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Britain has excelled in the art of cinematography since motion picture cameras first rolled. The same is true today. Anwar Brett talks to five leading directors of photography about their inspiration.
the right actor or actress in the leading role. Once the team is selected the aesthetic is defined during pre-production, where some common creative ground is established and, if luck pre- vails, some kind of artistic short- hand develops.
Nina Kellgren’s work includes acclaimed documentaries such as Drowned By Bullets, New Soul Nation and Looking For Richard, as well as the features Young Soul Rebels, Solomon & Gaenor and, most recently, Wondrous Oblivion. Before she began shooting docu- mentaries she studied at the Slade School of Art where she received both a BA and an MA.
“The interesting thing,” she notes, “was that when I eventual- ly started shooting dramas I thought I’d wasted a lot of time by going to art school rather than film school. But it turned out to be really helpful. I got a break early on working with these interesting, visual directors.
“I got the chance to do some very interesting work and that was because I came from a different place altogether. Plus I had all this visual training which wasn’t film training. One thing you do get taught at art school is how to look at something, and how to think in a slightly left field way.”
So much of what the DoP does is bound to go unnoticed if done well. Recreating natural light in an unnatural situation is a tough task to the uninitiated, but who would applaud a scene that looks utterly real?
In recognising Black Narcissus in 1947, the American Academy no doubt fell in love with Cardiff’s beautiful photography of a remote Himalayan kingdom. The truth was it was almost all shot at Pinewood, the only location work taking place during one day in Horsham!
Cardiff is quick to cite director Michael Powell as the man with courage and vision to see deci- sions like these through. And col- laboration remains the key to suc- cess, as Nina Kellgren explains.
“The really dreary thing is when people just leave you to get on with it. The great thing about moviemaking is that it is collaborative, and those creative dialogues are a great pleasure. And then you have all these fan- tastically skilled personnel that you get to work with – on a really good film all the parts are seam- lessly integrated.”
Anthony Dod Mantle has earned himself a reputation, to his own apparent frustration, as the man to call when there’s a DV or high-def feature in the off- ing. Like any artistic soul he resents the limitations that such labels place upon him, but the demand has obviously been driv- en by his highly acclaimed work on Festen, Julien Donkey-Boy, 28 Days Later and, more recently, on It’s All About Love.
“For me there’s always a mar- riage between what they want to do and what I want to do,” he explains. “If I feel that the pro- ducers want to do something and I want to do something else I will walk away. I have my own personal issues that I slowly devel- op in parallel.
“These are the sort of things which ultimately encourage directors to choose me or stay away from me. Every DoP is an individual personality after all. There are obvious assumed tech- nical standards and capabilities, but we have different methods of approach and aesthetic atti- tudes, even though the story should define 98% of that as it appears on screen.”
Alwin Kuchler has shot award winning features and documen- taries from Ratcatcher to One Day In September, In A Land of Plenty to Morvern Callar. He agrees that his job is to facilitate a creative atmosphere on set or location so that the director and actors feel free enough to bring the script to life.
“Every director takes something different from you,” he explains. “One of the things I am really inter-
ested in is film language, so what’s quite important to me, what I demand from myself is to know when the emphasis should be on the actors and when it should be on the lighting.
“I like the journey of discovery that unfolds in front of the cam- era. There are a lot of open spaces to which you can take the story, and I enjoy that aspect of the job particularly.”
“Some decisions we make will only work on a subliminal level for the audience,” adds Cinders Forshaw, “you just hope they sink in.
“I can remember someone describing a crew watching their film with an audience. The direc- tor is sitting there wondering ‘are the performances okay?’; the DoP is saying ‘oh God, his face is in shadow!’; the focus puller is thinking ‘that’s a bit soft’; and the audience are going ‘these seats are hard’!”
In cinematography, as in life, perspective is everything.
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