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a beautiful lighting job might not be the right thing for a certain commer- cial or film.
“I think you have to be open and accept that you have to find the right way to service the whole thing. And that doesn’t necessarily mean spending a lot of time making it look lovely. A lot of the time you’re trying to capture an energy and mood of a piece. I think you can destroy the mood by overlighting it.”
Early experience on the set of the film Tank Malling encouraged the young Radcliffe to learn his craft in smaller form films. So he moved into
pop promos, where he came under the influence of John Mathieson BSC.
“He really opened my world up to the process of cinematography. When I met him, that’s when I realised this was what I wanted to do. I loaded for him on a few music videos, and learned a lot by watching him. I feel very lucky, because he’s an extraordi- nary cameraman and for a couple of years I worked with him as he was moving from commercials into drama. He was a mentor to me, though I don’t know if he’d be aware of that.
“That was the first real thrill. I was meeting people I’d never realised
I thought I could. That galvanised me to making my own films. I was a terrible assistant, really, too interested in what everyone else was doing to do what I was supposed to be doing.
I ended up shooting music videos very quickly. And I learnt on the job.”
And learnt well it seems, if the current progress of his career is any- thing to go by, with several different projects in negotiation the future is looking pretty good too.
“I think that I’ve got to a level where I can work in drama,” Radcliffe adds, “I’m happy that I have the expe- rience and the qualities needed.
The speed at which you have to work on TV drama is quite frightening, but it’s a very important lesson to learn.
“One day I’d like to be able to shoot feature films where you may have a little more time. But I’d never want to leave commercials and pop promos behind because they help you to keep that ability to make things more inter- esting.” This particular story, it seems, is far from over. ■ ANWAR BRETT
The Girls From Chernobyl was originated on 16mm Eterna 500 8673
Photo main: Self portrait of Cinematographer Tat Radcliffe; inset l-r: Alun Armstrong and Lindsay Coulson with the children and a scene from The Girls From Chernobyl; two scenes from Casanova starring David Tennant; Mike Skinner – aka The Streets in the pop promo Dry Your Eyes, winner of Best Cinematography Award at CADS
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 29