Page 11 - Fujifilm Exposure_25 Jean Francois Robin_ok

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in production
Rather than slumping back, they grab the bull by the horns and do some- thing different.
“I think that’s an element that a lot of viewers will be able to relate to as well as enjoying the mysteries and the beautiful English country gardens.”
Working from scripts by six differ- ent writers, including Exton, Peter Spence and Simon Brett, are two high-
ly experienced directors, Brian Farnham and Tom Clegg, responsible for three shows each.
Farnham, whose work spans nearly 30 years of TV – from Rock Follies to Night And Day via Rumpole, Poirot, Heart Of The Country and, a personal favourite of his, Preston Front – is clearly relishing working with good scripts.
“There aren’t that many good scriptwriters about. Too often you’re spending your time just trying to make it work rather than interpreting a good script.”
This is also, perhaps curiously, the first time he has worked with either actress: “No, I really don’t know how we’ve managed to avoid each other all this time,” he laughs.
How does he find series-sharing? “This has to be so fast there’s no way you could do all six. Tom and I had a long chat before we started and we’re roughly doing it in the same sort of way.
“Because it’s very much about the two girls, you tend to keep them togeth- er in two-shot as much as possible. They play so beautifully together, and you want to keep that rhythm going.”
According to Englefield: “Brian did- n’t talk specifically about any of the ele- ments, but one was aware from the beginning that the brief photographi- cally was to try and make everything look as attractive as possible; that’s the houses, the gardens and the actresses.
“Naturally, it really all centres around the actresses so that’s where the photographic focus should be. I’ve been using the Fuji 64D and 250D for the various exteriors.
“One thing people always tell you about Fujifilm is that it photographs green very well. And as you can imag- ine, these are stories with a lot of green in them!” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Rosemary & Thyme, which begins airing at the end of August, is partly originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
THE DP VIEW
PAUL ENGLEFIELD
ntil now I’ve always operated on everything I’ve done as a lighting cameraman. The sheer workload on this proj- ect meant it just didn’t make
any sense. And it’s been quite an eye- opener for me just seeing how suc- cessful it’s been having someone else to do the operating.
You tend to think, ‘I want to oper- ate because then I’m in control of everything visually.’ Then again, hav- ing someone with Jamie Harcourt’s experience has been a real asset. With a good operator, they’re bringing their own talent to it... and hopefully making it even better.
Yes, sometimes you do feel a bit detached from the actual photograph- ic process, just looking at the monitor or standing by the camera.
We’re having to shoot maybe up to six or seven minutes of cut footage a day so I’m having to concentrate instead on the lighting, also working out the continuity of how things will connect scene to scene. I would now certainly advocate using an operator any time you can get one. ■
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 9