Watch Cate Blanchett, Bradley Cooper, Greta Gerwig And More In A Series Of Minute-Long Movies

For their Movies Issue, New York Times Magazine commissioned Oscar-nominated cinematographer Jansz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan, War Horse, Schindler’s List) to direct eleven original one-minute films starring and written by award-season hopefuls, and embedded in an interactive page called ‘Making A Scene’.

Each of the big-name actors has one line to deliver, in films that traverse a variety of genres: comedy, Western, psychological thriller, horror, French New Wave, and Bradley Cooper Dancing In A Puddle, which isn’t a genre so much as it should be.

In the Making Of video by Catherine Spangler, Kaminski reveals the process behind the series, and the effort that went into the set, framing and lighting under such a limited budget. “Most of the vignettes are a bit whimsical and slightly off-centre,” he says. This is, of course, a dramatic understatement.

 

Acted by: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Written by: Andrew Bujalski (Computer Chess)

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Acted by: Robert Redford (All Is Lost)

Written by: Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen (This Is The End)

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Acted by: Greta Gerwig (Francis Ha)

Written by: Before Midnight’s Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater

“She’s slowly going through a major, major breakdown, driven by her phobias,” Kaminski says in the Making-Of. “So we’re seeing her in a state of emotional and physical distress, where she’s almost hallucinating.”

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Acted by: Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

Written by: Sarah Polley (Stories We Tell)

“I find budgetary limitation to be liberating, often, for film-makers,” Kaminski says. “You start inventing things that work really fast for you, and give you the desired effect. So for example, we got a curtain that the art department brought to us, and it was a beautiful curtain. Then we started experimenting with light and we realised if we backlight the curtain that will create a really nice circle of light, and if Oprah walks between the curtain and the light, it will introduce a little bit of mystery.”

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Acted by: Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station)

Written by: Spike Jonze (Her)

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Acted by: Bradley Cooper (The Place Beyond The Pines)

Written by: J.C. Chandler (All Is Lost)

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Acted by: Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Enough Said)

Written by: Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said)

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Head to the ‘Making A Scene’ homepage to watch the rest of the clips — including Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis), Forest Whitaker (The Butler), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave) and Adele Exarchopoulos (Blue Is The Warmest Colour), and writing by Greta Gerwig, Lake Bell, Danny Strong, and more.