If we had to crown a popular king of cinematography there would be no doubt that the title would
go to Roger Deakins. His is a name known by every modern film student, ever in existence.
Throughout his career he’s resisted relying on any one stylized flourish or technique,
shooting a range of films in different genres and budget levels. His images are rich with
perfect levels of contrast and a meticulously moving camera.
If there’s one thing that binds together his style though it’s precision. His visuals
are carefully considered, planned and executed. Everything he does is deliberate, little is
accidental.
Today I’ll be analysing the cinematography of Roger Deakins by breaking down his philosophy
on visual storytelling and looking at the gear he uses to achieve this.
Deakins is an English cinematographer born in 1949. He studied painting from a young
age and would later develop a love for photography.
After graduating art school, Deakins began working in the film industry as a cameraman
on various documentaries as well as music videos for popular artists.
He began working on feature films in the early 1980s and has continued with this trajectory
ever since.
He’s worked with many famous directors over his career, such as Michael Radford, Martin
Scorcese, Ron Howard, Denis Villeneuve, Sam Mendes and of course his frequent collaborations
with The Coen Brothers, for whom, his cinematography largely helped define the look of their films.
While some might argue that Deakins has no specific style I’d strongly disagree. His
images always have a commonality of exactness to them.
Part of this comes from his approach to preparation that he puts into the films he works on.
He takes pre-production seriously and prefers to storyboard or, at least, create a full
shot list and lighting plan before arriving on set.
Notably, he’s used this approach in his work with the Coen Brothers who insist on
always storyboarding a film.
“After prep we don’t really have to talk that much about day-to-day stuff. If we discuss
anything, it’s the order of the shots rather than the shots themselves.”
In his films the camera is often moving, he likes slow dolly movement shot on sharp, medium
to wide lenses.
His photography, especially in wides, often utilises the notion of a frame within a frame
or shooting through foreground elements to give increased depth to the images.
He describes this idea in his work on No Country For Old Men, “I was always looking for those
opportunities — tracking through doorways and using windows and other scenic elements
to break up the wide frame.”
He prefers to shoot with a single camera setup whenever possible, rarely using multiple cameras
unless he has to.
This allows him more control over each frame. Shooting with a single camera means he doesn’t
ever have to compromise on camera position or lens choice.
Likewise, his lighting also employs the idea of creating dimension or depth. He enjoys
lighting with varying levels of contrast in different planes of the image.
This gives the illusion of reality to two dimensional images, making them appear more
three dimensional.
Although he always tries to get his lighting and the image perfect on set, Deakins is very
knowledgeable about the post production process and uses it to his advantage.
He utilises power windows in post, which are masks created for a certain area of the image
to adjust exposure.
When shooting digitally he creates a LUT, or Look Up Table, before shooting begins.
This LUT affects the colour of the images captured, giving them a ‘look’ and stands
in place of a colour grade until post production.
Doing this allows him to capture images on set that are as close to the final product,
colour wise, as possible.
He’s shot on both film and digitally, choosing his medium depending on the project. Ultimately
though, his focus is always on the story, and how the elements placed in frame and how
they’re covered by the cinematography, affect the audience.
“There’s too much obsession these days about digital [vs] film…it’s becoming
so technically-orientated, and that’s just distracting from what’s actually being put
in front of the lens.”
In an interview with director Denis Villeneuve, he joked that “Roger could shoot a movie
with a shoe and it would look great.”
Although it’s a funny sentiment, the gear Deakins chooses to use in fact, has a large
impact on the look of his films.
He likes to use primes over zoom lenses claiming that “in general I don’t like to use zoom
lenses unless there’s a very specific reason for it.” He favours shooting on mid to wide
lenses such as 32mm, 35mm and 40mm lenses. His choice of lenses has remained consistent
over the years.
In general he likes a clean image: sharp lenses that don’t distort or flare too much. For
that reason he regularly shoots on Arri/Zeiss Master Primes. He also likes the Cooke S4s.
Recently, on 1917, he shot with the new Arri Signature Primes, namely the 35mm and 40mm,
which he now favours for shooting large format.
Occasionally he’ll use strange lenses to get a specific look such as the Frankenstein
lens used to shoot parts of Jesse James. To achieve a dreamlike vignette the rental house
custom built him a lens they called ‘the Deakinizer’ where glass from old wide angle
lenses were mounted to the front of an Arri Macro.
He likes shooting spherical over shooting anamorphic, claiming ““I prefer Super
35 because it allows you to use short focal-length lenses. I also like the scale of that format
— the intimacy”.
Even for films that require an anamorphic 2.40:1 aspect ratio, such as No Country For
Old Men, he prefers to shoot with spherical lenses and then crop the image in post to
get to the desired format.
Deakins has been a lifelong Arri fan and user of the Arri system. He’s shot on film cameras
such as the Arri535B and the Arricam LT. Digitally he’s used the Alexa XT and recently the
Mini LF.
He’s experimented with many different lighting packages over the years, from tungsten to
recent LED technology, and uses whatever lighting source is necessary to get the desired effect.
He’s used HMIs such as 18Ks or 12Ks, tungsten lighting like old Maxi Brutes, Fluorescent
fixtures like Kino Flos or LEDs such as the Arri SkyPanel.
He often favours bouncing light using muslin or a white or silver poly board over lighting
directly.
One lighting technique he’s employed throughout his career when lighting large spaces for
night interiors is to use light rings. This is where light fixtures are arranged in a
circle and rigged to the ceiling, pointing down, to provide an even spread of ambient
light over large spaces.
On Blade Runner his gaffer erected an enormous light ring comprising of 256 300-Watt Arri
tungsten Fresnels to provide ambience to the set. He then hit a pool of water on the set
directly with a 10K Fresnel source. This made light bounce off the water’s surface and
created the rippling light affect that we see in the scene. The warm colour temperature
of tungsten lights gave the scene its yellow glow.
Deakins likes creating contrast layers. By lighting with different strengths of light
in different areas, such as a bright foreground, a dark middle ground, and a light background,
the light is layered which gives the scene a greater sense of depth.
He prefers to operate the camera himself. “I come from a documentary background, so
I’m used to working instinctively. If an actor is doing something that was unexpected,
then it’s the operator who has to make that shot work.”
His traditional style of camera movement is with an Aerocrane on a dolly. This is a 14’
jib arm with a Powerpod remote head, which he operates on wheels. He favours the versatility
it provides in finding the exact right angle for a shot as it allows him to easily move
the camera on any axis he desires quickly and easily.
He’s employed a variety of grip rigs over the years to move his camera, from technocranes
to the new Arri Trinity, which gives a more stabilised, dolly-like feel, to camera movement,
similar to that from a Steadicam.
For someone who praises the virtue of story at the expense of being overly technical,
Deakins still remains an extremely technically knowledgeable DOP; someone who is aware of
both old and new technology and how he can use that technology to his advantage.
This practical knowledge combined with his philosophy on creating precise images motivated
by storytelling, equate to his mastery of cinematography.
Since he was a boy he’s been creating images; whether with paint, through photography, or
with digital cinema cameras.
It’s this lifetime practice of his craft that has shaped him into one of the greatest
cinematographers of all time.
Thanks for watching this video on Roger Deakins. As always, liking and subscribing would definitely
help with the growth of the channel.
I’d be interested to hear if you have any other thoughts on his style or have suggestions
for future cinematographers you’d like me to cover. Thanks for watching and goodbye.