Page 30 - Fujifilm Exposure_37 Candy_ok

THE WHOLE WORLD IN
HIS HANDS
AN INTERVIEW WITH
F rom the newer generation of acclaimed cinematogra-
phers, Marcel Zyskind must boast one of the industry’s more impressively stamped passports. Just 37, his work over the past five years has
taken him officially – and, at times, unofficially – to locations as varied as Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, Shanghai, Scotland and Panama, not to mention the odd country pile in Norfolk and Northamptonshire.
Much of this globe-trotting by the Danish native of Polish parentage has been as a strong right arm of the peri- patetic, not to say tireless, British film- maker Michael Winterbottom.
Accompanied by crews ranging from sizeable to scanty, utilising a range of cameras including 35mm, DV and HD, and with subject matter span- ning the sexually intimate to “torn- from-the-headlines”, the pair have, since 2002, collaborated on the BAFTA-, Berlin- and British Independent Film Award-winning In This World, followed by Code 46, Nine Songs, A Cock And Bull Story, and The Road To Guantanamo, another Berlin and BIFA winner.
Most recently, they were in India for Winterbottom’s biggest film yet, A Mighty Heart, recreating the true story of the kidnap and murder in 2002 of investigative American journalist Daniel Pearl, with a cast including Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Will Patton, Irfan Khan and Archie Panjabi.
Despite the larger scale of this film, there was, Zyskind suggests, no great change in Winterbottom’s modus operandi. “He makes very different kinds of films but the backbone of his films is pretty much the same: he wants to give the actors as much free- dom as possible; the less he has to direct, the better.
“On A Mighty Heart – which was predominantly shot on HD but with some DV and 35mm for flashbacks (filmed on Eterna 250D 8563) – it was great for the actors who were probably more used to traditional ways of shoot- ing. Michael doesn’t even like to use the word ‘Action’; he uses a name instead andatakecangoonfor10or15min- utes at a time. Things tend to evolve on his films in a different kind of way.
“We started the film in Karachi with a small crew and, ideally, would liked to have shot the whole film in
continued on page 30
MARCEL ZYSKIND
Photo: DP Marcel Zyskind shooting The Road To Guantanamo (photo Stuart Wilson)
28 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture