Fraser Taggart on action cinematography and Mission: Impossible

Cinematographer Fraser Taggart honed his craft across years of 2nd-unit work on large-scale productions such as Vertical Limit, Edge of Tomorrow and Mission: Impossible – Fallout. His work on those projects led to his opportunity to serve as director of photography for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and its immediate follow-up, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, where he collaborated closely with director Christopher McQuarrie and star Tom Cruise to capture the performances and mind-boggling action set pieces that have become the franchise’s signature. In this interview, Taggart shares insights into photographing action and details the technical choices that helped shape the look of Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning.

From Commercials to 2nd Unit

Taggart came up through the camera department, and his early opportunities to work as a cinematographer were found in commercials. "I started lighting for some commercial directors, even when I was pulling focus, and one of my main things was I got known for shooting cars," he reflects.

He soon established a reputation for his talents in capturing action, which led to consistent work as a 2nd-unit cinematographer on a wide range of feature films. "Doing 2nd units is really a great training because you are going to work with 15 DPs over the years," he shares. "I'd done a film called Edge of Tomorrow, so I did the 2nd unit on that for Dion [Beebe ASC ACS]." When it came time for reshoots after principal photography had concluded, "Dion was going onto another project," Taggart recalls, "but Dion said, would I reshoot?" 

Mission: Impossible

Taggart’s first work on the Mission: Impossible franchise was on the 2015 release Rogue Nation, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, with main-unit cinematography by Robert Elswit ASC. Taggart then returned for 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, again directed by McQuarrie, this time with cinematography by Rob Hardy ASC BSC.

“For Rob Hardy, I shot the New Zealand helicopter sequence for Fallout, and I also did the Halo jump sequence," Taggart says. "When we were in New Zealand, I spoke to the producer, Jake Myers, in a slightly sort of jokey way one day. I said, ‘I've had enough that you ring me up and ask me to come and help out on these films. Can't I just do the film to start with?’ Which obviously worked in the end because then I got a call from McQuarrie and Tom saying, would I go to a meeting? By the time they'd whittled it down, I was against two very excellent DOPs, and I thought, ‘I don't know if this will happen for me,’ and then it did. So that was how I got through it.”

Dead Reckoning

Getting through it meant signing on for the back-to-back productions of the latest Mission: Impossible entries, Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning. “With M:I, even if you look at interviews with McQ and Tom, they'll say until they know the location they're going to be at, they don't know what the action's going to be," Taggart explains. "You'll have a bit of planning time, and upfront you test lots of different systems and rigs, so you've got a good library of equipment to use and techniques.

“On [Dead Reckoning], the motorbike jump was the first thing [on the schedule]," the cinematographer continues. "I even stood on the end of the ramp. I used to be fine with all sorts of things, heights — from Vertical Limit — 2,000-foot drops, and you're on the edge. But as you get a bit older …”

The perspective afforded by his years of experience give Taggart a keen appreciation for the talents and absolute commitment of Mission: Impossible star Tom Cruise. "The credit's there," Taggart says. "I mean, as you start to see his rehearsals, it starts to give you realization of what we're going to have to do here."

The Final Reckoning

Cruise pushed that commitment to new heights for Dead Reckoning, including for a high-stakes set piece on a biplane. "The biplane was something Tom had really wanted to do for a long time," Taggart shares. "Obviously, we had to go through all of the aerodynamics and the safety of rigs. And you wanted to shoot multi-cameras because everything takes so long — to go up and do one sortie is an hour. You'd want to push the cameras out on, as we call them, javelins or lances, to extend them out away from the aircraft. You don't want to be detached from the action.

“The more we discussed all of the scenarios in the movie, you realized that you couldn't shoot on film, it had to be digital,” he continues. “Shooting on the [Sony] Venice, I love the sensor. It's very forgiving. And then shooting on lovely C Series anamorphics, they just are forgiving and imperfectly perfect. The Cs flare beautifully as well, which again is quite the M:I look over the years. The other reason Cs are so good is they're quite a small lens for the action stuff. We shot an awful lot on [stabilized heads, and] it would still perform with a C Series and Rialto.”

Taggart worked closely with Panavision London to source his lens and camera package for Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning. "You knew that Panavision will go to the ends of the Earth to make things work for you and make your life as easy as they can," he says. "And they've always been so willing to get what you want."

Creative Stimulation

Looking ahead to whatever projects might be on the horizon, Taggart’s keen to embrace new experiences and challenges, but he admits that action remains particularly near and dear to his creative heart. “You always want something that's going to stimulate you and be different,” he muses. “I'd love to do a period film or something. I'd probably miss the action if it's not any in it. To do M:I, I'm doing both. I'm doing all the performance and all the action as well. You then think, ‘Well that won't ever happen again,’ because if I get another action movie, you're going to have probably a 2nd unit doing a lot of action, which then I'd probably find frustrating!”