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)
Posted on 22nd June, 2008 in media and tagged with absurdly long film titles, Christopher Doyle, cinematography, Coen Brothers, eiff, Rain Li, Roger Deakins, Seamus McGarvey, WALL-E.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival opened it’s box office today, so I spent my lunch booking my summer holiday. 22 films, fairly miscellaneous - I’m now going to spend the next month paranoid that I’ve made the wrong choices.
That’s partly a consequence of always trying to book at the earliest possible moment, in order to get tickets for the films I know I want to see (after the trauma of failing to see Serenity at the EIFF in 2005) - this year, the latest Pixar, WALL-E (Yay!). And unlike the last few years, booking online wasn’t even slightly traumatic (their server didn’t crash, and I got all the tickets I aimed for)
So, the 22 - actually 18 films, two of their animated short film collections and two real-live people events:
- 19/06/08, 17:15: McLaren Animation 1
- 19/06/08, 20:15: The Song of Sparrows
- 21/06/08, 15:00: Tiramisu
- 21/06/08, 18:45: Stone of Destiny
- 22/06/08, 14:00: Roger Deakins & Seamus McGarvey: In Conversation
- 22/06/08, 17:30: Standard Operating Procedure
- 22/06/08, 20:00: Strange Girls
- 23/06/08, 14:00: International Animation 1
- 23/06/08, 17:15: Bananaz
- 23/06/08, 19:15: Warsaw Dark
- 24/06/08, 19:00: The Surprise Movie
- 25/06/08, 17:30: Ray Harryhausen: In Person
- 25/06/08, 19:40: Dreams with Sharp Teeth
- 26/06/08, 15:00: Milky Way Liberation Front
- 26/06/08, 17:15: Sleep Dealer
- 26/06/08, 20:00: Idiots and Angels
- 27/06/08, 14:30: The Bride Wore Black
- 27/06/08, 17:15: Fear(s) of the Dark
- 27/06/08, 19:05: Encounters at the End of the World
- 28/06/08, 14:15: WALL-E
- 28/06/08, 16:45: The Fall
- 28/06/08, 21:30: Faintheart
Fewer than last year (there’s even a day I’m missing completely - but I’ve realised that I really can’t watch four films in one day). And the move from August to June means that, with my daily commute to the festival, I can’t see any of the later films, as the last train out is at 11.30pm. The only film that risks leaving me stranded in Edinburgh at midnight if the closing film, Faintheart, but it’s about battle re-enactors, so how could I resist?
I’ll go through my rationale for my choices nearer the time (or, not now), but did I mention WALL-E? Yay! (Pixar-induced glee…)
Posted on 9th May, 2008 in media and tagged with Bananaz, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, eiff, Encounters at the End of the World, Faintheart, Fear(s) of the Dark, gratuitous Joss Whedon reference, Idiots and Angels, International Animation, McLaren Animation, Milky Way Liberation Front, Pixar rocks, Ray Harryhausen, Roger Deakins, Seamus McGarvey, Sleep Dealer, Standard Operating Procedure, Stone of Destiny, Strange Girls, The Bride Wore Black, The Fall, The Song of Sparrows, The Surprise Movie, Tiramisu, WALL-E, Warsaw Dark, yay!.
