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MOTION PICTURE • CINEMATOGRAPHY • DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
E MAGAZINE • ISSUE 32 • SUMMER 2005
ive years after their triumphant feature film debut with Chicken Run, Bristol- based Aardman Animations are back with THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, which also marks the big screen bow of two of the company’s most popular characters, Wallace & Gromit. Our Cover Story
reports from the set of the production which was shot across a more than 90 weeks and features star voices such as Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes and, of course, Peter Sallis as the evergreen Wallace. It also features the intricate work of two dedicated cinematographers, Dave Alex Riddett and Tristan Oliver.
More tales from Behind the Camera come from a quartet of cameramen in our regular series. Sydneysider Roger Lanser first worked with Kenneth Branagh on a miniseries in Australia when the actor was just 21. After Branagh turned director too, he eventually called up Lanser to work on films like Peter’s Friends, Much Ado About Nothing and In The Bleak Midwinter. After a gap of 10 years they have reunited at Shepperton on
AS YOU LIKE IT, in which traditional Shakespeare landscapes have been swapped for 19th Century Kyoto in Japan. Another classic, Thomas Hardy’s UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE, is the latest work of James Aspinall, whose small screen credits include Wire In The Blood, William & Mary and Falling. Dorset in summer is naturally far too busy for filming so Aspinall and company are shooting Hardy’s Wessex in Jersey.
Dividing his time between film and TV - from Firelight and Before You Go to Anna Lee and Blue/Orange - Nic Morris BSC recently completed MINOTAUR, a re-telling of Greek mythology with
an all-star cast including Rutger Hauer and Tony Todd. He also worked for a while as a course leader at the prestigious Arts Institute at Bournemouth. Tat Radcliffe, a prolific cameraman on award-winning music promos and commercials,
has stepped up to TV drama with the acclaimed Casanova and now, THE GIRLS FROM CHERNOBYL, a timely production co-starring Alun Armstrong and Lindsay Coulson.
The rise and rise of North Country Pictures
is a stirring tale of Yorkshire grit and determination embodied by independent-minded husband-and- wife filmmaking team, Steven and Julie Woodcock. With two films to date, Between Two Women, and their latest, THE JEALOUS GOD due soon for release, they have skilfully recreated Fifties’ and Sixties’ Britain partly in homage to much-loved ‘kitchen sink’ dramas from that era. With several more like projects in the pipeline, the company is on a roll and has even set up a distribution ‘arm’ to try and make sure it can control everything from concept through to release.
Not just actors have stand-ins. In the latest film version of that much-loved children’s classic HEIDI, the Julian Alps in Slovenia doubled for author Johanna Spyri’s Switzerland, while various locations in South-West Wales seamlessly represented Frankfurt and other key moments in the stirring 19th Century story of a little orphan girl’s courage. Nine-year-old Emma Bolger is the Swiss miss in a cast that includes Dame Diana Rigg, Max von Sydow, Geraldine Chaplin and Pauline McLynn. Directed by Paul Marcus,
the DP is Peter Sinclair.
More clever cheating with ON A CLEAR DAY, which follows a redundant Glasgow shipyard worker’s bid to swim the English Channel. Not a foot of France but instead The Irish Sea and the Isle of Man did chilly duty as Peter Mullan (and his double) got more than just their feet wet. Gaby Dellal and David Johnson BSC, respectively, directed and photographed this life-affirming adventure which co-stars Brenda Blethyn, Jamie Sives, Jodhi May and Billy Boyd. Meanwhile, Paul Englefield reports on his third and latest series as DP on ITV’s popular ROSEMARY & THYME, featuring more murders most floral in Spain and the Home Counties for those redoubtable gardening sleuths played by Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris
All this plus a tribute to the late, great Ismail Merchant of Merchant Ivory Productions who died aged 68 just weeks after completing his 47th film, The White Countess, a COMMERCIAL BREAK featuring DP Richard Mott’s trailer for Cbeebies GORDON THE GARDEN GNOME, a peek-behind the scenes of recent releases such as THE DESCENT and A LOT LIKE LOVE not to mention a round-up of Fujifilm news and the latest golf day in FESTIVALS & EVENTS. ■
MILLIE MORROW MANAGING EDITOR www.motion.fuji.co.uk
MILLIE MORROW • ROGER SAPSFORD