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THE THINGS THEY SAID
“Documentary has taught me how to operate a camera and tell a story: you were covering a scene and editing it in your mind at the same time. You’d be producing the cuts to make the edi- tor’s life easier, giving the cutaways, making them interesting and constant- ly thinking about the pace of the scene. You use the language of the camera in documentary as much as youdoindrama.” GavinStruthers
“One of the lead actors turned up [on Clubbed] with completely bleached- blonde hair and it could have been quite tricky because another lead had jet black skin, one more mid-tone guy andoneverypalechap–sowehada complete tonal range there. Shaun [Parkes] said to me afterwards, ‘Yes, there have been some films where I haven’t been quite there,’ because he is so dark. And they had him head-to- toe in black leather as well.”
Kate Stark
“In Iceland, we did a couple of days shooting [on Stardust]. It was breath- taking but at the time of the year we shot, in March, incredibly cold. We were shooting on a beach and huge lumps of ice that had broken off the glacier were literally washing up on the beach from the sea. I can’t imagine what the wind chill factor was and I felt really sorry for the cast who were wearing flimsy costumes while the entire crew was dressed in full North Face type outfits.” Ben Davis BSC
“The thing I learnt from documen- taries was to be spontaneous. That’s the secret. If you walk into a situation, you know if it feels right and you also know what the film will capture. I like to light things so, when the actors walk on, there’s very little messing around. Walk in, have a quick look, check the exposure levels and start shooting. That keeps everyone’s ener- gy going.” Roger Chapman
“When we were doing interiors [on Sense & Sensibility], the weather was beautiful but as soon as we got to the exteriors in Devon it was horrendous; we had torrential rain for almost the whole time we were there. Fortunately one of the scenes required rain, which we supplemented with our own and it turned out very dramatic. In terms of the story, the bad weather adds a whole other angle. So much of Austen tends to be shot in that beautiful gold- en light and we simply didn’t have that all the time. It was sometimes, you could say, more Emily Bronte.” Sean Bobbitt BSC
“I think I have been very fortunate in doing very different projects. All DPs have certain sensibilities and certain things that they like. I don’t whether that’s a style or not, but my sensibility reaches beyond just make period films. After I’ve done a period film I’m quite keen to do something gritty and urban. And if I’ve a shot a film in the city I feel like doing something else. But, at the same time, I’m not the one who initiates the projects. It’s a ques- tion of navigating through what’d like to do and then see what’s available out there.” Eigil Bryld
“I do feel halfway between a musician and a carpenter – art and craft, yes. It often gives you a tingly feeling of exhaustion at the end of the day, especially when you’ve perhaps laughed and cried behind the camera. Operating the camera you’re not look- ing at anything other than the person at the other end. It can be a phenome- nal emotion rollercoaster you go on. There’s a very strange affair that goes on between the camera lens and the artiste.” David Odd BSC
“With period drama, you get tired of just making it pretty – eye candy, if you like. I’d prefer the audience to feel they are bing drawn in by the Dickens characters and an engaging story rather than any sense of, ‘Where’s that light coming from?’” Matt Gray
“It’s a parallel universe [The Golden Compass], a world that combines Edwardian art nouveau and those kind of vernaculars. However, this is also a manufactured world – every prop in the world was manufactured – and that’s one of the complexities of conceiving it. It was an incredibly concentrated and difficult pre-produc- tion with always these thoughts in mind. ‘What is the reasoning behind everything that comes up?’ and ‘Hoe do you then execute it in a way that seems real and doesn’t draw attention to itself?’” Henry Braham BSC
“The colours are fantastic. The greens are just stunning, the vegetation’s amazing, everything conspired to be beautiful over there. The light is very different to how it is here. Every element of India is mind-boggljng for the senses; you haven’t got enough time to take it all in. I loved it [on Brick Lane]. I want to go back and make [another] film there.”
Robbie Ryan BSC
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 33