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Hi, this is Alan Parker...

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doing the commentary
for The Life of David Gale.

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I was first sent the script in September 2000.

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Everybody was scrambling around
trying to find their next movie...

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because there was going to be a strike
of actors and writers in Hollywood.

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Everybody was going crazy
trying to find something to do...

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myself included.

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And this script came to me.

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It had been originally at Warner Brothers...

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where it was originally written in 1998.

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It was a first screenplay
written by Charles Randolph.

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I guess it had been gathering dust
on the shelf there at Warner Brothers.

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I read it.
Nicolas Cage's company had developed it.

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I knew Nicolas
because I made Birdy with him...

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many years ago when he was a young man.

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I went to meet with Nicolas and I said,
"Can I have the script?"

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He didn't ever want to be in it.

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He had two other films of his own
that he was doing.

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He was going to direct his own film.
He was pretty busy, so he agreed.

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He gave me the script
and I carried on with it.

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The scene you just saw,
Kate Winslet running, was shot in Texas.

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This scene here was meant to be
a news magazine in New York City.

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Obviously the shot of New York
was done in New York...

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but this whole news office was actually...

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a set that we did in Austin, Texas.

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The actors that I cast...

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Many of the actors are local actors.

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Cleo King, who you see here,
who plays Bitsey's boss...

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was actually cast in Los Angeles.

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I cast in Los Angeles, in New York
and, obviously, in Austin...

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where actors came in
from Dallas and Houston.

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Many of the actors are...

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This is Cleo King here.

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This whole news magazine set
was actually an empty building...

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an empty office which was all dressed...

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by the art department.

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Every single thing you see in it
was brought in.

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It was a completely empty room
when we first came into it.

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But it actually wasn't shot in New York.
It was shot in Austin.

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Gale's going down.

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Only Bitsey means only Bitsey.

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When I got the script, I said to Nicolas:

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"Can I have it?" He gave me the script.

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I went off to Universal
and they agreed to make the film.

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I'd responded to the script
because it was a very intelligent screenplay.

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The kind of scripts that come out
of Hollywood these days...

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rarely are thoughtful
or have a political heart...

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which this film obviously does.

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It was written as a very exciting thriller.

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It was the thriller aspect of it...

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which was attractive to Universal,
to the studio.

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They said they'd like to make it.

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When you make a movie,
there's three things a studio is interested in:

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One is how much did it cost...

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how much is it going to cost, rather.
What's the script? Who's in it?

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Increasingly these days,
they are very concerned about who's in it.

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Kate Winslet had got hold of a screenplay.

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I didn't send it to her.

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She got hold of it quite early
and she kept phoning me saying:

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"I really want to do the film."

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She loved the script.

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The studio was somewhat reluctant
to begin with.

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I think they saw Kate
as the English rose in corsets...

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which is a lot of the parts
that she has played.

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She is a remarkable actress.

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She was nominated for an Academy Award
twice before she was 20...

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which is pretty extraordinary.

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And, of course,
she did play an American in Titanic...

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which was a reasonably successful film.

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The job wasn't to persuade the studio
that she was a great actress...

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it's obvious that she is...

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but that she could do an American accent.

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She worked very hard with a dialect coach
for many months...

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for her accent to be as good as it is.
I think it's very good.

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Lee Ritchey is one of the local actors
that I found locally...

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who plays the editor.

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All of this was shot in Austin, Texas.

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Most of the movie
was made in Austin, Texas...

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or in the surrounding areas.

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- Not an intern. I always work alone.
- Not this time, Bitsey.

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I'm not baby-sitting.

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When you go to a place like Austin,
or indeed any location...

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you try and absorb it.

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I'd gone and spent many months
looking for locations.

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Most of the locations were actually in Austin
or in the surrounding area...

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except for the Walls Huntsville Prison...

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and the exterior of Ellis,
which we'll come to later. Ellis Prison.

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You try and absorb the place...

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because the place becomes
another character in the film...

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and to try and be
as authentic and real as possible.

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Gabriel Mann, who plays Zack,
was cast in Los Angeles.

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I must have seen hundreds and hundreds
of young actors for this particular part.

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Some very famous and some not so famous.

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I always liked his quality.

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He has a wonderful,
naive, ingenious quality about him...

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as he plays this part.

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Zack is a character
who is far too smart for his own good.

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Even though he is kind of a smart ass,
there's always a likeable quality to him...

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which I think is testament
to how Gabe Mann plays the part.

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Shouldn't it smell
if it's overheating?

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I'm shooting this scene
in the middle of the night...

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on a very busy highway.

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It was pretty hairy.

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All of us were in the following car.

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The camera in front
of this particular vehicle.

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It's always difficult
doing the interior of car scenes...

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particularly if you are on a real highway.

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That was us in the middle of all that.
It was not easy to do.

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It's a little easier when you get
onto the quiet stretches of the road.

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This was all shot just outside Austin...

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although in the film they're meant
to be coming towards Huntsville.

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For practical reasons...

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you try and make all of your locations
as close to your base as possible.

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Our base was at the old private airfield
in Austin...

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which had been made into
a de facto film studio.

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Our offices were in the old control tower
of the old airport.

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All of our sets, which I will come to later,
were all built in the disused hangars.

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The city of Austin...

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had decided to make this film facility.
It's pretty terrific.

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For the facility that it is...

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it's almost as good as any film studio
I've been in.

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It's great to find something
in the middle of Texas.

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The cowboy in the film is Dusty,
who is played by Matt Craven...

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an actor whom I had met in Los Angeles.

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Matt is an extraordinary actor...

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with an extraordinary face,
and an absolute gentleman.

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Terrific to work with.

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Here, we hear slightly...

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the Turandot Puccini music...

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which figures very importantly
throughout the film...

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and obviously in the conclusive moments,
which we will see later.

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Most of these scenes were shot...

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in the small towns that surround Austin.

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They're almost like a back lot
for a filmmaker...

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in that there are lots of empty buildings
and empty streets...

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deserted as many of these small towns are,
typical of rural America.

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This particular scene...

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was done twice, believe it or not.

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Originally, when we started this scene...

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we were in a place called Jim's Diner
and we were hit by a tornado.

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As the tornado was getting
closer and closer towards us...

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everything went as black as night.

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All the lights and everything
started bouncing down the highway.

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We were surrounded on three sides
by glass.

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It was a much bigger diner than this one
where we reshot it.

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I had to abandon filming for that day...

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and we all huddled in the kitchen, 50 of us.

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We put Kate and her baby...

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into the food storage area for extra safety...

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while the tornado went overhead.

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Once it had blown past us
then we were able to limp back to the hotel.

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But it meant that we had to abandon
all the filming that I did there.

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So I had to start from scratch again
to redo this particular scene...

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that you are seeing here,
which I then shot in a much smaller diner.

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Thankfully the weather was a lot kinder
the day we redid this.

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In a funny kind of way,
I'm quite happy to have redone it.

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I think sometimes
when you've done something once...

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it's always hard to redo it.

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But it came out a lot better
than how we were doing it the first time.

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Again, in our story,
we're on our way to Ellis Prison.

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Ellis Prison was where death row was
until 1999.

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The death row is now actually
at a prison called Polunsky.

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It was originally called Terrell,
but the name was changed...

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because Mr. Terrell didn't like his name
being associated with death row.

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Here we come into the real prison.
This is actually Ellis Prison.

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This is not a set. This is the real place.

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Everyone at the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice...

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was extraordinarily helpful to us.

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We, obviously, were allowed only outside...

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because this is a maximum-security prison.

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The exterior that you saw
was the real prison.

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These inner sequence scenes
were all built...

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as sets at our de facto studio.

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As helpful as the prison service was...

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they weren't going to allow 150 film crew
inside their maximum-security prison.

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This really is an illusion here.

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We're supposedly coming into the prison
that you saw the wide shot of earlier...

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but this was the beginnings of our set.

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I had gone to Ellis during my preparation.

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All of this set is very accurate...

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down to the signs and photographs
which are all very close...

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to what I found at Ellis.

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We made Ellis into death row...

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even though death row now is at Polunsky,
which is a very modern prison.

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Ellis was the prison in 1999.

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When Charles Randolph wrote the script
in '98, Ellis was the prison.

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So we sort of set it then,
even though we were aware...

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that death row has now moved
to a much more modern prison.

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I wanted it to be Ellis...

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because Ellis is cinematically
slightly more interesting...

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than the Polunsky prison
because that's a very high-tech prison.

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It's very modern.

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It doesn't have the feel and smell
of a prison anymore...

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although it is extraordinarily effective.

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One of the things that you always find
when you get into prisons...

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is the extraordinary amount of identification
and security that you have to go through.

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I put all these little things
into the original script...

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because of having gone through this
many times myself...

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going to the real Ellis Prison.

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I was fortunate to go to the Ellis Prison.

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I even had lunch with the inmates,
which was quite an experience.

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The PR man here, played by Jim Beaver...

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is based on a similar PR gentleman...

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at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

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He was incredibly helpful to us.

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A very affable, avuncular gentleman.

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A striking thing about the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice...

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with regards to their capital punishment
and administering of the executions...

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is how incredibly open they all are.

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They feel that it's the law of Texas.

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Whilst it's the law of Texas,
they're doing their job.

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They were extraordinarily helpful and kind...

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00:14:46,687 --> 00:14:49,759
in the same way
that Jim is playing this part.

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It was based on a real PR gentleman...

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00:14:56,647 --> 00:14:59,161
at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

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We're still in our set here.

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We come across
into the very eccentric Japanese garden...

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which was something that I had seen
at Ellis...

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which I thought was rather eccentric...

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for the inside of a maximum-security prison.

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It's one of those curiosities
you come across and you put into a film.

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Here we are. This is our
visitation area right here.

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All yours, Mr. Belyeu.

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That's it for me.
You folks have a safe visit.

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- Thank you.
- 'Bye now.

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This is all part of our set, the visitation area.

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It's extraordinarily accurate to the original.

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The one that's actually in the prison.

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Not only does it look
exactly like the original prison...

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it's actually made of the same material.

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The production designer, Geoffrey Kirkland,
made it of bulletproof glass and solid steel.

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00:16:02,367 --> 00:16:06,280
He made it so well, in fact,
that I couldn't get inside to talk to Kevin.

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00:16:06,767 --> 00:16:08,359
And not only that...

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it was incredibly difficult for the cameramen
to get their lights and everything in.

235
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Sometimes, if you don't make it out
of the real material, it looks funny.

236
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Steel always has to be made of steel.

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This is about as real as it could possibly be.

238
00:16:28,167 --> 00:16:31,239
Kevin's first appearance here, obviously.

239
00:16:31,887 --> 00:16:35,436
I was in China
at the Shanghai Film Festival...

240
00:16:35,527 --> 00:16:38,837
when Kevin phoned me to say
he wanted to do the part...

241
00:16:39,207 --> 00:16:41,084
which was wonderful for me.

242
00:16:44,087 --> 00:16:47,238
I had obviously been a great fan.
He's a consummate actor.

243
00:16:48,087 --> 00:16:52,603
The great thing about Kevin is that apart
from being an extraordinary gentleman...

244
00:16:53,167 --> 00:16:59,117
which makes it a lot easier to work with,
he has a quality about him which is...

245
00:17:01,447 --> 00:17:05,406
he is not afraid to show the flaws
and imperfections in a character.

246
00:17:06,807 --> 00:17:09,879
Leon Rippy here plays the lawyer, Belyeu.

247
00:17:14,887 --> 00:17:18,277
He doesn't have the normal actor looks,
which I like.

248
00:17:19,367 --> 00:17:22,837
He's based on a very similar kind of lawyer.

249
00:17:24,687 --> 00:17:28,157
He's a very easy gentleman to work with.

250
00:17:28,607 --> 00:17:30,677
Kevin has the ability...

251
00:17:32,727 --> 00:17:36,276
to twist those imperfections and flaws
in a character...

252
00:17:36,567 --> 00:17:40,879
and take them by the scruff of the neck
and throw them back differently...

253
00:17:41,047 --> 00:17:46,997
so that the character can still be noble
and still be sympathetic.

254
00:17:47,967 --> 00:17:52,483
The way the film was shot
was for the first six weeks...

255
00:17:52,567 --> 00:17:57,721
we did all of Kevin
and Laura Linney's story...

256
00:17:57,807 --> 00:18:00,241
which is the back-story in our film.

257
00:18:02,167 --> 00:18:03,725
For the last six weeks...

258
00:18:03,807 --> 00:18:08,164
it was Kate Winslet
and Gabriel Mann's part...

259
00:18:08,247 --> 00:18:11,842
which is the present-day,
thriller aspect of the film.

260
00:18:13,527 --> 00:18:17,281
Therefore, there was a slight overlap
of five days...

261
00:18:17,367 --> 00:18:19,597
which was when we did these interviews...

262
00:18:19,687 --> 00:18:23,077
which were all done one after the other...

263
00:18:23,167 --> 00:18:26,921
although they're all interspersed
within the film.

264
00:18:27,567 --> 00:18:30,206
One of the great difficulties
Kate had is that...

265
00:18:31,687 --> 00:18:34,406
What we're about to see is the flashbacks.

266
00:18:34,807 --> 00:18:38,243
Kate, the extraordinary actress that she is...

267
00:18:38,447 --> 00:18:41,723
has to imagine everything
that you, the audience, have seen.

268
00:18:41,887 --> 00:18:45,277
Even though she was doing the scenes
one after the other...

269
00:18:45,367 --> 00:18:48,837
and therefore her character arc
listening to this man's story...

270
00:18:48,927 --> 00:18:53,398
she had to imagine in her head
through those five days of filming...

271
00:18:54,607 --> 00:18:59,635
which, as Kevin always says,
was a testament...

272
00:18:59,727 --> 00:19:04,437
to her ability to imagine things...

273
00:19:04,527 --> 00:19:08,042
that she wasn't even present at
when they were being filmed.

274
00:19:08,167 --> 00:19:11,955
Kevin and I were there for everything,
so it was kind of easier for us.

275
00:19:12,047 --> 00:19:14,402
I should tell you
how I became Head of Philosophy...

276
00:19:14,487 --> 00:19:16,079
at the University of Austin.

277
00:19:22,527 --> 00:19:23,801
Come on, think.

278
00:19:23,887 --> 00:19:25,479
I want you to reach back...

279
00:19:25,567 --> 00:19:29,446
We filmed these sequences...

280
00:19:29,527 --> 00:19:35,045
at a very large university in Austin...

281
00:19:35,167 --> 00:19:36,839
which I'm not allowed to mention.

282
00:19:36,927 --> 00:19:39,361
That was the agreement we had
with the university.

283
00:19:39,567 --> 00:19:44,561
It's very large and in our film
it's called the University of Austin...

284
00:19:44,647 --> 00:19:46,126
which, obviously, is fictional.

285
00:19:46,207 --> 00:19:48,243
These were all real students.

286
00:19:49,767 --> 00:19:52,998
The great thing about doing this scene
was that...

287
00:19:54,887 --> 00:19:59,403
Obviously, as you do with filming,
you shoot it many times.

288
00:20:00,167 --> 00:20:02,203
Kevin was great with the kids.

289
00:20:02,287 --> 00:20:06,678
He kept them enthralled
throughout the whole lecture.

290
00:20:10,927 --> 00:20:16,684
Where Kevin really excels
is he's very comfortable with his celebrity.

291
00:20:16,847 --> 00:20:18,758
He was fantastic with the kids.

292
00:20:18,967 --> 00:20:23,518
Many actors, when they finish their scenes,
or whatever the day's work be...

293
00:20:23,647 --> 00:20:27,117
put a baseball cap over their heads,
jump into their limo and disappear.

294
00:20:27,207 --> 00:20:28,276
Kevin's not like that.

295
00:20:28,367 --> 00:20:31,916
He'll wade into the crowd
and sign autographs.

296
00:20:33,727 --> 00:20:37,003
He's very comfortable with who he is.

297
00:20:37,807 --> 00:20:42,756
Rhona Mitra,
who plays the character Berlin...

298
00:20:42,967 --> 00:20:46,562
She is actually English.
I'd cast her in London.

299
00:20:46,647 --> 00:20:51,277
I had done a great deal of casting
in Los Angeles and New York for this part.

300
00:20:52,007 --> 00:20:54,646
And then I thought Rhona
would be very good for it.

301
00:20:57,047 --> 00:20:59,800
The actual lecture that's happening here...

302
00:20:59,887 --> 00:21:04,085
I think it's worth mentioning
Charles Randolph, the screenwriter.

303
00:21:04,367 --> 00:21:09,202
As I said, it was his very first script
that he'd ever written.

304
00:21:09,527 --> 00:21:12,485
He was not really a Hollywood animal.

305
00:21:12,567 --> 00:21:15,240
He comes from the world of academia.

306
00:21:15,927 --> 00:21:21,399
He was a professor of philosophy,
similar to the character Gale...

307
00:21:22,527 --> 00:21:24,279
at a university in Vienna.

308
00:21:27,087 --> 00:21:31,080
I think that the brilliance of his screenplay...

309
00:21:31,167 --> 00:21:36,002
is that he can promulgate
the ethical importance of Lacan...

310
00:21:36,087 --> 00:21:39,523
yet still keep an audience
on the edge of their seat for two hours.

311
00:21:39,607 --> 00:21:41,359
It's quite an achievement.

312
00:21:42,247 --> 00:21:45,637
Laura Linney plays Constance.

313
00:21:47,247 --> 00:21:50,045
I had been a fan of Laura's for a long time.

314
00:21:51,007 --> 00:21:54,443
She's primarily a theatre actor in New York.

315
00:21:56,127 --> 00:21:59,278
She is an extraordinarily generous person.

316
00:22:01,047 --> 00:22:03,766
This particular scene was interesting.

317
00:22:03,847 --> 00:22:05,599
I remember that...

318
00:22:08,047 --> 00:22:10,163
I had choreographed it
for Rhona to sit down.

319
00:22:10,247 --> 00:22:12,761
I don't think she was very comfortable
sitting down.

320
00:22:12,967 --> 00:22:17,518
But there was a reason for that,
to anchor her in that position.

321
00:22:19,447 --> 00:22:24,157
Sometimes actors disagree
with what you're doing and other times...

322
00:22:24,727 --> 00:22:28,003
they cotton on to what you're on about.

323
00:22:29,847 --> 00:22:32,805
I remember doing this scene.

324
00:22:32,967 --> 00:22:38,564
I wanted to keep it as simple as possible
and let the words do the work.

325
00:22:41,887 --> 00:22:44,117
Very rarely do you get a screenplay...

326
00:22:44,207 --> 00:22:47,836
that's written with as much intelligence
as this one.

327
00:22:48,087 --> 00:22:51,204
So it's a testament to Charles Randolph.

328
00:22:56,007 --> 00:22:57,998
The TA's transcribed the Governor's...

329
00:22:59,327 --> 00:23:03,764
This is the first scene we see with Laura,
although it wasn't the first thing we shot.

330
00:23:05,047 --> 00:23:08,562
All of this was done on location
at the university.

331
00:23:10,647 --> 00:23:12,126
It's a mixture of different things.

332
00:23:12,207 --> 00:23:15,119
For anyone who is interested,
this is a Steadicam shot...

333
00:23:16,287 --> 00:23:19,802
which allows you to film on the move,
very comfortably.

334
00:23:21,607 --> 00:23:23,404
Then we go outside.

335
00:23:23,487 --> 00:23:27,366
All these students were actual students
from the university, of course.

336
00:23:28,607 --> 00:23:32,122
We continue the Steadicam movement.

337
00:23:34,407 --> 00:23:38,639
It allows you to get very fluid movements
in dialogue.

338
00:23:38,727 --> 00:23:41,287
It's much used now in television...

339
00:23:41,367 --> 00:23:44,882
because it's actually quite expedient.

340
00:23:46,287 --> 00:23:50,997
It's a lot easier to set up and track
than a dolly.

341
00:23:51,687 --> 00:23:52,915
I'm walking away.

342
00:23:53,007 --> 00:23:54,156
10:00 a.m.

343
00:23:54,447 --> 00:23:57,007
- Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!
- Bushy-tailed!

344
00:24:05,767 --> 00:24:11,125
This sequence was all done in a real house.

345
00:24:12,407 --> 00:24:16,036
The exterior of the house is different
to the interior, in actual fact.

346
00:24:16,367 --> 00:24:19,598
This little boy, Noah Truesdale...

347
00:24:19,727 --> 00:24:22,082
I had cast locally.

348
00:24:23,727 --> 00:24:27,481
What I tend to do is,
whenever I get to a location...

349
00:24:28,807 --> 00:24:31,321
I hold open calls for all parts...

350
00:24:32,567 --> 00:24:35,923
where thousands of local people come in.

351
00:24:36,407 --> 00:24:41,765
I try to read with as many as possible
and I gradually narrow it down.

352
00:24:41,887 --> 00:24:46,244
That way you get
an authenticity to the place...

353
00:24:46,327 --> 00:24:50,115
because the people who are coming in
are from that area.

354
00:24:50,447 --> 00:24:54,156
When you're casting kids, it's very hard.
You can never see enough of them.

355
00:24:54,567 --> 00:24:57,639
So that was a separate exercise...

356
00:24:58,487 --> 00:25:02,719
we did in a very large football stadium...

357
00:25:02,927 --> 00:25:04,963
and narrowed it down to Noah.

358
00:25:05,847 --> 00:25:10,682
I had rehearsed with him a lot.
Working with kids is never easy.

359
00:25:13,847 --> 00:25:16,839
It always helps when you get actors
that are good with kids...

360
00:25:16,927 --> 00:25:19,441
because you have to be very gentle.

361
00:25:20,207 --> 00:25:23,597
In the end, the director's job
is to create an environment...

362
00:25:23,687 --> 00:25:28,636
where everyone can be at their best
and encourage the best out of the actors.

363
00:25:32,407 --> 00:25:34,637
The party sequence was shot...

364
00:25:34,727 --> 00:25:38,436
in a very nice house
in the suburbs of Austin.

365
00:25:38,727 --> 00:25:41,241
It was shot over a couple of nights.

366
00:25:42,767 --> 00:25:47,921
Here you see the two actors
that I had cast locally.

367
00:25:48,007 --> 00:25:51,920
Chuck Cureau on the right
and Sean Hennigan on the left.

368
00:25:52,487 --> 00:25:56,162
This is the faithful Steadicam, of course...

369
00:25:57,367 --> 00:26:01,155
trying to do things in one, which always...

370
00:26:02,807 --> 00:26:05,560
helps with regards to the fluidity
of your shots.

371
00:26:05,647 --> 00:26:10,118
It also helps when you've got terrific actors
that you can rely upon...

372
00:26:10,207 --> 00:26:13,085
so you don't have to cut between it.

373
00:26:14,687 --> 00:26:18,919
Again we have a Steadicam
coming back into the kitchen.

374
00:26:19,047 --> 00:26:23,598
It's not easy to get through that door
when there's 10 of us in front of them.

375
00:26:26,527 --> 00:26:30,315
The music I chose there,
Leonard Cohen, The Future...

376
00:26:30,487 --> 00:26:35,197
seemed, to me,
relevant to the faculty party...

377
00:26:35,287 --> 00:26:37,357
at this particular period in time.

378
00:26:38,847 --> 00:26:42,806
We're back a little in time,
with regards to our story...

379
00:26:42,887 --> 00:26:45,447
we're in the back-story at the moment.

380
00:26:47,047 --> 00:26:48,605
Aren't we so fucking clever.

381
00:26:52,087 --> 00:26:55,079
Berlin, the character here,
played by Rhona...

382
00:26:56,127 --> 00:26:58,721
We're laying the seeds of his demise.

383
00:26:59,927 --> 00:27:03,556
You see now, already,
he's beginning to drink too much.

384
00:27:03,967 --> 00:27:06,686
We've laid the seeds
that his wife's having an affair.

385
00:27:06,767 --> 00:27:10,203
His life is starting to fall apart, somewhat.

386
00:27:11,727 --> 00:27:15,925
This music is Toni Price,
who is a fantastic singer...

387
00:27:16,007 --> 00:27:18,999
whose work I didn't know
until I went to Austin.

388
00:27:19,087 --> 00:27:20,440
She's a local Austin singer.

389
00:27:20,527 --> 00:27:23,599
That person you just saw there
was the film director.

390
00:27:23,687 --> 00:27:27,396
My good self,
playing the neighbour stealing the food.

391
00:27:28,087 --> 00:27:31,523
I try to make an appearance,
as an homage to Hitchcock, I guess.

392
00:27:31,607 --> 00:27:34,599
It's also a way of humiliating myself
in front of the crew...

393
00:27:34,687 --> 00:27:37,155
which usually happens
in the middle of the night...

394
00:27:37,247 --> 00:27:39,363
when you're shooting a scene such as this.

395
00:27:39,807 --> 00:27:44,756
These limericks are a part
of the original screenplay.

396
00:27:47,687 --> 00:27:51,726
We did more limericks actually,
but I didn't use all of them.

397
00:27:53,447 --> 00:27:56,041
I'm trying to create the atmosphere...

398
00:27:56,127 --> 00:28:01,155
as David Gale here,
getting drunker and drunker...

399
00:28:01,487 --> 00:28:05,560
getting ready for the event
which is pivotal...

400
00:28:05,647 --> 00:28:09,162
with regards to his descent...

401
00:28:09,247 --> 00:28:13,286
and his spiral downwards
with regards to his life falling apart...

402
00:28:14,487 --> 00:28:18,560
which then leads to making very serious
decisions about what his life means...

403
00:28:19,167 --> 00:28:22,796
and what his political beliefs are.

404
00:28:25,327 --> 00:28:27,716
We're trying different music here.

405
00:28:27,807 --> 00:28:31,800
This is a Latin piece,
very relevant to the area in Austin.

406
00:28:32,327 --> 00:28:36,115
I try and absorb myself in all the music
of the area when I go there.

407
00:28:36,727 --> 00:28:39,764
It's pretty typical
of what's being played in Austin.

408
00:28:39,847 --> 00:28:42,964
In any one moment,
you can hear 50 different kinds of music.

409
00:28:43,047 --> 00:28:46,596
It's not the clich�
of country and western everywhere.

410
00:28:47,687 --> 00:28:49,882
This scene is obviously...

411
00:28:52,127 --> 00:28:56,405
the beginnings of all of his problems.

412
00:28:56,487 --> 00:29:02,039
This particular scene was filmed on a set.

413
00:29:02,847 --> 00:29:06,760
We had to do that because
it had to be a very controlled environment.

414
00:29:06,847 --> 00:29:09,884
The most difficult thing of all
is shooting in tiny areas.

415
00:29:09,967 --> 00:29:12,197
So this was a set.

416
00:29:12,807 --> 00:29:16,436
It's always difficult
when you're doing sex scenes in that...

417
00:29:16,967 --> 00:29:18,798
Most importantly...

418
00:29:18,887 --> 00:29:22,596
it's my job to make the actors
as comfortable as possible.

419
00:29:23,167 --> 00:29:27,365
When you're doing these things
you try and minimise the crew...

420
00:29:28,007 --> 00:29:32,125
so that there's few people just gawking,
but in the end...

421
00:29:32,207 --> 00:29:34,721
there's a camera there
and it has to be operated.

422
00:29:34,807 --> 00:29:38,004
It has to have assistants
to make sure it's in focus...

423
00:29:38,487 --> 00:29:40,682
particularly like this shot.

424
00:29:42,007 --> 00:29:46,239
The way in which she brings her hand up.
I think it's quite a nice moment.

425
00:29:48,687 --> 00:29:49,756
...contemplate.

426
00:29:50,767 --> 00:29:53,076
Or you can put your mouth
on my body.

427
00:29:54,767 --> 00:29:56,086
Don't reject me.

428
00:29:57,567 --> 00:29:58,522
Please.

429
00:30:10,127 --> 00:30:12,766
The intercutting...

430
00:30:14,687 --> 00:30:16,678
was done afterwards.

431
00:30:17,207 --> 00:30:19,198
It was always meant to be intercut...

432
00:30:19,287 --> 00:30:24,202
in order to build the frenzy
of the whole sexual situation...

433
00:30:25,207 --> 00:30:28,563
as she is encouraging him...

434
00:30:29,407 --> 00:30:32,319
to do something that probably
he shouldn't have done.

435
00:30:32,407 --> 00:30:35,877
It's a terrible mistake,
but this mistake is something...

436
00:30:35,967 --> 00:30:40,085
that'll be relevant for the rest of our story,
and the rest of his life.

437
00:30:42,087 --> 00:30:44,760
When you're doing these kind of scenes...

438
00:30:44,847 --> 00:30:48,396
it's amazing how unsexy it is
when you are shooting it...

439
00:30:48,487 --> 00:30:52,878
because in the end,
all I'm ever worried about is:

440
00:30:53,087 --> 00:30:55,806
"Have I got the right shot?
Is it this, or that?"

441
00:30:56,087 --> 00:30:58,555
It's very rarely sexually titillating for a crew.

442
00:30:58,647 --> 00:31:02,526
They stand around, eating their bacon rolls,
yawning at what they're looking at.

443
00:31:02,967 --> 00:31:05,561
In the end it's quite effective and powerful.

444
00:31:09,047 --> 00:31:10,275
Harder.

445
00:31:11,527 --> 00:31:14,883
It's cut very well, this whole sequence.

446
00:31:14,967 --> 00:31:17,879
I should mention Gerry Hambling,
who's my editor...

447
00:31:17,967 --> 00:31:20,276
who's cut every film I ever did.

448
00:31:21,287 --> 00:31:25,326
It's rather unusual in that it's all cut on film.

449
00:31:25,407 --> 00:31:28,444
It's cut on a Moviola.

450
00:31:29,327 --> 00:31:34,401
Michael Kahn, Steven Spielberg's editor,
is the only other one cutting on film.

451
00:31:35,127 --> 00:31:39,166
Gerry Hambling is retiring, so Michael Kahn
is the last one cutting on film.

452
00:31:47,167 --> 00:31:48,282
It's not going to work.

453
00:31:48,367 --> 00:31:52,519
We shot this sequence in a real coffee bar...

454
00:31:52,607 --> 00:31:55,724
which is very close to the university.

455
00:31:56,487 --> 00:32:00,275
It's a place where students hang out.

456
00:32:01,807 --> 00:32:05,925
I like to have a combination of real places.

457
00:32:06,087 --> 00:32:08,157
Whenever possible,
you shoot in a real place.

458
00:32:08,247 --> 00:32:10,283
You don't want to build everything.

459
00:32:12,807 --> 00:32:14,877
You build things when it's convenient.

460
00:32:17,007 --> 00:32:20,238
Even simple scenes like this
are quite difficult to do.

461
00:32:20,927 --> 00:32:24,840
There was a lot of room for us to manoeuvre
so it wasn't difficult to shoot it.

462
00:32:27,247 --> 00:32:32,924
There are 28 trucks out in the street
which causes havoc in the local community.

463
00:32:33,767 --> 00:32:35,598
That's filmmaking for you.

464
00:32:37,407 --> 00:32:40,205
I think Laura is very good in this scene.

465
00:32:40,927 --> 00:32:43,361
This scene is important because...

466
00:32:45,047 --> 00:32:48,835
it shows very obviously
that he's made a terrible mistake...

467
00:32:49,447 --> 00:32:51,324
which horrifies Constance...

468
00:32:51,407 --> 00:32:56,401
who within our story is always the one
who's that much more committed...

469
00:32:56,487 --> 00:32:59,445
and that much more conscientious
about the cause...

470
00:32:59,527 --> 00:33:02,644
working as they both do
for the organisation DeathWatch.

471
00:33:02,727 --> 00:33:07,403
The DeathWatch organisation
is very similar to many organisations...

472
00:33:07,727 --> 00:33:13,677
of people who are active
for the abolition of the death penalty.

473
00:33:15,007 --> 00:33:19,603
It touches upon the very heart of the film...

474
00:33:19,687 --> 00:33:22,406
which has to do with proof of innocence.

475
00:33:22,607 --> 00:33:27,123
That is, if they had proof
that an innocent could actually...

476
00:33:28,727 --> 00:33:32,037
If they could prove
that an innocent had been executed...

477
00:33:32,367 --> 00:33:34,927
then that would be hugely important
for their cause.

478
00:33:35,927 --> 00:33:38,999
Innocence is the one area that unites...

479
00:33:39,087 --> 00:33:44,320
both the for and against argument
with regards to the death penalty.

480
00:33:58,327 --> 00:34:00,522
These sequences were actually...

481
00:34:01,127 --> 00:34:03,163
All of this debate...

482
00:34:03,607 --> 00:34:07,361
was shot in a real television studio.

483
00:34:12,287 --> 00:34:16,997
The idea was to replicate
similar programmes...

484
00:34:17,207 --> 00:34:21,405
that we see everywhere,
across every channel in the United States...

485
00:34:21,487 --> 00:34:23,159
these kind of debates.

486
00:34:23,967 --> 00:34:28,085
The Governor of Texas, obviously...

487
00:34:28,487 --> 00:34:32,162
People have often said to me,
"Is it George W.?"

488
00:34:33,687 --> 00:34:37,965
There are similarities between the views
of this fictional character...

489
00:34:38,527 --> 00:34:43,078
in that he's very much for the death penalty.

490
00:34:43,167 --> 00:34:47,160
And George W. Bush was a great proponent
for the death penalty...

491
00:34:47,247 --> 00:34:52,196
authorising as he did,
whilst Governor of Texas, 146 executions.

492
00:34:52,767 --> 00:34:56,442
More executions than any other governor
in history.

493
00:34:57,007 --> 00:35:00,716
So, obviously,
the views of this particular character...

494
00:35:01,167 --> 00:35:04,603
are close to those of Governor Bush.

495
00:35:04,687 --> 00:35:09,283
When the script was originally written,
he was the sitting governor.

496
00:35:11,207 --> 00:35:16,122
Our film is fiction,
so that's where the similarities end.

497
00:35:16,847 --> 00:35:22,240
People often ask me if I should've cast
a George W. Bush look-alike...

498
00:35:22,327 --> 00:35:26,445
which would have probably been
too cheap a shot.

499
00:35:29,447 --> 00:35:31,403
Anyway, I couldn't find anybody.

500
00:35:35,207 --> 00:35:37,516
I particularly liked the writing in this scene.

501
00:35:37,607 --> 00:35:42,476
I think that it's pretty close
to how it's written.

502
00:35:42,767 --> 00:35:46,077
Now and again,
Kevin will slightly improvise...

503
00:35:47,327 --> 00:35:52,242
although he's the kind of actor
who does stay close to the text.

504
00:35:52,927 --> 00:35:55,157
When you have actors
who improvise too much...

505
00:35:55,247 --> 00:35:58,364
you can, as they say, improve it to death.

506
00:35:59,247 --> 00:36:02,205
I'm always wary if we get too far away
from the written word.

507
00:36:03,327 --> 00:36:06,956
If the words are good,
and they are in this particular screenplay...

508
00:36:07,047 --> 00:36:09,163
then you should keep close to them.

509
00:36:09,247 --> 00:36:13,684
If an actor has something to contribute
which is not there...

510
00:36:13,767 --> 00:36:17,806
then it's my job to see
that that's going to be good for a scene.

511
00:36:18,527 --> 00:36:23,601
Sometimes you can improvise
too much left or right of the actual lines...

512
00:36:23,687 --> 00:36:26,724
to be still relevant.

513
00:36:27,007 --> 00:36:31,319
This scene plays out pretty well.
Accurately, as it was written.

514
00:36:33,847 --> 00:36:35,997
The whole proposition...

515
00:36:36,087 --> 00:36:40,399
to prove that an innocent
had been executed, absolute proof...

516
00:36:43,967 --> 00:36:48,324
The Governor has caught him out.

517
00:36:49,407 --> 00:36:53,286
The one look really sows the seeds
for everything that's about to follow.

518
00:36:53,927 --> 00:36:56,236
Constance obviously displeased...

519
00:36:56,927 --> 00:37:00,715
with his ego getting in the way
of their political beliefs.

520
00:37:01,607 --> 00:37:05,600
This scene was shot
close to the recording studio...

521
00:37:07,807 --> 00:37:11,436
and also close to the campus
of the particular university where we filmed.

522
00:37:12,807 --> 00:37:15,605
Again, the faithful Steadicam shot.

523
00:37:15,687 --> 00:37:18,155
...is smarter than the powers that be.

524
00:37:18,407 --> 00:37:21,524
Work without an audience. Try
squeezing money from the donor list.

525
00:37:21,607 --> 00:37:23,643
Have you licked
a single mail-out envelope?

526
00:37:23,727 --> 00:37:25,797
- Mr. Gale?
- The Governor went that way.

527
00:37:25,887 --> 00:37:29,004
Ramirez. Austin Police.
This is Officer Hasermann.

528
00:37:29,087 --> 00:37:30,964
Is debating the Governor
a crime now?

529
00:37:31,087 --> 00:37:32,440
No, sir. Rape is.

530
00:37:35,047 --> 00:37:39,723
I should put in a word for the transitions,
which I've already talked about before.

531
00:37:41,407 --> 00:37:45,764
With my story going back and forth
from the back-story to the present story...

532
00:37:46,167 --> 00:37:47,839
I needed a transitional device.

533
00:37:47,927 --> 00:37:50,236
We didn't want to do the old...

534
00:37:50,327 --> 00:37:53,080
In the old days,
you would've done a ripple dissolve.

535
00:37:53,807 --> 00:37:57,436
We always had this notion
of the spinning camera...

536
00:37:57,527 --> 00:38:02,476
which was done with a camera on a gyro
each time we did these transitions.

537
00:38:03,007 --> 00:38:05,965
At a later date, during the editing...

538
00:38:06,767 --> 00:38:12,524
I experimented with the subliminal words
which are relevant to our story.

539
00:38:13,807 --> 00:38:15,843
The key words, emotive words.

540
00:38:15,927 --> 00:38:19,442
They're subliminally cut into the spinning
of the camera.

541
00:38:20,487 --> 00:38:24,400
The percussion music came first...

542
00:38:24,487 --> 00:38:26,921
and then we cut to that music...

543
00:38:27,007 --> 00:38:31,125
in order to get
this sharp staccato transition.

544
00:38:32,007 --> 00:38:36,956
Just a way of trying to find an original way
to go from front-story to back-story.

545
00:38:38,967 --> 00:38:41,356
Can you imagine his wife letting him
stew in jail...

546
00:38:41,447 --> 00:38:43,517
Here we are at Sam's Bar-B-Que...

547
00:38:43,647 --> 00:38:48,596
which is a real place
and the best barbeque in Austin, they say.

548
00:38:50,287 --> 00:38:53,916
This scene is important with regards to...

549
00:38:54,447 --> 00:38:58,645
Kate's character arc.

550
00:38:59,847 --> 00:39:01,803
At the beginning...

551
00:39:01,927 --> 00:39:06,682
she's absolutely convinced
that Gale is guilty.

552
00:39:07,487 --> 00:39:10,923
Zack has his doubts, very clearly...

553
00:39:11,007 --> 00:39:16,559
that Bitsey is not buying anything...

554
00:39:16,647 --> 00:39:18,558
other than the fact that he's guilty.

555
00:39:19,127 --> 00:39:23,837
I also sow the seeds
of the character, Dusty...

556
00:39:23,967 --> 00:39:26,162
who we find, we wipe the frame here...

557
00:39:26,247 --> 00:39:27,646
and find Dusty's truck.

558
00:39:28,047 --> 00:39:32,165
We hear again the aria from Turandot...

559
00:39:32,247 --> 00:39:35,842
which will feature greatly
at the end of our movie.

560
00:39:44,567 --> 00:39:46,364
Here, we're on day two.

561
00:39:46,687 --> 00:39:51,477
This was shot
right in the middle of Austin, Texas.

562
00:39:52,767 --> 00:39:54,280
It's Constance's house.

563
00:39:54,367 --> 00:39:57,086
When we first see it in the film...

564
00:39:57,167 --> 00:40:03,003
it's in its present-day incarnation
as a death-house museum...

565
00:40:03,487 --> 00:40:07,036
run by this strange Goth Girl, Nico.

566
00:40:08,407 --> 00:40:10,557
Rain machines here, of course.

567
00:40:11,887 --> 00:40:13,115
I love to work in the rain.

568
00:40:13,207 --> 00:40:17,325
Anyone who's seen Angela's Ashes
probably thinks there was too much rain.

569
00:40:19,127 --> 00:40:21,846
It helps the atmosphere
of this particular scene.

570
00:40:22,127 --> 00:40:27,121
The actress here is Melissa McCarthy,
who I had cast in Los Angeles.

571
00:40:28,887 --> 00:40:31,082
Constance's house...

572
00:40:31,447 --> 00:40:35,076
We had the real house,
which is what you see here.

573
00:40:35,407 --> 00:40:38,956
We also had replicated it as a set...

574
00:40:39,047 --> 00:40:43,404
which we built in the aircraft hangars...

575
00:40:43,487 --> 00:40:46,445
which became our film studio,
as I mentioned earlier.

576
00:40:47,447 --> 00:40:50,757
Geoffrey Kirkland is my production designer
on this one.

577
00:40:50,847 --> 00:40:54,601
Geoffrey has done many films with me...

578
00:40:54,687 --> 00:40:59,158
right back to my first film Bugsy Malone,
which we did in 1975.

579
00:41:00,087 --> 00:41:03,079
I've worked with him for many years.

580
00:41:04,327 --> 00:41:08,366
As I look at this scene,
I think of the cinematography of the film.

581
00:41:08,807 --> 00:41:12,436
Michael Seresin is the cinematographer
of this particular film.

582
00:41:13,527 --> 00:41:16,485
Like Geoffrey,
he's worked with me for over 30 years.

583
00:41:16,687 --> 00:41:20,999
The great thing about working with people
over a long period of time...

584
00:41:21,087 --> 00:41:25,922
is that they are very good at what they do,
or I wouldn't be working with them.

585
00:41:26,487 --> 00:41:31,003
And they're in tune with how I film.

586
00:41:32,927 --> 00:41:37,921
It makes the actual mechanics of what we do
that much easier because the dialogue is...

587
00:41:38,047 --> 00:41:41,039
You have the rapport
that any film director has...

588
00:41:41,127 --> 00:41:43,402
with a cinematographer
or production designer.

589
00:41:44,887 --> 00:41:49,836
It's very important because it's difficult
if you work with new people each time.

590
00:41:49,927 --> 00:41:52,646
It can sometimes lead to interesting things.

591
00:41:53,687 --> 00:41:57,123
It means that I'm forever having to explain
what it is I want to do.

592
00:41:57,207 --> 00:42:01,280
With people that you've worked with
a long time, over 30 years...

593
00:42:01,807 --> 00:42:03,445
the dialogue becomes minimal...

594
00:42:03,527 --> 00:42:07,805
because you absolutely are in tune
with one another.

595
00:42:08,247 --> 00:42:11,000
One's aesthetic tastes are similar...

596
00:42:11,327 --> 00:42:14,364
and so I completely trust them and they...

597
00:42:15,327 --> 00:42:18,763
I guess, trust that what I'm doing
is correct, too.

598
00:42:20,887 --> 00:42:22,878
This is shot...

599
00:42:24,167 --> 00:42:26,920
inside a set...

600
00:42:27,007 --> 00:42:31,046
and therefore easier to control
with regards to light, etc.

601
00:42:31,407 --> 00:42:35,446
Not all the scenes inside the kitchen
and the living room were set.

602
00:42:35,967 --> 00:42:40,279
Often, if we went from inside to outside,
it helped being in the real place.

603
00:42:41,367 --> 00:42:45,724
Here we are back at Sam's Bar-B-Que,
in the rain with the rain machines.

604
00:42:48,247 --> 00:42:52,923
The rain is just to give an atmosphere...

605
00:42:53,687 --> 00:42:59,398
particularly when you've got a scene
which is an expository scene...

606
00:42:59,487 --> 00:43:00,920
one that tries to explain things...

607
00:43:01,007 --> 00:43:04,886
where you want to take the edge
off the information that's being given.

608
00:43:04,967 --> 00:43:07,720
There's always that fine balance.
We have to lay the seeds.

609
00:43:07,807 --> 00:43:10,367
Everything fits with regards to this story.

610
00:43:10,447 --> 00:43:12,677
And then, by the same token...

611
00:43:12,767 --> 00:43:15,964
you still want to go for realism
and naturalism.

612
00:43:16,047 --> 00:43:18,607
You want everything to be
as real as possible.

613
00:43:21,127 --> 00:43:22,355
Off the record.

614
00:43:22,927 --> 00:43:27,876
Here they are back in the visitation room
of our prison...

615
00:43:28,007 --> 00:43:32,080
and back into our set,
courtesy of Geoffrey Kirkland...

616
00:43:32,167 --> 00:43:35,796
made of solid steel and bulletproof glass.

617
00:43:36,447 --> 00:43:40,565
So much so that Kevin
was completely trapped within.

618
00:43:40,647 --> 00:43:45,004
I could only talk to him
through the grill at the bottom of the screen.

619
00:43:46,247 --> 00:43:49,603
It looks pretty real,
however hard it was to film in.

620
00:43:51,607 --> 00:43:56,317
We can see Kate
starting to think differently about this man.

621
00:43:58,367 --> 00:44:01,040
Kevin has the hard job here...

622
00:44:01,127 --> 00:44:04,324
in that he has to be convincing to her.

623
00:44:06,567 --> 00:44:12,039
He's lying to her throughout,
which is quite difficult to pull off...

624
00:44:12,327 --> 00:44:16,286
which is the dramatic choice
that Kevin made.

625
00:44:16,727 --> 00:44:18,638
- Are we back on the record?
- Yes.

626
00:44:19,287 --> 00:44:21,437
The tripod
had no fingerprints on it.

627
00:44:21,847 --> 00:44:23,280
That means somebody
brought it...

628
00:44:23,367 --> 00:44:26,325
I suppose I was attracted to this screenplay
at first...

629
00:44:26,407 --> 00:44:30,844
because it's about something important,
that I care a lot about...

630
00:44:30,927 --> 00:44:33,043
with regards to capital punishment.

631
00:44:34,887 --> 00:44:37,447
It's the polemical heart of the film.

632
00:44:39,247 --> 00:44:41,715
It's not a political diatribe.

633
00:44:42,407 --> 00:44:45,399
It's a thriller
and let's not be pretentious about this.

634
00:44:45,487 --> 00:44:48,877
This film got made
because it is a very exciting thriller.

635
00:44:49,687 --> 00:44:52,440
But it is about something very important.

636
00:44:53,567 --> 00:44:58,402
I, as a filmmaker,
am very much against the death penalty.

637
00:44:58,487 --> 00:45:00,682
But I hope it's not a diatribe.

638
00:45:00,767 --> 00:45:04,646
It's meant to be balanced.

639
00:45:04,727 --> 00:45:06,479
It's meant to be ambiguous.

640
00:45:07,447 --> 00:45:10,803
In the end, most people's views are...

641
00:45:10,887 --> 00:45:12,036
It's about 50-50.

642
00:45:12,127 --> 00:45:16,086
Those who are for the death penalty
and those who are against it.

643
00:45:16,167 --> 00:45:20,080
Half my audience is not necessarily
agreeing with what I've got to say...

644
00:45:20,167 --> 00:45:25,525
but I'm of the opinion
that film can affect debate.

645
00:45:25,607 --> 00:45:27,006
It won't change people's minds...

646
00:45:27,087 --> 00:45:31,399
but to be provocative
is my job as a filmmaker.

647
00:45:31,927 --> 00:45:35,124
Hopefully people will discuss
the film afterwards.

648
00:45:35,607 --> 00:45:37,086
All right, you go get Cloud Dog.

649
00:45:37,847 --> 00:45:41,283
Here we see another aspect...

650
00:45:41,847 --> 00:45:44,281
to David Gale's descent downwards.

651
00:45:44,927 --> 00:45:50,240
Elizabeth Gast, who plays David's wife,
I had cast locally in Austin.

652
00:45:53,007 --> 00:45:56,761
This was shot in Austin.

653
00:45:57,607 --> 00:45:59,040
After a while, crocodile.

654
00:45:59,127 --> 00:46:02,517
- Take it easy, Japa-nee-zee.
- Okey-dokey, artichokey.

655
00:46:03,647 --> 00:46:06,320
His wife is leaving him.

656
00:46:06,967 --> 00:46:08,719
Seeds of which we had sown before.

657
00:46:12,287 --> 00:46:16,485
To get an email is the new modern way
to be told you're being dumped.

658
00:46:20,167 --> 00:46:25,161
Losing his son is hugely important
to what happens to Gale...

659
00:46:25,847 --> 00:46:28,645
and the decisions that he ultimately makes.

660
00:46:42,407 --> 00:46:46,844
The music of our score
was written by Jake Parker.

661
00:46:48,247 --> 00:46:52,445
I've been very fortunate in that
I was able to work with my two sons...

662
00:46:52,527 --> 00:46:55,439
Jake Parker and Alex Parker,
who did the score for the film.

663
00:46:56,687 --> 00:47:00,726
Jake is classically trained and did
all the orchestral, emotional pieces.

664
00:47:00,807 --> 00:47:03,241
Alex did the more contemporary,
rhythmic pieces...

665
00:47:03,327 --> 00:47:06,842
which were relevant
to the thriller aspect of the film.

666
00:47:07,207 --> 00:47:11,280
They came together for a number of cues
quite effectively.

667
00:47:11,447 --> 00:47:12,596
It was done organically.

668
00:47:12,687 --> 00:47:15,599
They did the music
exactly as I was cutting the film.

669
00:47:15,687 --> 00:47:19,885
Normally you finish your film
and you hand it over to the composer...

670
00:47:20,207 --> 00:47:23,165
and the composer just does his or her thing.

671
00:47:23,527 --> 00:47:25,279
On this particular film...

672
00:47:25,367 --> 00:47:28,882
the music was an intrinsic part
of the editing process...

673
00:47:29,127 --> 00:47:32,403
which was made possible, I suppose...

674
00:47:32,487 --> 00:47:35,559
because I was able to work with my sons.

675
00:47:36,407 --> 00:47:39,683
We got through the film without arguing,
which was a miracle.

676
00:47:41,607 --> 00:47:43,757
I'm very proud of the work they did.

677
00:47:46,367 --> 00:47:49,245
This scene was shot, actually...

678
00:47:49,327 --> 00:47:53,002
in the real university in Austin.

679
00:47:56,047 --> 00:48:00,359
The corridors we had seen earlier,
we had to echo that.

680
00:48:00,807 --> 00:48:03,162
This is the beginnings...

681
00:48:03,967 --> 00:48:10,315
of his more drastic spiral downwards
with regards to what's happening in his life.

682
00:48:13,687 --> 00:48:16,565
His drinking is becoming
more and more open...

683
00:48:16,647 --> 00:48:21,641
and more of a problem for him
as his life starts to fall apart.

684
00:48:30,727 --> 00:48:34,766
This swimming pool was an image that...

685
00:48:35,367 --> 00:48:38,996
I thought was very powerful.
We didn't invent it.

686
00:48:39,087 --> 00:48:43,239
I went to this apartment complex.

687
00:48:44,847 --> 00:48:49,318
The pool had been filled in,
probably for safety reasons.

688
00:48:49,807 --> 00:48:52,480
I thought it was an extraordinary image...

689
00:48:53,487 --> 00:48:56,718
to find, it's something
that you could never invent, quite frankly.

690
00:48:56,807 --> 00:49:00,595
The fact that the kids
no longer have a pool...

691
00:49:00,687 --> 00:49:04,726
but they still enjoy the mud...

692
00:49:05,087 --> 00:49:08,966
was something that I actually saw...

693
00:49:09,047 --> 00:49:11,686
and then tried to replicate it for the film.

694
00:49:13,367 --> 00:49:17,963
Here Gale is desperately trying
to get in contact with his wife...

695
00:49:18,047 --> 00:49:20,277
and getting nowhere.

696
00:49:30,047 --> 00:49:34,757
This is the mud I was telling you about.
This is an extraordinary image...

697
00:49:35,007 --> 00:49:37,123
quite eccentric and bizarre.

698
00:49:38,447 --> 00:49:41,962
This restaurant scene was shot
right in the middle of Austin.

699
00:49:43,327 --> 00:49:48,196
I particularly like this actor, Cliff Stephens,
who I had cast locally.

700
00:49:48,887 --> 00:49:52,846
I think he does a good job in this scene
playing the university president...

701
00:49:53,007 --> 00:49:58,001
telling Gale that even though
he might be innocent...

702
00:49:58,327 --> 00:50:02,525
the rape charge is going to be hard for him
to shake off.

703
00:50:02,607 --> 00:50:06,805
Even though he had never been found guilty
of that particular charge.

704
00:50:07,047 --> 00:50:09,083
The charges were dropped suddenly.

705
00:50:09,167 --> 00:50:13,797
But with regards to the whole concept...

706
00:50:13,887 --> 00:50:15,479
of political correctness...

707
00:50:16,087 --> 00:50:18,681
he's someone that could never do his job.

708
00:50:18,967 --> 00:50:21,879
His job was very much a part
of who he was as a person:

709
00:50:21,967 --> 00:50:23,958
A charismatic professor.

710
00:50:25,807 --> 00:50:28,162
If you're a professor of philosophy...

711
00:50:29,647 --> 00:50:31,922
If you're interested in philosophy at all...

712
00:50:32,007 --> 00:50:35,158
teaching is the only place
where you can be a philosopher...

713
00:50:35,727 --> 00:50:41,438
so to take that away from someone
who's as intellectually bright as Gale is...

714
00:50:41,527 --> 00:50:44,758
is taking away a huge chunk
of who that person is.

715
00:50:45,487 --> 00:50:49,526
This was shot on 6th Street,
right in the middle of Austin.

716
00:50:49,607 --> 00:50:53,680
Actually amongst some extras,
but a lot of real people.

717
00:50:54,007 --> 00:50:55,406
It was shot with a Steadicam...

718
00:50:55,487 --> 00:50:59,196
and we wanted to grab it,
so we did it with a very small crew.

719
00:51:01,767 --> 00:51:04,645
A lot of people thought
that it was actually Kevin Spacey...

720
00:51:04,727 --> 00:51:07,958
completely tanked up,
walking along the street.

721
00:51:08,047 --> 00:51:11,881
They were quite surprised to see him
because we did it almost for real.

722
00:51:12,287 --> 00:51:14,403
The actual scene is hugely important...

723
00:51:14,487 --> 00:51:17,001
not just to see his spiral downwards...

724
00:51:18,807 --> 00:51:21,241
but from a philosophical point of view...

725
00:51:21,607 --> 00:51:25,361
it's about the Socratic sacrifice.

726
00:51:25,727 --> 00:51:28,560
A man who sacrifices his life for his ideals...

727
00:51:29,127 --> 00:51:31,243
which absolutely is at the heart...

728
00:51:31,327 --> 00:51:35,479
of what the character ultimately does
within the film.

729
00:51:35,767 --> 00:51:40,079
So although it's a drunken rant...

730
00:51:40,727 --> 00:51:45,084
it actually is hugely important
to everything that the film is about.

731
00:51:45,407 --> 00:51:46,556
Well, minae.

732
00:51:46,687 --> 00:51:48,120
That's plural. Minae.

733
00:51:49,887 --> 00:51:50,842
$30!

734
00:51:52,127 --> 00:51:55,403
This was actually the last thing
that Kevin shot.

735
00:51:56,047 --> 00:51:58,720
It was his very last scene.

736
00:51:59,687 --> 00:52:01,882
It was done very late at night.

737
00:52:03,447 --> 00:52:07,963
After the scene we went to the bar next door
to say goodbye to Kevin.

738
00:52:08,687 --> 00:52:10,564
...who was also a prissy dresser.

739
00:52:12,647 --> 00:52:17,801
Here we are back in the pool,
full of mud and now full of rain and water.

740
00:52:18,487 --> 00:52:21,365
As we see...

741
00:52:22,727 --> 00:52:26,925
David Gale spiralling downwards,
his life falling apart.

742
00:52:27,487 --> 00:52:30,718
Drinking more,
not able to get through to his kid.

743
00:52:34,487 --> 00:52:38,275
The fish tank is an echo
of what went before.

744
00:52:38,847 --> 00:52:43,204
It being the only thing he has
to remind him of his previous life and home.

745
00:52:51,727 --> 00:52:54,082
Without a successful completion
of an alcohol...

746
00:52:54,167 --> 00:52:59,287
This bar scene was shot on 6th Street.

747
00:52:59,367 --> 00:53:02,677
6th Street being the main music street
in Austin.

748
00:53:03,047 --> 00:53:07,359
More music goes on here than I've seen
anywhere in my life, including New Orleans.

749
00:53:07,727 --> 00:53:12,517
Every bar has some kind of live music
and it's all different kinds of music.

750
00:53:13,607 --> 00:53:17,725
This particular bar
is right in the middle of 6th Street.

751
00:53:18,647 --> 00:53:21,115
Obviously we shot during the day here.

752
00:53:22,807 --> 00:53:27,278
As we see David obviously at rock-bottom...

753
00:53:27,367 --> 00:53:31,918
and his lawyer friend, Belyeu,
telling him to pull himself together...

754
00:53:32,127 --> 00:53:33,765
to get his act together.

755
00:53:34,367 --> 00:53:36,835
That's a whole different
kettle of crawdads.

756
00:53:37,327 --> 00:53:38,919
You want to see Jamie again?

757
00:53:39,007 --> 00:53:41,396
- Then you get your life together.
- I'm fine.

758
00:53:42,487 --> 00:53:43,522
Pronto.

759
00:53:47,327 --> 00:53:50,239
This is the Alcoholics Anonymous scene.

760
00:53:50,727 --> 00:53:53,958
David knows
that he's got to pull himself together.

761
00:53:55,967 --> 00:53:59,676
This was shot just outside Austin,
in a small town called Taylor.

762
00:54:00,127 --> 00:54:03,961
Taylor was a small town where I filmed...

763
00:54:04,487 --> 00:54:07,206
a lot of the scenes in the film.

764
00:54:08,567 --> 00:54:12,480
It's very typical of small-town America...

765
00:54:13,527 --> 00:54:17,156
kind of half empty,
which made it very useful to film in.

766
00:54:18,367 --> 00:54:22,280
This is the Radio Shed executive.

767
00:54:23,407 --> 00:54:27,798
As you notice, it's Radio Shed
and not a similar name...

768
00:54:27,887 --> 00:54:29,206
for obvious reasons.

769
00:54:29,967 --> 00:54:31,446
The actual place...

770
00:54:32,927 --> 00:54:38,126
The actor here is Chris Drewy,
who I'd cast locally.

771
00:54:39,647 --> 00:54:42,957
Here we are in Constance's house...

772
00:54:43,047 --> 00:54:46,483
in its incarnation as her house...

773
00:54:46,567 --> 00:54:50,685
and not the hideous version
that Goth Girl turns it into.

774
00:54:53,687 --> 00:54:57,521
Remembering that Constance is also...

775
00:54:58,247 --> 00:55:00,920
a university professor of poetry...

776
00:55:01,007 --> 00:55:04,761
although we didn't really figure
in our story...

777
00:55:04,847 --> 00:55:08,044
but it was important for Laura
to feel who she was...

778
00:55:08,127 --> 00:55:11,403
and who her character was
with regards to her sensitivities.

779
00:55:12,327 --> 00:55:15,603
Kevin here, humiliated...

780
00:55:15,927 --> 00:55:17,645
trying to get his act together...

781
00:55:17,727 --> 00:55:21,402
and cleaning up
with regards to his drinking.

782
00:55:21,887 --> 00:55:22,876
Welcome back.

783
00:55:22,967 --> 00:55:23,922
Thanks.

784
00:55:24,687 --> 00:55:26,405
- You look good.
- I feel good.

785
00:55:28,047 --> 00:55:29,924
Laura plays the part of Constance.

786
00:55:30,007 --> 00:55:34,797
She did a lot of work to understand
the kind of character she plays.

787
00:55:34,887 --> 00:55:38,357
She met with similar university teachers...

788
00:55:38,447 --> 00:55:43,362
who are also activists
against the death penalty.

789
00:55:43,447 --> 00:55:45,165
Where did you get that bruise?

790
00:55:45,247 --> 00:55:47,158
Just doing chores.

791
00:55:47,647 --> 00:55:49,877
Is your cowboy
getting rough with you?

792
00:55:53,847 --> 00:55:54,962
There he is.

793
00:55:56,127 --> 00:56:00,678
This is in the real Constance house.

794
00:56:01,607 --> 00:56:04,644
The garden takes a very different turn...

795
00:56:04,927 --> 00:56:07,680
when it's Goth Girl's house.

796
00:56:08,887 --> 00:56:13,005
They were filmed very close together,
just a couple of weeks apart.

797
00:56:15,087 --> 00:56:17,476
Constance's back porch
becomes quite important...

798
00:56:17,567 --> 00:56:19,842
for one of the most important scenes
in the film.

799
00:56:19,927 --> 00:56:21,440
...thinks-she's- Roosevelt's- bathrobe...

800
00:56:21,527 --> 00:56:25,315
but I mean stark-raving,
screws-loose, in-the-belfry insane!

801
00:56:25,407 --> 00:56:26,886
Seventeen.

802
00:56:27,047 --> 00:56:28,878
Seventeen is very important.

803
00:56:28,967 --> 00:56:31,561
The execution of juveniles...

804
00:56:31,647 --> 00:56:35,276
which is anybody who is above 17
when they actually committed the crime.

805
00:56:35,367 --> 00:56:38,404
Texas is one of the very few states
that does that.

806
00:56:47,087 --> 00:56:51,524
Jo Edna is the name I gave
to the babysitter...

807
00:56:51,607 --> 00:56:54,963
that we'd seen earlier in the house
looking after his kid.

808
00:56:55,047 --> 00:56:57,242
Jo Edna happens to be also the name of...

809
00:56:57,327 --> 00:56:59,636
one of the casting directors in the film.

810
00:56:59,727 --> 00:57:02,321
A rather unusual name,
so I gave it to the babysitter...

811
00:57:02,407 --> 00:57:04,443
so we could recognise it.

812
00:57:04,527 --> 00:57:06,358
This is the DeathWatch interior.

813
00:57:06,447 --> 00:57:09,962
All of this was shot
in a small town called Taylor...

814
00:57:10,047 --> 00:57:12,163
just outside Austin.

815
00:57:13,887 --> 00:57:17,482
This was an empty shop...

816
00:57:17,567 --> 00:57:21,401
which was dressed by Geoffrey Kirkland
and Jennifer Williams...

817
00:57:21,487 --> 00:57:23,239
to be the DeathWatch office.

818
00:57:23,327 --> 00:57:24,521
...maybe some cable.

819
00:57:24,607 --> 00:57:26,404
Cable's good. Listen, I need to run.

820
00:57:26,487 --> 00:57:30,082
I agree the first press release
should focus on the woman's youth.

821
00:57:30,807 --> 00:57:33,799
At this moment, we have some hope
that he will be okay.

822
00:57:33,887 --> 00:57:37,004
But the humiliation that happens
in this scene...

823
00:57:37,087 --> 00:57:39,885
sets him once again
on his downward spiral.

824
00:57:41,247 --> 00:57:43,636
- No.
- Good. Keep it that way.

825
00:57:43,727 --> 00:57:46,161
His relationship
with DeathWatch is over.

826
00:57:46,247 --> 00:57:49,159
Last thing we need is this
rape thing coming back to bite us.

827
00:57:49,247 --> 00:57:51,283
These guys don't stay
on the wagon for long.

828
00:57:51,887 --> 00:57:53,286
I'm serious, Constance.

829
00:57:53,367 --> 00:57:56,279
Ban him from the premises.
I realise the two of you...

830
00:57:58,047 --> 00:58:02,199
The exterior here was shot, again,
in Taylor...

831
00:58:02,287 --> 00:58:03,959
just outside Austin.

832
00:58:04,527 --> 00:58:09,157
This music cue is used a lot
through the film.

833
00:58:11,047 --> 00:58:13,959
It's actually one of the very few cues that...

834
00:58:14,047 --> 00:58:16,925
Alex and Jake did together.

835
00:58:17,007 --> 00:58:20,397
It obviously has this rhythmic pad...

836
00:58:20,487 --> 00:58:22,842
which Alex did and then...

837
00:58:22,927 --> 00:58:26,522
Jake laid his cello motif on top of it.

838
00:58:28,327 --> 00:58:33,720
It adds to the sombre feel
of what's happening right now...

839
00:58:34,047 --> 00:58:36,800
as Gale is losing it.

840
00:58:37,487 --> 00:58:41,685
He finally gets through to his kid,
but the phone is taken away from the kid.

841
00:58:42,407 --> 00:58:44,204
Don't hang up the phone!

842
00:58:45,727 --> 00:58:46,796
God damn it!

843
00:58:47,327 --> 00:58:50,046
These kind of scenes
are always tough to do...

844
00:58:50,567 --> 00:58:54,276
whenever you rip something apart like this,
this is all for real...

845
00:58:54,607 --> 00:58:59,078
and then, of course, he does cut his hand...

846
00:58:59,607 --> 00:59:04,840
which is hard to act
and must have hurt a lot.

847
00:59:08,407 --> 00:59:10,682
That's when you trust the good actors.

848
00:59:21,287 --> 00:59:25,599
Here we see Laura, who with regards...

849
00:59:26,127 --> 00:59:28,721
to the development of her character...

850
00:59:28,807 --> 00:59:32,482
she's getting sicker and sicker,
and we're aware of this...

851
00:59:33,407 --> 00:59:34,999
in a very subtle way.

852
00:59:35,087 --> 00:59:39,285
Probably we're aware of it
before Gale himself is aware of it.

853
00:59:40,127 --> 00:59:43,517
She walks up and finds him there
in a sorry state...

854
00:59:43,607 --> 00:59:45,563
having been drinking all night.

855
00:59:45,807 --> 00:59:49,038
He's clutching, of course, the kid's sheep...

856
00:59:49,127 --> 00:59:51,357
which is called Cloud Dog...

857
00:59:51,447 --> 00:59:55,326
which we'd seen earlier with regards
to how important it was to the kid.

858
00:59:56,447 --> 00:59:59,280
It's his one contact with...

859
00:59:59,367 --> 01:00:01,244
the memory of his child.

860
01:00:01,327 --> 01:00:04,683
And this furry animal...

861
01:00:05,287 --> 01:00:08,199
figures quite importantly
at the end of the movie.

862
01:00:09,087 --> 01:00:11,442
Never easy to play drunk.

863
01:00:12,927 --> 01:00:14,406
Never easy to play drunk...

864
01:00:14,487 --> 01:00:19,163
when you're delivering
quite a complicated speech.

865
01:00:19,407 --> 01:00:23,878
Again, thanks to Charles Randolph,
rather elegantly written.

866
01:00:27,367 --> 01:00:30,723
Constance is about to collapse.

867
01:00:31,127 --> 01:00:33,163
Not that he'd notice at this moment in time.

868
01:00:35,287 --> 01:00:37,960
Ergo, they never really
gave him business...

869
01:00:38,047 --> 01:00:39,844
unless absolutely desperate.

870
01:00:41,127 --> 01:00:44,244
That's why.
And then they changed his name.

871
01:00:44,887 --> 01:00:46,605
Your mail is blowing.

872
01:00:58,807 --> 01:00:59,762
Oh, shit.

873
01:01:04,647 --> 01:01:08,242
This is one continuous Steadicam shot
through 180 degrees.

874
01:01:08,807 --> 01:01:13,517
We filmed in a disused mental hospital
which we obviously dressed for the scene.

875
01:01:14,607 --> 01:01:17,485
- Please. Is there a doctor?
- Wait here.

876
01:01:17,567 --> 01:01:19,842
- I have to go with her!
- Hold up, Professor!

877
01:01:20,687 --> 01:01:23,520
The hospital orderly
is played by Chris Warner...

878
01:01:23,807 --> 01:01:26,765
who I cast locally,
and he also helped us with the casting.

879
01:01:26,847 --> 01:01:27,996
Now go wait.

880
01:01:32,687 --> 01:01:35,918
Again the camera pans around,
all one continuous shot.

881
01:01:47,647 --> 01:01:53,324
Here Gale finds out
the seriousness of Constance's illness.

882
01:01:54,687 --> 01:02:00,125
The doctor here is played by Cindy Michelle,
another local actor.

883
01:02:00,807 --> 01:02:03,401
I must say I was very fortunate in Austin.

884
01:02:03,647 --> 01:02:05,285
Because it has a very...

885
01:02:06,447 --> 01:02:10,235
vibrant film industry...

886
01:02:10,447 --> 01:02:14,326
there are lots of excellent local actors.
And I was very fortunate.

887
01:02:14,767 --> 01:02:19,477
There aren't many places that you could go
outside the major centres and...

888
01:02:19,727 --> 01:02:22,560
have such an incredible catchment
of really good actors.

889
01:02:23,127 --> 01:02:24,446
You didn't know?

890
01:02:24,847 --> 01:02:28,635
It helps because there is
also an authenticity and...

891
01:02:28,847 --> 01:02:30,917
a freshness when you see...

892
01:02:31,847 --> 01:02:36,967
actors playing parts such as this,
that you aren't overly familiar with.

893
01:02:38,247 --> 01:02:40,761
We go through
the transition sequence again...

894
01:02:43,047 --> 01:02:46,642
to seeing Gale obviously...

895
01:02:47,087 --> 01:02:50,443
very upset by Constance's illness.

896
01:02:54,567 --> 01:02:57,286
Important for... Again I'll say...

897
01:02:58,327 --> 01:03:03,606
Kevin's got the hard part because
he's obviously completely distressed.

898
01:03:04,207 --> 01:03:06,277
I think it's also worth saying that...

899
01:03:06,847 --> 01:03:10,317
Kate is reacting to his pain.

900
01:03:10,447 --> 01:03:14,042
And obviously her character arc
is moving considerably...

901
01:03:14,127 --> 01:03:18,006
towards being sympathetic
to what he has to say.

902
01:03:18,527 --> 01:03:21,121
Although he's deeply emotional
and truthful...

903
01:03:21,207 --> 01:03:24,722
because obviously he cared a great deal
for Constance...

904
01:03:25,047 --> 01:03:30,883
you have to keep reminding yourself
that he's not entirely telling the truth...

905
01:03:32,327 --> 01:03:34,443
to Bitsey.

906
01:04:01,767 --> 01:04:05,077
Here we are outside the real Ellis Prison.

907
01:04:06,807 --> 01:04:11,244
Those were actually real prisoners
you just saw there, playing ball.

908
01:04:12,607 --> 01:04:15,485
We were allowed to be in this area.

909
01:04:16,087 --> 01:04:19,284
Obviously, as I said,
it's a maximum-security prison.

910
01:04:19,367 --> 01:04:21,403
So beyond that fence there...

911
01:04:22,207 --> 01:04:25,279
was when our set kicked in
when we first saw those scenes.

912
01:04:26,047 --> 01:04:27,799
Seriously fucked up
the penalty phase.

913
01:04:28,367 --> 01:04:31,245
Once again the faithful Steadicam here.

914
01:04:31,567 --> 01:04:35,606
Not always the best thing to use because...

915
01:04:35,687 --> 01:04:39,362
the difficulty is when you come to rest
and you don't want any movement.

916
01:04:39,447 --> 01:04:42,405
So you have to have a pretty good...

917
01:04:42,487 --> 01:04:46,162
Steadicam operator with a very stiff back
to make it work.

918
01:04:46,927 --> 01:04:49,202
We pick up the payola money
in Houston tonight.

919
01:04:49,287 --> 01:04:51,721
- Houston?
- That's what the head office said.

920
01:04:52,047 --> 01:04:54,515
- Overheat light came on twice...
- Come on.

921
01:05:00,447 --> 01:05:02,756
You'll notice it's The Randolph Motel.

922
01:05:03,327 --> 01:05:05,602
Our homage to our screenwriter.

923
01:05:05,767 --> 01:05:11,444
This is shot close to Taylor,
where a great deal of our filming was done.

924
01:05:12,167 --> 01:05:15,000
Here we are
with the rain machines working again.

925
01:05:15,327 --> 01:05:19,684
Extremely uncomfortable for the actors,
not to mention the director and the crew.

926
01:05:20,767 --> 01:05:23,759
Oh, man, I never knew
$1 million could weigh so much.

927
01:05:23,887 --> 01:05:26,003
- $500,000.
- It's still heavy.

928
01:05:27,367 --> 01:05:31,440
These kinds of scenes
are the hardest for the sound man because...

929
01:05:31,527 --> 01:05:36,043
they have radio mikes
but the sound of the rain machines...

930
01:05:36,447 --> 01:05:39,041
is much heavier than real rain.

931
01:05:39,447 --> 01:05:44,123
So the moment it hits roofs and things,
it's a nightmare for the sound man.

932
01:05:46,847 --> 01:05:47,882
Excuse me?

933
01:05:49,167 --> 01:05:50,600
You want to come in?

934
01:05:51,047 --> 01:05:53,083
This is a lighter moment.

935
01:05:53,167 --> 01:05:57,319
I would describe it as the fact
that he thinks she might...

936
01:05:57,687 --> 01:06:02,363
be at all romantically involved with him
is beyond her comprehension.

937
01:06:02,807 --> 01:06:05,037
And probably the audience's, too.

938
01:06:05,247 --> 01:06:07,317
Zack being Zack, he still gives it a try.

939
01:06:07,687 --> 01:06:08,517
Look.

940
01:06:12,487 --> 01:06:14,682
Here they discover the tape.

941
01:06:15,847 --> 01:06:19,123
The tape on the door,
and the tape hanging from the ceiling.

942
01:06:21,007 --> 01:06:21,962
Wait.

943
01:06:33,727 --> 01:06:35,046
- What is that?
- I don't know.

944
01:06:35,127 --> 01:06:39,405
Once again the cello motif is there...

945
01:06:39,487 --> 01:06:42,524
but obviously the higher strings
are helping to...

946
01:06:42,807 --> 01:06:46,197
punctuate the drama of the situation.

947
01:06:51,607 --> 01:06:52,881
This is not good.

948
01:06:56,927 --> 01:07:00,840
Although we were in the real motel
just previously...

949
01:07:01,367 --> 01:07:05,804
this was actually shot two weeks after
the scene you just saw.

950
01:07:06,167 --> 01:07:10,638
This was actually shot in our set.

951
01:07:10,727 --> 01:07:15,482
All of this motel complex was a set.

952
01:07:48,367 --> 01:07:49,800
- Bitsey!
- What?

953
01:07:50,967 --> 01:07:54,721
It always amuses me
every time I've seen screenings of the film...

954
01:07:55,287 --> 01:07:58,040
how the audience jumps in the air
at that moment.

955
01:07:58,607 --> 01:08:00,006
Quite rewarding.

956
01:08:01,407 --> 01:08:06,162
Here we're back into the real rain machines
and the real motel...

957
01:08:06,727 --> 01:08:09,878
all of which was shot
prior to shooting these interiors...

958
01:08:09,967 --> 01:08:11,844
which, as I said, were done much later.

959
01:08:12,927 --> 01:08:15,646
All the keys are different.
She and her husband have masters.

960
01:08:16,167 --> 01:08:19,603
These kind of scenes
are always difficult in that...

961
01:08:21,287 --> 01:08:25,166
this was the first time, really, that...

962
01:08:25,527 --> 01:08:29,805
they'd seen a hint of the videotape
that we're about to see.

963
01:08:33,407 --> 01:08:37,286
I think that the video of Constance,
which we're about to see...

964
01:08:37,367 --> 01:08:41,440
was probably singly
the most difficult thing that we had to do.

965
01:08:42,527 --> 01:08:46,645
It was very harrowing, obviously,
for Laura as an actress.

966
01:08:46,967 --> 01:08:51,006
Not only the discomfort
of having the bag on her head but...

967
01:08:51,287 --> 01:08:54,040
that's not a body double,
that's actually Laura.

968
01:08:54,487 --> 01:08:59,766
The discomfort of being naked
is one thing...

969
01:08:59,847 --> 01:09:04,841
and the discomfort of having that bag
on your head, which is done almost for real.

970
01:09:04,927 --> 01:09:07,077
So it was quite dangerous to do.

971
01:09:07,727 --> 01:09:11,800
This was very disturbing for all of us
when we actually shot it.

972
01:09:14,847 --> 01:09:19,716
It was obviously done with great care
and with regards to safety...

973
01:09:19,807 --> 01:09:23,356
but one of the hardest things I've ever done.

974
01:09:24,807 --> 01:09:28,482
This scene originally was a little longer
than we just saw...

975
01:09:28,967 --> 01:09:32,960
but it was so tough to take
that I cut it down to the minimum.

976
01:09:35,167 --> 01:09:38,603
Here we are now, back into the real motel.

977
01:09:42,407 --> 01:09:46,923
We're no longer in the set itself.

978
01:09:47,927 --> 01:09:49,963
This is one of our main themes
that you hear...

979
01:09:52,207 --> 01:09:55,005
which is called Almost Martyrs,
the name of the cue.

980
01:09:55,167 --> 01:09:59,843
It's the cue we use through the film.

981
01:10:00,407 --> 01:10:04,195
All the orchestral pieces were recorded
at Abbey Road Studios.

982
01:10:25,407 --> 01:10:29,798
This diner was right opposite the university,
right in the middle of Austin.

983
01:10:31,407 --> 01:10:35,605
I had originally more interviews.

984
01:10:35,687 --> 01:10:37,917
You saw the girl being interviewed there.

985
01:10:38,007 --> 01:10:39,998
I was going to have more interviews...

986
01:10:40,087 --> 01:10:43,363
but I didn't put them into the final cut
in the end.

987
01:10:43,447 --> 01:10:46,439
I thought that I should
get into this scene quicker.

988
01:10:46,527 --> 01:10:51,203
There's a great deal of exposition
and theory coming out within this scene.

989
01:10:52,127 --> 01:10:57,565
Originally I had an idea
that there would be some right-wing threat...

990
01:10:57,647 --> 01:11:02,357
that could give us another thread
to the story.

991
01:11:02,447 --> 01:11:06,360
But it sort of unbalanced things
and there's latticing.

992
01:11:06,447 --> 01:11:07,846
I'll explain that.

993
01:11:08,167 --> 01:11:13,799
This scene was the very first scene
that Kate shot when she first arrived.

994
01:11:14,447 --> 01:11:17,086
One of the great difficulties
when you're making a film...

995
01:11:17,167 --> 01:11:19,840
is that often you're shooting
out of sequence.

996
01:11:19,927 --> 01:11:22,487
It's tough on the actors.

997
01:11:22,567 --> 01:11:25,559
It's tough on the director,
because in the end...

998
01:11:25,647 --> 01:11:29,799
you have to hold the whole movie together
in your head as you're making it...

999
01:11:29,887 --> 01:11:31,798
tiny piece by tiny piece.

1000
01:11:42,447 --> 01:11:47,441
This sequence was shot in an area...

1001
01:11:47,927 --> 01:11:49,599
outside of Austin.

1002
01:11:51,727 --> 01:11:54,480
A couple of different times we did this...

1003
01:11:54,567 --> 01:11:58,640
although it was a continuous sequence...

1004
01:11:59,087 --> 01:12:00,918
as often with these kind of sequences...

1005
01:12:01,007 --> 01:12:04,966
they're done piece by piece
on different days.

1006
01:12:05,167 --> 01:12:09,638
You're always crossing your fingers
that your weather is going to match.

1007
01:12:12,047 --> 01:12:13,366
Here we are in Austin...

1008
01:12:13,447 --> 01:12:15,961
the capitol building you see
at the end of the street...

1009
01:12:16,047 --> 01:12:18,959
in Belyeu's office,
which is shot pretty well...

1010
01:12:19,967 --> 01:12:22,925
close to the capitol,
just as the wide shot indicated.

1011
01:12:23,567 --> 01:12:25,842
- I couldn't sleep afterwards.
- I understand.

1012
01:12:25,927 --> 01:12:28,760
I tell folks I'm no more afraid
of the Grim Reaper...

1013
01:12:29,127 --> 01:12:34,281
Leon Rippy, the actor who plays Belyeu,
is an extraordinarily nice man...

1014
01:12:34,367 --> 01:12:36,881
an absolute delight
for a director to work with.

1015
01:12:36,967 --> 01:12:41,279
He has a great face,
and those teeth are something else.

1016
01:12:41,367 --> 01:12:45,155
He must be the only actor in Hollywood
who didn't get his teeth fixed.

1017
01:12:45,487 --> 01:12:47,796
But it was a good move on his part.

1018
01:12:47,887 --> 01:12:53,405
That's why he gets all the roles he does,
because his teeth are not immaculate.

1019
01:12:56,087 --> 01:12:58,317
This ain't my first rodeo,
Miss Bloom.

1020
01:12:58,647 --> 01:13:04,085
This, obviously, was a set
built into an empty building.

1021
01:13:05,807 --> 01:13:09,720
It looks like it's been there forever
but, of course, it's a complete set.

1022
01:13:09,927 --> 01:13:12,566
Again, beautifully dressed
by Jennifer Williams.

1023
01:13:12,727 --> 01:13:14,797
You've been fraternizing
with the condemned.

1024
01:13:15,767 --> 01:13:17,644
Leon Rippy, playing the part of Belyeu...

1025
01:13:17,727 --> 01:13:22,164
he has the same difficulty playing the part
as Kevin does...

1026
01:13:22,247 --> 01:13:26,206
in that we're never quite sure
if this guy is legit or not.

1027
01:13:26,487 --> 01:13:31,436
At the end of the movie we find out
that he's actually in on everything.

1028
01:13:31,927 --> 01:13:36,079
For a long while we wanted
to give the impression that perhaps...

1029
01:13:36,167 --> 01:13:40,001
if there was a villain of the piece
then it might well be him.

1030
01:13:40,887 --> 01:13:45,039
He certainly appears to be
an incompetent lawyer...

1031
01:13:45,127 --> 01:13:49,200
and yet suspiciously involved
with everything.

1032
01:13:50,447 --> 01:13:53,280
This was shot on a totally separate day,
obviously...

1033
01:13:53,367 --> 01:13:58,805
and totally different exterior,
compared to where the interior was.

1034
01:13:59,367 --> 01:14:04,316
I had to have a reason for her to go back,
which is where the coat business came in.

1035
01:14:04,927 --> 01:14:09,125
Where she now sees Dusty,
who's on his way up to see Belyeu...

1036
01:14:09,207 --> 01:14:12,279
obviously involved in everything,
but not sure what.

1037
01:14:16,847 --> 01:14:20,442
I remember it took hours
to get those pigeons to come back...

1038
01:14:20,527 --> 01:14:21,880
every time we did that shot.

1039
01:14:22,047 --> 01:14:23,002
He was here?

1040
01:14:23,087 --> 01:14:25,681
He's in the lobby! See if
his truck's out front. Tail him.

1041
01:14:26,487 --> 01:14:29,445
Again you hear
what we call the Lacan theme.

1042
01:14:30,447 --> 01:14:32,756
The cello piece coming in.

1043
01:14:41,447 --> 01:14:44,644
This scene we called "cat and mouse"...

1044
01:14:44,727 --> 01:14:47,844
was, again, shot on different days.

1045
01:14:49,247 --> 01:14:51,442
All to become one piece.

1046
01:14:51,767 --> 01:14:56,318
Matt Craven was a pretty useful driver,
so we didn't need stunt drivers for this.

1047
01:14:56,927 --> 01:15:00,078
Also the difficulty of working with trains...

1048
01:15:00,807 --> 01:15:03,275
obviously there's a safety factor involved.

1049
01:15:03,407 --> 01:15:06,604
The cameras have to keep away
from the tracks and all those things.

1050
01:15:06,687 --> 01:15:09,759
It's an illusion.
It looks much more dangerous than it is.

1051
01:15:09,847 --> 01:15:11,724
The scene at the end with birds flying up...

1052
01:15:11,807 --> 01:15:15,402
was fortunate because I saw that
and it helped punctuate the scene.

1053
01:15:20,047 --> 01:15:21,196
You're not being straight.

1054
01:15:21,287 --> 01:15:23,755
I walk out of Belyeu's office,
the guy's in the lobby!

1055
01:15:23,847 --> 01:15:28,477
This is very difficult for Kate
because, as I said earlier...

1056
01:15:28,607 --> 01:15:30,723
all of the interview sequences
were actually shot one after the other...

1057
01:15:33,087 --> 01:15:34,679
in a very short space of time.

1058
01:15:36,207 --> 01:15:39,677
The cat and mouse hadn't been filmed even
when we did this scene.

1059
01:15:41,127 --> 01:15:46,485
For her character arc
to occur convincingly...

1060
01:15:48,447 --> 01:15:50,802
is very much to Kate's credit...

1061
01:15:51,447 --> 01:15:55,235
in that really understanding,
each time that we did these sequences...

1062
01:15:55,327 --> 01:15:59,445
where we would be in the story,
even though she hadn't seen it filmed...

1063
01:16:00,047 --> 01:16:04,165
and obviously hadn't seen it complete
and cut together.

1064
01:16:05,167 --> 01:16:09,877
This is obviously an important scene
because what we're doing...

1065
01:16:09,967 --> 01:16:13,755
is trying to persuade the audience...

1066
01:16:13,847 --> 01:16:17,760
that Dusty is more of a threat
than he actually turns out to be.

1067
01:16:18,447 --> 01:16:23,726
Also we're seeing him as someone
who is very much against Gale.

1068
01:16:25,727 --> 01:16:28,480
Gale, the character, and Kevin, the actor...

1069
01:16:28,647 --> 01:16:32,162
have to convince us
that this man is a threat.

1070
01:16:32,567 --> 01:16:37,436
Even though, once again,
Kevin is not telling the truth.

1071
01:16:38,047 --> 01:16:39,958
Gale is not telling the truth.

1072
01:16:43,447 --> 01:16:45,517
Respect for life means every life.

1073
01:16:46,167 --> 01:16:51,639
These sequences
of this particular abolitionist rally...

1074
01:16:51,927 --> 01:16:57,206
were all shot at the capitol,
as we see it there.

1075
01:17:00,487 --> 01:17:05,197
This was originally going to be
a much longer sequence.

1076
01:17:07,047 --> 01:17:10,596
What I kept of it
is this speech by Constance...

1077
01:17:10,887 --> 01:17:14,926
which I think is a very important speech
with regards to...

1078
01:17:15,087 --> 01:17:20,878
not just articulating what Constance,
the character, believes...

1079
01:17:21,247 --> 01:17:26,241
with regards to the death penalty,
but in many ways it sums up...

1080
01:17:26,727 --> 01:17:30,766
what myself and certainly
Charles, the writer, believe...

1081
01:17:30,847 --> 01:17:35,159
with regards to our own personal attitudes
to the death penalty.

1082
01:17:35,647 --> 01:17:39,037
As Constance says
at the end of this speech:

1083
01:17:39,127 --> 01:17:42,483
"In the end, a civilized society
must live with the hard truth. "

1084
01:17:43,007 --> 01:17:45,965
He who seeks revenge
digs two graves.

1085
01:17:46,527 --> 01:17:52,363
That last sentence absolutely sums up
how I feel about capital punishment.

1086
01:17:53,327 --> 01:17:57,036
Here we see
Constance's growing frustration...

1087
01:17:57,127 --> 01:18:01,279
that another death,
and that conventional activism...

1088
01:18:01,367 --> 01:18:03,722
just doesn't seem to be working for her.

1089
01:18:07,167 --> 01:18:09,123
Just look. Look at those losers.

1090
01:18:09,687 --> 01:18:13,475
Rednecks, ghetto hustlers,
drug addicts, schizophrenics!

1091
01:18:13,567 --> 01:18:16,001
They're murderers!
And who cares if they die?

1092
01:18:16,127 --> 01:18:19,483
Who cares if the cycle
just goes on and on?

1093
01:18:31,607 --> 01:18:34,644
This following scene
is my favourite scene in the film.

1094
01:18:35,327 --> 01:18:38,125
I think it's very beautifully written
by Charles.

1095
01:18:38,487 --> 01:18:42,446
And extraordinarily well-acted
by both Kevin and Laura.

1096
01:18:43,607 --> 01:18:46,485
When you're faced with a scene like this...

1097
01:18:47,327 --> 01:18:49,887
it's important to shoot it
as simply as possible.

1098
01:18:49,967 --> 01:18:53,323
That movement of the camera
was about as tricksy as it gets.

1099
01:18:53,847 --> 01:18:54,962
Feel better?

1100
01:18:55,927 --> 01:19:00,125
I shot it simply
because I wanted to do justice to the acting.

1101
01:19:01,447 --> 01:19:02,880
And to the words.

1102
01:19:04,447 --> 01:19:05,846
And I think that...

1103
01:19:07,487 --> 01:19:10,843
both Kevin and Laura are pretty terrific
in this scene.

1104
01:19:11,167 --> 01:19:13,727
Anger. Denial.

1105
01:19:13,927 --> 01:19:17,124
I think it's also worth noticing that...

1106
01:19:18,047 --> 01:19:23,121
once we get away from this very formal,
simple, two shot...

1107
01:19:23,887 --> 01:19:28,244
that because I shot it in a very simple way,
medium shot here...

1108
01:19:29,367 --> 01:19:31,278
and closer eventually...

1109
01:19:33,607 --> 01:19:38,601
editing a scene like this
sometimes can be very difficult to do.

1110
01:19:39,047 --> 01:19:42,562
When people think of great editing,
they always think of the flash-bang...

1111
01:19:42,647 --> 01:19:44,365
action-type films.

1112
01:19:44,447 --> 01:19:48,122
But actually the most difficult scene to cut...

1113
01:19:48,207 --> 01:19:50,437
is something as simple as this.

1114
01:19:50,527 --> 01:19:54,725
And I think this shows
Gerry Hambling at his best.

1115
01:19:55,247 --> 01:19:59,160
The choices he makes and the subtlety
with regard to how he cuts it...

1116
01:19:59,247 --> 01:20:03,365
which absolutely does justice
to the acting and the words.

1117
01:20:03,887 --> 01:20:08,597
Sometimes this kind of editing is...

1118
01:20:09,127 --> 01:20:13,120
so much more difficult to do
than action sequences.

1119
01:20:14,087 --> 01:20:16,282
- I should have had more sex.
- Really?

1120
01:20:23,807 --> 01:20:25,604
How many lovers did you have?

1121
01:20:25,687 --> 01:20:27,279
Including college?

1122
01:20:27,367 --> 01:20:28,925
Including college.

1123
01:20:38,527 --> 01:20:41,405
Sex is really...
It's not all it's cracked up to be.

1124
01:20:42,487 --> 01:20:43,840
It's so overrated.

1125
01:20:46,087 --> 01:20:47,918
You should have had more sex.

1126
01:20:50,927 --> 01:20:53,760
You work so hard
not to be seen as a sex object.

1127
01:20:55,727 --> 01:20:57,843
Before long, you're not seen at all.

1128
01:21:02,847 --> 01:21:03,962
I see you.

1129
01:21:10,927 --> 01:21:12,599
You want to make it five?

1130
01:21:14,127 --> 01:21:15,480
Complete the hand?

1131
01:21:16,167 --> 01:21:17,646
What? A pity lay?

1132
01:21:19,327 --> 01:21:20,396
No, thanks.

1133
01:21:27,487 --> 01:21:28,920
It wouldn't be pity.

1134
01:21:33,927 --> 01:21:37,715
This sex scene, I shot very simply.

1135
01:21:38,447 --> 01:21:39,960
And in fact...

1136
01:21:40,247 --> 01:21:44,081
I never really thought of it as a sex scene.
To me it's a dramatic scene...

1137
01:21:44,167 --> 01:21:48,479
that happens to take place
while the couple are having sex.

1138
01:21:48,647 --> 01:21:52,276
It's shot very simply, on a very long lens...

1139
01:21:52,367 --> 01:21:55,165
so the depth of field is very small.

1140
01:21:55,447 --> 01:21:57,165
So you're aware of what's going on...

1141
01:21:57,247 --> 01:22:01,365
but there's nothing that's gratuitous
to the imagery.

1142
01:22:01,967 --> 01:22:05,482
Laura is pretty terrific in this scene.

1143
01:22:06,207 --> 01:22:07,799
So I kept it simple.

1144
01:22:07,887 --> 01:22:11,926
That one simple panning shot across
from the foot to the head.

1145
01:22:12,967 --> 01:22:18,325
Everything that's happening is happening
because the actors are making it happen.

1146
01:22:18,847 --> 01:22:21,361
What we're doing is observing it...

1147
01:22:21,487 --> 01:22:24,001
and the camera doesn't get in the way
of the drama.

1148
01:22:24,887 --> 01:22:28,402
It's all one shot
until we cut to the wide shot.

1149
01:22:30,967 --> 01:22:32,685
Just make it go away.

1150
01:22:36,967 --> 01:22:38,446
I'm right here.

1151
01:22:40,207 --> 01:22:41,799
I'm not going anywhere.

1152
01:22:46,527 --> 01:22:49,883
The light going on
indicates this is the moment when...

1153
01:22:49,967 --> 01:22:54,722
they come to their very important decision
about what they're going to do.

1154
01:23:11,327 --> 01:23:16,003
This is Gale on the lawn of his old house,
which now has new owners.

1155
01:23:16,607 --> 01:23:22,000
This Christ-like shape
is something I've done often in my movies.

1156
01:23:23,447 --> 01:23:26,519
That was shot on the end of an arm
with a remote camera.

1157
01:23:32,007 --> 01:23:36,319
What Gale is doing
is telling Bitsey this story.

1158
01:23:36,407 --> 01:23:41,322
What we're seeing
is all narrative from him to her.

1159
01:23:41,727 --> 01:23:44,400
We introduce Dusty.

1160
01:23:44,807 --> 01:23:49,801
In the same way
that Gale is misleading Bitsey...

1161
01:23:49,887 --> 01:23:54,915
we, the filmmakers,
are deliberately misleading the audience...

1162
01:23:55,007 --> 01:23:58,079
at this point,
with regards to the involvement of Dusty.

1163
01:24:16,927 --> 01:24:19,077
- Can I help you?
- No.

1164
01:24:19,167 --> 01:24:21,237
I'm leaving. I'm sorry. Thanks.

1165
01:24:31,687 --> 01:24:36,681
Again, the closing of the door
punctuates the end of the sequence.

1166
01:24:38,927 --> 01:24:40,440
A man alone...

1167
01:24:40,927 --> 01:24:46,399
thinking about the decision that he's made
with regards to how our story will unfold.

1168
01:24:47,447 --> 01:24:49,881
The toy, obviously a memory of the child.

1169
01:24:52,807 --> 01:24:57,437
This was shot, again,
in the small town of Taylor.

1170
01:25:02,207 --> 01:25:06,325
The ever-present rain machines.
Yet another wet night for the crew.

1171
01:25:14,967 --> 01:25:19,199
And this music by Alex Parker...

1172
01:25:19,527 --> 01:25:21,802
takes us into the transition...

1173
01:25:22,207 --> 01:25:26,120
puts us back into the prison.

1174
01:25:32,727 --> 01:25:33,921
It was Dusty.

1175
01:25:34,967 --> 01:25:38,084
He had a motive. He knew you both.
He visited that morning.

1176
01:25:38,287 --> 01:25:40,323
If I could answer that for sure...

1177
01:25:41,007 --> 01:25:43,316
we wouldn't
be having this conversation.

1178
01:25:45,367 --> 01:25:47,517
Here we see the completion of her arc...

1179
01:25:47,607 --> 01:25:51,236
from the person
who arrived in prison visitation...

1180
01:25:51,647 --> 01:25:54,115
absolutely convinced that he was guilty.

1181
01:25:54,207 --> 01:26:00,077
And now he's told her lies really...

1182
01:26:00,647 --> 01:26:05,675
and completely convinced her
that he's innocent and been set up by Dusty.

1183
01:26:05,967 --> 01:26:08,083
That's what's in her head right now.

1184
01:26:08,687 --> 01:26:12,646
I stress that Kate did these scenes
one after the other.

1185
01:26:12,727 --> 01:26:16,515
For her to be able to develop
her character just...

1186
01:26:16,647 --> 01:26:19,036
not even day by day but hour by hour...

1187
01:26:19,127 --> 01:26:23,678
when she had no knowledge of his life...

1188
01:26:23,767 --> 01:26:24,961
that we've seen in film.

1189
01:26:25,047 --> 01:26:30,883
Except, of course, she did it
by really thoroughly reading the text...

1190
01:26:30,967 --> 01:26:32,719
and knowing the script...

1191
01:26:33,047 --> 01:26:35,686
every moment, every word of the script
off by heart...

1192
01:26:35,767 --> 01:26:38,759
to know exactly where she is
with regards to her character.

1193
01:26:38,887 --> 01:26:40,161
...its obsessions.

1194
01:26:41,927 --> 01:26:43,360
When your habits...

1195
01:26:44,807 --> 01:26:46,240
survive your dreams.

1196
01:26:50,087 --> 01:26:51,679
And when your losses...

1197
01:26:58,247 --> 01:26:59,885
Maybe death is a gift.

1198
01:27:02,487 --> 01:27:04,637
- You wonder.
- That's it.

1199
01:27:05,087 --> 01:27:06,315
Let's go, Gale.

1200
01:27:11,367 --> 01:27:14,723
All I can tell you is that by
this time tomorrow, I'll be dead.

1201
01:27:16,287 --> 01:27:17,720
I know when...

1202
01:27:19,127 --> 01:27:20,765
I just can't say why.

1203
01:27:23,447 --> 01:27:25,358
You have 24 hours to find out.

1204
01:27:25,527 --> 01:27:28,439
And with that sentence
he sets off the ticking clock...

1205
01:27:28,847 --> 01:27:32,476
which informs the last part of the movie...

1206
01:27:32,567 --> 01:27:35,240
with regards to tension and how it's cut.

1207
01:27:54,647 --> 01:28:00,040
Here we are at the real prison at Ellis,
as they leave the prison.

1208
01:28:26,407 --> 01:28:27,999
- Miss Bloom?
- Yeah.

1209
01:28:29,727 --> 01:28:32,480
Thought I'd return your coat.
It's getting kind of chilly.

1210
01:28:32,567 --> 01:28:34,444
Any news
from our video intruder friend?

1211
01:28:35,687 --> 01:28:41,603
Once more I introduce Belyeu
in a very shadowy light...

1212
01:28:41,927 --> 01:28:44,441
to add to the suspicion of his involvement.

1213
01:28:44,927 --> 01:28:48,317
At this point we're not sure
if he's friend or foe.

1214
01:28:49,207 --> 01:28:52,677
What's shaping up with regards to our story
is that obviously...

1215
01:28:53,207 --> 01:28:55,118
Dusty was involved in some way...

1216
01:28:55,487 --> 01:28:58,206
which is what's going through her head
right now.

1217
01:28:59,167 --> 01:29:01,283
Will you tell him
I'll take care of it?

1218
01:29:01,367 --> 01:29:03,517
- About his son, I mean.
- I'll do that.

1219
01:29:04,287 --> 01:29:06,118
You staying for the execution?

1220
01:29:07,847 --> 01:29:10,315
Then I'll see you tomorrow.
Watch yourselves.

1221
01:29:14,887 --> 01:29:17,082
Were Dusty Wright
and Constance close?

1222
01:29:17,167 --> 01:29:19,362
Yeah. Thick as thieves, those two.

1223
01:29:20,327 --> 01:29:22,602
- Lovers?
- Whoa, now.

1224
01:29:22,727 --> 01:29:25,002
You're ploughing
a little too close to the cotton.

1225
01:29:25,087 --> 01:29:27,203
That was just a rumour.
Nothing more.

1226
01:29:27,687 --> 01:29:28,881
Night-night.

1227
01:29:47,807 --> 01:29:51,846
The sequence of the video
that we've seen so far.

1228
01:29:53,487 --> 01:29:56,718
Each time that I introduce the video...

1229
01:29:58,127 --> 01:30:01,597
I try to show a little more of what went on.

1230
01:30:02,167 --> 01:30:06,445
Originally, when I first cut this sequence,
I had a whole lot more of the video.

1231
01:30:06,887 --> 01:30:11,642
I minimised it partly because
it's tough to take more than once.

1232
01:30:11,727 --> 01:30:14,480
Obviously I have to have a place to go...

1233
01:30:14,567 --> 01:30:18,321
with regards to what we're about to see
when we see more of the video.

1234
01:30:18,807 --> 01:30:20,684
This sequence here is the only sequence...

1235
01:30:20,767 --> 01:30:25,363
we shot inside the actual prison
at Huntsville.

1236
01:30:25,887 --> 01:30:30,244
This is the alleyway that goes
to the real execution chamber.

1237
01:30:30,327 --> 01:30:33,239
We were allowed in with a very small crew
to do this.

1238
01:30:36,287 --> 01:30:39,802
It's eerie when I watch it,
because I know that van is pulling up...

1239
01:30:39,887 --> 01:30:41,923
not to a set but to a real place.

1240
01:30:44,087 --> 01:30:47,762
Here's the car,
then we're not in the real place at this point.

1241
01:30:47,847 --> 01:30:49,485
We're back into our set...

1242
01:30:49,687 --> 01:30:54,317
as we see him come to the small building
which is a replica...

1243
01:30:54,407 --> 01:30:58,116
of where all the executions take place
in Texas.

1244
01:30:58,887 --> 01:31:00,878
Building 1835, there.

1245
01:31:02,367 --> 01:31:06,406
These holding cells are an exact replica...

1246
01:31:06,927 --> 01:31:10,966
of the real place when I went there
and was shown around for the first time.

1247
01:31:12,047 --> 01:31:16,962
The camera is at the door
to where the executions take place.

1248
01:31:25,087 --> 01:31:28,602
Here we see Bitsey
waking up the next morning.

1249
01:31:28,687 --> 01:31:31,724
This was back into our set situation.

1250
01:31:35,647 --> 01:31:38,241
The only reason it is a set is because...

1251
01:31:38,567 --> 01:31:41,240
tiny motel rooms are quite difficult.

1252
01:31:41,327 --> 01:31:43,966
It's hard enough getting the actors
in those tiny rooms...

1253
01:31:44,047 --> 01:31:46,607
let alone 40 film crew, as well.

1254
01:31:47,247 --> 01:31:52,275
That's why we make our life a little easier
by making it into a set.

1255
01:32:01,807 --> 01:32:05,117
This is the moment
where she sees the crumpled towel...

1256
01:32:06,247 --> 01:32:09,000
which triggers...

1257
01:32:11,087 --> 01:32:13,362
her idea as to what actually happened.

1258
01:32:24,047 --> 01:32:26,720
Wake up! Did you throw
the towel on the floor?

1259
01:32:26,807 --> 01:32:27,717
What?

1260
01:32:27,807 --> 01:32:29,240
This towel was on my bathroom floor.

1261
01:32:29,327 --> 01:32:31,716
- Did you throw it there?
- I guess. What? It's a motel.

1262
01:32:31,967 --> 01:32:33,844
- Would you do that at home?
- No.

1263
01:32:33,967 --> 01:32:36,800
It's not like we're staying
in the frigging Four Seasons.

1264
01:32:36,887 --> 01:32:39,799
Come on, get the TV.
We're taking it with us.

1265
01:32:39,887 --> 01:32:42,003
What are you talking about?
Where are we going?

1266
01:32:42,087 --> 01:32:43,839
This scene always amuses me...

1267
01:32:43,927 --> 01:32:48,364
when the two of them encircle one another
in desperation...

1268
01:32:48,447 --> 01:32:53,567
to do what is seemingly quite simple
but it is the hardest thing for actors...

1269
01:32:53,647 --> 01:32:59,324
to unplug things, grab them,
and still keep the action going without it.

1270
01:32:59,567 --> 01:33:03,196
In the real world, of course,
plugs never come out that easy.

1271
01:33:05,207 --> 01:33:08,916
Here we're back to Constance's old house...

1272
01:33:09,687 --> 01:33:13,396
now the Goth Girl's house,
because we're in present time.

1273
01:33:13,487 --> 01:33:15,682
- Want to make $100?
- $100? What do I got to do?

1274
01:33:15,767 --> 01:33:17,758
We're going over the crime scene.

1275
01:33:18,007 --> 01:33:21,602
This is a classic example
of how great Kate can be...

1276
01:33:21,687 --> 01:33:25,077
to help everyone, with regards to her action.

1277
01:33:27,127 --> 01:33:30,961
She helps the cameraman here because
there's a low light level, as you can see...

1278
01:33:31,047 --> 01:33:33,117
and therefore very little depth of field.

1279
01:33:33,407 --> 01:33:38,606
She unselfishly choreographed the thing
so that she could help the camera guys.

1280
01:33:47,807 --> 01:33:50,082
Can you move that stuff
off the counter for me?

1281
01:33:50,807 --> 01:33:53,605
This was quite interesting
to shoot because...

1282
01:33:55,087 --> 01:33:57,920
it's all happening in real-time
with regards to...

1283
01:33:58,527 --> 01:34:04,079
what you see on the television screen
as opposed to what's happening in reality.

1284
01:34:05,927 --> 01:34:09,840
That led to some quite interesting
formulations...

1285
01:34:09,927 --> 01:34:11,565
of angles and shots and things.

1286
01:34:15,087 --> 01:34:18,602
I used the small video camera all the time...

1287
01:34:18,687 --> 01:34:22,680
even when all the stuff you see
of Constance on the right-hand screen...

1288
01:34:23,967 --> 01:34:25,525
was never shot on film.

1289
01:34:25,607 --> 01:34:30,601
It was always shot
on a very simple video camera...

1290
01:34:31,167 --> 01:34:34,477
similar to the one that Zack has...

1291
01:34:35,087 --> 01:34:38,841
in order to make it as authentic as possible.

1292
01:34:39,447 --> 01:34:42,484
It's always difficult
when you're doing such a scene...

1293
01:34:43,287 --> 01:34:45,801
of which we see more of later, obviously...

1294
01:34:46,047 --> 01:34:50,404
the temptation is, to be safe,
you should film it actually on film...

1295
01:34:50,967 --> 01:34:54,516
not on a cheap video camera,
because you never know what'd go wrong.

1296
01:34:56,527 --> 01:34:59,917
I didn't want to take it from film
and then transfer it to video...

1297
01:35:00,007 --> 01:35:02,237
because there's something...

1298
01:35:02,487 --> 01:35:06,480
aesthetically and dramatically interesting
about the fact that...

1299
01:35:07,007 --> 01:35:10,363
the whole of Constance's situation there...

1300
01:35:10,447 --> 01:35:14,326
was filmed on a very simple camera.

1301
01:35:15,167 --> 01:35:18,159
It gives it another dimension, another life.

1302
01:35:19,727 --> 01:35:23,436
I have to say that as a director...

1303
01:35:23,607 --> 01:35:26,963
I'm not one to go, what they call in England,
a "love you" route...

1304
01:35:27,047 --> 01:35:28,958
with regards to how good people are.

1305
01:35:29,967 --> 01:35:34,757
I have to say a good word
about Kate and Gabriel Mann:

1306
01:35:35,807 --> 01:35:37,445
Incredibly nice people.

1307
01:35:37,527 --> 01:35:42,123
Kate, in particular, is one of those actors...

1308
01:35:42,207 --> 01:35:47,281
who not only help me
but every single person on the crew.

1309
01:35:48,647 --> 01:35:52,037
It seems that that would be normal...

1310
01:35:52,127 --> 01:35:57,963
but in an industry
that's plagued with egocentric actors...

1311
01:35:59,607 --> 01:36:03,600
it's actually very rare that you get someone
who's so generous to everyone.

1312
01:36:03,687 --> 01:36:09,000
This was a particularly generous cast
to one another as actors, certainly to me.

1313
01:36:09,567 --> 01:36:14,322
I remember these cells
when I first went into the prison.

1314
01:36:14,407 --> 01:36:18,241
The real prison at Huntsville
I found kind of creepy.

1315
01:36:18,327 --> 01:36:22,240
It's weird that we replicated it so accurately.

1316
01:36:23,207 --> 01:36:26,404
This is the re-enactment of...

1317
01:36:28,647 --> 01:36:30,365
Constance's death.

1318
01:36:31,047 --> 01:36:35,165
I have to say, it's probably tougher on Laura
because she did it first...

1319
01:36:36,047 --> 01:36:39,722
and then Kate has to re-enact it.

1320
01:36:40,167 --> 01:36:42,727
Slightly more difficult for Laura...

1321
01:36:42,807 --> 01:36:48,439
because she also had
the added humiliation of being naked.

1322
01:36:49,087 --> 01:36:51,476
But what Kate's doing here is not easy.

1323
01:36:51,887 --> 01:36:55,482
That bag goes on, that tape goes on,
and suddenly you feel...

1324
01:36:55,567 --> 01:37:00,083
that you have quite a responsibility
as a filmmaker...

1325
01:37:00,167 --> 01:37:05,525
because film is an illusion and
yet what we're looking at is a real person.

1326
01:37:05,607 --> 01:37:08,360
That's Bitsey Bloom,
but that's also Kate Winslet there...

1327
01:37:08,447 --> 01:37:12,235
with a real bag on her head,
and it's absolutely sealed.

1328
01:37:13,767 --> 01:37:16,565
There's danger to these kind of scenes.

1329
01:37:16,647 --> 01:37:20,196
We, of course, take huge precautions
with regards to...

1330
01:37:20,727 --> 01:37:25,881
We have paramedics on hand,
just a yard away from where Kate is.

1331
01:37:28,447 --> 01:37:31,598
It's my job to make sure
that everyone is as safe as possible.

1332
01:37:31,687 --> 01:37:35,396
It's scary because where is the line between:

1333
01:37:35,607 --> 01:37:41,318
"Is this Kate acting
or is this a person in real difficulty?"

1334
01:37:42,327 --> 01:37:45,842
I know that I found that extremely disturbing
when I filmed this.

1335
01:37:46,647 --> 01:37:49,957
No more experiments, all right?
Just tell me what's going on.

1336
01:37:50,047 --> 01:37:52,356
- Are you okay?
- She did it herself.

1337
01:38:22,887 --> 01:38:26,960
Here we see Kate figuring it out.

1338
01:38:27,047 --> 01:38:29,561
She's actually not figuring it out correctly.

1339
01:38:29,647 --> 01:38:35,005
But as far as all the information
that the audience have and she has...

1340
01:38:35,607 --> 01:38:40,123
this is the revelatory moment for her.

1341
01:38:40,447 --> 01:38:44,235
The fact that the slight red herring
where we're taking the audience...

1342
01:38:45,887 --> 01:38:49,641
This is her logic for what happened...

1343
01:38:49,727 --> 01:38:52,958
in that Dusty and Constance
were perhaps in it together.

1344
01:38:53,647 --> 01:38:58,402
This was a particularly difficult scene
to shoot in that I did it twice.

1345
01:39:00,127 --> 01:39:02,118
The first day I did it...

1346
01:39:04,327 --> 01:39:06,124
we had very bad light.

1347
01:39:06,207 --> 01:39:10,166
We had very bad weather
and suddenly everything went very dark.

1348
01:39:11,327 --> 01:39:13,318
It made it almost impossible to film.

1349
01:39:13,607 --> 01:39:15,723
You persevere for a while
and then you realise...

1350
01:39:15,807 --> 01:39:19,846
it's actually better to abandon
and start again the next day.

1351
01:39:19,927 --> 01:39:21,440
That's what I did with this...

1352
01:39:21,527 --> 01:39:26,521
so that you have constant light to film with.

1353
01:39:26,927 --> 01:39:30,966
Particularly in such an important scene
where Kate has so much exposition...

1354
01:39:31,047 --> 01:39:34,596
and it has to really click...

1355
01:39:34,687 --> 01:39:36,643
with regards to what's happening...

1356
01:39:36,727 --> 01:39:40,083
because we, the audience,
have to be extraordinarily attentive...

1357
01:39:40,167 --> 01:39:45,116
because she's supposedly
solving the riddle for us.

1358
01:39:46,447 --> 01:39:50,122
As we know, with regards to the whole film,
it's absolutely not what happened.

1359
01:39:50,207 --> 01:39:52,357
But as far as the audience is concerned...

1360
01:39:52,447 --> 01:39:55,962
Dusty in his little shack here is responsible.

1361
01:39:56,647 --> 01:39:58,319
We filmed this...

1362
01:39:58,407 --> 01:40:00,363
This shack, believe it or not...

1363
01:40:00,727 --> 01:40:04,436
although we dressed it
with that wall of horror up there...

1364
01:40:06,287 --> 01:40:08,881
was pretty well how we found it.

1365
01:40:08,967 --> 01:40:12,676
We borrowed this shack from a family
who were living in here.

1366
01:40:13,607 --> 01:40:18,476
We put them up in a hotel for a week
whilst we did these scenes.

1367
01:40:19,047 --> 01:40:23,677
The place looks pretty shabby and eccentric
but there are many such buildings...

1368
01:40:24,487 --> 01:40:26,762
in the rural areas outside Austin.

1369
01:40:30,087 --> 01:40:32,476
What a dump. The guy's a freak.

1370
01:40:43,007 --> 01:40:46,317
This disused bowling alley...

1371
01:40:48,127 --> 01:40:51,199
was actually dressed to be...

1372
01:40:52,287 --> 01:40:54,847
It was a regular building
by the side of the street...

1373
01:40:54,927 --> 01:40:57,839
quite close to where Dusty's shack was.

1374
01:41:00,447 --> 01:41:02,756
An important scene, in again...

1375
01:41:02,847 --> 01:41:06,760
she's piecing together a jigsaw puzzle...

1376
01:41:07,007 --> 01:41:09,680
where the pieces seem to make
one particular picture.

1377
01:41:09,767 --> 01:41:12,327
Actually that's not the picture
that's correct...

1378
01:41:12,407 --> 01:41:15,240
but as far as the audience...

1379
01:41:15,327 --> 01:41:19,081
and the construction of the film
and the original screenplay...

1380
01:41:19,607 --> 01:41:24,078
this would be the usual summing up
of where a film might go like this...

1381
01:41:24,167 --> 01:41:29,560
with regards to obvious conclusions
of clues that have taken us to this place.

1382
01:41:30,607 --> 01:41:34,361
It's an unusual story
and an unusual construction.

1383
01:41:35,527 --> 01:41:40,521
Everything that's happening here,
with regards to its conclusiveness...

1384
01:41:40,607 --> 01:41:42,962
is actually not what's going to happen.

1385
01:41:43,047 --> 01:41:46,756
I think that's what gives the film its edge.

1386
01:41:50,167 --> 01:41:53,398
This aria we keep hearing
is obviously from Turandot...

1387
01:41:53,487 --> 01:41:56,638
not Turandot as I used to call it
before I knew better!

1388
01:41:58,447 --> 01:42:00,836
We recorded it at Abbey Road.

1389
01:42:02,087 --> 01:42:07,639
Very beautiful aria that it is,
every time we come to Dusty we play it...

1390
01:42:07,727 --> 01:42:12,198
because it figures rather importantly
when we see the whole opera later...

1391
01:42:12,287 --> 01:42:14,357
which I'll talk about when we get there.

1392
01:42:18,327 --> 01:42:19,919
So, don't move from the phone.

1393
01:42:20,007 --> 01:42:22,475
Call the second you see his pickup.
Let it ring once.

1394
01:42:22,567 --> 01:42:24,558
- Then get into the woods.
- I know. Go.

1395
01:42:24,647 --> 01:42:26,365
- Into the woods, Zack.
- Go!

1396
01:42:28,567 --> 01:42:29,556
Oh, shit.

1397
01:42:34,847 --> 01:42:37,964
Here we are outside Huntsville Prison.

1398
01:42:38,687 --> 01:42:44,159
It's the actual prison where all executions
in the State of Texas take place...

1399
01:42:44,247 --> 01:42:47,842
and have done for well over 100 years.

1400
01:42:50,247 --> 01:42:54,718
We tried to recreate it as authentically
and as accurately as possible.

1401
01:42:55,407 --> 01:42:59,161
I intercut the PR man...

1402
01:43:00,847 --> 01:43:05,762
describing the poisons
that go towards lethal injection...

1403
01:43:05,847 --> 01:43:10,967
which is often done to explain
how matter-of-fact the whole process is.

1404
01:43:11,047 --> 01:43:13,515
And as they're always pointing out,
how cheap it is.

1405
01:43:14,487 --> 01:43:18,719
I intercut it
with this odd and curious obsession...

1406
01:43:18,807 --> 01:43:22,004
particularly with the media,
with regards to people's last meal.

1407
01:43:22,087 --> 01:43:23,361
There's a whole website...

1408
01:43:23,447 --> 01:43:28,726
where all of the last meals
of everyone who's executed is described.

1409
01:43:29,407 --> 01:43:32,365
Gale's last meal is relevant...

1410
01:43:32,447 --> 01:43:36,918
to the meal that his child originally wanted.

1411
01:43:52,087 --> 01:43:53,566
Faithful Steadicam.

1412
01:43:53,767 --> 01:43:57,237
The best way to show
someone's point of view as they're moving...

1413
01:43:57,887 --> 01:43:59,878
particularly over rough ground.

1414
01:44:01,167 --> 01:44:04,796
I had put together this wall of images...

1415
01:44:05,887 --> 01:44:07,798
which she's about to find out.

1416
01:44:12,607 --> 01:44:15,963
In a way, I suppose, it was to show...

1417
01:44:16,047 --> 01:44:19,835
that there are right-wing zealots
and left-wing zealots.

1418
01:44:19,927 --> 01:44:25,638
And there are people like Dusty
who are so passionate about their cause...

1419
01:44:25,727 --> 01:44:29,356
that in an odd way these images...

1420
01:44:29,447 --> 01:44:34,475
that Bitsey, Kate, is about to find...

1421
01:44:35,207 --> 01:44:39,246
are really about man's inhumanity to man...

1422
01:44:39,567 --> 01:44:43,037
which Dusty has made into his own collage.

1423
01:44:43,487 --> 01:44:47,765
Although it's there because
he believes these things to be wrong...

1424
01:44:47,847 --> 01:44:49,519
in an odd kind of way...

1425
01:44:49,607 --> 01:44:54,078
the fact that they're all there together,
all these hideous images...

1426
01:44:55,487 --> 01:44:59,526
makes its own obscenity,
which is the point I was trying to make.

1427
01:45:01,327 --> 01:45:05,764
This sequence was rather tricky to do,
if you count just the mechanics...

1428
01:45:07,327 --> 01:45:11,161
of trying to keep the pace
of the whole thing going, intercutting here.

1429
01:45:13,087 --> 01:45:16,318
All of the images
that you see on the screen...

1430
01:45:17,007 --> 01:45:19,396
Pavarotti, are relevant...

1431
01:45:20,007 --> 01:45:24,444
to Dusty's obsession with opera.

1432
01:45:24,847 --> 01:45:28,283
The clich� programmes
that people have videos of.

1433
01:45:28,687 --> 01:45:31,440
We saw a very quick glimpse
of the Christmas party...

1434
01:45:31,647 --> 01:45:34,480
with Laura
and her colleagues at DeathWatch...

1435
01:45:34,567 --> 01:45:38,560
very briefly intercutting
with the other video images.

1436
01:45:39,487 --> 01:45:44,038
This isn't Dusty, but Zack thinks that it is.

1437
01:45:44,727 --> 01:45:49,642
This gas station was quite near
to where we filmed the shack...

1438
01:45:49,727 --> 01:45:52,446
and had its own aesthetic, obviously...

1439
01:45:52,527 --> 01:45:57,396
with regards to being very indicative
of that area of Texas.

1440
01:45:59,327 --> 01:46:02,478
This scene was done...

1441
01:46:03,967 --> 01:46:05,446
with Kate...

1442
01:46:07,847 --> 01:46:09,326
in one, as such...

1443
01:46:09,407 --> 01:46:13,241
But it was when she finally gets
to the video...

1444
01:46:14,767 --> 01:46:17,759
we suddenly then cut out
all of our music and our sound...

1445
01:46:17,847 --> 01:46:21,044
just to make it that much more powerful.

1446
01:46:22,007 --> 01:46:26,159
The video itself, Kate had never seen before.

1447
01:46:29,007 --> 01:46:33,683
She asked that she wouldn't see it
until the moment I had the camera on her.

1448
01:46:34,847 --> 01:46:39,318
This is Kate reacting
to the character, Constance...

1449
01:46:39,407 --> 01:46:43,036
but also reacting to Laura...

1450
01:46:43,127 --> 01:46:49,123
who is actually about to do something
that is very disturbing.

1451
01:46:50,567 --> 01:46:53,479
With regards to what's happening
on Kate's face...

1452
01:46:54,487 --> 01:46:57,923
This was the first time I revealed to her
the actual video.

1453
01:46:59,807 --> 01:47:02,082
Obviously a huge amount
of acting going on...

1454
01:47:02,167 --> 01:47:05,523
but this is Kate reacting to her friend Laura.

1455
01:47:05,847 --> 01:47:07,075
The two actors...

1456
01:47:07,287 --> 01:47:09,801
She'd never seen this scene before.

1457
01:47:10,127 --> 01:47:12,880
Therefore a great deal of this pain is real...

1458
01:47:13,487 --> 01:47:17,241
with regards to watching Laura
putting the bag on.

1459
01:47:17,327 --> 01:47:21,081
As I said before, this was by far
the most harrowing scene I've ever done.

1460
01:47:21,167 --> 01:47:23,806
And I've done some difficult scenes
in my movies.

1461
01:47:24,087 --> 01:47:29,002
But this was for real.
This was Laura, not a body double.

1462
01:47:29,847 --> 01:47:34,523
This is a real bag sealed with real tape,
and they are real handcuffs.

1463
01:47:36,487 --> 01:47:41,720
As I've said before, we have
the added humiliation of being naked.

1464
01:47:42,527 --> 01:47:47,647
This is a huge revelation
for the character Bitsey...

1465
01:47:47,847 --> 01:47:53,126
because it absolutely involves Dusty
in Constance's death.

1466
01:47:53,727 --> 01:47:55,957
Therefore very crucial to our story.

1467
01:47:58,087 --> 01:48:00,203
- Fuck!
- He didn't show! Come on!

1468
01:48:02,367 --> 01:48:03,766
Please, Bitsey, come on!

1469
01:48:03,927 --> 01:48:05,883
From here on, we have...

1470
01:48:08,767 --> 01:48:13,636
the conclusion to the thriller aspect,
the ticking clock.

1471
01:48:14,207 --> 01:48:18,917
With regards to the energy
with which it's cut...

1472
01:48:19,007 --> 01:48:22,636
and all of the other elements
that go towards...

1473
01:48:23,327 --> 01:48:28,037
making it as exciting an ending
as possible...

1474
01:48:28,127 --> 01:48:30,880
if you can use that word
with what's about to happen...

1475
01:48:30,967 --> 01:48:32,559
with regards to a man's death.

1476
01:48:33,247 --> 01:48:36,683
The Governor, the warden, New York,
the Supreme Court death clerk!

1477
01:48:36,767 --> 01:48:38,758
- How far is it?
- You've got eight minutes...

1478
01:48:38,847 --> 01:48:40,678
- maybe more.
- Okay, we'll make it.

1479
01:48:40,767 --> 01:48:42,086
- You can do it.
- Go!

1480
01:48:52,767 --> 01:48:57,841
The oddity of this particular ritual is that...

1481
01:48:58,487 --> 01:49:02,275
prisoners have a shower before execution.

1482
01:49:03,047 --> 01:49:07,916
The theory being that the undertaker
appreciates a clean corpse.

1483
01:49:09,727 --> 01:49:10,796
Oh, my God.

1484
01:49:12,927 --> 01:49:14,121
Give me the time.

1485
01:49:14,207 --> 01:49:15,640
...on that big pileup on...

1486
01:49:15,727 --> 01:49:17,445
Give me the goddamn time!

1487
01:49:36,127 --> 01:49:38,243
Oh, no. Not now.

1488
01:49:38,847 --> 01:49:40,121
Not fucking now.

1489
01:50:04,687 --> 01:50:06,166
Shit!

1490
01:50:08,207 --> 01:50:10,641
These scenes were all shot...

1491
01:50:11,607 --> 01:50:14,246
just outside Taylor.

1492
01:50:15,167 --> 01:50:18,637
There we have the image that we saw
at the beginning of the film.

1493
01:50:20,127 --> 01:50:24,200
It begins her run to save a man's life.

1494
01:50:27,247 --> 01:50:31,923
The scenes outside the prison
were pretty realistic.

1495
01:50:32,127 --> 01:50:34,357
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice...

1496
01:50:34,447 --> 01:50:38,520
were extraordinarily helpful
in allowing us to have helicopters.

1497
01:50:38,607 --> 01:50:40,279
There's more than one helicopter.

1498
01:50:40,367 --> 01:50:44,246
There's a helicopter above that helicopter
filming the crowd beneath.

1499
01:50:47,687 --> 01:50:53,637
The chief PR man
at the Texas Criminal Justice Department...

1500
01:50:53,727 --> 01:50:57,037
actually was at dinner and said...

1501
01:50:57,927 --> 01:51:01,397
he met a friend who asked
if there was an execution that day.

1502
01:51:01,487 --> 01:51:03,762
The local people thought
it was a real execution.

1503
01:51:03,847 --> 01:51:07,442
Of course it wasn't.
It was us replicating the media madness...

1504
01:51:07,527 --> 01:51:11,361
that goes along
with a high-profile execution...

1505
01:51:11,447 --> 01:51:15,281
as, of course, David Gale's
would have been very high profile...

1506
01:51:15,847 --> 01:51:20,875
being as he was the state's
leading abolitionist for the death penalty.

1507
01:51:22,287 --> 01:51:24,482
I use a lot of video and cameras...

1508
01:51:24,567 --> 01:51:29,004
with regards to trying to reflect upon...

1509
01:51:29,087 --> 01:51:34,957
the way in which the media
covers such situations.

1510
01:51:35,047 --> 01:51:38,403
It's also to do with the fact
that the media and mass media...

1511
01:51:38,487 --> 01:51:41,718
is being manipulated in a way...

1512
01:51:41,807 --> 01:51:46,835
that is the opposite to how it usually is.

1513
01:51:49,407 --> 01:51:55,277
The whole media circus is something
that they are quite used to at Huntsville.

1514
01:51:56,607 --> 01:51:59,963
They have a huge building
just for journalists.

1515
01:52:00,367 --> 01:52:06,681
It's a very sophisticated
media-management situation.

1516
01:52:06,927 --> 01:52:10,806
These quick snippets of people,
I had recorded all the way through the film.

1517
01:52:11,167 --> 01:52:13,635
They are not actors, they are real people...

1518
01:52:13,727 --> 01:52:17,402
giving me their opinions
of what they feel about the death penalty.

1519
01:52:17,767 --> 01:52:19,120
Unscripted.

1520
01:52:21,247 --> 01:52:26,162
The clock, courtesy of Fred Zinnemann
and High Noon, my mentor.

1521
01:52:29,167 --> 01:52:31,442
The whole of this sequence...

1522
01:52:32,007 --> 01:52:36,125
was shot in a couple of days.

1523
01:52:38,567 --> 01:52:42,640
It was not easy to do
because inside there are real prisoners...

1524
01:52:43,287 --> 01:52:48,600
and inside those walls
is the place where real people die.

1525
01:52:49,967 --> 01:52:52,003
...strapped to the gurney at 6:02 p.m.

1526
01:52:52,447 --> 01:52:54,438
David Gale was officially
pronounced dead...

1527
01:52:54,527 --> 01:52:55,562
...at 6:12 this evening.

1528
01:52:55,647 --> 01:52:57,239
Texas has executed David...

1529
01:52:57,327 --> 01:52:58,362
...Gale was pronounced...

1530
01:52:58,447 --> 01:52:59,562
...dead at 6:12...

1531
01:52:59,647 --> 01:53:03,117
Death was pronounced at 6:12 p.m.,
at the Walls Prison, Huntsville.

1532
01:53:03,367 --> 01:53:05,164
There was no final statement.

1533
01:53:06,127 --> 01:53:08,766
Since none of the victim's relatives
was in attendance...

1534
01:53:08,847 --> 01:53:11,600
there will be no statement
from the victim's family.

1535
01:53:41,087 --> 01:53:45,683
At this moment, we're not sure
if Dusty and Belyeu are in on it together.

1536
01:53:47,087 --> 01:53:50,557
There's certainly money in that case.
That's not clear.

1537
01:53:50,647 --> 01:53:55,926
What I tried to do here
is what I call Media Frenzy...

1538
01:53:56,007 --> 01:53:58,077
a piece of music that Alex wrote.

1539
01:53:58,447 --> 01:54:03,919
It's called Media Frenzy and
it's just to show the madness of the media.

1540
01:54:04,007 --> 01:54:08,046
Anyone who has lived in the United States
will be aware...

1541
01:54:09,047 --> 01:54:11,686
of how much television
is part of everyone's lives...

1542
01:54:11,767 --> 01:54:15,646
how many channels there are
and how many reporters there are.

1543
01:54:16,167 --> 01:54:21,719
It was a sequence that we spent
quite a lot of time cutting.

1544
01:54:21,887 --> 01:54:27,837
I showed a lot of material
of different commentators, as we see here.

1545
01:54:29,367 --> 01:54:33,440
Piecing it together was quite tricky
for Gerry Hambling.

1546
01:54:34,687 --> 01:54:38,600
I hope it builds up the tension...

1547
01:54:38,887 --> 01:54:42,562
and drama that goes
towards the end of the movie.

1548
01:54:42,887 --> 01:54:48,325
What we've done is to "kill off the hero"
in normal movie terms.

1549
01:54:49,287 --> 01:54:52,085
Usually there is the stay of execution
with the phone call.

1550
01:54:52,167 --> 01:54:55,000
He's dead
because this is a very different film...

1551
01:54:55,087 --> 01:54:58,045
and we come to different conclusions
at the end of the film...

1552
01:54:58,207 --> 01:55:00,084
as we're trying to say different things.

1553
01:55:00,167 --> 01:55:04,718
This is a montage of the way in which...

1554
01:55:04,847 --> 01:55:08,726
the media would cover an event like this.

1555
01:55:08,807 --> 01:55:13,403
The saturation, craziness and madness
of this media frenzy.

1556
01:55:18,447 --> 01:55:21,359
Of course, the ultimate irony
is that David Gale...

1557
01:55:21,447 --> 01:55:23,563
...a man who became
an unwitting martyr...

1558
01:55:23,647 --> 01:55:25,638
...may achieve in death
what he worked for...

1559
01:55:25,727 --> 01:55:27,763
...but could not accomplish in life.

1560
01:55:27,847 --> 01:55:30,566
This is A.J. Roberts
reporting from Bastrop, Texas.

1561
01:55:32,087 --> 01:55:34,123
Here we are in Barcelona.

1562
01:55:35,887 --> 01:55:40,836
I filmed this whole Barcelona sequence
much later...

1563
01:55:40,927 --> 01:55:43,839
after we had finished filming in Texas.

1564
01:55:43,927 --> 01:55:45,042
We had filmed in Texas...

1565
01:55:45,127 --> 01:55:49,996
from October to Christmas in 2001.

1566
01:55:52,007 --> 01:55:55,966
This was shot much later...

1567
01:55:56,647 --> 01:55:58,717
in the spring of 2002.

1568
01:55:59,407 --> 01:56:02,717
We thought we'd have a rest
and get our sanity back...

1569
01:56:02,807 --> 01:56:05,401
after making the movie in Texas.

1570
01:56:05,887 --> 01:56:10,915
I must say it was rather strange
filming in Barcelona...

1571
01:56:11,007 --> 01:56:14,795
after being down in Texas.

1572
01:56:15,927 --> 01:56:19,363
This was an incredibly beautiful,
old house, apartment...

1573
01:56:19,487 --> 01:56:21,523
that we had as a location.

1574
01:56:22,487 --> 01:56:26,082
There is Gale's ex-wife.

1575
01:56:28,327 --> 01:56:30,397
Back to the news magazine...

1576
01:56:30,767 --> 01:56:33,600
which I said at the very beginning
of this commentary...

1577
01:56:34,287 --> 01:56:35,436
is a set.

1578
01:56:35,567 --> 01:56:37,478
It was an empty office...

1579
01:56:37,567 --> 01:56:41,719
but everything you see here
has been dressed in...

1580
01:56:42,247 --> 01:56:44,556
by the art directors.

1581
01:56:45,127 --> 01:56:49,040
Cloud Dog comes out of the FedEx box.

1582
01:56:50,287 --> 01:56:54,599
We must be the only people in the world
who didn't get money from FedEx to do that.

1583
01:56:55,527 --> 01:56:57,006
Back in Barcelona.

1584
01:56:58,327 --> 01:57:02,206
David's sweater. His Harvard sweater.

1585
01:57:02,607 --> 01:57:04,086
It was going to be Yale...

1586
01:57:04,167 --> 01:57:06,806
but the Yale people
wouldn't give us permission.

1587
01:57:06,887 --> 01:57:10,846
Harvard did for some strange reason.
Odd these things.

1588
01:57:11,487 --> 01:57:13,159
The postcard from Berlin.

1589
01:57:18,647 --> 01:57:24,358
This Turandot opera we filmed
at the Barcelona Opera for the crowd shots.

1590
01:57:25,127 --> 01:57:28,676
We recreated the opera itself
at Shepperton Studios.

1591
01:57:28,767 --> 01:57:29,836
It's our version of it.

1592
01:57:29,927 --> 01:57:35,081
The character Li� martyrs herself
which is the metaphor for our film.

1593
01:57:35,327 --> 01:57:38,763
Janis Kelly is the soprano
and we recorded that at Abbey Road.

1594
01:57:50,727 --> 01:57:52,285
"Key to your freedom"?

1595
01:57:52,967 --> 01:57:53,922
What?

1596
01:57:54,367 --> 01:57:57,040
The final d�nouement of the film.

1597
01:57:58,207 --> 01:57:59,276
Cloud Dog.

1598
01:58:02,767 --> 01:58:04,758
The tape is inside of it.

1599
01:58:24,567 --> 01:58:28,321
This scene, I think, is pretty explanatory.

1600
01:58:31,447 --> 01:58:34,484
It's obviously the most powerful moment
in the film for me.

1601
01:58:38,567 --> 01:58:42,765
Hopefully the audience still doesn't know
what's gonna happen.

1602
01:58:43,087 --> 01:58:46,966
It's interesting to know
at what point people absolutely realise...

1603
01:58:47,047 --> 01:58:51,199
that Gale was in on the whole thing
from the very beginning.

1604
01:59:37,127 --> 01:59:39,402
That was The Life of David Gale.

1605
01:59:39,487 --> 01:59:41,398
I'm very proud of this film indeed.

1606
01:59:42,207 --> 01:59:45,438
As I said before, I don't think
films can change people's minds...

1607
01:59:45,527 --> 01:59:48,485
not in two hours
of information or communication.

1608
01:59:48,847 --> 01:59:53,557
Hopefully it will provoke debate
about a very important issue.

1609
01:59:54,407 --> 01:59:57,046
So I leave you with Alex Parker's song.