John
Seale (centre) working on the 1971-72 TV series Barrier Reef. Photo: Paul
Butler
The
Sydney Morning Herald reports
The
adaptability of local cinematographers has won them much acclaim, writes Garry
Maddox.
John Seale is excited about shooting the long-awaited Mad Max: Fury Road in
Namibia. "This one I swear won't disappoint," says the Oscar-winning
cinematographer of The
English Patient, Witness,
Rain Man and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's
Stone. "It's going to be a very deep and meaningful film as
well as an astonishing action film. [Director] George Miller has got an amazing
concept of an apocalyptic world and the people who live in it."
Shooting in an African nation with virtually no film industry is
the latest challenge for the Australian director of photography. Miller was
forced to head overseas for a post-apocalyptic landscape when rain made the
desert bloom around Broken Hill.
Seale says most of the production support for the fourth Mad Max will come from
Cape Town. All the vehicles will be shipped from Sydney. "We've already
been into Namibia once on a survey and all the trucks are there with mechanics
and panel-beaters shaping them to George's specifications," he says.
The shoot is scheduled to last from July until Christmas, with Tom
Hardy taking over the lead role.
"We've got a fair big prep there because there's so many
vehicles involved," Seale says. "We need to do of training with stuff
– cars and cameras – and get that all in the mix to get what George
wants."
Similar challenges have become familiar for Australian
cinematographers. As recorded in Martha Ansara's new book The Shadowcatchers: A History of
Australian Cinematography, directors of photography have been
adapting to limited resources since the silent movie days. While shooting a
movie became a separate craft in other countries, the lack of drama production
meant Australian cameramen – and they were almost always men until recent
decades – continued to be all-round technicians and filmmakers.
The great Australian cinematographers
include Frank Hurley, who shot Antarctic expeditions with Mawson and
Shackleton; Damien Parer, who filmed the Kokoda campaign during World War II,
and war correspondents Neil Davis and David Brill. In Hollywood, the reputation
of Australian cinematographers is reflected in Oscar wins for Seale (The English Patient ),
Dean Semler (Dances with
Wolves ), Andrew Lesnie (The
Lord of the Rings ), Russell Boyd (Master and Commander ) and Dion Beebe (Memoirs of a Geisha ).
Ansara, who has drawn on thousands of photographs supplied by
members of the Australian Cinematographers Society, estimates up to 40
Australians are working on overseas movies, TV shows and commercials at any one
time. She believes their early work in multiple genres has helped their
careers.
"Everybody has worked in documentary," Ansara says.
"Almost everybody has worked in news until recent times. And more than
that, they had this rigorous training from people who had learned to work
without much equipment, or makeshift equipment.
"Then came the '70s and this cultural confidence – people
were quite daring because there wasn't any tradition, especially in drama, to
hold them back. Also, they were quite rebellious anyway."
An example of such resourcefulness: Semler and his crew created a
device from two torpedo nose cones, called the Ned Kelly, to shoot stunt scenes
in the first Mad Max.
"They cut a slit in it and put it in a tyre tilted at the right angle with
a camera in it for some of the really dangerous shots where nobody could be in
the road," Ansara says.
In the 1920s, Reg Edwards saw a crane shot in an overseas film and
improvised his own.
"They got a plank and put it in the fork of a tree,"
Ansara says. "The cameraman sat on the end of the plank, somebody pushed
down on the other end and they had a crane shot."
Seale, who began his career at the ABC, believes the Australian
attitude of "let's give anything
a go" has contributed to the international success of its
cinematographers.
"I can remember doing dolly shots in an apple box – a great
big wooden box – being pulled along a plank that was lubricated with the lunch
olive oil."
Seale believes the Namibian desert will be perfect for Fury Road. "Namibia
hasn't got red earth, of course, but there's just nothing there – not a blade
of grass for hundreds of kilometres, thousands of kilometres.
"It's very sad George has had to bail out of Australia but
that's the movie industry."
The Shadowcatchers: A History of Australian Cinematography
(Australian Cinematographers Society, $66) is out today. Details at
shadowcatchers.com.au.
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