Martin Scorsese's 'Killers of the Flower Moon' cinematographer says the director 'can be a little cranky' on set and works at a 'startling' pace

• "Killers of the Flower Moon" cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto told us what working with Martin Scorsese on set is like.
• He said Scorsese would sometimes come on set cranky, but that's because he was full of nerves.

If there's one thing that "Killers of the Flower Moon" cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto finds most surprising about working with Martin Scorsese, it's that the legendary director still brings a youthful energy to set, even in his 80s.

During a recent interview with Insider, the three-time Oscar-nominated director of photography (DP) recalled a moment when he and Scorsese were location scouting for the 2016 movie "Silence." At the time, Prieto was surprised to find the then-71-year-old director by his side as he went to scout out a high mountainside.

"I told him, 'Marty, I'll go up there and take a photo and I'll come and show you,'" Prieto said. "And up I go and I turn around and there he is with me."

Close to a decade later, Scorsese still shocks Prieto with his energetic pace. But after working with Scorsese on four movies (he also worked as DP on "Wolf of Wall Street" and "The Irishman"), Prieto also found himself amazed by how self-critical the director could still be this late in his career.

The DP said that Scorsese sometimes came to the set of "Killers of the Flower Moon" riddled with doubt.

"Every morning, he is nervous," Prieto revealed. "He gets to set and many times he's not feeling well, and I think it's psychological."

"He can be a little cranky, he doesn't like noise on set, but immediately once he starts working with the actors and the camera and he gets the first shot, he's cured and his energy is really high," he said.

Once the Oscar-winning auteur was in higher spirits, that's when the jokes would start coming out, and his pace became "startling," as Prieto put it, because Scorsese's energy was endless.

That energy could lead to doing as many takes needed to get a shot right, often with multiple cameras running simultaneously on the actors, or Scorsese going with his gut and trusting that one shot with a single camera will work, as was the case with a dramatic crane shot in "Killers of the Flower Moon." In that shot, the camera looks down on the main character Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and her sisters after their mother dies.

"I did set up a B camera, a tighter shot for him," Prieto said, recalling that shot. "But he knew he didn't need that. He has that instinct."

Prieto said a major reason he enjoys his collaboration with Scorsese is because he's always keeping him on his toes — but there's that self-doubt side of the director that also brings a human element to the process.

"We all are insecure but you would never expect someone of that level of talent would have that same anxiety," Prieto said. "He's the first to use these words you never hear from a director: I don't know. I love that. It's disarming. And I think that translates into his power as a storyteller."

"Killers of the Flower Moon" is now playing in theaters.