Collider: So do you think the Bourne movie helped you with Jumper?  With that ability to guerilla-style it?

Doug: Yeah, I don’t think if I had done…without Swingers I never could have done Bourne, and without Bourne I never could have possibly conceived of going guerilla in as many countries as we did in this movie.  And ultimately sort of you know having kind of having a sort of a real desire to experience life and so I was not afraid of getting arrested during the production of this film.  In fact, if anything, I left Tokyo a little disappointed that with the number of laws we broke in that country, I didn’t get to experience what it’s like to be in a Tokyo jail. 

Collider: Do you think the government though was happy that you were having these stars and making a big movie there though? 

Doug: No. I mean, they were…I might yet have that jail experience when I go back to Tokyo for the Tokyo premiere, for the Japan premiere, because when they see the footage and they’re like okay, you didn’t have permission….like I know….the police chased us while we were shooting that film on a number of occasions when we were shooting in Tokyo, and we just always got away which is why none of us ended up in jail. So somewhere, someone’s like they’re still looking for that Mercedes convertible.  Like somewhere someone must have a record that the Mercedes convertible got away and they’re you know, they have the license plate and they’re looking.

Collider: When you’re shooting that sequence did you have just one camera, did you have a crew, was it guerilla?

Doug: It was guerilla but it was like big-budget guerilla. We had a camera bike—a motorcycle with a remote control gyro-stabilized 35mm camera attached to it and a microwave link to a follow van where the camera operator was and where we were and then there’s the Mercedes being driven by a stunt driver and we’re going through the streets of Tokyo at 80 mph.

Collider: And you didn’t have permits?

Doug: No, they wouldn’t let us…we got to Tokyo and there were like ‘oh, sorry everything we told you you could do here, you can’t do any of it. A Mercedes coming out of a dealership—sorry.’  What do you mean sorry we’re in Tokyo because we planned these things and you said when we got here we could shoot them and they’re like ‘yeah, we’re wrong can’t do it. Can’t put a camera on the street.’  ‘What do you mean can’t put a camera on the street?’  ‘Yeah, you’re not allowed to put a camera on the street in Tokyo. You have to shoot on a sound stage if you want to come.’  We didn’t come all the way to Tokyo to shoot on a sound stage.

Collider: Well, on top of that Lost in Translation shot there on the streets.

Doug: We stole everything they did but that’s people talking on the street.  I’ve got a car coming flying out of a dealership that’s got to land in the middle of an intersection.  They’re like yeah, no. Yeah, for sure you can’t do that. So we just did it.

Collider: That’s absolutely crazy.  I actually have one other question as a filmmaker, you mentioned you were shooting on 35, do you ever think that you’ll go digital or are you always going to be a film person?

Doug: Well, we did shoot most of the movie on 35 but towards the very end I started using the red camera—are you familiar with that?

Collider: I’m not familiar with the red. I’m familiar with the Genesis.

Doug: We tested the Genesis but it was too difficult. The red camera was developed by the guy who started Oakley Sunglasses and so we were the first movie at Fox to shoot with this camera. It was a proto-type but you’ll see it on the website for the film some behind the scenes like the surfing scene where I’m shooting with the red and you’ll see I have like a hood over my head because there wasn’t even a view-finder for the camera yet. I had to use a monitor, but its…I fell in love with it and the same way that I love the Aaton which is a very small 35mm camera, the red gives me that same level of flexibility and so it seems unlikely that my next film would be shot on 35mm.

Collider: And with that red camera, can you shoot with super low light and…?

Doug: No, and you know nothing shoot low light better than film.  People are always like oh, digital you can go lower light, it’s not really true. 35mm film is actually remarkable and it’s you know…I shot Swingers all on available light in 35mm and film stock has gotten significantly better in the last 10 years so you don’t get any advantage there, but 35mm film stock is basically so good that you don’t really need movie lights.

Collider: So then what’s the advantage of the red camera? What is the added value that you as a filmmaker find you know, why you’d move to the digital realm? 

Doug: You can re-load in about 10 seconds, so it’s really hard to compete with that.  You have momentum on the set and suddenly you have to stop to re-load and everybody suddenly the actors are in the bathroom and you have to get everybody back so just the speed with which you can shoot when you can re-load in 10 seconds. The camera’s smaller, which just gives you more flexibility. You can get it into more interesting places without having to cut holes in cars and sets.  And for me, personally, since I operate myself, the notion that somebody else can be reviewing what I’m doing and telling me whether it’s all in focus as opposed to having to wait until the next day when it’s too late to fix it. I mean that’s obviously very specific to me because most directors don’t operate or if they can operate they’re better at keeping focused that I am.  So for all those reasons it’s just, you know, I’m an easy convert to digital.

Collider: I know you probably have to go and I so appreciate you giving me your time but I also wanted to ask you about 3D filmmaking and if that’s something that you would ever consider for any of your future projects?

Doug: Yeah, no the guys that did the U2 film had me come look at their technology and it’s a little cumbersome and I’m still not sure from an emotional point of view like how I would use it but it’s something that definitely intrigues me because it’s I also like a good challenge and it’s like it would be a whole new arena for me. So, it’s very likely that at some point, possibly even the moon project, I’ll not only try to tackle a new arena; I’ll throw in 3D just for the hell of it.  The same way that doing Bourne Identity it wasn’t enough for me to jump from Swingers to a big studio action film, I also had to shoot it in France with an entirely French crew and teach myself French to be able to communicate to direct that movie.  Like 3D sort of feels like that similar kind of like gotta learn a new language.

Collider: My last question for you—I don’t know if I actually got an answer from you about you explaining the time travel aspect of Jumper.  I think you were talking to me about how in the next movie Rachel might learn how to jump, but I don’t know if you actually told me about the time travel thing. I kind of wanted to follow up on that.

Doug: Well, you know the kind of jumping that we’re showing in the movie which is a kind of worm hole jump which is why those scars are left behind, if you can travel through space through a worm hole from a scientific Einstein point of view, you could also travel through time. So you know that’s not quantum teleportation which is featured in the film, so I’m very specific to show those scars and to show that you’re leaving a worm hole and in fact that’s what Rachel Bilson gets pulled through in the end, so it’s….I’ve left myself open…I’ve left the door open to time travel because of the specific kind of teleportation that I chose to portray in this film.

Collider: Doug, I so appreciate your giving me your time and have a great day and I hope the movie does very well.

Doug: It’s been really nice talking to you.