By Iain Blair
Since the first John Wick introduced Keanu Reeves as a lethal but tortured assassin back in 2014, Reeves and director Chad Stahelski have built a global franchise that showcases kinetic action scenes and beautifully choreographed fight sequences. Their latest outing together, John Wick: Chapter 4, is even more awesome as Wick once again takes on the worldwide crime syndicate The High Table in an ultra-violent, balletic revenge tale stuffed full of spectacular stunts, exotic locations and a range of weaponry.
To pull this all together, Stahelski enlisted director of photography Dan Laustsen (ASC, DFF), editor Nathan Orloff and visual effects supervisors Jonathan Rothbart and Janelle Croshaw.
Actor Donnie Yen and Chad Stahelski (right) on-set
I spoke with Stahelski, an ex-stuntman who doubled for Keanu in The Matrix, about making this latest iteration, working on the visual effects, post, editing and the importance of color.
This franchise seems like a perfect fit for you, but how do you keep topping yourself with story, stunts, technology and more?
It’s more that we try to expand and evolve. You try to be a better director, Keanu tries to expand his skillsets, but we also put the same burden on our crew and post team. So for DP Dan Laustsen, it’s, “How do we push the color envelope? How do we change the palette?” For supervising sound editor Mark Stoeckinger and team at Formosa Sound, it’s, “How do you make this sound different from all the other action films out there?”
You have to care about every detail, and there are a thousand different tracks in the sound design alone. Every gun has a different sound. It’s also all the evolving technology.
Can you talk about working with your DP, Dan, and the evolution of that process?
When we did John Wick 3, you could tell that Dan and I liked pushing highlights and contrast, but the Alexa cameras we used then still weren’t hitting the reds the right way. But in the last few years, Alexa cameras have taken a huge jump in that area. And then colorist Jill Bogdanowicz and the DI at Company 3 are a huge part of it all.
Dan and I lace it all together and build the foundation, but she’s so important to the whole look of the film. You can’t have cherry blossom trees in Osaka with purples and pinks and still get good skin tones, and then change the whole thing to green. I need help with that in the DI. DaVinci Resolve has come a long way in the last few years, along with what you can now do in the DI.
And when it’s screening on IMAX, we can really push the colors and sound. So when Keanu’s on the rooftops in Osaka, I’m pushing the reds and blacks as far as I can. We color based on IMAX and what we can do with laser projection, and we’re pushing colors and contrast to the limit.
I assume you started integrating the DI early?
Yes, we also began working on the look and the DI on day one. Light Iron did the first John Wick, but ever since, I’ve been with Jill and Company 3. Talk about going to school. How would you like to sit in on 100 hours of DI with Dan Laustsen and Jill Bogdanowicz? Her dad kind of invented the algorithm for the DI, and you’re talking about painting class and artistry, not even technology. I’ve spent nine years of my life with them, learning Resolve and the capabilities of Power Windows and what you can do with color, and it’s an immense subject.
We brought Jill in right at the start, and I told her, “If you thought the last film was kooky, wait until you see what we’re doing this time with a whole new spectrum of colors. And we’re not just going to go neon to noir. I’m going to push the highlights and bring the blacks back. I’m going to skylight Keanu, and we’re not going to see an eye. We’re going portrait.” And Dan’s going ‘Yeah!’ and Jill’s like, ‘OK, but your VFX are probably going to fall apart in the mid-range.’” But she’s 100% down for trying anything. She and Dan worked on all the LUTs right away, and then Dan and I go off for a year and tackle stuff like, “How’re we gonna refract off waterfalls? How do we stage a huge gun fight in the middle of 50 cars racing around the Arc de Triomphe? And we’re shooting all this at night, so how do we light all this?”
Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski
In terms of post, I’d bring Jill in to look at sequences before we’d even done an assembly so she could wrap her head around it all. She’s constantly working and learning about different looks, and she’s constantly coming back to me with ideas, so by the time Dan and I are in the DI with her, she’s already done the LUT tables and begun coloring. Because no matter what Dan and I do and set in the DIT on the day, we still want to push that creative margin, and Jill’s very good about setting us up to succeed in that area.
So when we’re on the Resolve, we’re really pushing it. The problem is getting everyone else up to it, from wardrobe to makeup and so on, and we did some really nutty stuff, especially with our villain the Marquis (Bill Skarsgard). We knew we’d light him with ambers and off-blues, so we also stitched reflective silver threads into all his outfits so that he kicks in every scene and always has this shimmer. That’s just one small example. So it’s crucial to plan ahead and have everyone on the same page from the very start.
Did you do a ton of previz for all the huge action sequences?
Not as much as you’d expect. It’s hard to previz stuff like the scenes at Sacre-Coeur, in a Berlin club with 44 waterfalls or 50 cars in a roundabout, so I don’t need my stunt team spending three weeks shooting previz. I need them to train my cast for five months, and then Dan and I will figure it all out. If I was doing this for another director, our previz would be very detailed and edited with music and sound effects. But for this, my team just has to show me the gist of it – the wide shot and so on — and then I start calculating. And Dan’s there shooting it. It’s not just a phone-in thing.
Where was the post done?
At my LA production offices in Manhattan Beach and at Formosa Sound. I have so much fun working on the sound with Mark and his team at Formosa. They truly love action films and are so detailed in their work. I love the music and creating character themes.
As for VFX, we farmed them out to vendors all over the world, depending on what was needed. We came in at well over a dozen for the main ones, including Rodeo, Crafty Apes, One of Us, The Yard, Pixomondo and Mavericks. [Others included Light, WeFX, Tryptyc, Atomic Arts, Incessant Rain, Queen, Halon, Boxel and FotoKem]. It’s a lot, but that’s what it takes.
Do you like the post process?
I love it, especially the editing and sound and DI. But it’s a love-hate relationship when it comes to the VFX. Look, I’m all for VFX. I’m not someone who feels we have to do it all practically. What VFX have done for safety alone in the industry is huge and mind-boggling, and I think that’s completely underappreciated. My only beef is when you use them as a creative “out,” as in when you don’t have an idea so you just decide to “fix it in post.”
I don’t want a VFX vendor creating something I had nothing to do with. It’s always that equation of time versus money with VFX, and on this we had a couple of vendors overdeliver and a couple underdeliver. We actually had to re-edit two sequences because the standard of VFX we needed just wasn’t there. But I’d say 95% of our VFX vendors really delivered.
Can you talk about editing with Nathan Orloff?
He was on-location with me so he could start on the assembly with his assistant as we shot. It’s nothing too decisive – more to have the vibe of what we’re getting — and the first assembly came in at about 3 hours and 45 minutes.
We have what I call a symmetrical editing style. I’m very fond of big establishing shots and showing geography and then focusing on live performance. I like to gradually suck you in with the medium shots and overs and then rotate the camera to bring you into the closeups — which I try to use very sparingly. Then I ease you out with the reverse pattern.
Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves
So it’s “wide-medium-tight-tight-medium-wide” aesthetic, and once you develop that, it’s very easy to play within it, and it gives the style to the editing from the start. Then we’ll go through performance, then pace and rhythm, and by the end I’ve probably cut each scene hundreds of times. There’s always that agonizing balance between look and performance.
Fair to say that the DI is more important to you than for most directors?
Absolutely. I’d say I spend more time with my colorist than 98% of directors. I’m totally fascinated with the DI — how you can shape your film and the look with the Power Windows and all the artistry that goes into it. I just love that whole process, and I think the film looks so beautiful.
Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.
