When talking with Simon he suggested I try and find an example of a director who also DOP's the same film or vice versa. I have not found many. I have found that a lot of the larger directors are credited as DOP for their contributions to Cinema 6 along with most of the other roles but not much else.
However I did find one who seems to do both roles on a lot of his films. Steven Soderbergh. He is credited as Cinematographer under the name Peter Andrews. The films he has taken both roles on are:
Magic Mike 2012
Haywire 2011
Contagion 2011
The informant 2009
The girlfriend Experience 2009
Che: Part One and Two 2008
Ocean's Thirteen 2007
The Good German 2006
Building No.7 (short) 2006
Bubble 2005/I
Ocean's Twelve 2004
Eros (segment "Equilibrium") 2004
K Street (TV Series) 2003
Solaris 2002
Full Frontal 2002
Ocean's Eleven 2001
Traffic 2000
Schizopolis (uncredited) 1996
The book 'Screencraft- Directing' by Mike Goodridge (RotoVision SA) 2002 has an interview with Steven Soderbergh in it.
Schizopolis seemed to have triggered his move into taking on both roles. This was an "intensly personal no-budget experiment"(pg 65).
Soderbergh names a documentary film-maker Michael McCallum as a sort of mentor for his. "He had definitive ideas about standards of quality and artistic integrity which have so much to do with how I work on set today. I learned from him that there's a way to get what you want without diminishing people." (pg 65)
"I assume that the audience are me and that if I follow my guy about what I like to see, then I'll be OK. You need to temper that with the fact that I have only made three films (Sex, Lies and Videotape, Erin Brockovich and Traffic) that have made a return on their investment!" (pg67)
"When I started, I used to do a lot of rehearsal with actors and now I hardly do any at all. The first four films are really hard for me to watch these days. They're so controlled and formal in their aesthetic in a way that I really reject now." (pg 67)
"The time to risk failure is when you're at your peak." (pg67)
--- In reference to Kafka and The Underneath ---
"The ones that don't work are often more important because you know why something doesn't work and you often don't know why something does." (pg 67)
"I sat on the set of that film [The Underneath], wondering whether I wanted to continue directing. That's how adrift I was. But towards the end of the shoot, I'd come up with a plan: to buy some second-hand gear and make a movie for nothing. While were in post, I started writing and collecting this equipment and getting 'Schizopolis' off the ground" pg 67
"It was like my second first film. It was designed to cleanse my palette, and has informed everything that has come since" pg 67
---- On directing actors ----
"If you saw me on set, you'd think I didn't really direct that much. I feel that my job is to create this series of funnels in descending order that lead actors to a place where they're going to give the performance that's best for the movie. It's like a series of hoops you're making sure they go through, which they're not entirely aware of because they are lined with velvet. Very quietly I am leading them to this place where I want them to end up. That works through having contact with the actors before we start shooting. Now all I do is just talk and get everyone out for a couple of dinners, and we end up talking about everything but the movie. At this point, I'm trying to find out how they want to be related to. So when we get to shoot, it's less about control and more about controlled sponaneity." pg 67
--- On set atmosphere ----
"There is a very positive atmosphere on my sets. People don't lose focus. It's very low-key and efficient. I know Michael Douglas liked it because we moved so fast. He spent most of his days acting, that's what actors like to do" pg67 + 70
---- On being a DOP And Director ----
"I think I will continue to D.P. my films. After Traffic, it will be really hard to go back. It would be like inserting someone into your place. I enjoy doing it and we move more quickly, but principally it gives me this feeling of intimacy, not only with the actors but also the film". Pg70
"For some directors, that's neither possible nor appropriate. I'm not saying everybody should do it, but it reached a point for me where I had to. It was a lengthy process over many years, starting with the fact that I shot my own short films."pg 70
"I've always watched my cinematographers very closely, and I was frustrated occasionally by the fact that their idea of what was enough was never in sync with mine. That said, as satisfying as I find it to shoot as well, I was unprepared for how relentless it is. You can not leave the set for 60 seconds. I'd underestimated the calue of saying to Ed Lachman or somebody, 'how long?'. And he'd say 15 minutes, and I'd go off and clear my head." pg 70
---- On keeping notes onset, knowing the script, film making and editing ----
"[On keeping notebooks on set] The notebooks are just notes, ideas- remember this, don't forget that- checklists asking myself certain questions when I'm blocking a scene, etc. I keep them because I'm not going to get to do the scene again and I might forget things. When I'ms shooting, I also read the script at least once a week, maybe twice, in full. I don't know how many times I've shot a scene and then come to realise that what I thought the scene was about in context was not really. Shooting a movie is like trying to build a house of cards on the deck of a speeding boat. You just can't keep it all on line all the time, and you need moments where you back off and remember the movie that you were thinking about six months ago. When I'm editing, I take a tape of the film home and watch it beginning to end two or three times a week and force myself to sit through it. That way, you get sick of it and you get very ruthless about losing scenes. You know that, when you reach a scene that you're dreading sitting through again, it needs to be dealt with. There's a reason that you're dreading it. You become your worst audience."Pg 73.
Soderbergh says he goes for a "run and gun" aesthetic. In Traffic he had to undo his Director's eye (always looking for good framing and symmetry) as he didn't want anything to be perfectly framed. He likes things to be close to life.
No comments:
Post a Comment