Roger Deakins is one of the most celebrated cinematographers in film history. Throughout his career, he has rubbed shoulders with iconic directors such as the Coen brothers, Ron Howard, Frank Darabont, and Martin Scorsese. Yet, even he found the experience of working with M. Night Shyamalan on "The Village" to be different from anything else before it.
In an interview with Uproxx, Deakins compared the differing methods of the Coen brothers compared to Shyamalan. The cinematographer explained how the Coens would treat storyboards as flexible blueprints for the film. While the plan for scenes was laid out beforehand, they weren't afraid to try something new and change it up on the day of shooting. However, Shyamalan wasn't like that at all.
"Whereas M. Night on 'The Village,' that was it," Deakins said. "That was the shot. If the actor wanted to change it, 'No, that's the shot.' I can understand it, and I didn't find it frustrating at all, actually. But I do find it a little bit restrictive." That said, Deakins was left impressed by Shyamalan's incredible level of detail and enjoyed working on the film with him.
