Page 18 - Fujifilm Exposure_28 Michael Winner_ok

continued from page 14
sun did come out there was other cov- erage looking away from the windows, so we did that.”
Cast with such impressive names as Michael Sheen and Cherie Lunghi, the film flirts with the conventions of an Edwardian ghost story as a teenage girl sets up a nervy young man for the fright of his life.
“Most of the edginess comes from the performances of the actors,” Daly adds, “so I didn’t really employ any special camera tricks. The only I did was use a 45 degree shutter, when Framton [Sheen] thinks he’s seeing the ghost. To cover his panic I used that and we went hand held for those shots.
“The film starts off by the front door, in the hallway, which is lit by oil lamps and candles. I tried to keep that quite dark, and as they walk up the stairs they go through a very dark area which gives you this nice big reveal as you go into the main room. The first thing you’re hit with is the open doors and the garden beyond.”
The significance of the period, just before the First World War, and the shooting party who are out perpetrating their own modest slaughter in the muddy fields beyond the house suggests the dark shadow of events to come. Relying on Daly’s lighting to convey the right mood, the DP chose a clean, unfussy approach to fulfil his task.
“Any softness that I achieved I did with the lighting. We didn’t use any fil- ters. I just had HMIs outside coming through the windows, and some fill inside. The sources for the oil lamps and candles were there but I used sup- plementary Kinoflows in the hallway. And the reason for choosing the F- 250D was that so much of it was going to be shot in natural light.”
Clean and unfussy might sum up the style of a DP whose influences in the field of cinematography range
from Gordon Willis to Caleb Deschanel, Robert Richardson to David Watkin and the late Conrad Hall.
While he may aspire to the heights of his heroes he is realistic enough to know that opportunities are relatively few in a British film industry that never seems to be far from a new cri- sis. But it’s too late for him to change now – he’s hooked.
“Being a Director of Photography is a really interesting job,” he adds. “It’s a job that you live, and in all the years I’ve been doing it, I find I love it now as much as I ever did.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
PORTENTS FOF WAR
or a 23-year-old, director James Rogan has an impres- sively diverse CV. He has already directed a feature, Dead Bolt Dead, while a variety
of short film and documentary sub- jects attest to his eclectic tastes. He has even dabbled in the dark arts of cinematography.
Rogan will, presumably, have been one of the few Oxford University stu- dents to have their first full year marked by their debut feature playing at the Cannes Film Festival.
He is even more rare in filmmaking circles, taking time off from his career to complete his education, gaining a First Class Honours degree in English literature, followed by the award of a Fulbright Scholarship to the Tisch School of Arts in New York.
But it doesn’t seem to have held him back. On the contrary the love of litera- ture and film find cheerful communion in his latest short, The Open Doors.
“I was looking to adapt a short story,” he explains. “I adapted two at the same time, one a Nabokov and this one
by ‘Saki’. Both appealed to me, but both were completely different, the Nabokov would have been have been contempo- rary and probably shot digitally.
“The more I looked at it the more I thought the ‘Saki’ story and the script that I’d done from it would really work. Shorts tend to be quite showy and style orientated, but The Open Doors is quite classically shot
and narrative based. In the end it’s all about the story.
“After I’d
done the adap-
tation and
decided to
make this one
it,Ididabitof
research and
found out that
‘Saki’ himself
died during The First World War, so the tale of men going off to shoot and never coming back is incredibly prophetic.”
Recounting the ghostly story that a mischievous teenager spins to a nervy visitor, the plot certainly has portents of the war that was to come.
“What the young girl’s saying is what will happen to the men in the story in a couple of years time. But when ‘Saki’ wrote it he didn’t realise that was what was going to happen to him. He ended up drowning in a muddy ditch. All this isn’t in the film, but it informs it, and for me it was really interesting to have that level of background to it.”
Boasting a fine cast headed by Cherie Lunghi and Michael Sheen, The Open Doors may yet live up to its title in the career of its director. For his part Rogan is quick to praise the efforts of his producer, Kate McCullagh, and, of course, his DP John Daly.
“I watched Persuasion and thought it looked brilliant,” Rogan explains. “I’d also seen Essex Boys which was quite different but it was also very nicely shot. John’s quite softly spoken, and seems very low key, and that appealed to me as well.
“He had some really good inci- sive ideas, and he got right on top of
the script. He’d bounce these ideas around, and as you kind of mull through the stuff we’d find what worked. We shot listed it completely beforehand, and then when we arrived on
set I didn’t really speak to John that much about the set up.
“He’d give me the viewfinder, we’d check the shot and discuss it. But it’s an amazing thing when you work with a DP like John. You just look at what he’s done, say that’s great and move on. He’s got a great eye, and he obvi- ously lights really well.
“John and I both agreed that the look of the film should be stately, with romantic compositions. Beautiful framing and lighting rather than heavy use of quick tracks and stuff like that. In the end, it’s about achieving a dynamic in the camerawork without overdo- ing it.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
The Open Doors was originated on 35mm Fujicolor F-250D 8562 Motion Picture Negative
JOHN DALY BSC
“It’s always the same criteria – if it’s a project I find interesting, and I think there’s something I can add to it with
my photography, then I’ll do it.”
Photos above: On the set of The Open Doors l-r: Ian Mussel (Grip), Billy Edwards (Props Master), Derrick Peters (Clapper-Loader), Adam Morris (1st AD), John Daly BSC and seated, Director James Rogan; Michael Sheen as Framton Nuttel; Cherie Lunghi as Mrs Sappleton; John Daly (right) on the set of Persuasion; Inset: Charlotte Ritchie as Vera in The Open Doors
16 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video