Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Cinematographer, knighted and known as the Master of Light, with two Oscars and five BAFTAs for films including The Shawshank Redemption and 1917.
On the island
Eight records
I really liked the track One of Us Cannot Be Wrong because it's just so wry and kind of amusing. And yeah, I love the lyrics. I mean I like stories and there's a real story behind this.
AqabaFavourite
I just love everything she does. So I've chosen a song called Aqaba. It's partly June's voice, it's partly that kind of idea of it's basically about Lawrence of Arabia and the battle of Aqaba, and there's something really haunting about it and the way she sings it.
I think when I first heard this album it really got to me 'cause it was kind of the anger and the feeling of the world falling apart. But it was so unconventional, the song, at the time, you know. I think it's really relevant today.
this song's called Soldier's Song and it's very much about a wife and kid back home and a soldier at war and their sort of dual realities.
it'd be also like teenage angst and the album... my wife James and I sometimes we would drive from LA to Wilmington in Carolina ... late in the evening we'd put our bat out of hell and turn the volume right up and it was yeah.
this is one of his I find most haunting probably but one also one of his most political songs. It parallels the war in Lebanon with the troubles in Ireland, but it's basically about this guy who wants to go to this island with his girlfriend and just pretend it none of it exists.
Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning
it's about a breakup, but it's about somebody waking up and trying to figure out the day that's full of things you don't want to face and the things you're looking forward to, like the coffee or whatever. And it's just the little things of life.
it's called Isn't It a Pity? But I'm choosing it sung by Nina Simone, who added her own words to it and expanded a song which is about people not getting on, basically, and hurting each other. But she expanded it to be a broader comment on the human condition really and capitalism, and it's a haunting, beautiful song.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:48How easy has it been to find your groove in leading huge teams on set, given that you describe yourself as a private, not very confident person?
But I've always felt most confident when I've had my eye to the eyepiece of a camera.
Presenter asks
2:27Your wife James once said that looking through the lens removes you from reality. Do you agree with that?
Yeah, you're escaping in a way. The reality is now through the lens it's slightly distanced maybe. Maybe you're a bit of a voyeur and the rest of the world disappears. You know, it is. There's a certain distance, I suppose, from what you're looking at.
Presenter asks
2:44How do you deal with nerves on set? You've said you feel terrified when you first walk onto a film set.
I do. It's new people and a new situation. Until I get comfortable with the people, I find it very difficult. But on the other hand, if you didn't feel stressed and you didn't feel that kind of pressure, then I don't think you'd be trying to do your best, you know. Yeah, 'cause that's what it's about. I want to feel in myself that I've done something that I feel is part of me, you know.
The keepsakes
The book
Herman Melville
Because I've read it a number of times and it still gives back. There's still more in it I can learn.
The luxury
I'd like to take my fishing tackle 'cause and I could go fishing, couldn't I? I'd be quite happy then.
Presenter asks
3:22To what extent are you thinking about the audience and your responsibility to them when you're working?
I'm not directly thinking of the audience at all. I'm thinking about the story and I'm thinking about the director's needs and wants for the story. And I kind of see around me a lot of images that are purely eye candy. They're not really servicing the story anymore. They're just kind of there because they're their own individual beauty or something.
Presenter asks
4:11Why do you prefer to operate the camera yourself rather than handing it over to an operator or director?
I just like the connection with what's in front of me. I like to be the one responsible and I'm the one to blame if I don't like the shot. I mean, and I can see the limitations of the lighting and I can work the lighting in balance with the frame and the camera move.
Presenter asks
4:47Does that mean you can't work with certain directors? Does it rule some people out?
Yeah, without mentioning names. I've had wonderful interviews and conversations with some directors and at the end we've said, yeah, well, it's not going to work, is it really?
“I've always felt most confident when I've had my eye to the eyepiece of a camera.”
“Yeah, you're escaping in a way. The reality is now through the lens it's slightly distanced maybe. Maybe you're a bit of a voyeur and the rest of the world disappears.”
“I think there's a danger in that, is get carried away in a sort of camera move or a certain kind of glossy sort of lighting. And that's not necessarily what you'd you know, is best for the story.”
“I certainly wasn't particularly stable as a kid, no. I was very angry, but it all went interiorly”
“I thought it was amazing that the what cinema could do, you know, what you could do with, yeah, fictional creation of images like that that give a sense of reality that was so powerful”