REFLECTIONS: ON CINEMATOGRAPHY - written by Roger Deakins

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

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

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 166 - Reflections: On Cinematography - written by Roger Deakins

In this special "Turning the Tables" episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, cinematographer Roberto Schaefer (Season 1, Episode 162) returns to lead us in a conversation about Roger's new memoir, Reflections: On Cinematography. In the book, Roger tells the story of his life from his childhood in rural, seaside England to the present day, and he reveals the reasoning behind many of the creative and practical decisions of numerous projects, from his early documentary work and music videos to films such as 1984, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, and 1917. In our conversation with Roberto, he asks why Roger decided to write it in the first place, and Roger shares what his ultimate intent was when putting it together. Reflections also features unseen photographs, sketches, and diagrams from Roger's personal archive, and he reflects on the process of picking and choosing which memories and films to write about. This episode will offer a small sample of what to expect in the full book, so if you like what you hear, you can place a pre-order after listening.

Reflections: On Cinematography will be available on November 11, 2025 in the United States and Canada, and it will later be available in the UK on February 12, 2026. Pre-order information can be found at this link.

Books ordered through the ASC store will be shipped globally while supplies last.

This episode is sponsored by Sandstorm & Aputure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to season two of the Team Deacons podcast, a collection of informal conversations between Roger and James Deacons and a guest.
0:13.7	We never know where the conversation will take us, so listen in and see where it goes.
0:21.4	This episode is sponsored by Sandstorm, the Technodali specialist now based at Ealing Studios in London.
0:30.8	The Technodali is a fully repeatable camera crane and motion control in one, allowing cinematographers to hand craft a shot,
0:39.6	and then repeat it instantly and frame accurately for visual effects.
0:45.2	Find them on Instagram and YouTube at Sandstorm underscore films.
0:54.1	This episode is sponsored by Aperture and its new Storm. films.
1:02.3	This episode is sponsored by Aperture and its new Storm XT52, the industry's most powerful LED point source light.
1:04.8	Brighter than a 6K HMI empowered by Aperture's revolutionary Blair light engine,
1:14.9	the Storm XT-52 is both a tunable white light and also the brightest ever adjustable color LED.
1:19.4	Storm XT-52, unrivaled output, only from Aperture.
1:29.0	Today we have another Turning the Table episode, where we get asked the questions.
1:35.4	The topic will be Roger's new book, Reflections on Cinematography.
1:41.3	Asking the questions will be cinematographer Roberto Schaefer. His credits include Monsters Ball, Finding Neverland, and Quantum of Salas.
1:52.0	Roberto, thank you for doing this. We're really pleased. If we have to be grilled by someone, let it be you. Yeah. I'm honored. Believe me, this is wonderful.
2:02.7	So I've been combing through the book for days. It's truly an amazing tome, besides all the technical
2:10.5	facts, which I don't understand how you remember all that stuff. And I want to know,
2:16.1	did you keep journals? Do you have diaries while you were shooting while you were doing all this?
2:22.2	Who has a time for that?
2:23.7	I know.
2:24.6	I have none.
2:25.9	I mean, it's all done off memory, so I think it's probably not everything.
	...

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