Dion Beebe ASC ACS - interview

British Cinematographer

Dion Beebe ASC ACS, a trailblazing cinematographer from the Australian New Wave, blends bold artistry and cutting-edge technology across Hollywood, indie and musical cinema.

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Emerging from the Australian New Wave, Dion Beebe ASC ACS quickly made his mark on diverse Antipodean and Hollywood projects, earning an Oscar and a reputation for innovation. Born in Brisbane in 1968 and raised in Cape Town, he had no family filmmaking background; his earliest film memory was John Boorman’s unusual Zardoz (1974). 

“We used to screen movies in our lounge and talk about them afterwards and after Zardoz I remember thinking ‘What the hell?’” 

Aged 11 his mind was tripped by seeing Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers. “I walked out of the cinema feeling slightly different. I was shattered. For the first time, I had a sense of the power of cinema beyond entertainment.” 

He noted the work of Sven Nykvist ASC FSF, “in terms of how you can affect people with a camera beyond making them just laugh or cry” and gradually his attention turned from amateur stills photography to professional cinematography. By the time Beebe joined the film program at AFTRS in Sydney he knew what he wanted to do. 

His ascent to DP was quick and accidental. “I was a terrible assistant,” he recalls. “I did a super low budget movie as a focus puller while at film school. On day one, I locked the keys to the equipment in the van. The cinematographer was very kind and forgiving but the whole experience made me realise that assisting was not right for me and I needed to focus on shooting.” 
 
Two shorts he shot, including Hang Up (Cannes, 1990), caught attention and led to music video work after film school. He’s since balanced promos for artists like INXS, Rihanna, Lana Del Rey, and Beyoncé, directing videos such as Des’ree’s ‘I’m Kissing You’ (1997). 

“In the early ‘90s music videos were still a very strong and fun genre with decent budgets, so I went straight into shooting them,” he says. 

Within a year he was approached by Alison MacLean to photograph her directorial feature debut Crush which was selected for competition at Cannes 1992. The New Zealand-set drama was Beebe’s first as DP. 

“I look back now and realise how fortunate I was to get that opportunity so early because it’s a real Catch-22. Producers may roll the dice on a new director or untried actors but when it comes to cinematographer they often don’t want to take a chance.” 

“Going to Cannes was a huge deal for me,” he says. “The traction and attention the film got gave me a platform to build on.” 

Half of his next 12 features between 1993-2001 were helmed by female directors: Margot Nash (Vacant Possession), Clara Law (Floating Life; The Goddess of 1967); Niki Caro (Memory & Desire); Jane Campion (Holy Smoke, and later, In The Cut); Gillian Armstrong (Charlotte Gray).  

“Whether there’s an approach or sensitivity to the work or whether it’s because I was working with strong female directors that brought me to the attention of other great female directors, it’s hard for me to connect the dots,” he says. “They were all willing to take a chance on a relatively unknown. To Alison I was a complete unknown. Even when Jane came with Holy Smoke, I was doing these one million dollar movies and she gave me a much bigger American-financed project with major stars (Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet).” 

In 2000 theatre director and choreographer Rob Marshall approached Beebe to make his screen adaptation of Broadway hit Chicago (2002) after seeing the cinematographer’s promo-laden showreel. They bonded over a shared love of cinema. 

“Rob’s pathway had been very similar to Bob Fosse’s in terms of getting into movies,” he relates. “We spoke about the musical genre, about Cabaret, how great musicals strive to take you on a journey similar to any other movie but using music. I’ve never forgotten that Rob said, ‘We have to earn the song’. If someone’s going to break into song you have to have earned that moment when words are no longer enough. With that in mind the question was how do you transition from dramatic sequences into song? Finding ways to use cinema language to help us in and out of these moments became the foundation of our creative conversations.” 

With Chicago, for instance, he used a flashlight into a spotlight and theatrical scrims to fade in and out to make the walls of a set disappear. It earned Beebe a first Oscar nomination. 

“On each musical we’ve made together since (Nine, Into The Woods, Mary Poppins Returns, The Little Mermaid) we are in pursuit of the right language that will help us earn the song each time.” 

Beebe learned from Marshall’s theatre background, while the director relied on Beebe’s technical expertise to realise their shared vision. Their peak collaboration was Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), featuring a John Williams score and Zhang Ziyi’s Snow Dance. The film earned six Oscar nominations, with Beebe winning one. 

“Both Rob and I felt [Geisha] should be told widescreen and I felt it important to shoot the full negative,” Beebe says. “I knew we were going to be using a foreground layering effect and that anamorphic 35 would allow focus to fall off to give us beautiful texture. There’s a lot of trust between us. In many ways we grew up together making movies.” 

Beebe is now in post following extensive “additional photography” on Michael, the Michael Jackson story, for Lionsgate and Antoine Fuqua. “We integrate a lot of music into the story but this is a little more formatted as a biopic [than a musical]. Everyone knew Michael as a genius musician and stage performer but Michael off stage is less known. He was a very complicated human being. His music permeates everything we do.” 

Selecting projects for creative reasons alone is a luxury that few cinematographers can afford but Beebe feels strongly that if he needs to connect with the story. “We’re trying to make a living, trying to build our portfolios or just trying to get experience by shooting but when I read a script it has to reach me in some way. If I can’t see the meaning behind a story then it’s harder for me to come on board. 

“Your career is going to be as much about the movies you choose to do as the movies you choose not to do,” he insists. “Whatever project you do it will be challenging. There will be things that don’t work. But that project will be associated with you for the rest of your career. You always have a choice.” 

DOUBLE VISION 

When working on 2019 sci-fi action Gemini Man, starring Will Smith, Beebe was given the responsibility by Skydance and Ang Lee to not only shoot native stereo 3D but in ultra-high frame rates.

“In one of our first meetings Ang said we are not ready for this format. Technologically we were premature perhaps but it’s the audience’s perception and response to HFR imagery that’s still trapped in 24 frames.   

“When I sat with Ang and watched the super bright laser projection in stereo running at 120 frames off material that we shot at 120 frames, it’s a different movie to one made at 24. You watch a close-up on a giant screen projected at 120 and every dilation, every twitch, every time the nostrils flare, is, I swear, a different emotional response. Seeing landscapes is like looking out of a window. For this enhanced experience we literally lift the veil on every trick in filmmaking and suddenly you’re completely exposed. The actor is exposed, the cinematographer is exposed, so is the stunt coordinator. Everything we hide behind in making movies is removed at 120 frame photography with 120 playback.” 

He laments that despite being able to shoot higher frame rates, the industry “constantly tries to emulate film. I understand that 24fps is the foundation of our sense of cinema but I firmly believe there is a place for HFR photography. We just need to figure out how to tell stories with it.” 

One only has to recall the reaction in certain quarters to using digital which Beebe experienced first-hand when he replaced Paul Cameron ASC on Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004). 
 
“From the moment I picked up a digital [Thomson Viper FilmStream] camera on Collateral a lot of people were saying this is broadcast television,” says Beebe, who won a Bafta for this work. “With digital on Collateral it was the pursuit of that night sky [interiors were shot on film]. The defining image is of palm trees silhouetted against the sodium glow of the city. It’s not something we were able to do prior to low-light digital photography. There’s an immediacy and clarity to the imagery that we associate with news or sports. Digital elicits a different response and directors like Fincher embraced that for what it is. The same idea plays into HFR photography.” 

Beebe shot Miami Vice (2006) for Mann, Iraqi war drama Rendition for Gavin Hood (2007) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) for Doug Liman, among several action-oriented movies. Each director brings a different approach to generating the energy necessary for big stunt sequences. 

“It’s a real task when you’re operating a big unit moving at the speed of a slow-moving freight train which is very hard to change track. Michael Mann is very deliberate. He dissects action. Doug brings a level of organised chaos to set. Michael Bay is a very unique filmmaker. The ‘Bayhem’ is real.” 

For Bay, Beebe shot 13 Hours (2016) about the real life Rorke’s Drift defence of an American embassy in Libya (one of several films on which his brother Damien has operated). 

“Michael brings an enormous amount of energy and an element of chaos on set where people aren’t anticipating or not quite understanding exactly where it’s going to take us. It’s deliberate and creates a heightened level of awareness. I credit Michael for the 360-degree sunset shot, moving around characters. That, and the high-octane energy, is a signature he’s brought to commercial cinema.” 

For Beebe a certain level of discomfort in the creative process is necessary “because under that stress we’ll find unexpected solutions.” He says, “I challenge myself every time I take on a project. I’ll look for a genre that I’ve not done before just to push me to think differently otherwise there’s a danger that we repeat ourselves, we fall back on comfort zones and end up in banality.” 

Consequently, his attitude to new technology is to be ready to jump in provided there’s a creative reason to do so. “AI is the next big conversation. We need to understand what it’s capable of and how to harness it. We may have been unable to project Gemini Man at the proper rate but I could see a reason to try. So long as the idea leads the conversation, we can find the technology to assist but when technology leads the creative then we need to pause.”