Cinematographers everywhere
Roger Deakins & Seamus McGarvey: In Conversation - I should really have been taking notes, but we’ve already established this isn’t a good idea in the dark. Two cinematographers (they’re the people who ensure that films look good - McGarvey lately in Atonement, Deakins for the vast majority of the Coen brothers’ films, as well as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford).
It was mostly about Roger Deakins - McGarvey neatly positioning himself as the interviewer, having persuaded Deakins to come to the Festival. Not a natural raconteur, but a nice balance of story and bewildering technical talk.
Well, not exactly bewildering - there was a certain emphasis on making it sound incredibly simple. Instinct, intuition - just so long as you already have a grasp of the technical side (Deakins has a website were he apparently answers all enquiries: http://www.rogerdeakins.com/). But they also commented on how subjective it can be (’How black is black?’ - particularly pertinent to a film like The Assassination of Jesse James, where the gorgeous Blue Cut train robbery sequence was shot with hardly any light at all - having set the lights up, Deakins then decided not to use them - the result is stunning (couldn’t find a clip of it, unfortunately)).
Encouraging to see that he still finds new things to try out, new things to interest and challenge him. Also interesting to know how far he’s embraced upcoming technology (like the digital grading used in the Coens’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?), and although not convinced by some, keeping an open mind. HD was mentioned in the questions - apparently HD cameras only have electronic viewfinders, which, to someone like Deakins who also operates the camera, is something of an anathema. He pointed out that very often he’s seeing things through the viewfinder that nobody else sees until it’s up on the big screen (he mentioned Tommy Lee Jones at this point, Jones being very much the minimalist actor - well, in No Country, anyway).
(Cinematography fan girl aside: I was sitting just along from Christopher Doyle (and his cinematographer Rain Li) :)
I took photos, but they were distinctly ‘experimental’, so here’s a link to photos on the EIFF website.
(Animation fan girl aside: Apparently Deakins was a consultant on WALL-E)
I saw:
- 22/06/08, 2pm: Roger Deakins & Seamus McGarvey: In Conversation (Cineworld 2)
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