“We shot most of the film in New Orleans and had to find real locations that could recall the feels and textures of California, New York, Connecticut, Florida and Texas,” says Oppenheim. “My favorite location we filmed in was the decoy house in Murphy, Texas, pictured here. It looked straight out of a Larry Sultan photo and had so much character. When I first walked in and saw the front door, I immediately thought there might be a cool photo of Chris on the other side, seen through the window slats. I think Sinna was inspired too, and I like the way his photo here riffs on that of the film.
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
The filming process Prime timefittingly for a director who cut his teeth in documentary, involved all the chaos expected of a narrative film shoot with more than a little reality bleeding around the edges. Based on true events, Lance Oppenheim’s film stars an unhinged Robert Pattinson as TV host Chris Hansen, who seeks ever more salacious ways to boost the ratings for his TV series. To catch a predator. The series’ attempts to locate and trap pedophiles lead the production team to stake out rented homes and search the Internet for even more perverted men, culminating in a nighttime sequence in which Hansen and his crew storm the mansion of a high-profile “whale.” “Night shoots are a black hole from which very few memories escape,” explains Skylar Gisondo, who plays a decoy used to pass himself off as an underage boy. “Everyone is happy and feels crazy. » Fortunately, photographer Sinna Nasseri was on set to capture photos of moments that even for Prime timeThe cast and crew of , may seem a little blurry now.
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“That’s when Chris and the rest of his team discover the identity of the predator they spent most of the film searching for: ‘the whale,'” says Oppenheim. “Oddly, it was one of the most difficult things to shoot because of all the interplay between the rain towers outside, the lightning effects and the real-time content we were loading onto the screens. There was a lot of complicated choreography in what must have been a pretty intimate moment. It’s one of my favorite moments in the whole movie: Chris’s desire to catch this guy is so strong that he pulls us into the computer until that we would be spat out on the other side and meet the man in question.”
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“I pose for a photo before recreating Del’s iconic line about stubbing your toe on the banister,” says Phoebe Bridgers, who plays another role. Predator lure. “I remember everyone laughing after I said it.”
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“Phoebe’s time on the production was coming to an end,” said Merritt Wever, who plays producer Andie Bender. “I was disappointed that she was leaving and I kept asking Lance if there was any way I could include her in the movie because I loved her presence. But as we started to get into it in the final act and as the night shoots progressed and we were about to decamp for the whale’s house, we started to feel like she was getting out just in time. The final act material was about to be released. take a sinister turn and the production container was about to change and transform with it She and her character I slipped away at exactly the right moment.
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“I really loved the atmosphere of that place: there was a big power plant with an incinerator on the other side,” says Oppenheim. “There was something appropriate about that perpetual flame burning; you can barely make it out in the film itself, but I always liked that it was there. The location itself reminded me of an image straight out of a Michael Mann film. Manhunterwhich was a great visual reference for us.
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“It’s a deleted scene from the film, but I really like the image,” says Oppenheim. “We were trying to recreate Chris’s introduction from his episode of Jersey Shore. We shot it in the Far Rockaways in the winter, right after a blizzard arrived, and it was so cold that we were only able to get in a few takes before being outside became real agony. Hopefully we can release that moment in the near future.”
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“I look stressed here,” says Oppenheim (left). “My son was born five days before filming started, so on the weekend I was going back to New York to see him with my wife. I think I had just gotten back here, and I was probably realizing that I was in a world of pain that day with everything we had to achieve. I don’t know what time of day this was taken – probably when we arrived for filming at the start of our night shoots, around 6 p.m. of the two of us together while filming the film. Watching him work and seeing the set through his own perspective was truly inspiring. He would stand in front of our artists, hide in cars, pay attention to our shots and get high. RIGHT on the edge of the frame to make sure he would get something awesome.
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“I remember working with Rob on Dan’s impression of Chris Hansen,” Gisondo says. “We went through the scene several times with Rob reading my lines so I could get a feel for what he would do.” Bridgers adds: “The big night shoot. I had crazy allergies and there’s concealer in my nose in this photo. I mostly remember pretending to tap with Skyler and trying not to pass out.”
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“I loved the pool camera gag, and in case you were worried, we sacrificed an already dead camera,” says Oppenheim.
Photo: Sinna Nasseri
“It was right before the raid sequence, towards the end of the film,” says Oppenheim. “I really wanted it to feel heightened, almost like a mix of the carnival that comes to town at the end of the year. Ace in the holethe battle of Helm’s Deep Lord of the Ringsand the invasion of Afghanistan, which is somehow in the background of every screen in the film. The production rented this crazy vehicle, a Lenco BearCat with pressurized automatic suicide doors that made a wild noise every time it opened. I wanted to do something with Rob here that felt like a big arrival, almost like an action movie, where Chris Hansen appears as the Terminator, a real warrior. I remember after a take or two Rob asked Dan Garber, my editor, if he looked like Mark Wahlberg in Shooter. I think he did it!
Gn entert
