Page 30 - Fujifilm Exposure_48 Tamara Drewe_ok

REIGNING INSPAIN
AN INTERVIEWWITH
TONY SLATER-LING
he past 12 months or so somehow perfectly encapsulate the Tfascinatingly varied career to date of versatile cinematographer
Tony Slater-Ling. They began outside Prague with his directing and photographing the 2nd Unit of Lucasfilms’ Red Tails, about the so-called ‘Tuskagee’ squadron of black airmen during WWII,
and have just ended with completion of shooting in Spain of Mad Dogs, a new four-hour drama for Sky1 HD on which Slater-Ling was DP.
Mad Dogs, written by Cris Cole and produced by BAFTA-winning Left Bank Pictures, co-stars Max Beesley, Philip Glenister, John Simm and Marc Warren in what is described intriguingly as “a darkly comic twisted tale of friendship put to the ultimate test as an inconceivable chain of events unfolds.” Filmed on land and at sea in and around Majorca, Mad Dogs re-unites Slater-Ling with director Adrian Shergold. Three years ago, they worked together on C4’s drama Clapham Junction having first collaborated five years before that when he was 2nd Unit cameraman on ITV’s controversial The Second Coming during a 12-year association with David Odd BSC whom Slater-Ling readily acknowledges as his most important “mentor”.
While Slater-Ling is sworn to secrecy on the exact nature of Mad Dogs, lip-smackingly hyped by Sky as “a labyrinthine nightmare of lies, deception and murder”, he is a bit more forthcoming on its execution, which included “lots of stuff shot on all kinds of boats, in the hills and on dirt roads.” Original talk was of capturing the production using HD cameras but he and Shergold were adamant they’d prefer to use 35mm film for the same HD quality but with more mobility and latitude, a decision backed by the line producer Rupert Ryle Hodges. It was, says Slater-Ling, “all about mobility, access and latitude.
“We knew we didn’t want to do lots and lots of takes nor run two cameras all the time – although there were specific points when we did that.” It also became clear that with the restriction of space at sea, whether it was in small dinghies or on rather bigger yachts, capture would be much simpler without all the monitors and cables associated with HD. The Arri LT with was the camera of choice.
Slater-Ling, no stranger to Fujifilm having already lit, among others, the BAFTA Scotland winning drama Summer, opted to use ETERNA250TandETERNA500TforMadDogs. ➤
Photo: DP Tony Slater-Ling (right) with gaffer Tony Wilcock
28 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE