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FEATURE IN FOCUS
“WHAT I REALLY LIKE ABOUT THE THECLASHOFCULTURESFUJIFILM STOCKS ARE THE COLOUR
BRIANTUFANOBSCONHISLATESTASSIGNMENT, EVERYWHERE AND NOWHERE, WHICH KEEPS HIM YOUNG AT HEART
SATURATION AND THE ACUTANCE – THE FINE DEFINITION BETWEEN THE COLOURS–SOTHEFILMLOOKS RAZOR SHARP.”
ow in his sixth decade as a Ncinematographer, Brian Tufano
has a peerless track record in the role of guiding right hand to a succession of promising first
time directors.
From Alan Parker (The Evacuees),
Franc Roddam (Quadrophenia) and Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) to Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot), Damien O’Donnell (East Is East) and Noel Clarke (Adult- hood) ... it’s an extraordinary checklist of talent and titles.
As Boyle says of Tufano in the latest ‘In His Own Words’ volume from Faber (Danny Boyle by Amy Raphael, £14.99): “He’s so experienced and yet gracious about passing on his skills and letting you benefit.”
Four years ago, Tufano hooked up with writer-director Menhaj Huda on his feature debut, Kidulthood, a collab- oration that spawned awards and its own-mini-industry of urban follow-ups like Clarke’s Adulthood and, most recently, Anuvahood, co-directed by Adam Deacon who’d appeared in the two earlier films.
In fact he and Huda – known as ‘Huds’ – had originally met in the mid- Nineties when they worked together on the short Jump Boy. Now they are back together again for the first time since Kidulthood on Everywhere And Nowhere, described colourfully in the pre-production blurb as, “8 Mile Meets Monsoon Wedding”.
It tells of a young British Asian man Ash (James Floyd) torn between the traditions of suburban family life and his passion for DJing, a conflict that becomes even acuter when he falls for the lovely Bella (played by Swedish-born Katia Winter). The cast includes Alyy Khan, as Ash’s unbend- ing uncle, Art Malik, Saeed Jaffrey and the ubiquitous Adam Deacon.
Explains Tufano: “This is ‘Huds’ moving up the story and characters into a different level of society, more middle class if you like. It’s also about
cross-cultural attitudes and deals with an undercurrent of racism. It shows the way this generation of British-born Pakistani young are caught between two cultures. Not, I may add, in a deep, preachy kind of way, but much more subtly than that. It asks a lot of questions and makes you think.”
With a modest budget and a schedule of just 23 days, it was also all about very careful preparation.
Says Tufano: “It never ever seemed as if we were under pressure. ‘Huds’ is very shrewd about locations and kept everything as close together as possible so we weren’t driving everywhere all the time. It was based in and around Pinewood and the fur- thest we ever went was for the club scenes which were shot near London Bridge.” In fact it was those club scenes which provided Tufano with his
biggest challenge. ‘Huds’ wanted to shoot the club scenes on digital and documentary style; this meant no control over the sessions, the club- bers, the sound or the lighting.
Which is where the experience of his ‘day job’ –as Head of Cinematogra- phy at the National Film & Television School- would prove invaluable.
“At the NFTS, the cinematography students have to learn every method
of image capture. So I designed a method of testing both the dynamic tonal range of film stocks as well as the sensors on digital cameras. I then based my shooting techniques on those results.
“I knew that I would get what I wanted, pushing the club material to the limit by adjusting the gain on the sensors to make sure there was enough digital information that
Photo Main - top: Brian Tufano craning for a shot; above and right: on set with Tufano and director Menhaj Huda, and scenes from the film
54 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE