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BEHIND THE CAMERA
KEEPONRUNNING
ANINTERVIEWWITHALI ASAD
n a bleak October afternoon, in a derelict Owarehouse in the soon-to-be transformed
docklands area of London, a showdown is taking place between a reformed crook desperate for a score and a mountain of muscle determined to stop
him. The archetypal unstoppable force meeting the immoveable object, this scene occurs early on in Alex De Rakoff’s latest feature Dead Man Running – the first film executive produced by Premiership football stars Rio Ferdinand and Ashley Cole.
And while the action on set is expertly choreographed by veteran stunt co-ordinator Rocky Taylor, and actors Tamer Hassan and Tiny Iron go through their paces, capturing the sequence in all its vivid glory is DP Ali Asad.
This is the Syrian-born, Lebanon-raised DP’s fourth feature after Rollin’ With The Nines, Rise Of The Footsoldier and Doghouse. Yet it’s his first shot on 35mm film stock, in this case a combination of ETERNA 250D and ETERNA 500T. Despite the chilly conditions and fast disappearing light that wintry day last year, he was clearly in his element.
“Obviously once the light dropped outside we couldn’t see any skies, so we just filled the space,” he explains afterwards. “In the rushes you couldn’t see the
difference between what we shot during the day, it was a completely seamless transition. The ETERNA 250D is really, really versatile and quite flawless.”
Despite the gritty nature of this and other films in his CV, Asad studied fine art at Goldsmiths College, UCL before moving into film.
“I got interested in lighting for live drawing classes,” he explains, “then I started lighting for people who were shooting things. I did some live installation stuff at Goldsmiths – it was all video at the time – and that took me away from painting.”
“Later I did a film course at the London International Film School and a cameraman called John Simmons became a really good friend of mine. He came and saw my graduation piece and gave me my first job, a documentary about bluegrass music called Echoes Of America which took us all over the States.”
He began cutting his teeth professionally on the thriving pop promos produced through the 1990s, Asad always hankered for a career in features but he soon recognised the opportunities that shooting in this shorter form offered.
“That’s where I learnt almost everything I know,” he adds, “pop promos were great because you can make mistakes and learn from them, because you’re shooting
Photo main: Ali Asad at work; above: Brenda Blethyn in Dead Man Running
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