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PROFESSIONAL VIDEO • CINEMATOGRAPHY • DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
THE MAGAZINE • ISSUE 31 • SPRING 2005
MOTION PICTURE & PRO-VIDEO
M erchant Ivory are nicknamed
“The Wandering Company” because,
across more than 40 years of film- making, their award-winning troupe has filmed in such diverse places as India, the Caribbean, France, Italy, the US and, of course, Britain.
Our Cover Story features their first foray into China for the 30s-set THE WHITE COUNTESS, an original screenplay by Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel, The Remains Of The Day, was the basis for one of the company’s greatest hits more than a decade ago. A co-production with the Shanghai Film Studios, the drama, co-starring Ralph Fiennes and Natasha Richardson, is also the first ever collaboration between director James Ivory and modish Aussie cinematographer Chris Doyle HKSC, responsible for films like Hero and 2046.
Talking of partnerships, our Behind the Camera series continues with Sam McCurdy who has just re-united with his fellow native North-Easterner, director Neil Marshall on a new chiller, The Descent, follow-up to their 2001 hit, Dog Soldiers. The DP’s latest has taken him back to Pinewood studios where he first cut his camera department teeth more than 15 years ago. Dog Soldiers was filmed in Luxembourg where, coincidentally, seasoned cameraman Derek Suter BSC, a veteran of top TV drama, has just made his big screen debut on a fast-moving con comedy-adventure, Save Angel Hope, featuring Billy Boyd, Bernard Hill, Eva Birthistle and Alice Evans.
Not many industry folk have been ‘behind the camera’ longer than Paul Wilson BSC FBKS, who reckons that, at 80, he has retired... but
“not officially”. Beginning as a 17-year-old clapper loader during World War Two, he went on to become, first, a prolific operator before dramati- cally switching focus, as it were, on Superman. Thereafter, he quickly establishing himself as a
leading effects and miniatures cameramen on a raft of credits, notably many of the the Bond series and Batman. Also boasting awesome longevity in the industry is camera guru, Joe Dunton MBE, who tells us about his latest initiative - a bespoke, Soho-based, post production/preview theatre facility, “designed specifically with the cameraman in mind.”
Although the expression “in glorious Technicolor” has become part of the film-going lexicon, it’s amazing to think the company itself is celebrating 90 years in 2005. We visit one of the world-wide industry’s longest-running operations at TECHNICOLOR’S UK HQ in West Drayton to fill in the story behind such a remarkably colourful anniversary.
To Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire for a location report on THE QUEEN’S SISTER, a new drama for Channel 4 about some of the life and times of HRH Princess Margaret, played by British actress Lucy Cohu, now stepping up to stardom after roles in Gosford Park and The Bill. Eagerly awaited too are FRIENDS AND CROCODILES and GIDEON’S DAUGHTER, a pair of new BBC dramas from writer- director Stephen Poliakoff and cinematographer Barry Ackroyd BSC. They talk about their first work together since The Lost Prince.
All this plus reports on the making of the American independent drama 13 CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ONE THING, lit by Dick Pope BSC, and NEW TOWN ORIGINAL, a bold new low-budget British film from an ambitious three-man Essex outfit. There’s a pair of COMMERCIAL BREAKS, featuring the Breast Cancer Care Campaign and BMW. We also feature the short, SUNSHINE SALLY, photographed by Roger Eaton, not to mention a round-up of the latest Fuji news in FESTIVALS & EVENTS. ■
ERIC MOULD DIVISIONAL MANAGER FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE & PROFESSIONAL VIDEO TAPE www.motion.fuji.co.uk
SEE PAGE 35 FOR A LOWDOWN OF THE NEW FUJIFILM ETERNA 500
MILLIE MORROW • ROGER SAPSFORD • JOHN ROBINSON