

“I knew that relationship like the back of my hand because that’s where my life and Tarell’s overlapped,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.Īnother strategy in accentuating the film’s unique feeling is using a single Arri Alexa XT camera through the whole shoot. Jenkins used his own experience, growing up with mother struggling with addiction, to write the screenplay. It’s a historically black community where the majority of residents live below the poverty line.
#VISION COLOR VS CINEMA PICTURE STYLE MOVIE#
Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney, who wrote the play on which the movie is based, both grew up there in the same part of Liberty City, Miami. Those conversations started when we were in our early 20s in college. “We didn’t talk about Moonlight of course, but I think on some level those conversations about what it is to be a filmmaker, who our voices are as filmmakers. “I started talking about this movie 17 years ago when I first met Barry,” Laxton tells TIME. Their filmmaking style developed after they met in college at Florida State University. On the phone Laxton is modest about his work and credits the film’s success to his close friendship with Jenkins. It’s an intentional move away from the aloof style and perfection of most big budget films today that attempt at realism. “We all have a way in which we’re viewing the story that we’re telling and I think who we are dictates so much of how we see the world.” In Moonlight, it’s the process of keeping the audience aware of the maker’s hand and of the actors playing. “I think we all have gazes,” says Laxton about his take on photography. David Bornfriend/A24 Cinematographer James Laxton and director Barry Jenkins on location in Miami.
