Visual Hollywood
Google
 
Web Visual Hollywood

• talk about it • video review • visual review • news • trailers • clips 
• 86 photos • credits • cast • filmmakers • production notes & articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, • 

Download Production Notes in original PDF format (right click "save as") If unavailable this link will not work Production notes, photos and promotional video © 2006 Touchstone Pictures.
production notes
about

ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS:

1. PRODUCTION INFORMATION
Everyone has experienced the unsettling mystery of déjà vu – that flash of memory when you meet someone new you feel you’ve known all your life or recognize a place even though you’ve never been there before. But what if these strange, spooky feelings were actually warnings sent from the past or clues to an unfolding future?...

2. DÉJÀ VU : THE STORY BEGINS
The spine-tingling sensation of déjà vu has mystified humankind for centuries. The feeling
hits at the strangest moments – when we fall instantly and madly in love with a total stranger, when
we arrive at a brand new place we know like the back of our hand....

3. THE CAST OF DEJA VU
From the beginning, Jerry Bruckheimer knew exactly who he wanted to cast in DÉJÀ VU’s lead role of ATF agent Doug Carlin – the tough-minded investigator who is forced to look in wildly unexpected directions for the answers to a heartbreaking crime....

4. AN EXPLOSIVE CAREER: DENZEL WASHINGTON TRAINS AS AN ATF AGENT
To keep the emphasis on realistic action at the core of DEJA VU, Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott brought in a number of consultants from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the agency that in real-life is charged with the investigation of all federal bombings – including such infamous events as the tragic explosion of the Alfred E. Murrah building in Oklahoma City and the 1993 car bombing of the World Trade Center....

5. THE MYSTERY OF DÉJÀ VU: WHAT DO WE KNOW?
While the action elements of DÉJÀ VU are all about realism, the unconventional underpinning of the thriller is an inquiry into just what the feeling of déjà vu really is – and what it might reveal about the workings of the universe...

6. THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE NEW ORLEANS: THE PRODUCTION OF DEJA VU
Production of DÉJÀ VU was set to begin in Fall of 2005 amidst the watery beauty and inimitably soulful atmosphere of New Orleans. But in August of 2005, the unprecedented power of Hurricane Katrina struck, devastating the city and rocking the nation. While recovery efforts began, the film was put on indefinite hold....

7. CHASES THROUGH TIME: CREATING DÉJÀ VU’S INVENTIVE ACTION SEQUENCES
Beginning with the ferry explosion, the tension in DÉJÀ VU builds on both a psychological level and a physical level. As the story crescendos, so too does the action, with innovative chase scenes that not only travel the roads – but also travel through time....

8. SECRETS OF SURVEILLANCE : CREATING THE TIME WINDOW LAB
Doug Carlin’s search to understand what happened at the moment the ferry bomb exploded and what it has to do with his past and future ultimately takes him to one of DÉJÀ VU’s most intriguing locations: the secret time window lab in which Doug can view surveillance footage of past events....

9. HIGH SPEED AND HIGH DEFINITION: THE VISUAL DESIGN OF DEJA VU
The look of DÉJÀ VU is as innovative as its storyline. Says Jerry Bruckheimer, “Tony Scott’s films have a signature look with fast cuts and unusual camera angles. In DÉJÀ VU, he uses many unique visual techniques to enhance the storytelling.”....

HIGH SPEED AND HIGH DEFINITION: THE VISUAL DESIGN OF DEJA VU

deja-vu-026.jpg (89 K)The look of DÉJÀ VU is as innovative as its storyline. Says Jerry Bruckheimer, “Tony Scott’s films have a signature look with fast cuts and unusual camera angles. In DÉJÀ VU, he uses many unique visual techniques to enhance the storytelling.”

Rather than sticking to one form of camera equipment, DÉJÀ VU uses a high-tech fusion of several, including the high definition Genesis camera, which provides the ability to shoot in low light while maintaining high-quality, as well as being incredibly mobile. Cinematographer Paul Cameron was thrilled to use them. “We couldn’t have shot DÉJÀ VU without using Genesis cameras because they gave us a ton of flexibility,” he comments. “The main reason for using Genesis conceptually in DÉJÀ VU is our time window lab set that looks into the past had to be photographed on a stage with rear screen projection. We wanted the absolute sharpest clearest image so that when we re-photographed the time window with actors in front of it, it would be absolutely sharp and 3D as possible.”

deja-vu-014.jpg (268 K)In a movie first, the visionary Time Track camera by Digital Air, which has been used often in film to create a stop motion frozen look, was used as an effect in DÉJÀ VU. When shooting interiors of Claire’s House, the movement of Paula Patton was tracked with trails to produce a stunning ghosting effect as 160 small cameras lenses shot in sequence. A Lydar camera, which was originally made for the military, was also used to scan structures such as Claire’s house to show diagrams and create a sense of place in the time window lab. The Lydar technology is not able to scan human beings, so Tony Scott asked DÉJÀ VU’s visual effects house, Asylum, to create a computer-generated Lydar version of a person. Asylum created an additional 100 visual effects shots for the film.

In addition, several military techniques such as Infrared, Thermal Imaging, and Heat Impulse visual imagery were utilized in DÉJÀ VU, adding further to the realism.

For Tony Scott, using different cameras was just another way of getting to the heart of a story that is about the way love and action occur in split-seconds that seem divorced from the usual framework of time. “I see different cameras sort of like different tools used in an investigation,” he summarizes. “All the imagery used in DÉJÀ VU works to make the story’s mix of romance, crime investigation and time travel more convincing.”


• talk about it • video review • visual review • news • trailers • clips 
• 86 photos • credits • cast • filmmakers • production notes & articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, • 

contents

 
Creative Commons License Visual Hollywood work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution -NonCommercial -ShareAlike 2.5 License. "Visual Hollywood " is our trademark. See copyright information, Privacy Policy and Bulletin Board Forum rules. Please notify us of any errors so corrections can be made. All film stills, trailers, video clips and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and may not be reproduced for any reason whatsoever. If proper notation of owned material is not given please notify us so we can make adjustments.