AmericanCinematographer201201

Production Slate
From left: Matt King (Clooney) and his daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) walk the beach with A lexandra’s
boyfriend, Sid (Nick Krause), as Matt searches for his wife’s lover in The Descendants.
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Trouble in Paradise
By David Heuring
20 January 2012 American Cinematographer
The Descendants, Alexander Payne’s latest collaboration
with Phedon Papamichael, ASC, is a family-centered drama
infused with the chaotic relationships and dark humor that
moviegoers have come to expect from the director who also
made Sideways, About Schmidt (AC Jan. ’03) and Election.
The story takes place in Hawaii, where a successful lawyer,
Matt King (George Clooney), must reconnect with his daughters,
Alexandra (Shaine Woodley) and Scottie (Amara Miller), after his
wife suffers an accident and falls into a coma. When Alexandra
reveals that his wife was cheating on him, King sets out to track
down her lover. His journey, which coincides with his need to
make a decision about a family estate on Kauai of which he is
the sole trustee, leads him to face some hard truths about love
and family.
Papamichael recently spoke with AC about his creative
partnership with Payne, which began with Sideways and continued
to evolve on The Descendants.
American Cinematographer: Tell us why your
collaboration with Alexander Payne works.
Phedon Papamichael, ASC: We have a great collaboration,
despite the fact that we aren’t always on the same page
aesthetically. My main thing is that I really want to serve the
director. Some cinematographers really want to put their own
imprint on a project to some degree. I certainly express my opinions,
but I very much enjoy helping a director get what he
wants. I’m not always determined to convince the director that
there is a different way of going about it; I get satisfaction from
finding out what somebody likes and giving that to them. It’s
important to me that I don’t turn it into my thing. I want to get
to the bottom of what makes a director tick.
How do you discover that?
Papamichael: Preproduction is the most important thing
in that regard. I start by discovering what kind of movies the
director likes. That gives me some insight into how he likes to
tell stories. Alexander and I don’t shotlist or storyboard. We
The Descendants photos by Merie Weismiller Wallace, SMPSP, courtesy of Fox Searchlight.