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Camerimage is the largest festival of cinematographers in the world but all the talk leading into the show last week was about the festival director’s remarks that the work of female filmmakers was devaluing the craft.
The words of Marek Żydowicz, who founded the festival 32
years ago, were laid out in black and white in an opinion piece in which he
argued that the movement to include works by women filmmakers had gone too far.
“Can we sacrifice works and artists with outstanding
artistic achievements solely to make room for mediocre film productions?” he
wrote.
Naturally, there was huge push back from those attending –
with opening night honouree director Steve McQueen deciding to vote with his
feet and stay home.
Cate Blanchett, who is jury chair of this year’s Camerimage
main competition, said, “We’re all part of the conversation. We can’t walk away
from it. We have to be part of the change.”
The optics weren’t good given that the festival had already
decided to premiere the western Rust on which cinematographer Halyna
Hutchins was fatally shot. Director Joel Souza, who was injured on the set, and
Bianca Cline the DP who finished the film, were in attendance.
The film’s closing credits begin with the words ‘For Halyna’,
followed by a question attributed to her ‘What can we do to make this better?’
That controversy was separate to the wider diversity and
inclusion debate that prompted a hastily convened public panel session.
Filmmakers including Oscar nominated cinematographers Mandy Walker ACS,
ASC (Elvis) and Rodrigo Prieto ASC AMC (Brokeback Mountain)
gave their response.
Walker admitted to encountering “a lot of conscious and
unconscious bias” earlier in her career and says her presence as head of
department on films is still a novelty. “I do find I’m still being judged,” she
said. “Like many women I always felt that I had to give 110 percent and had to
be brilliant to be otherwise, people would say, ‘women can’t do that.’”
Prieto, who shot Barbie for Greta Gerwig said that stories
with a female perspective have been “very, very illustrative to me, wonderful,
beautiful.” He said people in his position with a platform to make change have
a have a responsibility to increase diversity. “Casting is one opportunity for
that,” he said, “The key is to open your eyes and look around.”
Nadia Khairat Gomez winner of the Filmlight Colour Award for
a music video (Brodka x Igo, DP Mikolaj Syguda), bravely used her acceptance
speech to confront the elephant in the room: “In light of the misogynistic
article by the festival director, I feel it's really important to address the
gender imbalance in our industry. I stand here with gratitude for all the women
who paved the path with solidarity, for all female colourists and
cinematographers. I hope our male counterparts help foster a safe space for
everybody to shine in their talent irrespectively of gender and culture.”
Greg Fisher of Company 3 who took home the theatrical award
for Poor Things (DP Robbie Ryan BSC ISC) beating Dune 2, Mad Max
Furiosa and Saltburn, was one of the few men to publicly echoed
the sentiment: “It is incumbent on men in the industry to do more.”
Dozens of representatives from cinematographer organisations
including the BSC, ASC and Women in Cinematography met with Camerimage organisers
behind-closed-doors during the event.
The outcome of their meeting, described as being a
‘willingness to cooperate’ on diversity, inclusion and representation will
determine the changes the festival will need to make if it is to continue to
enjoy the patronage of the industry next year.
Shooting fish in a barrel
For the select exhibitors Camerimage is like shooting fish
in a barrel. No other event – not even one in L.A – captures quite as many
A-list DPs in a small space for informal conversations for so long.
“Apart from BSC Expo or CineGear where you’ve only got two days
and everyone comes to speak to speak to exhibitors all at once, this is the
biggest event for us. You can actually have in-depth conversations,” says Carey
Duffy, Director of Product Experiences, Cooke. “The flow through here of
international cinematographers producing major work is unique. There’s nowhere
else like it. So, it’s a great opportunity for manufacturers to engage with
them.”
Cooke had hired out space in a separate hotel away from the
exhibition to better concentrate guests attention. Its focus this year is on
full frame S8s and its range of 1:1 Full Frame Macros. It also continues to
educate the market about the /i metadata technology, an optics to post data
chain that was several years ahead of its time and is now coming into its own
as a means of producing VFX more cost effectively.
“I can’t definitively say that any conversation I have had
with a DP at this show has led to them using our lenses on a job but
Cameraimage is all about intangible benefits,” Duffy adds. “You might get half
a dozen jobs down the road and you might guess that being here is where it all
started.”
“It's not at all about selling equipment here,” agreed
Alexander Bscheidl, managing director of Hawk’s Paris and Morocco office. “It
is about having the time to get to know a DP and for them to take the time to
test and handle the kit.
The miniseries Shogun, screening at Camerimage, was
lensed by Chris Ross BSC with Hawk class‑X and Hawk V‑Lite anamorphics and
VantageOne T1 sphericals. Also shot on Hawk is Young Woman and
the Sea (DP Oscar Faura) which screened in competition here.
“DoPs want easy to use tools, simple technology that
produces nice skin tones and a cinematic look. They don't need lots of set up time,”
says Bscheidl. “Everything has to be ultra reliable.”
“Anamorphic was at one time a technical process, nothing
else. Now with cameras like the Sony Venice you just use anamorphic for
nostalgic, artistic storytelling reasons. Anamorphic produces a nostalgic look
on the digital sensors because the reality is that cameras are now sharp, too
glossy for the storytelling most DPs want. We have to work with [DoPs] to make
the image more realistic to life.”
Raucous sex comedy Anora, showing in competition at
Camerimage, was shot vérité style by Drew Daniels on Kodak 35mm in widescreen
anamorphic using vintage Lomo prime and zoom lenses supplemented with Orion
optics for low-light situations, such as the night-time car interior shots.
“Where else in the world are you going to get such a
concentration of people so dedicated people to the craft?” explained VP Russell
Bell of Atlas Lens’ third successive presence in Torun. “At IBC or NAB you’d
get a smattering of cinematographers, some resellers and satellite companies
but Camerimage is the most concentrated
most direct to consumer place where every interaction is high value. You can
have conversations that are in-depth and technical that you don't really get
elsewhere.”
The L.A-based vendor started out in 2016 offering the Orion
series of anamorphics designed to be more economical than a Hawke or a Cooke.
Its second range called Mercury is for full-frame cameras offering a 1.5
squeeze.
Canon, Fujifilm and ARRI which have been stalwart exhibitors
in past editions were not present this year citing budget pressures. Exhibitors
report that the festival organiser’s wanted double the fee they charge to
exhibit and some just walked away instead.
This is another pressure that Cameraimage organiser’s need
to consider if the festival is to evolve.
DP to director
Prieto was at the festival showing off his feature debut as
a director. It’s an adaptation for Netflix of the novel Pedro Páramo by Mexican writer
Juan Rulfo. After decades working with directors like Martin Scorsese (Killers
of the Flower Moon), Ben Affleck (Argo), Ang Lee (Brokeback
Mountain) and Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel), Prieto says he
felt ready.
“What I've learned working with [Scorsese et al] came in
handy. Just observing on set how directors work with actors and how different
actors respond to direction. What to say and, as importantly, what not to say
and how to give that space to actors.”
Prieto said he had wanted to photograph a film version of
the book for years. Having agreed to direct he felt the responsibility of doing
both roles was too great.
“That's where I asked Nico if he would shoot it with me.”
Nico Aguilar is co-DoP on the picture and has worked as camera-op and shot
second unit for Prieto on several occasions. “He was a great help because I
could still have my hand in the lighting which was very complicated because of
all the night scenes.”
Young talent
In a Leitz-sponsored session aimed at encouraging young
talent into the industry, compered by head of comms Seth Emmons, panellists
each had to eat chicken wings. The wings got progressively hotter with every
question. I kid you not, this could be a new format for conferences.
“You learn the most from your mistakes,” advised Kate Reid
BSC (Silo S2, Game of Thrones). “If there’s a big fxxk up then what led
to that chain of events? The hard lessons are the best ones. The biggest part
of being a DP is often about how you communicate with people. When something
hasn’t worked, it has usually not worked on a human level somewhere along the
line.”
Let’s hope the festival organiser’s learn this lesson too.
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