Alexander Nanau - Director/Cinematographer

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2021

⏱️ 85 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 140 - ALEXANDER NANAU - Director/Cinematographer

Team Deakins has the pleasure of having an in-depth conversation with documentary director (who also shoots!), Alexander Nanau (TOTO AND HIS SISTERS, COLLECTIVE). We start with the importance of the documentary subject not being aware of the camera and Alex he goes about making his subjects comfortable. We also look at how the direction of the documentary can change during filming and how important it is to allow that to happen. He gives examples of this in Collective and Toto and his Sisters. Alex shares how he gave his characters cameras during the filming of Toto and his Sisters which allowed him access to special, intimate footage that would not have been possible with him in the room. He also speaks of how a project gets set up and his desire to direct fiction now. A great conversation with a talented filmmaker!

RECOMMENDED EPISODE VIEWING: Toto and his Sisters, Collective

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to the Team Deakin's podcast. This podcast is a dialogue between Roger and James
0:10.5	Deakin's often joined in the conversation by a guest. It's very informal and we never
0:16.7	know where it will go. We're connecting through Zoom, so bear that in mind when you hear
0:21.8	the audio. If you'd like to submit a question or topic, please do so by emailing pod,
0:29.6	od at rogerdeakens.com. This episode is sponsored by Ari. More than just the manufacturer of the film
0:40.0	industry's top camera and lighting equipment, they are also the innovator behind cinematic lenses,
0:46.1	such as the master prime and signature prime lenses. Ari, truly cinematic. Today we're speaking
0:55.5	with someone who is both a talented cinematographer and director, as well as a writer, editor and producer.
1:01.6	He shot and directed the following films. Peter Zedeck and Zenny Art Perigant, the world
1:08.6	according to INB, Toto and Assisters and Collective, were pleased to welcome Alexander Nanau with us
1:16.0	today. Alexander, thank you. Welcome. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for having you.
1:22.1	Great. We'd like to start with asking you how you got to where you are today. Was this a path you
1:28.8	always thought you wanted to do? Did you go down another path first? And did you grow up in Romania?
1:36.3	Tell us all. Yeah, so I'll try to make it brief. I grew up in Romania until I was 10 and we left
1:46.7	the country because my mother is part of the German minority, so we basically had a whole family
1:54.4	in that emigrated to Germany. There was a very big German minority living in Romania since
2:01.2	a thousand years with their own villages and Romania basically looks, Transylvania looks basically
2:06.8	like Germany, as we imagine Germany in the Middle Ages. Yes, we went there once actually. We had
2:13.3	a trip to Transylvania. Oh, yeah. We went to Ziggazura. That's a great time. They're renovated.
2:23.6	Yeah, lovely. It looks quite brilliant. So we couldn't get out as the rest of the family because
2:30.7	somebody held us back in the family and so we emigrated basically 1990 in March 1990. So right
2:40.6	after the revolution, they finally approved, you know, we could leave the country. And so Romania was
	...

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