistic in the way many people speak.