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We wanted to make it look likeBlade Runner, John Mathieson admits, rather immediately.
A bit shamelessly, in fact.
Hes the one who insisted on shooting the tale of deerstalker-cap-wearing Pokemon on35 millimeter film instead of digital video.
I always want to shoot on film, Mathieson tells Vulture over the phone from his native England.
But I dont think thats true at all.
Weve managed to work using film for a hundred years without calamity.
You end up being able to shoot an hour more every day, Mathieson explains.
Fewer and fewer features shoot on film with every passing year, citing the steep costs and needless complications.
But Mathieson, a veteran professional, is fighting the good film fight anyway.
One of the things that film does best is replicate vivid colors, holds their integrity, Mathieson says.
We had the freedom to go for a really weird purple, to find an interesting shade of blue.
Cyans, cerises, and fuchsias define a world populated by both human actors and CGI pocket monsters.
The metropolis outside lights interior shots with a hazy neon glow that shifts hue every few seconds.
We were really pushed, he says ofPikachu.
We had a lot of post, but to create a whole new character?
And little friends for him?
Im sure the producers are tearing the spikes out of the little hedgehogs bum.
Of course, Mathiesons got some studio-system horror stories of his own.
Frames will be lit by committee.
Why wouldnt they value [the director of photography]?
They bring you in because they value your opinion presumably, they want your look.
So let the DP do the work of creating that look!
Otherwise, youve got a flat, tweaked-with digital image.
The proofs in the pudding, he says.
We had real locations, real places.
Thats just not that much fun, really.
