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Roger Chapman
“One thing I really like about the Fujifilm stocks is
that they can be quite vivid, and it’s fantastic for landscapes.”
continued from previous page
The contrast between those edgy documentaries and his work on the recent feature Morris: A Life With Bells On is therefore marked, but decided- ly welcome.
“I think I enjoy that variety
in my work,” he adds. “One
minute I’m doing a low budget feature like Morris in Dorset,
which is close to home; the
next project will be in the
Middle East doing a two hour documentary about the Koran,
and before Morris I was doing a travel programme in Alaska.”
A comedy shot in the style of a documentary and set within the world of Morris dancing, the film affectionately details the clash of attitudes between an avant garde dancer and the reactionary forces that seek to control him. Written by Chaz Oldham who also plays the
That attitude very much speaks directly to the documentary back- ground from which Chapman hails.
“The thing I learnt from documen- taries was to be spontaneous. That’s the secret. If you walk into a situation, you know if it feels right and you also know what the film will capture. I like to light things so, when the actors walk on, there’s very little messing around.
When he left Trillion, Chapman joined a corporate production compa- ny in Notting Hill, working on a vari- ety of training films for the Ford Motor Company.
“The Ford stuff was fantastic, a true apprenticeship. It was incredibly useful for things like how to light a skin tone when someone is tightening nuts in an engine which is all black. How do you see detail in the engine and not over expose the hand? Also for shooting cars in big studios, with all the reflective problems you have with lights.
“It was an extraordinary learning curve when it came to lighting, and also getting to know how to use all the toys, or putting the camera in awkward places, all that sort of stuff. I went free- lance as a camera assistant in 1988, and a couple of years after that I decid- ed I wanted to shoot for myself and in about 1992, one of my biggest breaks was being taken on by Document.”
The lessons learned working under the mentoring influence of DP Michael Miles were put to good use on a succession of documentary sub- jects in those early years. Further experience came lighting Dan Reed’s Bosnian documentary The Zone, which was shot on a previous genera- tion of Fujifilm 500T.
“It was the winter just after the war,” he explains. “When Dan was there it was really bad weather and very dark with blizzards. So we ordered lots of fast stock because even in peoples’ houses there was no lighting, no electricity; it was dark
everywhere. We went with 500 tungsten but when we got out there the weather changed and it was beautiful sunny skies and all this thick snow everywhere.”
Adding neutral density fil- ters for all he was worth, Chapman found it difficult at times to see an image through the viewfinder. “But in the fin- ished film it looked fantastic,” he smiles. “That’s one of the favourite films I ever shot.”
Another happy memory, not so much dangerous as nerve wracking, occurred when he worked with Ken Loach on his 1997 documentary The Flickering Flame.
“That was an hour long Modern Times documentary about Liverpool dockers. My favourite memory was when Ken came and asked for a favour. It was lunchtime and we had to pretend we were all going off in separate directions. This was because he wanted to get rid of the of the BBC producer. So we all disappeared, and then snuck back into his office and shot a Party Political Broadcast for Arthur Scargill in the lunch break, using all the BBC equipment.
“They were completely unaware of it. Then the producer came back early, with about five minutes to go. The receptionist came along and said he was back. So Arthur hid in the cup- board, we made the gear look like it wasn’t doing anything, and then we did this diversionary move where the producer went into another room, Arthur came out of the cupboard and sneaked downstairs. It was like a French farce, but it was wonderful.”
Pull the other one? No, Roger Chapman knows better than most that fact is truth is often far stranger than fiction. ■ ANWAR BRETT
Morris: A Life With Bells On was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573 and Super F-125T 8532
maverick terpsichorean Derecq Twist, the film stars Derek Jacobi, Greg Wise, Ian Hart and Naomie Harris. It also marks the directorial debut of actress Lucy Akhurst.
Shooting on the Fujicolor ETER- NA 500T and Super F-125T, West Country-based Chapman had a degree of local knowledge he could call upon.
“One thing I really like about the Fujifilm stocks is that they can be quite vivid, and it’s fantastic for land- scapes. Living in the area, I kind of knew what I wanted. We just had con- versations about how it would look in the end. But it does have such a true beauty, and I think the simpler you keep it the better it is.”
Walk in, have a quick look, check the exposure levels and start shooting. That keeps everyone’s energy going.”
A budding stills photographer in his teens, Chapman fell in love with the moving image in his sixth form years at school in Hampshire. After his A levels, he got a job as a runner in London, working for Trillion.
“They were the biggest independ- ent European outside broadcast com- pany in their time. We used to cover things like Wimbledon, big horse races and all the major pop concerts at Hammersmith Odeon, Milton Keynes Bowl and Wembley Arena. They used to do all these massive, multi camera shoots.”
Photo previous page: Morris A Life With Bells On DP Roger Chapman;
top l-r: Chapman on location with Director Lucy Ackhurst (behind Chapman) and inset, setting up shots
16 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture