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The David Lynch Quote Collection

David Lynch

Whacking

"We developed this thing we called "whacking" where Pete [Deming, the D.P. for Lost Highway] and the guys would pull the lens, and then reseat it, and then pull it again."

[The effect of that would be] "Extreme defocusing and jiggling. It's beautiful. I wanted something really out of focus. They cranked the focus ring and it still wasn't out of focus enough so I said to Pete, "That's not good enough" and he said, sort of joking, "All we can do is pull the lens." Then it got really beautiful."

"I told Pete to start de-focusing the lens, but he couldn't get the image as far out of focus as I wanted; he had reached the end of the lens. I said, 'Well, we've got a problem.' He replied, 'The only thing we can do is to take the lens out.' So I said, 'Okay, take it out.' He popped the lens on and off the camera as we did the shot, and it looked beautiful! We dubbed that technique 'whacking,' and after that I started going a bit whack-happy - but only when it suited the picture."

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