Die Hard 4 (2007) “The cars are going to be dropped in a semi-computer-controlled manner, timed to appear that they are falling from the freeway. It took two days to set up and the first take completely failed. I left at that point. I didn’t need to see the director have an aneurysm, and wait another nine hours for the next set up.” Photo: David Strick
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“There’s a definition of fishing,” says photographer David Strick, “as long periods of boredom punctuated by brief periods of cruelty to animals. That’s kind of what making films is like.”
The 60-year-old New York-born, LA-based photographer has for many years been capturing pictures from behind the scenes on film sets, giving the public a peek at what really goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling.
His photographs have been made into a book titled Our Hollywood, they also appear regularly in Los Angeles Times and in a column for the Hollywood Reporter. “When you visit a set, the performances can be magical but for every actor there are 30, 40, 50 people, a vast industrial process, making the shot happen,” he tells the London Daily Telegraph.. “That’s crucial to what I do, trying to show all that stuff rather than just what we see on screen.”
His equipment is lightweight and small. No snazzy lights, no tripods, just your everyday, hand-held 35mm digital camera. “The only difference is I wear knee pads. They allow me to be small and inconspicuous, and squeeze into unlikely areas. Knee pads are the one innovation I’ve brought to the history of photography. The rest of my effort involves standing around for long periods of time without falling asleep.”
His photographs have been made into a book titled Our Hollywood, they also appear regularly in Los Angeles Times and in a column for the Hollywood Reporter. “When you visit a set, the performances can be magical but for every actor there are 30, 40, 50 people, a vast industrial process, making the shot happen,” he tells the London Daily Telegraph.. “That’s crucial to what I do, trying to show all that stuff rather than just what we see on screen.”
His equipment is lightweight and small. No snazzy lights, no tripods, just your everyday, hand-held 35mm digital camera. “The only difference is I wear knee pads. They allow me to be small and inconspicuous, and squeeze into unlikely areas. Knee pads are the one innovation I’ve brought to the history of photography. The rest of my effort involves standing around for long periods of time without falling asleep.”