Oscar Week! Photographer Dale Robinette Envisions ‘Barbie’

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CHICAGO – During Oscar week, all eyes turn to Unit Photographer Dale Robinette, who got the assignment on the Oscar nominated “Barbie.” The following on-set pictures were snapped during the production’s time in Los Angeles, which including the iconic cowpoke wardrobe of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

“Uncle Dale” Robinette first contacted me via email in 2013, to give information about some photos he took on the film “Lovelace.” Ever since then he has been a reliable email pal, sending me image after image from the movie sets that he is “blessed” (his word) to work on. He has plied his skills in Hollywood as a Unit Still Photographer since 1988, after a career as a stage and television actor in New York and Los Angeles. Starting with a TV short called “The Big Five” (1988), he has worked his way up the ladder, and has built an impressive photo resume through familiar films like “Donnie Darko,” “Thank You for Smoking,” “Southland Tales,” “Red,” “W.,” “Up in the Air,” “The Help,” “Draft Day,” “One Night in Miami” and of course “Barbie.”

Cowpoke B & K: Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in ‘Barbie’
Photo credit: Dale Robinette for Warner Bros.

Robinette’s most famous picture is also one of his most reproduced. In 2016 he was assigned the film “LA LA Land” and photographed Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling during their “A Lovely Night” dance. The original camera shot is below. And his connection to “LA LA” got him the “Barbie” job.

“I received an email from a young woman, Kerri Smeltzer, who I had worked with before on ‘LA LA Land,” Robinette related, “She asked me, ‘Would you like to come to Los Angeles for a film?’ I said ‘Sure, throw my name in the hat with the others.’ She then told me, ‘No, we only want you.’ That film was ‘Barbie’”

The following is excerpts from a 2017 interview with Uncle Dale including a couple more images from the master on-set photographer.

HollywoodChicago.com: Much of movie making is encapsulated in the saying ‘hurry up and wait.’ How does that apply to a Unit Still Photographer?

Dale Robinette: I do a lot of behind-the-scenes shooting. If you look at any typical website for a film you will see images like the director speaking to the actors. The photo editors at the studios often judge a still photographers worth – not by the usual shots of the movie scenes – but by their unusual images of behind the scenes.

HollywoodChicago.com: Who or what was the key moment in your unit photography career that propelled you from the early days in the 1980s and ‘90s doing TV movies and horror films to more mainstream features like Donnie Darko?

Robinette: There was no specific moment. I never had a ‘five year plan’ or such…I just stumbled along. As I sharpened my skills, there were people who remembered me and in the movie business it’s a who-you-know, what-you-know, and-what-you-do kind of world. To me, there was no ‘decisive moment’ – I’ve just moved from movie to movie like most freelancers – but I’ve been very blessed lately.

Director and Stars: Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling for ‘Barbie’
Photo credit: Dale Robinette for Warner Bros.

HollywoodChicago.com: What best describes your role as a Unit Still Photographer on a typical movie set, as in when you step in and why?

Robinette: My method is when the cameras are rolling, that is when I do my work. I try to camp next to the “A” camera, and if the angle isn’t good, I’ll ask the First Assistant Director for 30 seconds at the end of the scene to get “The Shot” – because there is not going to be another opportunity.

HollywoodChicago.com: Which type of film set is most comfortable for a Unit Still Photographer, and which types make your job the most difficult?

Robinette: Basically I love to have room to work – it’s a nightmare working in a small set in a hot room with 30 bodies – and me sandwiched between actors and crew. I’ve been elbowed out of the way more than once by a belligerent boom man.

HollywoodChicago.com: Of any of the great studio films, made between let’s say 1939 through the end of the era up until the early 1960s, which one would you have liked to have been a Unit Still Photographer on, and why?

Robinette: I’d have to say ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ I love that it’s in black-and-white, that the director Robert Mulligan had such a keen eye, that it featured Gregory Peck, and that it contained the vision and words of author Harper Lee. As an aside, I happened to know the Art Director on that film, Henry Bumstead, and he won an Academy Award that year. He also was Clint Eastwood’s favorite man and worked with him until he passed away in 2006.

I loved the courtroom drama, the period costumes and the humanity of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The story transports us away from the hectic world we live in to a simpler time, that was more civilized.

The Original Camera Image of Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in ‘La La Land’
Photo credit: Dale Robinette for Lionsgate

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Critic/Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com