Page 24 - Fujifilm Exposure_32 Aardman Studios_ok

JAMES ASPINALL
“Fujifilm handles colour very well and also handles contrast in a slightly different way, which is nice.”
continued from page 20
It made a lot of sense having some- where that is literally ours for three weeks with 80 per cent of the locations in one place. Saves a lot of aggro, real- ly. You can just imagine what a village in Dorset would be like especially at this time of year – very touristy with lots of cars and TV aerials.”
Produced by Ecosse Films, the romantic tale of rural life centring round musical changes at a village church co-stars Kelley Hawes, James Murray, Tony Haygarth, Ben Miles and Tom Georgeson.
Change and adaptation have been regulars in Aspinall’s career ever since starting out, aged 16, as a rostrum camera assistant at Camera Effects where he worked on title sequences for films like Tommy and Cross Of Iron. At 19, he joined up with Zoran Perisic – whose own background was rostrum cameras – and Denys Coop as a ‘zoptic operator’ (“I used to work the back projector”, he recalled) on the first Superman film.
Aspinall, whose stepfather is the veteran film editor Sean Barton, always had it in mind to become a lighting cameraman but the path would take him on the traditionally circuitous route. He worked as an assistant on commercials here and in the States and did a number of jobs as focus puller for DP Gabriel Beristain, includ- ing Franc Roddam’s K2 (“a fantastic shoot in Pakistan in the Karakoram”).
His lighting break came with ‘corporates’ and pop promos. “The ‘corporates’,” said Aspinall, “were shot on 35mm and were like lengthy adverts, extended plugs for products, often financial services. Nowadays
they’re probably shot on tape.” Those, in turn, led to documentaries, drama documentaries and, of course, single and episodic drama, starting out with Space Island One, for Sky and the Sci-Fi Channel.
Early encounters with directors like Stephen Whittaker and Roy Battersby resulted in later collabora- tions on productions such as Doomwatch, Grafters, Life For A Life and In Defence. To date, there had been just one feature film, Savage Hearts, with an eclectic cast including the late Richard Harris, Angus Deayton and Jerry Hall. “It was very low budget and wasn’t, to be absolutely honest, terribly good. However, I was very pleased with it and I thought it looked great,” he laughed.
Careerwise, he’d love to do more films, “but you can’t really rely on them because they often seem to fall
at the final hurdle so it must be difficult financially. I don’t see how anyone can make a living doing those low-budget ones.”
It was while shooting some 2nd unit on the latest Trial & Retribution minis- eries, that he received a ‘corporate’ for Fujifilm in the person of DP Daf Hobson BSC. “He was really singing its praises,” said Aspinall. “I felt like a change and wanted to try something new. I used it on a commercial in Holland and so thought I’d try it on Under The Greenwood Tree. It handles colour very well and also handles contrast in a slightly different way, which is nice.”
He and Laughland discussed various ideas and visual looks for the production. “The story is quite sea- sonal so we’ll change the way the film looks with the seasons, making the wintertime quite cool, summer more saturated and so on.
“We went round the National Gallery to help get a ‘look’ particularly in term of production design and a colour palette. There were three paint- ings of interest to us, all by Sir David Wilkie [the early 19th Century, Scots- born Royal Academician] – ‘The Blind Fiddler’, ‘The Penny Wedding’ and ‘The Cotters Saturday Night’.”
Aspinall admitted the television making process was pretty relentless – “the really tough stuff is series drama; singles are bit easier, but only margin- ally. It can be slightly soul-destroying when you find yourself having to shoot things which are not perhaps absolutely right but you’re forced to because of the scheduling.
“It’s all about preparation when you’re shooting at that pace. With Under The Greenwood Tree, there’s a big advantage in being in one place. Funnily enough it doesn’t feel quite so relentless when you’re doing it for only four weeks as opposed to pacing yourself across, say, 12 weeks where you tend to re-visit location after loca- tion and can begin to run out of ideas.
“Do I like to operate too? In a per- fect world, yes. Some directors – for example, Nick with this – like to have an operator, some don’t. On this one, there’s quite a lot of lighting involved so I think it’s the right decision to have an operator. It means I can stay one step ahead.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Under The Greenwood Tree was originated on 16mm Super F-64D 8622, Super F-250D 8662 and Eterna 500 8673
Photo top: James Aspinall preparing a shot for Under The Greenwood Tree; above l-r: scenes from Wire In The Blood, The Last Detective and William & Mary
22 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture