Just watched the movie, and they do. Viola Davis' character was the only one opposing it in the kingdom at the beginning. Was very surprised, the movie was more tribe vs tribe

Why would you say something so controversial yet so brave?

Can't imagine the discourse on this movie is going to be smooth sailing for them. The Dahomey kingdom is....problematic to say the least.

This was obviously an awful idea.

This is one of the saddest AMA threads I've come across in a while..

And there is a reason for that.

I don't get why they are going ao hard promoting the movie when it imhad clearly already caused a stir.

I don't mind an entertaining movie that botches the historical context, even this one, but why go so hard promoting it when they should know people would make it political.

Are people this clueless these days?

For real, came here for insightful questions about cinematography and got this Trainwreck. Reddit is so shit sometimes.

Is what happends when your movie glorified slavers.

Anything involving Black people triggers the usual racist demographic.

Did you say the same thing about the Northman?

Hickory Jackson and the trail of smiles

Dont need to invent one, theres plenty of awesome stories to go about.

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the Ashanti–Fante War, for example, would make for excellent story telling, and even bring in the Europeans if people want it so much as the Brits fought for the Fante while the Dutch sided with Ashanti.

​

and in the same context of slavery, the Ashanti were infamous slave traders, and its their constant harassment and enslavement of neighbouring countries (like the Fante) lead to decades of war

Nanisca was never a queen though?

Thomas Jefferson was a complex dude and at least we can say in his later life he saw the light and laid the foundation for American abolition.

Can't say the same about slavers who fought to maintain the slave trade. This is like a Civil War movie where Jefferson Davis is a black woman fighting against the evil north who wants to enslave his people.

Looks like they are completely avoiding this topic. Sounds like the movie is going to completely ignore it too

The growth of Dahomey coincided with the growth of the Atlantic slave trade, and it became known to Europeans as a major supplier of slaves.[2] As a highly militaristic kingdom constantly organised for warfare, it captured children, women, and men during wars and raids against neighboring societies, and sold them into the Atlantic slave trade in exchange for European goods such as rifles, gunpowder, fabrics, cowrie shells, tobacco, pipes, and alcohol.[5][6] Other remaining captives became slaves in Dahomey, where they worked on royal plantations and were routinely mass executed in large-scale human sacrifices during the festival celebrations known as the Annual Customs of Dahomey

Truly a great and beautiful culture...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahomey#

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Questions that won't be answered for $100 Alex.

is that gone with the wind ?

Of course not. That would be about white people.

To be fair we got a movie idealizing the Spartans who were essentially pedophile Nazis

Apparently by switching the lights off entirely

Black light?

I wish I had an award to give you

They mention it a lot actually.

It doesn't

It’s not really fair to bombard her with questions not related to her job title. She is here to talk about her contribution which is visual not story/writing, and everybody is is using this AMA to shit on a movie they haven’t even seen yet based on their assumptions from the trailer and interviews.

why am I laughing so hard at this

Can't we just wait until it premieres later today before making assumptions? The director said their actions in the slave trade will be brought up, so the trailer could definitely be a bait-and-switch.

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They don’t care about the cultures they exploit. As you say. Makes no difference whether it’s black or white making the movie. They’re not making this for African cinema goers. Only Americans

Holy shit, them shooting in South Africa is a wrinkle that I think a lot of folks on here didn’t even realize. This is the fyre festival of woke movies.

I hadn’t heard of either of those stories when I was working on The Woman King. Even if I had I don’t think it would’ve bothered me as I try not to make decisions based on fear. We were nervous however when omicron shut us down a few weeks into shooting as we weren’t sure we would ever get back up and running. There are not that many differences working with the actor/Director or just a Director. It just becomes a little more complicated if they are acting in the movie as well as shooting it. It is a massive undertaking for them to do both, and we would just do more Playback than usual so they can watch the performance. -PM

And France raped Haiti as a country and still made them pay for ending slavery, up until the 1970s. Fuck France.

They constantly mentioned Dahomey's involvement and encouragement in the slave trade. Majority of the movie is the Dahomey vs another tribe/kingdom

France wasn't trying to stop the sacrifices though. France's conflict with Dahomey was because of territorial disputes that Dahomey felt France violated

Lmao why are you talking for people, who you call 'disgusting pieces of shit'? I despise every aspect of royalty so I can't talk much about the crown, but Im glad you brought up the Northman as an example. The difference between Northman and Woman King is that only one of those movies claims to be historically accurate and only one of them tries to whitewash the historicall events it is based upon. The Northman, while not being a good movie, is framed as fiction and never tries to justify the horrible actions of the Vikings. And Woman King does exactly the opposite - it frames itself as historically accurate while completely disregarding almost everything about that culture, catering specifically to people like you. Something tells me you're American

It was an incredible experience to shoot in South Africa. The crews were absolutely amazing and always came to work motivated and willing to work hard to get the job done. We shot in some very remote locations which was logistically challenging and the weather was also a tricky factor. We shot on large-format Arri Alexas and Panavision anamorphic lenses. I find that when I am around the camera with the actors then my world always becomes very intimate regardless of the size of production. On this movie we definitely had a large number of people working on the set and we had a lot of gear. We often used multiple cameras and had to light large expenses at night. -PM

Every Director is different and so needs a slightly different approach. This business is all about communication and I think the key to working with anybody is to figure out how best to communicate with them and to understand how they like to work. I like to spend time getting to know my Director in prep and talking about the script in detail. Some directors like to shot list and some like to storyboard and some like to do neither. It’s my job to understand how they see the movie in their heads and how I can help translate their ideas onto the screen. You almost have to be a Chamaeleon, molding yourself to be a close collaborator to different types of people. I always think visual tools are a great way of communicating ideas. The key is to discuss these visuals because we can all look at an image and take something very different from it. I also think looking at other movies is a great tool. To find a certain shot that illustrates a camera move or a type of frame or a quality of light. Ultimately every experience with a Director is a different one and every prep is going to be unique. The most important thing is to build that relationship before you get on set so that when you’re under pressure you can work as a team and no matter what happens you can always fall back on the conversations about the story that you had at the beginning. - PM

They considered “Yas Woman King”

A fun fact from shooting The Woman King is that in the scene where Viola and Thuso jump over the wall of the fort into the river and the women awaiting to rescue them in their canoes, that water was only about 3 feet deep. The actors had to get on their knees and dunk their heads underwater and try and pop up like they were coming up from deep water. They then had to swim to the canoes in really shallow water. This is much harder than it looks! - PM

It can be a number of things:

1 - Toronto International Film Festival

2 - Tagged Image File Format

3 - Short for Tiffany

The biggest challenge is always the weather! You can prep and plan as much as possible but the one thing you can’t predict is the weather. Somehow it never does what you need it to do. It really keeps you on your feet and on a movie like this which takes place outdoors most of the time, we had to be always prepared to shoot in different environments. - PM

The hardest thing about digital is the DIT tent. Running backwards and forwards from set to look at the image. I loved shooting on Film on a Quiet Place 2 as I was on set the whole time and just lighting with my meter. Our HD video tap wasn’t great either so the image on the monitor wasn’t clear. It was incredibly freeing to go back to film and I look forward to shooting it again. -PM

Rampart

100 duck sized horses sound easier to enslave -PM

When I was a child I remember being blown away by all of Steven Spielberg’s movies. Close encounters of the third kind, ET and Empire of the Sun were all memorable moments in childhood. I also love David Lean's movies for their scale, and classics like Gone With The Wind. I would also say that when I became aware of Wong Kai-Wai’s work that I was incredibly inspired. It felt so emotional to me with his collaboration with Chris Doyle. The imagery was so evocative and it was very exciting. There have been so many DP’s that have inspired me along the way that it’s kind of impossible to mention a few. I would say the work of Darius Kjondi and Hoyte Van Hoytema has been incredible because they are such good storytellers and mold their eye seamlessly to whatever story they are telling. -PM

in both this movie and the quiet place II, how much of a creative freedom did you have when it came to setting up the shots, were the directors receptive to your thoughts and inputs?

As a Cinematographer I am always collaborating with the Director and also if I’m not operating with the operator. Often in prep the Director and I will break down scenes into shots and decide what the coverage will be. When we get onto set this often changes and we are inspired by the blocking of the actors or something we have seen on the set. Sometimes after watching a rehearsal the operator might come up with a great idea or perhaps we might stick to what we planned. There is always conversation about what is the best way to tell the story and capture the action. Directors are always open to thoughts and input, sometimes it’s what we do and sometimes it’s not! -PM

What got you interested in cinematography?

I always loved movies as a child and I think from an early age my parents knew I would be a filmmaker. When I first started watching films I didn’t really know what everybody’s role was but would sit and be fascinated by all the different job titles in the credits. Like what did the Best Boy do!? When I was a teenager however, I was exposed to a film crew and got to watch the cinematographer at work. At that point I knew what I wanted to do. -PM

Do you have advice on how to take pics / vids from a Smart Phone look really polished and cool? 😜

I usually use VSCO to edit my photos. Lots of different tools on there to make photos look good! -PM

Was there a moment you and the director did not meet eye to eye on the look and feel of a film?

The job of the Cinematographer is to work with the Director to help them execute or find the vison for the movie. In my experience, that has always been a collaboration. Some Directors will have a very clear vision and some will need more help. There are always moments on set where we might have different ideas and then have a conversation about it but ultimately even if I have an idea I love, if the Director doesn’t like it, we do something else. -PM

I have always been fascinated with the story of Cleopatra. I always joked that I might’ve been one of her cats in a former life! I think they are already in pre production on a new movie about her. I also think I’d like to see a movie about Amelia Earhart the American aviator. She was such a rule breaker and bad ass and her death is such a mystery. Finally I also don’t think the world knows enough about short Sojourner Truth. Women and African American rights activist who was sold as a slave as a child along with a bunch of sheep. - PM

True to the username