'The Suicide Squad' Featurette On RED Cameras Is Full Of New Footage From James Gunn's Supervillain Film
Hey, do you want to watch some brand-spankin' new footage from The Suicide Squad? Then you came to the right place! (If you're in the wrong place please locate a directory at the nearest kiosk.) In a new featurette, director James Gunn talks about the RED cameras he used to shoot the film – including "a dynamic shooting style that...wasn't possible before the creation of RED's latest camera innovations." And while all of this RED talk kind of makes this video feel like an ad, you're still getting some new Suicide Squad footage, so that has to count for something.
The Suicide Squad Featurette
The Suicide Squad was filmed entirely with IMAX-certified RED cameras – a process that James Gunn speaks highly of. "The way that movie is shot is the way I've wanted to shoot every movie but have not been able to until now," Gunn says in the video above. "Nearly every shot in this movie is on the move," says Gunn, "and not only that but we wanted to get up close and move around and between people. The tech has advanced to match what I see with my mind."
Cinematographer Henry Braham and his team "made customized gyrostabilized mounts to enable genuinely stabilized hand-held movement." Cameras used included the Ranger Monstro and the Komodo, which was still in prototype at the time. "Komodo is a great little camera," Braham says. "There are shots in the movie we could only get with something that small that comes with high-res imagery." Braham used Leica M-System glass to keep "image quality and maneuverability in mind." "
"From the beginning, one of the main goals was to keep it alive, keep it visceral, keep it real; one of the pathways to do that is the way to use the camera," Gunn says, adding: "Nearly every shot in this movie is moving...and not only is it moving, but we want to get in really close, and between people, and you just can't do that with a bulky camera." Gunn also says that thanks to the cameras, not only is he getting exactly what he envisioned, he's getting better than what he envisioned, adding that the end result was the most enjoyable process he's ever had making a film.
The Suicide Squad
In The Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller assembles "a collection of cons, including Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Captain Boomerang, Ratcatcher 2, Savant, King Shark, Blackguard, Javelin and everyone's favorite psycho, Harley Quinn. Then arm them heavily and drop them (literally) on the remote, enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Trekking through a jungle teeming with militant adversaries and guerrilla forces at every turn, the Squad is on a search-and-destroy mission with only Colonel Rick Flag on the ground to make them behave...and Amanda Waller's government techies in their ears, tracking their every movement. And as always, one wrong move and they're dead (whether at the hands of their opponents, a teammate, or Waller herself). If anyone's laying down bets, the smart money is against them—all of them."
Look for The Suicide Squad in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6, 2021.