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behind the camera
THE LIFE OF BRIAN
B rian Tufano has to be the living antithesis of that old
saw, ‘Those Who Can’t, Teach’. An award-winning cinematographer spoken of in awe even by his own peers, Tufano still manages
to combine a prolific career behind the camera with the role of
Head of Cinematography
at the National Film &
Television School. Mind you, Tufano -
who is in his fifth decade of remarkable artistry and craftsmanship spanning some of the best of British big and small screen drama – chuckles heartily at what he describes as the “serendipity” of his, to date, benevolent six-year ‘reign’ at Beaconsfield.
He was conducting
some lighting masterclasses
at the NFTS when the then HoD, Ernie Vincze, who had already announced his resignation to take effect some months hence, suddenly quit within the week. With a yawning gap open- ing up and the students deeply con- cerned, Tufano was asked first if he could stay on for a bit then, following an emergency meeting, if he’d be pre- pared actually to take over the department reins.
“No, no...” came the immediate reply. “All I know is how to do my job – and I’m still learning that,” spelt it out even more emphatically. However, with school and student pleas doubtless ringing in his ears,
AN INTERVIEW WITH
BRIAN TUFANO BSC
Tufano agreed to give his old mate Paul Wheeler BSC, a former HoD at the NFTS, a ring and within 24 hours they had, between them, sorted five cinematographers who were interest- ed in coming in to teach.
Out of that was eventually born what Tufano christened “the NFTS
some of the others in the group to come in. That’s the way it seems to have evolved.
“As I am a self-taught cinematogra- pher, I have found that the best way to teach the craft is to let the students go out and shoot, then discuss the results with them. Filmmaking is a cre-
ative process and I believe that as a Tutor, you should not be prescriptive; there is no one way of doing things, every DP does the same thing but differently; all of us commit our personal vision to whatever record- ing medium we are using. “Giving students the opportunity to watch a number of practicing cine- matographers at work, light- ing sets in their own style, helps to give the students confidence in themselves and to realise that they too
have a personal vision.”
Long before the days of The
Evacuees, Quadrophenia, Shallow Grave, Middlemarch, Trainspotting, East Is East, Billy Elliot and Kidulthood, to name just a very few, Shepherd’s Bush-born Tufano’s film ‘education’ began when he started making his own films as a pre-teen. Desperate to get into the industry but precluded by the old union Catch 22, he finally got a job as a page boy at the BBC’s nearby Lime Grove Studios.
“I was the general dogsbody, run- ning errands all over the building. However, I made a point of making friends with the camera crews and
Cinematographers Group”, which now numbers twelve of Britain’s finest including Billy Williams BSC, Sue Gibson BSC, Stuart Harris, Nina Kellgren BSC, Nic Morris BSC, Sean Bobbit BSC, Jonathan Harvey and Barry Ackroyd BSC.
An inaugural meeting was held to discuss how to organise a course but there was still no specific idea of hav- ing a Head, as it were, until Wheeler told Tufano, “well, you came up with the idea, so you should be the Flight Commander, and I’ll be your Wing Man. After that, says Tufano, “it kind of segued into the idea that whenever I’d get a job I’d be able to call on
Photo main: DP Brian Tufano BSC (Photo: Cuong Dang); above: a scene from Quadrophenia
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