The Big Picture
- The Creator is a blockbuster with a smaller budget, so the team had to find creative ways to depict the large scale seen on the big screen.
- The director of photography, Oren Soffer, describes a favorite shot in the movie that was accidentally stumbled upon, capturing a moment of authenticity and beauty.
- The film follows Joshua, who comes out of retirement to fight against the artificial intelligence controlling the world, while also dealing with personal challenges and tough choices.
The world of The Creator faces a crisis where an artificial intelligence system has declared war against humanity, leaving millions of people in a situation where they have to hide from the evil machines. As a blockbuster with a smaller-than-expected budget, the team behind the story had to find creative ways to depict the large scale seen on the big screen as the plot moves forward. During a recent interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, Oren Soffer, the director of photography who worked on the project, talked about which shot from The Creator was his favorite:
Actually, not a difficult question for me to answer because I have a favorite shot in the movie. It’s near the end of the film…It is a shot of a reflection of Alphie, and it is just such a beautiful moment. It is the perfect encapsulation of everything I was talking about because it was not planned. It was one of those shots that you just accidentally stumble upon, and it was such a little moment of authenticity and accidental beauty and incidental beauty that you couldn’t plan for, and that’s what makes it so special.
Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) is the physical manifestation of the artificial intelligence that controls what happens in the world, and the fact that she’s a small child makes getting rid of her complicated for the hero of the story. Joshua (John David Washington) used to work for the military, but after the sudden disappearance of his wife, he has lived an intensely quiet life. That will change as soon as a new development in the war against the machines forces him to come out of retirement, in what could end up being the most important mission of his life.
Maya (Gemma Chan) was Joshua’s wife, and while their relationship turned the protagonist into the man he is at the beginning of the movie, the way it will affect him in the future could define humanity’s fate. As if Joshua’s mission wasn’t complicated already, a discovery will lead him to require the assistance of Alpha-O, the one person he was sent to destroy. With the uncertain future of humanity in his hands, Joshua will need to make some hard choices as he tries to figure out how to save people without his objective getting in the way of his personal goals.
Gareth Edwards’ Blockbuster Experience
Before he could dedicate the past few years of his career to working on the world of The Creator, Gareth Edwards already had experience with being at the front of large blockbusters. In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the filmmaker took a trip to the galaxy far, far away, where he followed the journey of the spies who stole the plans of the Death Star. Before that, Edwards developed another chapter in the legacy of one of cinema’s most famous monsters in his 2014 action thriller, Godzilla. His experience with those movies allowed Edwards to find out the angle he would use to frame the story of The Creator.
The Creator is in theaters now.
