At war with the mundane.
The photographer William Eggleston was our cinematic inspiration for Saint John of Las Vegas. He famously said "I am at war with the mundane."
This isn't photo-journalism, or cosmopolitan pity. It is a kind of exaltation. To war with something is to elevate its importance. The humor here comes from severity. In Saint John of Las Vegas, auto insurance is the mundane subject, but the characters involved are at war. That is what makes it funny.
These images are dye-transfer prints from Kodak reversal stock. We shot 35mm negative film and then adjusted the image via a digital intermediary (which, for non-filmmakers, is like photoshop for movies.) Unfortunately, reversal film and negative film look very different. Even if we had used reversal film, Eggleston shot these pictures in the 1970s and Kodak no longer makes the development chemicals he used. Dye transfer printing also creates a different look than normal printing, even when using the same negative. So we couldn't use Eggleston's film stock, his chemicals or his printing process.
We asked dye transfer printer Guy Stricherz and fashion photographer Raymond Meier for advice on how to replicate Eggleston's look. They both said the same thing: resist the temptation to electronically sharpen or increase contrast. To quote Raymond Meier "it’s extremely hard to fake the beauty of a real imperfection." Instead, our DP Giles Nuttgens concentrated on emulating Eggleston's framing and lighting decisions. We made contrast by juxtaposing colors in the frame, so we wouldn't need to enhance contrast digitally. And we relied on modern lens technology to create all the sharpness we needed.
Our colorist Julius Friede used a wonderfully light touch in the digital intermediary process. In the end, I think we succeeded in creating a look which pays homage to Eggleston's spirit, even if the film stock, processing and printing weren't the same.
