Roger Deakins Skyfall
Roger Deakins CBE, Renowned Cinematographer and Kingswear Resident
We’ve have been friends with Roger Deakins and his wife James for several years now and we regularly meet up for supper or head off to the pub. We can also be the recipient of early morning door knocks and random parcels of seabass, mackerel or pollock from Roger’s fishing trips in Torbay.
To the cognoscenti of the film world however, he is the go-to cinematographer for their latest projects and he has worked with luminaries such as the Coen Brothers, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, Javier Bardem and Daniel Craig. His film credits include The Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, The Big Lebowski, A Beautiful Mind and True Grit amongst many.
We love the tales of Hollywood he and James bring back to Kingswear and the 2 worlds seem a good distance apart. This year Roger received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to cinematography so we thought it would be worth an on the record chat about his parallel lives – with a bit of a foodie slant to satisfy our curiosity. Currently, Roger is in Los Angeles and scouting in Hawaii for his next project with Angelina Jolie (sorry - no more namedropping…or not much) so we caught up by email over the weekend.
MFD I know you love fishing Roger – tell us how that started and why you love it so much.
RD Yes, I grew up in Torquay and I remember my father and grandfather taking me fishing when I was very young. As a family, we always had something that would get us out on the water and I still keep a small boat, an Atlantic Fisher 550, in the harbor there. I like to go out in the very early morning, before the bay fills up with traffic, and I will often stay out all day. I fish for bass in the summer but I am not so fanatical as I was when I was younger. I am still fanatical enough not to give away my favourite fishing spots though. Fishing for me now is more about the experience of being out on the sea, watching the birds, feeling the wind and the weather than it is about the dinner.
MFD You keep coming back to Kingswear between work projects. What is it that keeps you coming back?
RD I have a home in Kingswear and I keep coming back because it really is a home rather than just a refuge. Although I have lived in the US for 20 odd years and I love living there, I consider I have a home in Devon as well.
MFD What are your childhood memories of the area and how has it changed since you were growing up here?
RD Like everywhere in the world, there are more people around, especially in the Torbay area, but Kingswear hasn’t changed so much. That’s part of its attraction but it’s also good that there are so many more facilities in the area now. There was no coastal path between Kingswear and Brixham when I was growing up and there was no Thai restaurant before Bristol. I was very lucky to have spent my childhood in such a wonderful location, fishing in the mornings before school and often long into the night to catch conger eels or bass off the rocks at Hope’s Nose, but not everything was so magical. Career opportunities seemed very limited and it was only because I rebelled somewhat, leaving Torquay for Art School, that I discovered photography and eventually realised that I could actually make a living creating images.
MFD You’ve worked all over the world making films in some pretty exciting locations. Where did you have your best and worst food?
RD Hunger has a lot to do with how ‘good’ your food is. After many months of eating ‘canteen’ food off the back of the caterers truck a Big Mac tastes very special.
I particularly remember a Vietnamese meal my wife and I had in Casablanca after spending 4 or 5 months eating tagines in the interior of Morocco. The tagine was great but not for 5 months. Maybe the Vietnamese restaurant wasn’t so good either but to us!
I once ate dog in a café in the Sudan. Again I had been filming in a remote region and was starved of any real meat. One moment the dog was yapping at my feet whilst we ordered off the menu in a dusty café in Southern Sudan and the next there was a yelp from the kitchen. About 15 minutes later our stew arrived! We never asked what the meat was but it tasted great!
The best food I have ever tasted was in Kingswear on Higher Contour Road. Manna from Devon! A shameless plug but I am quite serious!
MFD Thanks Roger – that was rather unexpected! Crashing on… You filmed one of adventurer John Ridgeway’s expeditions on a boat – did you have to get hands-on and cook in the galley as well?
RD Yes, I crewed and shot a documentary on board John Ridgeway’s yacht in the Whitbread Round the World Race of 1977/8. The boat had various sponsors including, what must have been, a manufacturer of dried foods. Their product was bad enough but the fact that the boat’s fiberglass water tanks hadn’t been cleaned properly made the resulting meals particularly hard to take. But the flying fish we managed to catch and fry down below tasted all the better as did that first meal when we got into port - magic!
My girlfriend asked me what I wanted to eat when we got back to Portsmouth at the end of our 9-month trip and I said just a pint of fresh milk. As we entered Portsmouth harbor, a motorboat came out to greet us carrying my pint of milk. Perfect!
MFD I’m sure most of us have an image of film set catering in huge buses at all times of the day and night. How does it work? Does food just become fuel when you’re on set or are you able to sit down and eat together?
RD Film catering can vary from something quite basic resembling a fast food café to a quite reasonable restaurant. I remember being on location in a remote region of Northern Kenya and our German caterer managed fresh lobster from Mombassa for our crew of something like100 people. Mostly, the camera crew has little down time so we eat on the run. It’s a case of food as fuel with little or no time to enjoy or to dislike it. Often films will shoot on without a lunch break and a day can last between 10 and 16 hours, sometimes even longer. An ability to eat on the run is essential.
MFD You split your time between Kingswear and LA –What do you miss from the one when you are in the other?
RD I have good friends both in LA and in Devon but, more than anything, my work is based in LA. I miss many things when I am in Devon and many things when I am in LA. I am lucky to live a life that combines the two. I miss the Devon countryside and the pace of life but I equally miss the energy of LA. I often miss the rain and the changes in the weather that are so much part of Devon life, but after three weeks or more of constant rain it is hard not to miss the Californian sun.
MFD What do you like to do when you’re here in Kingswear?
RD I always enjoy my morning run to Scabbacombe or e and I enjoy walking and exploring the countryside. The Pilchard Inn is a favorite or the Pig’s Nose at Prawle, but we love to find new pubs and restaurants.
For years we longed for a Thai restaurant to come to oMan Sands, regardless of the time of year or the weather. Within reason that is! Both my wifpen in Dartmouth but, only a few short years after it did and after it became our favourite eatery, it burnt down.
MFD You’ve become an American citizen – why did you decide to do that and has it changed how you see things here and in the States?
RD James, my wife, was born in the US and it seemed only natural that, after living in LA for 16 years and feeling at home in LA, I took citizenship. I also wanted the right to vote. I would never judge one country better than the other and that’s not why I took citizenship. It’s funny how two countries can be so different but so much the same.
MFD You’ve received lots of accolades and awards over the years, from BAFTAS to Oscar Nominations and just recently a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. How do you celebrate and how did you celebrate the CBE? Which awards provide the best party food?
RD I just take it as it comes. Everything is a life experience. I love being a cinematographer and, of course, I am flattered to have been awarded a CBE. I don’t think any cinematographer has had such an award and it is quite humbling to think about that. I do, however, prefer the anonymity of being a cinematographer and being behind the camera rather than in front of it.
Who does the best food? I think the Governors Ball, which is the Academy’s event after the Oscar award ceremony, has the best food but after sitting at the awards show for some hours the hunger pangs might blur one’s objectivity.
MFD What’s your favourite film to have worked on and why?
RD I have been incredibly lucky to work on a number of films, which have been both amazing experiences and also very happy experiences. My wife James is a script supervisor and we met on a film some 23 years ago in South Dakota. That turned out to be a very happy experience. We also worked together on a film that was directed my Martin Scorsese about the Dali Lama called ‘Kundun’. We shot in Morocco with a cast of Tibetans gathered from all parts of the globe. How lucky can one be?
I am surprised that ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ regularly appears towards the top of best film surveys. It was a hard shoot and I always believed the result would be a very good film. I just never thought people would think it that good!
MFD As a cinematographer, do you see yourself as a translator of the director’s view or can you add your own perspective?
RD It’s a little of both and the balance between the two varies depending on the director and the specific project. First and foremost I am a translator of the director’s ‘vision’ but, as the cinematographer, I have a great number of creative decisions to make that impact the success of the end result.
MFD Can you enjoy sitting down to watch a film or do you watch it with your critical cinematographer’s hat on? Is there a film out there you wish you had worked on; a book you’d like to turn into a film; an actor or director you’d like to work with (or never again)??...
RD I certainly can watch a film for what it is just as I can read a script without thinking about how I might photograph it. If I am watching a film and a little bored, I will then study the lighting or the way the camera moves, but only when the story has lost my interest. If I really like a film, I might watch it a second or third time and analyze why I think it works so well.
There are many films I would have liked to photograph but then that version would not be the same as the one that exists. Had I worked on it, I might not like the resulting film as much as the one that exists!
My taste in books, as with films, is quite dark so the chances of seeing some of my favorite books being made into films are limited. There is a wonderful science fiction story called ‘Mockingbird’ that I would love to see made into a film. I only hope that there is a great director to do it justice if it ever gets made.
As for directors I would like to work with again or those that I would not. Over the years, I have worked with the Coen brothers regularly and also with Sam Mendes so those relationships are obvious.
As for directors I would like never to work with again, I will plead the 5th!!
MFD Any thoughts on how your business is developing away from film and into digital? Do you have to keep changing your skills or get someone else into to work with you on it?
RD Even though the tools are changing very rapidly, the skill set is basically the same. A cinematographer’s skills are to do with visual storytelling, with framing and camera movement and with lighting and the use of colour. Digital technology can be complex to understand and it is important for any cinematographer to have a technical grasp of the process, but that process is not the be all and end all to what makes a well-photographed picture.
MFD You seem to have a collaborative style of working and have a regular team on films – how do you manage this?
RD I work with many of the same crew from film to film, not always but as much as I can. Not only have many of them become good friends but their familiarity with the way I like to work and my familiarity with them makes the whole process of working that much more efficient and fun. I think they enjoy working with me as much as I enjoy working with them.
MFD Which film would you like to remake from a visual point of view if you think you could improve it?
RD I think any film could be improved but each is a product of a particular time and circumstances.
I would be interested in making another version of ‘1984’. It’s not that I was not happy with the previous version, which is a really faithful adaptation of the book, just that the story is timeless and ever more relevant.
MFD Would you like to go into directing?
RD I had considered directing early in my career and also again some years ago. The truth is I enjoy my life and work as a cinematographer. I think it is what I do best and the skill set that I have to contribute.
MFD How do you see your future – fishing in the bay or keeping the cameras rolling?
RD I am not so eager to give up either!
And finally… a few quickfire questions –
Jeans or Black Tie? - Jeans
Beer or Wine? - Beer
Coffee or HerbalTea? – Coffee at work - Herbal tea when I am trying to be healthy.
Fish or Meat? – Fish of course!
Egg white omelette or a night out at the curry house? – An omelette these days, though a good curry was a staple when I lived in london.
Theatre or film? – Film.
Beach or city? - Beach
Pub or restaurant?- Pub
California sunshine or Devon drizzle? – That is the question! That’s just too hard!
Thanks Roger – give us a call when you’re next home and we’ll meet you down the pub.
First Published August 2013 By The Dart