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LIGHT FOR
LIGHT FOR
THE WRITE
THE WRITE
An interview with Denis Crossan BSC
W hile he is as pas- sionate and dedicat-
ed to his craft as any other cine- matographer, Denis Crossan is
also an unashamed team player.
“The trouble is if you don’t get the story right, it doesn’t matter how much you tart it up with flashy images,” he said candidly. “I don’t think the audience are inter- ested. You have to be con- cerned with the story, because that’s the only rea- son for the photography to be there. That’s the fun of it and the best part of doing a film, really.”
Combining this pragma-
tism with a spirit of adven-
ture and an eclectic taste, Crossan has been involved in a diverse range of movies since his 1989 debut with Melancholia. Before that he studied at The National Film & Television School at Beaconsfield, and in the early 80s went on to work in the burgeoning field of pop promos.
“The first job I actually did was when I was still at film school,” he recalled, “it was Relax by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, which got banned. In a funny way being banned
was probably the best thing that could happen because everybody knew about it and a lot of people had seen it. So I subsequently got more work because of that.”
Larry Winters enjoyed tremendous success on the festival circuit. Crossan’s next film, Blue Ice, reunit- ed him with Highlander director Russell Mulcahy. The two men also
worked together on their next film, The Real McCoy which gave Crossan his first experience of working on a big Hollywood production.
“All the time I’ve been making films I’ve also done commercials,” he added, “and I’d worked in America quite a lot with American crews so it wasn’t too differ- ent for me. Most of the same things apply. They may have slightly different names for some of the lamps, or the grip system is slightly differ- ent but things still work the same way.”
Ever keen to ring the changes and not become typecast in any one genre, Crossan followed this American studio movie with the pan- European production of Nostradamus. Principal photography was done in Romania.
“I thought it had a lot of scope, it was quite sweeping when I read it. I suppose the reason for being based in Romania was that they got more value for money because we took over the studio and we had every
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Shooting what he called “bits on pieces” on movies like Highlander and For Queen & Country as well as doing second unit on Alex Cox’s Nicaraguan drama Walker, and more pop promos and commercials. After Melancholia, a modest critical hit, he went back to his native Scotland to shoot the award-winning Silent Scream for director (and regular actor) David Hayman.
The film, based on the true story of Barlinnie Prison inmate
Photos above: Thora Birch on the set of The Hole; main: Denis Crossan BSC
EXPOSURE • 2 & 3