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QUICK
ON THE DRAW
AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER WIGNALL
P eter Wignall’s infectious Gaiman’s spectacular fantasy novel, skeleton of what you’re going to be
Stardust, which is expected to start shooting early next year.
The time-saving value of intricate storyboarding can only be imagined when considering, for example, the explosively complex pre-credit open- ing sequence of Layer Cake which fills
in yards of the back story. “Of course,” said Wignall, “it’s all shot out of sequence but you couldn’t make up stuff like that on the day. That kind of planning saves hours and hours.
“Take Lock, Stock... if it hadn’t been storyboarded, it wouldn’t, I believe, have had so much inventive- ness in it. You can never have enough ‘prep’ because come four or five weeks into shooting you’re so tired and can easily fall into the trap of just doing your wide shot, your two-shot and your single. What’s so fantastic is being able to walk out on set and know in your mind’s eye even just the
rat-a-tat laugh is as short and sharp as the snappy images he helps create as priceless storyboards for many of the films on which he’s worked as a
top camera operator.
It began on Lock, Stock And
Two Smoking Barrels when he, DP Tim Maurice - Jones and director Guy Ritchie sat down about a month before shooting started and drew the entire film from beginning to end; probably about 1500 pictures in all.
Recalled Wignall: “Guy had written an incredible script. The
one thing that probably changed with the storyboard was the
humour side of things. The origi-
nal Lock, Stock was really quite
dark - not so much a black comedy as just black - and that actually changed in the storyboarding.”
That process has continued with his subsequent collaborations along- side Ritchie and Maurice-Jones on Snatch and, most recently, Revolver. It was also a crucial element of his ‘prep’ when he worked on sometime Ritchie sidekick Matthew Vaughn’s acclaimed directorial debut, Layer Cake.
And now Wignall’s to be found hug- ger-mugger again with Vaughan as script and storyboard evolve side-by- side for the director’s follow-up, an $80 million version of Neil (Mirrormask)
doing for the day.
“Yes, it’s becoming more common
practice, but perhaps what’s not so common is the operator of the film doing the storyboarding. If I have any unique talent, it’s that,” Wignall smiles, disarmingly.
Of course, time has every- thing to do with it. Earlier this year, he linked up again in Italy with his Layer Cake DP, Ben Davis, on writer-director David Leland’s latest, Decameron: Angels & Virgins. “On that one, I had basically two days of ‘prep’ - and one of those was actually fly- ing out to the location!”
Recently, he also came in late, with just two weeks to go before shooting, on Freebird which marks Wignall’s second-
ever credit as a director of photogra- phy. The first, Summer Rain, made about six years ago, is, he suggested, perhaps best forgotten.
The only two ‘names’ in Freebird, described as “a rock ‘n’ roll road movie comedy”, are Peter Bowles and Phil Daniels but, according to Wignall, re- united on the project with two of Layer Cake’s producers, David Reid and Adam Bohling, there’s no lack of ambition despite its micro budget of £500,000.
The writer-director is feature debu- tant Jon Ivay who successfully staged the subject first in Bristol and then on the Edinburgh Fringe in 2000. “It was
continued overleaf
Photo main: DP Peter Wignall; above: the poster of Layer Cake
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 27