“Transcendence” tells the story of Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), a researcher in Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine. It’s controversial impact makes him famous and a target for anti-technology extremists. When he is attacked, the people in his life upload him to a machine and the boundaries of technology are thrown into question.
Rebecca Hall, Morgan Freeman, Kate Mara and Cillian Murphy also star in the film.
Walter Pfister has been working as a successful cinematographer in recent years. He is known for his collaborations with Christopher Nolan, having worked with him on “Inception” and The Dark Knight trilogy. Pfister won Best Cinematography for Inception at the 2010 Oscars. “Transcendence” is Pfister’s directorial debut.
Q: How did your previous experience as a cinematographer influence your first directorial?
PFISTER: Well, I think you’ll find in life that what you do in the past contributes to what you do later on. So everything I did with cinematography – all of [the] experience makes it easier when you get to be a director.
Q: Artificial Intelligence movies have been a sub genre before, with movies like “Gattaca,” “Artificial Intelligence” and “Robocop.” What is different from those in “Transcendence”?
PFISTER: I think partially what sets “Transcendence” apart is that it’s not strictly speaking in Artificial Intelligence. I think I can say—without any spoilers—that it’s a human mind being uploaded into a machine, so that makes it slightly different. Also it’s the catalyst for the emotional journey, the question if the machine contains any soul or not.
Q: I know Jack Paglen wrote the script, but how much research did you do for the film?
PFISTER: I did an enormous amount of research. Jack wrote the original screenplay, and I wrote the drafts. I went on my own college tour and visited MIT and talked to professors in the field of nanotechnology, neurobiology and robotics. I also visited Stanford and Berkley and talked to professors. A few professors at Berkley helped enough that they basically became the on-hand consultants for the film.
Q: Did you always want to progress to directing, or did this chance land in your lap?
PFISTER: I think I always had the goal to direct something myself. As I became more successful as a cinematographer, it became more of a reality.
Q: Sci-fi movies at some point drift outside of reality. How far does “Transcendence” step outside the science aspect?
PFISTER: It’s fairly a good amount of fiction. In terms of where we pushed the limits, obviously you can’t upload a human mind into a machine with our current-day technology. Mapping the brain is as far as we’ve gotten so far. There are projects around the world. It is based on speculation, you know, what might be plausible in the future.
Q: You mentioned emotional journeys with technology, it reminded me of “Her,” would you say they are similar in ways?
PFISTER: When I saw the movie, I thought it was interesting, ’cause it seems technology and its possibilities are on a lot of people’s minds lately. One journalist called it “The Dark Side of Her,” which I thought was kind of funny. Besides that and my admiration of the film, not much else is comparable.
Q: What do you think is the most important thing you’ve learned from your work with great directors, such as Christopher Nolan?
PFISTER: One of the great things about Chris Nolan is his discipline on set. He considers every minute of set time to be very precious. Having spent years around him, he doesn’t want to waste other people’s money and is respectful of that.
Q: There a lot of statements being made throughout the movie about technology: it’s possibilities, it’s dangers. What statement was attempted to be made in the film, if there was one?
PFISTER: I would say that there is no statement being made by the director. That’s something important to me.
People also always look for the good guy and the bad guy in the film. Rift (the anti-technology group) could be considered the bad guy. But on some level, I think we get their frustrations to an extent.
As far as a statement, we see the characters make the statement. Evelyn’s character wants technology made for the betterment of mankind.
Q: What do you want the audience to get from the ending—to discuss or internalize?
PFISTER:
Well it’s a good discussion to think about. You know if we’re going to
be relying on [technology], it’d be nice to know who’s hands it’s in. If
anything, with this kind of power were to land in someone’s hands that
were malevolent…there are possibilities.
Q: Since we are here representing our university, if you could teach a college course of your creation, what would it be?
PFISTER: I think I would probably teach a class on Cinematography. You know, if you’re gonna teach you should do what you know best.
