Chris Menges - Cinematographer

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

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

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2021

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

EPISODE 105 - CHRIS MENGES - Cinematographer

Teams Deakins speaks with the talented cinematographer, Chris Menges (MICHAEL COLLINS, THE KILLING FIELDS, KES). We talk at length about his start in documentaries and what you learn from shooting documentaries - learning to force the image, working in impossible situations, looking and noticing light and making sure you get the shot. He also shares his experiences of working with director Ken Loach and the rules that they set as well as working on The Empire Strikes Back, The Killing Fields, and Waiting for the Barbarians. Chris talks about directing “A World Apart”, the difficult transition back to DP work after directing and covers the subject of adapting books to screen and why it doesn’t always work. A fascinating conversation with a visual master!

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
0:11.5	James Deakin's often joined in the conversation by a guest. It's very informal and we never
0:18.0	know where it will go. We're connecting through Zoom, so bear that in mind when you hear
0:23.2	the audio. If you'd like to submit a question or topic, please do so by emailing pod.pod at
0:31.9	rogerdeakin's.com. This episode of the Team Deakin's podcast supported by company 3, the world's
0:40.5	leading post-production group dedicated to collaborating with both emerging and established filmmakers.
0:46.7	Today we're joined by a brilliant cinematographer. His credits are too many to completely list, but a few
0:55.3	of them are the Killing Fields, the Mission, Michael Collins, the Boxer, and extremely loud and
1:01.6	incredibly close. He's also directed five films. We're really pleased to have Chris Menjis with us
1:08.2	today. Chris, thank you for doing this. I welcome. Thank you. We'd like to start with our
1:16.3	question of how did you get to where you are now. What was your path? Did you go down another
1:21.2	path first or did you always know you wanted to do this? I left school at 16 and my interests really
1:28.8	were the theatre and the cinema and I come from a musical family. Anyhow, cut the long story short.
1:39.5	When I was about 16, we noticed, my father pointed it out to me first, but we noticed in
1:47.6	Grandfell flat in Belso's Park Gardens, there were a lot of 35 mill trims hanging in the
1:53.9	bin in the window. I had been desperately trying to get an apprenticeship with the BBC. I went
2:04.0	for three boards over two years and I failed every one of the boards. Then I applied to various
2:16.8	like the Shell Film Corporation and industrial film units in Britain and I didn't have an
2:24.7	e-luck like I didn't have any luck at the BBC in the trainee programme. Anyhow, so kind of
2:33.5	in desperation, my dad said, why don't you go and so I did. The person who lived in that flat
2:43.9	apartment in Belso's Park Gardens was a man called Alan Forbes. Alan Forbes offered me a job
2:54.4	with a five-sheeling pay rise on the salary I was getting at the time at Jo Lan's Tea House
	...

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