Reflections: On Cinematography by Sir Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins isn’t a household name, but if you watch movies regularly, you’ve seen his work. The British cinematographer was a key crew member for The Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski and Skyfall. In his autobiographical Reflections on Cinematography, he recalls how his childhood love of drawing transferred to photography and finally to moving pictures.
Like many UK filmmakers who emerged in the late ‘70s, his early resume was built on documentaries, concert films (Van Morrison is a standout) and music videos. Deakins’ first big feature film, director Michael Radford’s 1984, where he helped “create a visual analogue for a joyless world defined by fear” as he puts it, led to an ongoing stream of work.
Reflections includes many brief expositions on the craft of filmmaking—camera lenses and placement, scouting for locations, film stock, light sources, even the wattage of particular bulbs. And yet, Deakins can’t be accused of being dry. Like the best directors he worked with, he’s a good storyteller.
Deakins shares many stories about his collaborators, especially Ethan and Joel Coen, with whom he made 11 pictures. He has preferred working methods but will bend to the needs of each project and has proven himself with period pieces (Mountains of the Moon), future worlds (Blade Runner 2049), cinematic fantasies (The Hudsucker Proxy) and naked realism (Dead Man Walking).
To be a good cinematographer is to be observant, and Reflections is full of observations about his directors, including their eyes for detail. While shooting Fargo, the Coens avoided sets that looked “too interesting” to maintain an atmosphere of heartland banality. He enjoyed working from the Coens’ detailed storyboards. “If anything,” he writes, preparation can make a cinematographer “more open to what happens on the set because you already know the essential elements that will make the scene work.” However, happy accidents are welcome. “When shooting a film, it’s hard to foretell what lies in its future,” he adds.
Reflections on Cinematography is published by Grand Central.
