Deakins Will Mentor UCLA Film Students

[Tim Tyler]

Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC has been

named Kodak Cinematographer in Residence at the University of California, Los

Angeles (UCLA) School of Theater, Film and Television. Deakins will conduct a

series of screenings and workshops focusing on the role that cinematographers

play in the collaborative art of filmmaking. The annual residency program was

conceived by UCLA Professor William McDonald in 2000, and is sponsored by the

Kodak Student Filmmaker Program.

 

"This is an excellent opportunity for our students to gain insights into

the creative process of the world's most talented cinematographers," says

McDonald. "Roger Deakins is compiling an extraordinary body of work. His

peers have nominated him for five Oscars® over the past 10 years, and he is

still in the prime of his career."

 

Deakins' mentorship program launches with a public screening of THE MAN

WHO WASN'T THERE at 8 p.m. on April 25, at the James Bridges Theater

(310-206-8365), which is located on the northeast corner of UCLA's Westwood

campus near Sunset Blvd. and Hilgard Ave. Admission is free and open to the

public with parking available in Structure 3 for a $7 fee.

 

Deakins has earned both Oscar and American Society of Cinematographers

award nominations for his work on FARGO; KUNDUN; O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?; THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION and THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE. He claimed top honors in the ASC competition for the latter two. His body of work also includes such memorable feature films as SID AND NANCY, DEAD MAN WALKING, THE BIG

LEBOWSKI, THE HURRICANE, INTOLERABLE CRUELTY, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, A BEAUTIFUL MIND and THE VILLAGE. He recently completed principal

cinematography for JARHEAD in collaboration with director Sam Mendes.

 

THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE was a 2001 collaboration with filmmakers Ethan

and Joel Coen. The film is a character study that takes place in Santa Rosa,

California, during the 1950s. Billy Bob Thorton plays a barber who discovers

that his wife is engaged in an affair with her boss who is a department store

magnate. The barber decides to blackmail his wife's lover and invest the

money in a get-rich scheme proffered by one of his customers. His convoluted

scheme leads everyone involved on a downward spiral.

 

"When I first read the script, I thought that it was a dark, funny and

absurd story about a character whom I found both touching and sort of

haunting," Deakins says. "Joel and Ethan had been talking about their

black-and-white film for years. They wrote it as a black-and-white film

because of the period and the film noir-ish theme."

 

The problem was that there was a contractual commitment to distribute

videocassettes of THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE in color to overseas markets. How

do you release a film in both color and black and white? Deakins will answer

that and other questions following the screening.

 

Deakins came to the United States in 1986 with the film SID AND NANCY,

part of which was shot in New York and Los Angeles. BARTON FINK was his first

collaboration with the Coen brothers in 1991. That same year, he worked with

David Mamet on HOMICIDE and Michael Apted on THUNDERHEART. The following year he worked with John Sayles on PASSION FISH. Deakins moved to Los Angeles that year, though he still maintains "a quiet place to escape to" in his native Devon.

 

Chances are that future film historians will look back on 2000's O

BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? as a significant milestone in film history. It was

the first narrative feature produced for the cinema where a cinematographer

timed a film for continuity, and put finishing touches on the "look" in a

digital intermediate suite.

 

"I am looking forward to working with the students and faculty at UCLA,"

Deakins says. "I think all of us who have been lucky enough to succeed in

this industry have an obligation to help mentor the next generation of

filmmakers. Just as both Ozzie Morris and Dick Bush were so generous with

their time when I was a film student in London."

 

Previous participants in the Kodak Cinematographer in Residence program

were Dean Cundey, ASC; Allen Daviau, ASC; Conrad L. Hall, ASC; Owen Roizman, ASC and Laszlo Kovacs, ASC.