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IN A GREAT FAM
IN A GREAT FAM
An interview with Adam Suschitzky
T he name is familiar, even if the face is not. But as Adam
Suschitzky follows father Peter and grandfather Wolfgang into the field of cinematography he is well aware of the respect in
which his family name is held.
A 26 year old recent graduate of
the National Film & Television School, Suschitzky even found his debut fea- ture Out of Depth - written and direct- ed by first timer Simon Marshall - recalled one of his grandfather’s best known movies.
true story from the director’s own past, it is a gritty thriller set in con- temporary south London.
Starring Rita Tushingham and for- mer Eastenders star Sean McGuire, the look of the film was dictated by the downbeat characters within the story. Not short of confidence, and despite this being his first feature, Suschitzky set about devising a particular visual style with the director’s blessing.
“I think as a cameraman you’ve got to grab everything you can, and hold on tight and not be cowardly at all,” he explains. “I want to really try and make
Photos: left: Adam Suschitzky; above: Airport location shoot on Out Of Depth
“Get Carter was a particular influ- ence,” he explains. “Many people involved in this one are very excited about that look and a host of charac- ters that are quite similar to this film. After I got involved Simon and I started looking quite closely at it. I’ve only dis- covered Get Carter in the last couple of years, but it has a resonance with this. The characters are one of the strongest things in it, and the story is quite bleak and harsh. That stays with you, it’s quite a universal story.”
The intention with Out of Depth is clearly that it too should have a uni- versal message. Loosely based on a
it look as dramatic and dynamic as I can, and if that means taking a few risks along the way then so be it.
“When I was at film school Freddie Francis introduced us to a gad- get called a VariCon, which Arriflex produce. It looked very old fashioned and it made the shadows go very milky. It’s totally contrary to any con- temporary approach, where cine- matography is leaning towards very sharp lenses, very sharp film stock and very rich blacks. I wanted to go the other way on this film.
“I did a lot of tests with this VariCon with various colours, and
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