Our Two Favorite Cinematographers Speak - Part 1

Images courtesy of Anthony Dod Mantle

Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire

Julien Donkey-Boy

28 Days Later

Antichrist

Vice: First off, congratulations. You’ve had quite a year, what with Slumdog Millionaire and all the awards and accolades for that film.

Anthony Dod Mantle:

The Last King of Scotland

That sounds good. And you’ve been testing the metal detectors of the world, which is doing a service to all of us.

laughs

It’s been a couple of years since you actually shot Slumdog Millionaire. What did you do after that wrapped?

Antichrist

It has been getting some strong reactions. You’ve worked with a number of filmmakers who have created very provocative work, including Lars von Trier, of course. Is it fun to get those kinds of reactions when you challenge audiences?

Antichrist

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

You started working in film relatively late in your life. What took you toward filmmaking, and how did you get your start in cinematography?

Wow, you were an old film student.

Slumdog

Antichrist

You’ve worked around the world but have also spent many years living and working in Denmark. My sister has been doing some work in Denmark and says it’s an impossible language to learn and an even harder one to pronounce.

laughs

What are some of your initial concerns when starting a film?

The Beach

It’s remarkable that you were inspired to pursue photography by a trip to India so many years ago and then you did a major production in India. How was it to go back to make Slumdog Millionaire?

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

And I would imagine it’s especially tough shooting in some of the real-world locations used in that film.

Watching the film itself is a bit overwhelming on the senses. That comes across. What is the difference between shooting in a place like you described compared with some of the other films you’ve worked on that feel much more contained in a smaller venue?

laughs

Slumdog

Slumdog

There was much more chaos there than on a soundstage shoot.

The Last King of Scotland

You approach each location on its own terms. You mentioned the Dogme films a moment ago. With regard to working with a location, it was a very bold thing to restrict yourself to shooting without lights.

laughs

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)

Was choosing to use a video format necessary in order to pursue the idea of using only available light?

The whole idea of film and video is kind of confusing. Even though people are more and more aware of movies being shot on video, usually when you go into a theater you are still watching it projected on film. It’s kind of a strange transition that we’re still in the middle of negotiating.

That’s a great way to look at it.

There are a lot of options out there—a new camera every day, it seems.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

The original idea of cinema was a bunch of people in a theater, in a controlled environment, but there are so many ways now that people are watching media, whether it’s on their laptops or their phones or—

have

One of your best-known films is 28 Days Later. I’m sure it was a challenge to the production to essentially evacuate the streets of London.

Laughs

What was going through your mind when you were creating this epic moment and then capturing it on cheap consumer-level video? Were you thinking, “Why am I using this with this camera?”

laughs

Donkey-Boy

I just went back and watched the trailer for Julien Donkey-Boy on YouTube. You did some interesting experiments on both film stock and video cameras for that movie. Normally while watching a video on YouTube, you can count on losing a lot of the original quality. It can ruin things. But I noticed that for Julien Donkey-Boy it just adds another interesting layer to the images you created for that movie.

Julien Donkey-Boy

You might be one of the few Oscar-winning cinematographers who doesn’t mind seeing his work on YouTube.

laughs

Julien Donkey-Boy (1999)