Page 9 - Fujifilm Exposure_28 Michael Winner_ok

tant, on 60 Minutes at CBS, where I learned an awful lot. I was going around the world assisting and shoot- ing, being responsible for 45 boxes of 16mm equipment and shooting second unit as well. I’d get sent off to do little bits and pieces, and I’d do second camera on all the interviews and I guess that was the first time I started shooting on film.”
Serendipity struck again, for while Melman had always been a film fan he had never set out with the intention of becoming a cinematographer. But once the bug bit, it bit deep and he became determined to work his way through to become a fully- fledged DP.
“I went right back to the bottom. In five years I must have shot 300 music videos, everyone from Neneh Cherry to Tina Turner, from Radiohead to Blur. Then I did five
years of commercials, working with people like Laurence and Steve Reeves. I got sent quite a lot of scripts along the way to do feature films, but most of them just weren’t very good.”
The Libertine was, though, the right film at precisely the right time to entice 40-year-old Melman on board.
“I always felt that it would have to be something that I really wanted to do. When Laurence secured that script, and then we learnt that John Malkovich was going to play Charles II, and that Johnny Depp was going to Rochester... well, how perfect was that?”
Perfection might have seemed a little more elusive during the gruelling shoot. Or just before it, when funding problems meant a frantic switch of base from Bray Studios to the Isle of Man. On a small budget the film was finished a day early, testament to cast
and crew pulling together to get it done, and make it as distinctive as its leading character.
“Having said all that about it being quite grungy,” says Melman, “it’s going to be a very beautiful film in its own different way. The beauty comes out of the dirt and the smoke. We wanted to create the sort of atmos- phere that you could almost smell. We worked with quite a narrow palette of colours and all of our sets, shots and wardrobe were designed around it.
“We worked with a combination of filters in antique suede, jade green and storm blue. Combinations of those, so we were also in a muted, dirty zone. Even when we were inside the theatre, we lit everything with candles pretty much. We were burn- ing thousands of candles. We had massive chandeliers, and there was
wax dripping on the actors, and we were using green filters in there to take away the warmth from the can- dles and put a kind of green pallor into the flesh tones.”
The enthusiasm with which he speaks of this latest project sug- gests that Melman’s first film will not be his last. “I’ve had a fantastic run,” he adds, with a smile, “I’ve been very lucky with work.” And the harder he works, it seems, the lucki- er he gets. ■ ANWAR BRETT
The Libertine was originated on 35mm Fujicolor Reala 500D 8592, F-500 8572, F-250D 8562 and F-64D 8522. It will be released in the autumn.
Photos previous page: Alex Melman on the set and above scenes from The Libertine starring Johnny Depp and Samantha Morton
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 7