Fred Murphy

While Fred Murphy may say it's by chance that he's managed to escape the pigeonholing that so many other cinematographers have fallen prey to, it's certainly not just the "luck of the draw" that has brought him to his current position in his profession. In the nearly 30 years he's been working in the industry, he's stepped behind the camera on a wide variety of films, from Eddie and the Cruisers and Hoosiers in his earlier days to more recent films like October Sky and Auto Focus.

Having just seen the release of this fall's horrorfest, Freddy vs. Jason, and fresh off the set of David Koepp's Secret Window, starring Johnny Depp, Maria Bello and John Turturro, Murphy spent some time discussing his career with MM. Here, he talks straight about his desire to be challenged—and why all DPs like their movies dark.

Jennifer Wood (MM): You mentioned having just finished up a project. What was it that you were working on?

Fred Murphy (FM): Yes, it’s a project called Secret Window.

MM: Oh, yes, the Stephen King story with Johnny Depp. How did you get involved with that?

FM: Through the director, Dave Koepp, who I did another movie for a few years ago, Stir of Echoes.

MM: From what I know of the story it's a very personal one—and very much a character-driven piece. When you're approaching a film like that, are there specific things you try to do because you know that the actors' performances are going to be crucial to the success of the film?

FM: I usually don't think about it that way. This film actually has a unique problem in that basically it's about one person and a lot of it takes place in one location. So what you're thinking about is ‘How do I deal with that?’ in terms of time and space, and how do I illustrate that. Usually I assume that whatever I do, it's going to be fine. (laughing) I'm really more concerned with how I’m going to illustrate this and whether I understand what's going on in the story.

In a lot of ways, these kinds of movies are much more difficult than movies with a huge amount of locations and characters. Because they sort of answer their own questions to some degree, but this kind of movie does not. You have to answer it.

MM: Was this the first time you had to work within that sort of one character/one location structure?

FM:  I've actually never done anything like this.

MM: You've done so many films now, do you feel that it's challenges like these that attract you to a project in the first place?

FM: Yes! For me, the most important moment when you're deciding on a project is the first time you read it. When I read it, I immediately look for something that I haven't done too much, number one. And number two, something that I feel I can bring something to and is going to stretch me a little bit further.

MM: So you read scripts as a cinematographer, not just a "reader"?

FM: Always! I mean, I read it simultaneously as a DP and as a story. Again, the first time you read it is always the most important, so I sit down someplace quiet and try to read it not on an airplane or in the back of a car or something. I read it very carefully and I take notes about everything I think about. Because usually, those ideas are the best ideas and they end up in the movie—if you end up doing the movie! (laughing)

MM: In terms of difficulty, what would you say is the most challenging film you've ever shot?

FM: Well, there are three kinds of difficulty: technical, physical and aesthetic. I would say a movie I did a couple of years ago called The Mothman Prophecies was the most difficult—not so much aesthetically, but more physically and technically. It was freezing cold all the time, it was night, it was snowing and raining and, technically, involved a huge amount of complicated ideas in the shooting. Aesthetically, it was actually terrific. Somehow the director and I would have the right ideas continuously, but the doing of it was much more difficult than I thought it was going to be.

MM: Then at the same time, would you consider that your most rewarding film in terms of the results of that work?

FM: I like the film, I think it's very good. But I like all the films I've worked on. There are some that I have special memories of because of people that worked on them or events that happened to me at the time, but in terms of the films themselves I really like all of them.

MM: Looking through your filmography, it's really difficult to pin you down to one sort of genre or type of film. Being “pigeonholed” is something other cinematographers often complain about. How is that you’ve managed to escape this?

FM: I think I've avoided that and I don't know how. That was more of the luck of the draw, so to speak, than any particular plan on my part.

MM: Are there specific kinds of films that you prefer working on—either aesthetically or technically?

FM: Basically, I like dark movies—but all cameramen like dark movies! (laughing) You know, thrillers and gangster films, I like those kinds of movies. Because, obviously, there's much more to do.

MM: Are there any kinds of films that you feel you still have not yet gotten a chance to make that you’d be very interested in doing?  

FM: Oh, science fiction. I'd love to make a science fiction picture. I've never done anything remotely science fiction.

MM: Working in so many different genres, how do you prepare from one film to the next? How do you shed what you’ve spent the past several months learning and doing and start fresh with a new project?  

FM: Actually, I don't have that problem. I don't mean that to be facetious. When I finish something, I can usually take a month or so off. So when I read a new thing I'm completely into the new thing. Sometimes I'll apply things that I learned on the last movie.

MM: In the very early stages of a project, working with the director and production designer, what are the most important pieces of information you want to know?

FM: Well, the most basic thing to know is: What do you want to do with the film? What do you want to do with the story? On the most basic level it’s about what kind of emotions you're interested in and how are you're going to achieve that. Is the camera going to be moving or is the camera going to be still? Is it going to be this or is it going to be that? Is it going to be handheld? What sort of place are we working in? What kind of ideas for light are we looking for—grim, bright, dark, sunny? And then, how are we going to marshal all of these elements through the whole span of the movie to say something? You go through all these questions and then eventually you stew it all down and come up with a series of solutions.

MM: You just finished up Secret Window, so what's next for you?

FM: I don't know, actually. The movie I was going to work on disappeared, so I'll probably work on commercials... and look for a good movie!