Page 18 - Fujifilm Exposure_24 Stephen Fry_ok

PAT O’SHEA
“you’ve got to be very quick on
your feet and it tends to make you very adaptable.”
continued from page 14
demands on a veteran cast mean, says O’Shea, “you’ve got to be very quick on your feet and it tends to make you very adaptable.”
A less drastic kind of adaptability was also the ‘prentice name of the game when O’Shea first started his career on the other side of the world in Wellington working as a general ‘gofer’ in his father’s small commer- cials studio.
He arrived in England in 1968, freelanced for a while as a focus puller/loader before getting a holiday ‘relief’ job in the BBC film depart- ment. When that became permanent, O’Shea was quickly involved in every kind of film work, “from the almost- news like Nationwide – shot on rever- sal – to drama. Eventually I got a cam- eraman’s job.
“I was ‘block’ cameraman on the first couple of series of 40 Minutes which was shot on 16mm, mainly with available light. It was one of the early ‘fly-on-the-wall’ type series. Then there were bits of Newsnight and Panorama.”
As well as the more routine film assignments, an increasingly distin- guished bunch of documentaries also began to decorate his CV, taking him to places like Africa for both The World About Us and for David Harrison’s series titled, appropriately enough, The Africans.
With director Paul Hamann he
made The Duty Men, which won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award, and the 1988 Grierson Award winner, 14 Days In May. The latter – “a very dis- turbing piece,” he reflects still all these years later – followed the last fortnight in the life of convicted killer Edward Earl Johnson on Death Row in Mississippi’s notorious Parchman prison.
As well as the ‘docos’ there was also a cult sitcom (Dear John) and a well-received BBC drama, Sweet Nothing, directed by Tony Smith and starring the late Charlotte Coleman, about kids living rough on the streets – “I think my documentary back- ground helped there,” says O’Shea.
Certainly places like, say, Parchman and the Southern Sudan couldn’t seem further away as he makes his now regu- lar pilgrimage north to Holmfirth. Yes,
he has to admit, the place has turned into a bit of a tourist trap and there are times when you can hardly move for film crews.
But it’s equally clear he loves the gig and continues to get much enjoy- ment from it. “Certainly I wish that I had more time or done this or that better. It’s a nice part of the world and the cast is so good. Peter [Sallis] and Frank [Thornton] are genuinely amus- ing in real life and seem to see the funny side in most things – usually me... especially when they can see I’m struggling. Luckily I have Yorkshire technicians to keep me on the straight and narrow.”
O’Shea’s been shooting on Fuji for the last couple of years: “I’m very impressed with the Daylight stocks, the 64 and 250. Quite a lot of the inte- riors we use have ambient light and so
I’m able to take all my HMI lights, add to them and shoot with the 250. When we get back to the studio, usually Shepperton, I go to the 250 Tungsten. That’s excellent too.”
The last word must go to produc- er-director Bell: “What you don’t need on something like LOTSW is a prima donna cameraman. Not only he is technically adept but Pat’s also such a lovely personality.
“When you’re dealing as we are with older actors you don’t want to keep them hanging about. Remember, we’re doing an episode every six days. Pat’s always spot-on. I don’t think we’d be able to keep up that pace or the quality without him.” Quite a testimonial for the quietly- spoken Kiwi. ■ QUENTIN FALK
Last Of The Summer Wine
is originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative
16 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video
Photos top: The 1988 Grierson Award winner, 14 Days In May; far left: A scene from Last Of The Summer Wine (photo © BBC); centre and right: The stars of Tony Smith’s Sweet Nothing