"The non-linear narrative replays the final 20 minutes before impact from different perspectives, taking the viewer into the White House Situation Room, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, U.S. Strategic Command and an Alaskan missile defense battalion. It's certainly not cinematographer Barry Ackroyd's first time lensing a room full of analysts staring worriedly into a bank of monitors. "Someone actually said to me once, 'Is that the only thing you do? You're always in a control center surrounded by screens.'" laughs Ackroyd. "But I keep doing them because the films are good, the stories are good and the directors are good.""
"In this case that director is Kathryn Bigelow, who Ackroyd previously collaborated with on Detroit and The Hurt Locker. The British DP has also worked extensively in the control center-heavy world of Paul Greengrass ( United 93, Captain Phillips and Jason Bourne) and the decidedly monitor-free world of Ken Loach ( Riff Raff, The Wind That Shakes the Barley)."
A House of Dynamite restages the final twenty minutes before impact as a ballistic missile approaches the Midwest, replaying events non-linearly from multiple institutional viewpoints. The film moves through the White House Situation Room, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, U.S. Strategic Command and an Alaskan missile defense battalion. Cinematographer Barry Ackroyd employs an observational vérité approach and frequent control-room compositions to heighten procedural tension. Kathryn Bigelow directs, continuing collaborations with Ackroyd after Detroit and The Hurt Locker. Production recreated White House lighting, mood and scale on New Jersey stages after location visits. Real-world operators provided intensive technical briefings to inform realistic responses and staging.
Read at Filmmaker Magazine
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