Zack Snyder is a famous director. Some will say it’s thanks to his active fanbase online or his divisive DC projects. But the Man of Steel director had a great career even before he stepped into the world of superheroes. His hit films include 300, Watchmen, and Sucker Punch, among others.
But it is his 2004 zombie film Dawn of the Dead that made the film industry take him seriously because they discovered what a great director and DP he was. The film went on to gross $102 million on a $26 million budget. But recently, Snyder revealed that the producers initially didn’t want him to shoot the film.
Zack Snyder Was Told Not To Shoot Dawn Of The Dead
The Russo Brothers sat down with Zack Snyder and interviewed him for their Pizza Film School. During the long talk, Zack Snyder revealed how he got his start in films. Here’s what he said:
“When I left school I had done 5 or 6 commercials in school and they were pro quality. I went straight to work. I was 25 and I was working and over the next ten years from 25 to 35 I shot a tonne of music videos and a tonne of commercials. For me, that was the real school. I made every kind of shot I could think of.”
The director also stated that he wasn’t just the director on various projects, but also the cameraman or the director of photography. As per Snyder:
“I was the director and cameraman, I was the DP director. When I got Dawn of the Dead, they said you can’t shoot the movie. Directors don’t shoot too and I ended up operating half the movie anyway.”
The Wonder Woman producer then explained that even the actual DP or cinematographer of the Dawn of the Dead film, Matthew F. Leonetti, encouraged him to follow his vision for the film and get the shots done. Later on, Snyder explained with an example of how his shot planning was way ahead of others, including his DP.
Zack Snyder Explains His Unique Backwards Shot For Dawn Of The Dead
During the interview with Russo Brothers, Zack Snyder talked about one shot in Dawn of the Dead that was proving difficult to pull off because of the logistics of it all. So the Batman v Superman director stepped in with a genius idea that made the shot happen. He said:
“There was a shot where the guy (actor) had to run and jump down a manhole. It was supposed to be a handheld shot and the operator couldn’t run back fast enough. So we rigged the camera on the monitor and put the camera on my shoulders pointing backward. So I ran forward, and I had to run over the manhole. Then they pulled the plywood away from it (the top of the manhole) so I wouldn’t fall in it.”
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That’s not all. There were camera logistics that were proving difficult to sort out so Snyder stepped in to explain what was going wrong. Also, he correctly took the shot too. As per the director:
“The hardest part of the shot was that I had to tilt (the camera) up cause the camera was (originally) tilting down. Your brain doesn’t work cause you are watching the guy (actor) jump down (on the monitor) and you have to go like this (up with the camera). And Matt (DP) was like let Zack do it. The operator tried to do it but he kept tilting down.”
Over the years, even though Zack Snyder’s movies have received plenty of criticism for their writing, most have applauded the director’s technical prowess over his films. In this interview, Snyder proved why he’s one of the best directors working in Hollywood.
Dawn of the Dead is available on Netflix.
Source: Pizza Film School
