CBE, ASC, BSC
Oh and the show sank without a trace, I think there were only about three people still watching by the time we came to that battle!
I shot some DFN tests and said we can do dusk if we can can control every shot. Shoot the wides at magic hour and the close ups under silks etc…
I also said that if we could guarantee cloudy weather we might be able to make it work- but we were shooting in South Africa so there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in Cape Town that that would work.
In the the end, they put the red pen through the word dusk and made it day.
I would have loved to have shot it as written but given the scale and complexity of it – people fighting on chariots etc… it just wasn’t realistic.
But I can’t thank you enough for your message. It made me look like less of a failure.
I guess so much of the job is managing expectations.
Thanks Roger,
Just so you know, the last time you answered a question for me I had been asked to shoot a fifteen page battle with horses and chariots and five hundred extras- all at dusk, in three days.
I was able to say to the producers ‘You guys have heard of Roger Deakins, right? He says it can’t be done’.
You got me right out of jail.
Thanks again.