Actor Robert Downey, Jr. recently described a technique employed by director Guy Ritchie called "Holmes Vision," a style of shooting that helped give Sherlock Holmes' bare-knuckle boxing sequences a distinctive look. In a separate interview with CinemaBlend, Mark Strong, who stars opposite Downey Jr. as the movie's villain, Lord Blackwood, praised Ritchie's film editing.
What Guy's fantastic at is taking the raw material that we shot into the edit, and that's where he creates the magic. Your job is not to anticipate that. What you've got to do is basically like you would on any other set, with any other director. What Guy is brilliant at is taking all of that and giving it something extra, which is his own style.
Strong has starring roles in several other upcoming major motion pictures, including Robin Hood, Kick-Ass, and John Carter of Mars. A performer for 25 years, he attributes his recent movie success to the skills he acquired while acting on stage and in television.
Theater is gold dust. It gives you an ability to learn how to relate to an audience, it teaches you timing, it gives you confidence. You watch actors of all ages, not only how they rehearse but how they perform, and how they behave between performances. And television gives you experience in front of a camera, makes you understand how to shoot stuff out of sequence. All the stuff that I've learned in theater and television is coming to fruition in film, which I've only been doing seriously for the last sort of four or five years.
Posted 12.27.09 by BrentJS