It’s an intuitive reaction to what is front of you. That’s similar to features where you are working out how best to cover a scene. “The docs I made were generally unscripted and we would attempt to portray a situation, whether the aftermath of conflicts in Zimbabwe or Eritrea or more anthropological as truthfully as you can. “Certainly, on a feature film you can create a set and create the lighting and adapt what is in front of you to help tell a story in a more fictional way, but throughout my career I have used the techniques I learned through taking still photographs and making documentaries. ‘I like cinema to be like seeing a picture on a wall, as if you walked into a gallery and saw an Edvard Munch painting coming alive’
One might think there is quite a gap between ‘run and gun’ documentary realism and the designed, rehearsed and infinitely larger scale production of a dramatic feature but for Deakins the progression was natural. On graduation, he spent seven years travelling the world making documentaries. It was at Bath School of Art and Design, studying graphic design, that his passion for still photography took over and hastened a decision to enrol at the National Film and Television School. “If you can light and photograph the human face to bring out what’s within that person, you can do anything.”Ī natural painter who continues to sketch frequently while working out shot composition, Deakins has also been an avid photographer since childhood – indeed he might have become a photojournalist had his path not led to film school.
“I certainly think there is an obsession with technical abilities at the expense of creativity and substance,” he says. What stands out in a 46-year career spanning iconic films like Deadman Walking, The Shawshank Redemption, The Big Lebowski and Skyfall is Deakins’ grounding in the visual, rather than the technical aspects, of the role. Shawshank Redemption: Missed out on Best Cinematography Oscar to Legends of the Fall in 1994
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