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THELONGANDTHE SHORTSOFIT
“PEOPLE GOT IN TOUCH WITH ME OFF THE BACK OF IT, AND SAID THEY REALLY LIKED THE WAY I SHOT OUTCASTS.”
or the winners of the inaugural FFujifilm Shorts Competition,
their success earlier this year was not so much an end as a beginning. Richard Stewart,
winner of the Best Cinematography Award for Leaving, and Stuart Bentley, who lit the Best Film, Outcasts, have enjoyed a busy and productive period in the months following their awards in March.
They also received individual prizes of film stock that would help get their next projects underway, but such has been their industry that they have barely touched it so far.
“We haven’t really discussed what we’re going to do with ours yet,” says Stuart Bentley, “it’s just nice to know it’s there.” From the moment the news of Bentley’s award was announced, he admits the stakes were raised in an already busy career,
“People got in touch with me off the back of it, and said they really liked the way I shot Outcasts. They might have a similar idea, or there’s some element within that film that they like or they want to appropriate, and that brings a whole new set of challenges and a whole new set of creative, problem solving situations.”
The idea of reuniting with director Ian Clark and producer Megan Stuart Wallace has proved harder to achieve by dint of the volume of projects Bentley has undertaken since Outcasts.
These include the short film One Man And His Dog for director Johnny Hopkins, which was shot on the 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 250D, a Sainsbury’s ad for Academy in which Bentley shot second unit for Barry Ackroyd BSC, and others for Playstation and the BBC Poetry Season. Recent pop promos include
Our House Is Dadless by Kid British, directed by Emil Nava (and shot on the 16mm Fujicolor Super F-64D) and an animated promo for The Prodigy entitled Warriors Dance, directed by Corin Hardy at Academy. In addition there is the feature documentary War In Babylon, currently in post-production.
Busy times indeed, and no less so for Bentley’s fellow winner Richard Stewart. He too had an idea of projects he hoped to move onto in the summer, but like Bentley found these hard to pin down. Yet the project Stewart has got involved in is no less fascinating than those he had planned to do.
“It’s about three surfers who spend the winter in Ireland,” says Stewart. “They tow-surf from a
jet ski, and are catapulted into ludicrously large waves that break over granite slabs at the foot of the
12 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE