Page 38 - Fujifilm Exposure_50th AWARDS ISSUE FULL PDF - cropped

2010
“
The film [Green Zone] lasts less than two hours, but you’re shooting for six or seven months, so much of it will, of course, disappear from the final film. I remember Klemens [Becker, ‘A’ Camera operator] saying, ‘we’re hav- ing to keep running and chasing – and they’re only going to use maybe 15 frames at a time. I’d say to him, ‘Yes, but which 15 frames? Try harder’. The energy level has to stay high all the time.” Barry Ackroyd BSC
“When we did The Incredible Hulk, Louis [Leterrier] fell in love with the Technocrane and we got ourselves into a style of very fluid masters that would become close-ups. We wanted to continue that same feel for this film [Clash Of The Titans]. Now, of course, you have all these toys – like the Moviebird, cinecam, cablecam and helicopters – which with true anamorphic all help draw the audience into the story. I had the great George Richmond as the main camera operator and there’s an enormous amount of hand-held including chase scenes with the Medusa and these extraordinary giant scorpions.”
Peter Menzies Jr ACS
We watched things like A Taste Of Honey which was filmed in Salford. What was interesting was to see so much rubbish around. The streets are much cleaner now than they were then. You’d see rubble in the streets, there’d be newspapers floating around, and smoke. We had Artem smoke machines going and leaf fires burning in braziers so that all the time there was some kind of smoke going on in the middle or far distance. That was just a texture that enhanced the cinematic quality of it.”
Tony Coldwell on the 50’s sequences for A Passionate Woman
“To sum it [The Prisoner] all up in one line, when Ian McKellen’s Number 2 first turns round to reveal himself to James Caviezel’s Number Six, he says, ‘see how the sun makes it all glow’. I took that as the epitome of my lighting approach. During the day [in Namibia], there’s almost no shadow, and at night it’s always clean and clear. In a sense, that is the terror of the place, because you can’t escape it.” Florian Hoffmeister
“When Gurinder [Chadha] sent me the script [It’s A Wonderful Afterlife] I had, coincidentally, just seen a restored print of David Lean’s 1945 Blithe Spirit - she had, too – and it became a sort of kicking-off point in our dialogue about the film. I’d loved what they did with the spirits in it: very simple, but very effective. It was really low-tech but somehow it worked and was quite magical. This film was very challenging because in almost every
scene. I had to deal with each character as well as sometimes five spirits – hardly a single scene was ever just a two- or three-hander – which is why I chose the widescreen format basically to frame all those characters that were in most scenes.” Dick Pope BSC
“Harrison Ford was very professional. If the call was for 8am, he’d be there at 7.50 ready to go. I have to admit I was a bit intimidated at first because he’s made so many films and is, in every sense of the word, a major movie star. I really liked lighting his face. He has quite deep eyes but once you get the correct light into them, theyreallyshine.” AndrewDunnBSC
“At the end of the shoot [a commer- cial for pork pies] I went up to thank Arthur [Ibbetson] telling him how much I’d enjoyed it. He replied that he couldn’t say the same, adding, ‘I think you’re the worst operator I’ve ever had in my life. Goodbye’. That probably confirmed in my mind that I should go straight to lighting and bugger the operating.”
Harvey Harrison BSC
“
Philip was very nervous at the outset about shooting [Murder On The Orient Express] on film. He’d made Wallander on the RED camera and it’d done very well. He was very conscious of his shooting ratio and thought we might shoot miles too much film. In fact, we didn’t and, in the end, I’m happy to say he was totally converted. What I also knew going in was that I couldn’t have shot the end scene with anything other than film. The train is static, it’s night and there’s no power so the whole denouement bit is done with candles. In fact, I probably put in too many candles because, in the end, it looked a bit overlit to me. However the naturalistic way we did it in the very small space allowed with all those actors worked well on film.” Alan Almond BSC
“The shoot [Age Of Heroes] was actu- ally a battle in itself, everything from the Novovirus sweeping through the hotel to the restriction of services that the aftermath of the Icelandic volcano bought us was a challenge. Our biggest ordeal, however, was the terrain and elements. Whilst we desperately wanted to capture the characters’ ‘struggle’ on film, in order totodosowehadtodoitfirst(with equipment) which was a feat in itself. In waist-high snow even moving short distances and setting up the most ergonomic of kit needed to be executed like a military operation.” Mark Hamilton
“
36 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture