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Matty Libatique told Looper that the “very fascistic” scene had some complicated challenges, filmed during COVID but requiring a room full of “people that were sitting there listening to their oracle.” Throughout the production, COVID safety requirements placed limitations on both the number of people who could be in the scene and the “amount of time that was COVID safe.” So how do you shoot a high-energy crowd scene under these tricky, restrictive conditions?
The famed DP detailed how, for Harry Styles’ dance sequence, “We had the camera on a remote head and a jib arm when Harry [or] ‘Jack’ was doing the barrel rolls and dancing.” The jib is a filmmaking tool that suspends a camera on one end of the device balanced by a counterweight, allowing complex vertical movements, pivots, and other maneuvers that would otherwise be impossible. Libatique noted that the technology was essential to capturing the dance: “Once [Styles] starts going to the barrel rolls, we needed the freedom to back up and make sure we saw just enough to sell what he was doing.” Libatique also emphasized that Styles was indeed the one on stage. “He was actually doing those things!”
In the context of the scene, Jack gets deeper and deeper into the moment, dancing more wildly. When he starts doing the “barrel rolls,” a full-body movement where Styles leaps, rotates in midair, and lands (over and over), they wanted to catch the dance “from multiple angles.” The downside to all the revelry? “[Styles] was exhausted,” Libatique said. It’s impressive to find out that he was actually doing such a highly athletic and ferocious move, and it understandably took everything he had to get it right take after take.
“Don’t Worry Darling” is now playing in theaters.
