Exclusive: Bucky F*cking Dent Cinematographer Jeff Powers Talks Character Vulnerability Through Visuals

Among the many other cinematic experiences offered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, one of the most talked about screenings revolved around Bucky F*cking Dent, an ambitious and emotional feature set in the 1970s that was created by actor, producer, and author David Duchovny. While also being the director, he plays the part of Marty, a terminally ill father who happens to have an unhealthy and almost psychosomatic relationship with the Boston Red Sox.

Starring opposite him is Logan Marshall-Green who steps into the role of Ted, Marty’s hippy son who concocts a plan to turn his father’s world series wish into a fabricated reality before it’s too late. While the cast members absolutely bring an intimacy to the movie’s small world, the type of home style charm exhibited through the camera lens comes from Jeff Powers, the cinematographer of the film.

MovieWeb had the chance to sit down with the distinguished director of photography less than a week after the acclaimed movie made its premiere. Powers first went into detail about the turbulent but successful origin behind Bucky F*cking Dent and how it finally leaped from print and onto the big screen. “I actually found out during [Duchovny’s] Q&A at Tribeca that he wrote the screenplay before the book. He was having a hard time getting the film made, so he decided to write the novel. Only some years later did he re-adapt the screenplay from the novel.” Powers then reminisced about his surprisingly long first meeting with Mr. Duchovny. “We scheduled a ten-minute phone meeting that ended up being like an hour-long conversation about how we’re going to make the movie,” said Powers. “Less than a month later, we were on set.”

While taking the audience on a rocky journey through a strained relationship between a father and son, Bucky F*cking Dent also finds time to take the edge off the impending death by providing quick moments of a happier and kinder dynamic between the two. To convey this tone through the camera lens, a distinct tone had to be created by Mr. Powers. “What I wanted to do and what David asked me to do was find a look that could balance how heavy and sometimes dark some of those family themes are with just how funny some of the back and forth between David and Logan is in the film. The look was all about finding something that works in both directions.”

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Finding a Familial Tone

When asked about any specific inspirations that helped mold the taken-out-of-time feel that this movie holds, Powers first pointed to Five Easy Pieces, a similar in-story film from 1970 starring Jack Nicholson. “It was just an excellent way for David and I to start feeling out and start finding a common sense for the visual language of the film.” Continuing, he then spoke about unique collections from famous photographers that helped him shape interior shots:

[Larry Sultan] has a collection called Pictures from Home, and it’s a series of photographs that he took of his parents at their house. It feels present and that’s the tone that I really wanted to hit in the film as well. Another photographer that I was looking at is Tina Barney who has a collection of work that is called Home. What both these photographers did is they managed to have that level of intimacy in their work but at the same time, very composed, very well exposed. It really straddles these two different things where it looks beautiful, but it feels almost by accident.

Through his work on Bucky F*cking Dent, Powers seamlessly manipulates light just right to convey the underlying connection between Ted and Marty. While he agreed that the classic social cliché of men not being able to communicate their feelings was obviously a thematic force, Powers explained that a lot more became available when he combined that male inadequacy with visual interpretation. “There’s a lot that the characters keep hidden from each other and there’s a sort of figurative bringing to light of past issues and why their relationship is as non-existent as it has been. So, visually something that I thought was interesting was to play [with] how you see things. Placing characters in shadow was a conscious choice that we were making.” Related: No Interpreter Required: Lost in Translation 20 Years On

Letting Nature Be the Emotional Catalyst

Diving into the more exposed regions of what makes Bucky F*cking Dent memorable, Jeff was then asked about the third act of the movie and how the wide open shots of nature synced with the sudden story revelations, and he answers by explicitly talking about a transformative road trip taken by the two male leads. “We decided that pulling them out of the car and having this whole experience out in nature gave it much more breadth [and] flexibility for the way we photographed it as well,” explained Powers. “It’s taken Marty an entire lifetime to own up to these truths, and so he kind of needs to do it his own way.” As with any person who has death knocking at the door, audiences will clearly see that this character will not show signs of weakness until he tries his best to rectify his wrongs.

For the closing moments, Powers was asked about anything he took away from being the cinematographer on Bucky F*cking Dent and his overall mindset while crafting shots. “It was kind of crucial to be able to have the gaffer [Chief Lighting Technician] with me with the tablet in between takes, so we could make immediate adjustments on everything from color balance to intensity,” said Powers. He then went on to explain his no-nonsense approach to photography. “Most of what I did relied on straightforward basics of good cinematography […] To me, that’s putting the right lens in front of the right performance. There’s not a lot of visual trickery or anything like that going on. It’s like a very honest photography.”

As of this writing, Bucky F*cking Dent is currently seeking US distribution, and you can learn more at its Tribeca Film page.