Page 15 - Fujifilm Exposure_9 Love's Labour's Lost_ok

Photos main: The Darkest Light director of photography, Mary Farbrother; right: with co-director Simon Beaufoy on location in Yorkshire
INTO LIGHT
INTO LIGHT
of anyone and - not that she knows it - because of her I applied to the NFTS.”
With female DPs still comparatively rare, you wonder if Farbrother has ever encountered scep- ticism or suspicion from diehards within the industry. “I have never once felt not accepted because I am a woman,” she asserts. “In fact it’s something I don’t ever think about. It probably has to do with coming from film school and work- ing with talented people in every sphere. Male and female, there was no difference.”
Farbrother sees her strengths as a cinematog- rapher as twofold. “I like being involved in the
script and creating a mood and feel which is intan- gible but comes through in discussion with a like- minded director. The other side is the photograph- ic physical element, the encouragement of colours which comes more from the artistic background.
“The main thing for me is working with inter- esting directors with a strong interest in the visu- al side,” she declares. “On commercials I always know that if you shoot something just to look nice it will not be in the final film. Again it’s the film school thing about being very disciplined about shooting the script, and a strong discipline is very useful in commercials.
“So it was nice to be able to use all those skills on a film like this,” she says, returning to the sub- ject of The Darkest Light. “We had a lot of prepara- tory discussions, but the first week hit us like a thunderbolt,” recounts Farbrother. “We realised we would be so short of time with the children whose hours were limited. It was a combination of that and appalling weather.”
For the DP that meant losing out in two direc- tions, having to cut corners because of lack of time continued on page 16
behind the camera