“Spike Is Down For Anything”

“He’s like a jazz musician,” Matthew Libatique explains when quizzed on his longtime collaborator Spike Lee.

The two filmmakers, both native New Yorkers, have worked together on five features: Inside Man, She Hate Me, Miracle at St. Anna, Chi-Raq, and, most recently, Highest 2 Lowest, which opens today in U.S. theatres. Only Ernest Dickerson, the great cinematographer behind Lee’s most famous works, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and Jungle Fever, has worked with the filmmaker more.

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Highest 2 Lowest is Lee’s first New York-shot and set film since 2014’s Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. A remake, or, as Lee has described, a reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low, it’s an ambitious film set across Manhattan and Brooklyn, with some of the most impressive action sequences in Lee’s decades-long career. (After the film drops, there will be significant discussion about the Puerto Rican Day Parade sequence, which is an instant classic of New York filmmaking).

The crime-thriller stars Denzel Washington as a music industry exec who becomes a victim of extortion when his chauffeur’s son is kidnapped by mistake and held for ransom. The wider ensemble features A$AP Rocky, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, and Elijah Wright. 

Below, Libatique shares some of the secrets behind the film’s production, including how he and Lee managed to shoot on live Subway cars, how they executed the expansive Uptown sequence in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, and working with Denzel Washington. Libatique also talks about his time working on the now-stalled Blade sequel for Marvel.

Highest 2 Lowest is in theatres now and will drop on Apple TV+ on September 5.

DEADLINE: Matthew, you’re from New York, right? You’ve had a long collaboration with Spike. How’d that come about?

MATTHEW LIBATIQUE: I’m from Elmhurst, Queens, but I met Spike for the first time in California. I was in my early 30s, and I got a call from my agent at the time. She said, ‘Guess who called?’ It was Spike Lee. I freaked out. I remember meeting him at the Mondrian in Hollywood. I had to keep convincing myself to be professional. But we hit it off right away, and the rest is history. I wish I had done more films with him. I’m thankful for our relationship.

DEADLINE: Spike’s carry such a unique and indescribable feeling. It’s very him. As someone who has worked with him, what do you think creates that energy. What does he different from the others?

LIBATIQUE: He’s fearless in how he executes each day and accomplishes a scene. He’s not in the tradition of Ridley Scott, where he shoots everything with three cameras. He will do an entire two pages of dialogue with one shot. It’s really just a feeling. He’s like a jazz musician. The camera, lens, and performances aren’t Spike’s only considerations. He also has an idea of the final music and cadence while we’re shooting. He’s a true craftsman, but he’s also a creative force. He doesn’t see the world the same way as everybody else. And when you talk to him, you see that he’s a student of filmmakers like Billy Wilder, John Ford, and Alfred Hitchcock. So he’s an amalgamation of how he grew up as a kid. Popular culture personified. And a true craftsman.

DEADLINE: What was Spike’s pitch to you for this film?

LIBATIQUE: There was no pitch. Spike said, ‘Matty, I’m doing Kurosawa’s High and Low with Denzel.’ When somebody says that to you, there’s no pitch—that’s it.

DEADLINE: You’ve been pretty busy over the last few years. You shot ‘Caught Stealing’ and ‘Is This Thing On?.’ How’d this film fit into that schedule?

LIBATIQUE: After the strikes, I was going to do the sequel to Blade. I was in Atlanta, and planned to move to New York after the shoot. But the writers’ strikes happened. Blade shut down. I was stuck in Atlanta when Spike called. I finally moved to New York and started prepping with Spike two months later, so it didn’t have to fit in. I couldn’t believe how amazing a project it was, just the reunion of Spike and Denzel. It was an honor.

DEADLINE: The opening sequence: I have to ask, that wasn’t scripted, was it? How’d you execute it? Did you use drones? How’d you pick the music?

LIBATIQUE: I didn’t know what the music was going to be; Spike just came out of left field with it. Who would have expected it? I would’ve thought it might be something else, perhaps a score from Branford or Wynton Marsalis or maybe a Hip Hop track, but it was an old classic. And that’s what I’m saying, if Spike were a chef, he would make the oddest food ever. You think what he does is anachronistic, but it all works because it’s so consistent.

The opening wasn’t really scripted. His first idea was to go over the welcome sign in Brooklyn. And then go towards the building, but they wouldn’t let us fly over the Brooklyn Bridge. You’re not allowed to fly over the Brooklyn Bridge, so we ended up flying towards the building from the other side of the bridge. And then we had the drone up there and started shooting. We also mixed in some helicopter work, which we had to do because later in the film, there’s a chase scene up the East Side Highway, which we shot using the helicopter.

DEADLINE: People often talk about the difficulties of shooting in New York. What makes it so tough beyond the expense?

LIBATIQUE: The city is full of people who aren’t in the film industry, and there’s not a high tolerance for taking over a whole block to shoot something. It’s not like Los Angeles, which is an industry town, so you have to negotiate with real people, which is a challenge for the film commission in New York. For example, we used to be able to shoot two people in a car up and down Fifth Avenue. Now, just getting the location is a problem because they won’t really close down a road, so then you’re starting and stopping. They also have limits on how long you can be in a neighborhood to protect the population. And it’s expensive. But it’s worth it.

DEADLINE: And the Uptown Puerto Rican parade sequence. It immediately goes down as one of the all-time New York movie sequences. Did you really shoot that on the ground in the Bronx? 

LIBATIQUE: Yep, we shot right in the shadow of Yankee Stadium. We shot the big party sequence at a skate park about three blocks away from Yankee stadium. Once Denzel’s character leaves the confines of the home, the language of the film changes. We transition into a more handheld environment. I even switched lenses. I switched from an anamorphic lens, the Mercury Atlas 1.5 Prime, to old Canon rangefinders for more flair and softer contrast. That’s when we introduced 16mm and Super 8 cameras. Spike is down for anything, and that’s why it’s so fun to work with him. One day, he said to me, ‘Where can we fit in film?’ And I said, the Puerto Rico Day Parade and the Subway. As soon as he leaves the house, it wouldn’t be one format, because he’s out in the real world. This affluent and famous man has to be out with the rest of us. I wanted to feel like the cinematography had different perspectives.

DEADLINE: How long did it take to shoot?

LIBATIQUE: It was a few days here and there on the Subway. We shot on the actual Subway cars. In New York, you can only shoot on two or three Subway platforms. Working with the MTA in New York is extremely difficult. Obviously, the Subway is used by real people at all hours of the day. There are some old platforms that you’re allowed to shoot on. When you watch the film, the train goes from Wall Street to 42nd Street, 14th Street, all the way Uptown. But it was all just one platform. We were just changing the angle and changing the signs. They also only gave us one train to shoot on, and we could only run it from one stop to another. It took a little time to cheat that.

DEADLINE: What was it like working with Denzel again? 

LIBATIQUE: He’s a very demanding person. There are many movie stars, but he is beyond a movie star. He’s just an entity. And the camera loves him. Again, I go back to the jazz reference. For example, you see him rhyme at the end of the film with A$AP. That was all him. It wasn’t scripted. There’s the moment where he’s talking to Jeffrey Wright, and he’s just so frustrated that he starts slamming stuff onto his desk. Again, not scripted. He just creates. So you have Spike person creating behind the camera, and Denzel creating in front of it. It’s a magical combination. Working with him is just a joy to watch.

DEADLINE: You missed the Cannes premiere. Were you shooting Aronofsky’s film? 

LIBATIQUE: I wasn’t shooting, I was coloring the film. I just finished it. It took a while, and I just couldn’t take myself away from my concentration. So I opted not to go.

DEADLINE: One major change since we last spoke in 2023 for Maestro is the discussion around AI in filmmaking and cinematography, specifically. What do you think about it all?

LIBATIQUE: It’s piqued my interest. You need to keep up with technology as a cinematographer or filmmaker. Some stuff I’ve seen looks photo-real, while other things look like I’m playing Call of Duty. I know from coloring a movie how AI tools have changed the game. We used to farm out shots for rotoscoping to different countries because it was a laborious process that was expensive to pay for when we did it in the United States. Now we can do it in real time. We had a shot in Highest 2 Lowest where Jeffrey Wright is in Denzel’s office, and there’s a light in his glasses. In the past, you would just take the L because there was nothing you could do about it. But using AI tools, they were able to take previous frames, reconstruct his eye, and remove the light.

It’s incumbent upon us to understand the technology. Everything is being redefined now, like the workflow. I think it will be akin to how the animation workflow works. I’ve experimented with prompting AI, and I never get good results, so it’s interesting. I’m not gonna sit there and be doom and gloom. We gotta face it.

DEADLINE: Last question: You mentioned Blade. When the film gets back moving will you go back and shoot it?

LIBATIQUE: It depends on the script and the filmmaker. But it’s always fun to reunite with old friends like Marvel.

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