Page 12 - Fujifilm Exposure_36 Living The Dream_ok

behind the camera
THOSE WHO CAN, TEACH OTHERS
AN INTERVIEW WITH
STUART HARRIS
A lthough he has not actually met him, Stuart Harris credits the great Douglas
Slocombe BSC with crucial words of encouragement that helped before he embarked on his career behind the cam- era. Their cinematographic paths may have taken distinctly different routes, but
the endorsement of one of Britain’s great cameramen is, Harris recalls, something that galvanised his ambi- tion into something tangible.
“My brother was working as a clapper boy and he had a contact at Denham Laboratories,” he recalls, “so I used to get rolls of negative that I’d put it into cassettes myself and go off and take pictures. He used to work with Dougie, and showed him some film I’d taken at Kew Gardens. Dougie said some- thing really lovely about it, so that was it - this what I always wanted to do. Photography was my love, but cinema became my passion.”
Beginning in the mailroom at
ABC Cinemas’ head office in Golden
Square, Harris took a job as a mes-
senger at ABPC Studios, Elstree.
Biding his time, he struck lucky
when someone needed a clapper boy on the 60s TV series, Gideon’s Way.
“The only reason I got out of the post room is because there was nobody free on the ACTT books so they said I could go and work on that. I applied for my union ticket and eventually got it, then became free- lance. It was a wonderful way to learn.”
In those formative years during the 1960s Harris found himself working closely with three different DPs, each in their way quite different.
“I suppose the first cinematographer who really helped me was Walter Lassally,” he explains. “We did lots of ‘swinging 60s’ movies, and early Merchant Ivory. It was mostly features for me, and then commercials came along. I found myself working with people like Alan Parker, and I got onto that circuit more. From there I met other great cameramen like David Watkin BSC and Billy Williams BSC. If you were to ask who my mentors were, I would have to say that Walter, Billy and David were peo-
ple that I really looked up to.”
Yet Harris’s progression to the
rank of cinematographer was unusu- al. He had feature experience work- ing under these and other DPs, on movies such as The Boyfriend, Joanna, 30 Is A Dangerous Age, Cynthia and San Ferry Ann. But then he took a detour from movies, and found himself working non-stop on commercials. The first man to recruit him as a lighting cameraman was Lester Bookbinder.
“He was a stills man in New York,” Harris continues, “and he came over here and made commer- cials. Then I met Barry Lategan, a fashion photographer and became great friends with him. From there, I
was lucky to work with people like Nick Lewin - I shot a Renault 5 commercial for him - Barry Kinsman.and also Storm Thorgerson at this time.”
Harris’s belated feature debut as a DP is a notable one, though far removed from the glossy commercial world in which he had found such success. It was in 1985 that he was invited to meet playwright David Hare with a view to lighting his directorial bow, Wetherby.
“What amazed me about David is that he wasn’t just a great theatrical writer, he was a huge film buff.
Photo main: DP Stuart Harris; above: the poster image of Wetherby starring Vanessa Redgrave
10 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm M
continued on page 12
otion Picture