Transcript
of Live Chat
with Phedon Papamichael, ASC
May 13, 2006
Moderator (May 13, 2006 9:56:02 AM)
Please hold on while we contact Phedon in Greece, where he is currently
shooting a film.
Moderator (May 13, 2006 10:04:30 AM)
We are ready to begin. Please send in your questions now.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:05:33 AM)
I am currently on the Greek islands and I extend my greetings to everyone
in the States and welcome you all to our online chat.
Moderator (May 13, 2006 10:05:50 AM)
Thank you, Phedon, for joining us in this chat from Greece. Can you
tell us where you are and a little about the project you are working
on there?
Moderator (May 13, 2006 10:07:30 AM)
Phedon is on a cell phone in Greece and we just lost contact. Please
hold on...
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:10:34 AM)
I'm on the island of Milos which is in the Aegean.. I'm directing a
commercial for Ouzo, the Greek national drink. I have a house in
Greece that I try to stay at as much as possible. I use
it as a base and ride my motorcycle, or boat, and I take pictures
around Europe..
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:11:29 AM)
I don't really work on a lot of commercials. I don't look for them..
This is one of my first gigs as cameraman/director for commercials,
but my primary passion is feature films. Right now I'm waiting for
a project, a Western, that starts shooting this fall.
Sam T. (May 13, 2006 10:11:54 AM)
Walk the Line got a lot of critical acclaim and publicity for its dramatic
portrayal of Johnny Cash and June Carter. Tell us about the intensity
of shooting that picture? What was it like working with the actors
and the director?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:13:17 AM)
It’s exciting whenever you have actors of that caliber. Joaquin
became Johnny Cash. He had an intensity about himself that affected
everybody on the crew. You pick up on that energy. It feels like you're
not doing fiction. You're doing a documentary on Cash. The energy transcends
to the cameraman and the director. It's about trying to capture that
feeling without interfering with the actor and letting them do their
thing. It was electrifying. Especially the prison scene where we had
extras playing the prisoners -- I'm sure for that scene they thought
they were prisoners in Folsom. Joaquin really set them off. It was
a great experience shooting that scene.
Sam T. (May 13, 2006 10:18:11 AM)
I loved Walk the Line. That had to be a really hard picture
on the actors because of the singing they had to do. I’m wondering
what you do in that type of situation to develop rapport with the actors
and try to help them get through each day… ad how was it to
shoot the singing on stage?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:20:57 AM)
We didn't really interrupt the performers in the
musical pieces. We would roll the entire song using multiple
cameras. The camera operators, Paul Sanchez and David Luckenbach, knew
roughly what we were getting. They had to react and stay out of each
other’s shots, and we try to cut as little as possible. Our goal
was not to tell the story from the audience’s point-of-
view, but to re-create what it must feel like to be on stage. We were
trying to get in their faces. The musical scenes are not like musical
interludes to the dramatic story, but function as an extension of the
drama. The interactions on stage play out like a dramatic scene. It's
not like we stopped the story and went to a music scene. A lot of the
emotions happened during musical performance. The actors fed off
each other like real performers.
Film Luver (May 13, 2006 10:21:58 AM)
Was the director there with you during those nine days when you doing
the DI on Walk the Line, and if so, how did that work?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:24:24 AM)
Jim wasn't there the whole time. I was basically going in with the
editor Mike McCusker... we had a pretty good idea what we wanted
to do and I would set one reel at a time. Usually, we would bring
Jim in and show him the movie playing with the sound. It was nice
to have him come in and take in the overall feeling. He would make
adjustments, like this feels too dark, or that needs more saturation.
We did the day in, day out detail work, using windows to deal with
different areas of the frame. He wasn't present for that. His comments
were sort of like a second step after the initial DI,
DI Fan (May 13, 2006 10:36:07 AM)
Could you tell us what it's like in Greece? How does the landscape
and environment influence your work?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:39:57 AM)
Greece is on the Mediterranean. It's a small country with only 9 million
people. It doesn't really have a strong film industry. There were
some internationally acclaimed directors -- Michael Cacoyannis
who directed Zorba the Greek, and Theodoros Angelopoulos
who won awards at Cannes and other international film festivals.
Other than that there's really not much, mostly TV work. My dream
was always to work occasionally over here. I am working on a script
that takes place in Greece. I'm hoping to get some time to work on
that next year.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:41:33 AM)
It's a subtropical country. The climate and vegetation are not that
unlike Southern California. The climate is almost identical,
but much less populated. You can drive for hours without encountering
another person. The countryside is thinly populated. Of the
9 million people in Greece, 5 million are in Athens. Once you get
out of Athens it's really beautiful. I'm on the mainland in a small
fishing harbor town. There are 5 fishing families that live here,
and that's about it. There's a lot of history, culture, antiquities
within a half an hour drive. We can go to Olympia, where the
original Olympic Games were held, to Sparta. There are a lot of historical
landmarks.
McBride (May 13, 2006 10:41:38 AM)
How is shooting overseas different from shooting in the United States?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:43:14 AM)
The similarities are become bigger. It used to be one of the fundamental
differences was that the director was the author without a committee
of producers involved in the development of a story or script. Once
I asked somebody if he had “director's cut”, and
he didn't even know what that was. They all get the director's cut.
The movie is very often developed on the scene. There is very little
theater space because they are flooded with the American product,
so it is difficult for independent projects to get financed
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:44:41 AM)
From the crew standpoint, I guess the difference is that the electricians
in Europe are the ones who set the lights, run the cable but they
are also responsible for the flags and cutting the light. A gaffer
runs the whole department. The grips only do cranes and dolly moves.
One grip member is almost part of the camera crew. He puts the camera
on the sticks, moves the camera -- in the States the first or second
assistant would move the camera. Since they've worked with
a lot of American productions over the last 20 years, if I say I
want to do more of an American system they can accommodate me.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:45:35 AM)
The crews are smaller and things do go a little slower. You have to
cut them some slack. Grips whose father or grandfather were grips
doesn't really exist here. They're quick in picking things up, but
the crews in America are a notch above the crews in Europe.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:46:11 AM)
You'd be hard pressed to find a career first assistant cameraman in
Europe. They're mostly younger, in a transitional period on the way
to becoming a cameraman. Focus pullers don't have the same experience
as they do in America.
Gilda (May 13, 2006 10:46:17 AM)
Phedon, I heard you were paid $100 a week to shoot medical videos at
UCLA when you first came to LA. Did they help your career? How did
your career proceed from there?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:48:28 AM)
[Laughs] They didn't help my career, I was just paying my rent and
there was no creativity involved. At the same time I was also shooting
shorts -I shot a graduate film at UCLA. That's when I met Alexander
Payne, who was the boom operator on that short. Then I shot for a
friend of mine, John Wentworth, … a film called Spud. It was 35mm
black and white.,.. that was my first 35mm experience. It
was a 1/2 hour piece that came out nicely. It won a best cinematography
award at the Cork Film Festival in Ireland.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:49:50 AM)
Slowly I assembled a reel with these various shorts, I was never getting
paid for any of these. Shortly afterwards, I got an introduction
to Roger Corman studios. I got my first second unit DP job, and it
really didn't stop from there. For 2 straight years I shot one film
after another. I met directors, and got my first feature --
they were all 15 day features. We would average 60 setups a
day. Within a 2 year span I did 7 or 8 features for Roger Corman.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:50:50 AM)
During that period I met many long-time friends who are still in the
film industry who I collaborated with for the last 2 decades, incluidng
Wally Pfister, Janusz Kaminski and Mauro Fiore -- they were basically
AFI students who would come and crew, and then went on to shoot their
own movies.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:50:58 AM)
We stayed friends since then.
Gilda (May 13, 2006 10:51:12 AM)
I have a question about those early Roger Corman films. It sounds like
you guys had a lot of freedom to experiment. Do you have an stories
you can tell us about experiments that worked and also any that went
awry? what were some of the important lessons you learned?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:53:48 AM)
We had a lot of creative freedom. As long as we included the two main
elements of those movies -- sex and violence. From a creative film-making
standpoint, we could tell the story as experimentally and stylized
as we wanted. We're talking the mid-80's. There were a lot of influences.
I was 25 or so and I was influenced by visually, for example, The
Last Emperor (Storaro). The next day we went back to our set
and made everything yellow and orange and used big sources, modeling
people from the side. When I sent my dailies report to the lab I
said make it look like the Last Emperor. We were having
fun and had more freedom than we would have had working on TV. TV
has achieved a much higher visual level in the last 5 years. Also
the structure of the Corman films were almost like a mini studio.
We got good lessons on having to shoot on a very tight schedule.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:54:43 AM)
We worked very fast and had to shoot on very little money, and had
to be very creative with the sets. When Roger had a spaceship
set, he would use it to shoot different spaceship movies. If he had
a castle set, he would shoot medieval movies. We got stuck with a
set that didn't really work with our movie, but we made things work
and got a lot of experience.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:56:10 AM)
We never really had any catastrophes happen -- there was no room for
error. I did a love story about a vampire and a stripper, and we
experimented with infrared film for the POV of the vampire. We had
no idea how to expose that correctly. Some tests looked great and
others looked bad. Some looked cool and others were blown out and
we never had time to fix any of that. We had had to always had to
move forward.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:56:37 AM)
I never went to film school so I credit Roger Corman for being my film
school. I experimented as much as I could and had the privilege of
getting paid for it and also on 35 mm. It was great.
PopArtMogul (May 13, 2006 10:56:42 AM)
Could you tell us what it was like to work with Alexander Payne on
Sideways? I remember being struck by the scenes in the clear, bright
California sun. What was it like filming a lead actor like Paul Giamatti
- who is talented, but maybe not the best looking actor? How do you
help to keep our eyes focused on him during the movie?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 10:57:46 AM)
Payne is a director who knows exactly what he wants. He has a style
-- he likes pictures to look real, he doesn't want cinematic tricks.
Most locations we shot were left untouched. Simplicity is a big word.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:00:26 AM)
Another word he likes to use is Banalite (from the French for banal).
He says it all the time, basically, keep it simple, keep it the way
it is. Obviously the set is run in a way that it interferes very
little with actor's performances. He doesn't allow make up touch
ups between takes. The lighting is simple, natural. On that particular
project we looked at a lot of films less as a reference for what
we were trying to do, but films that we like. He would show me Italian
comedies from the 50's and 60's, I would show him French new wave
movies and movies from the ‘70's like John Cassavetes, etc...
The set was a very intimate environment with the crew and actors.
We don’t have a video-village, only a small on-board monitor.
It doesn't feel like a studio picture, and we don't really shoot
long hours. We only shot exactly what he wanted.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:01:20 AM)
Paul (Giamatti) is one of the best actors I've ever worked with.
Whenever you have a performance that real, that true, it doesn't really
matter what he looks like. Anyway, I don't think he is unattractive.
gino (May 13, 2006 11:01:28 AM)
What directors and cinematographers have most influenced your work?
How?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:03:37 AM)
I grew up in Europe so my biggest influence was Jean-Luc Godard, in
particular a film called Contempt with Jack Palance, Brigitte
Bardot, Fritz Lang. His cinematographer, Raul Coutard, and other
cinematographers like Nestor Almendros, were big influences early
on. It's the first time, when I saw “Contempt”, that
I actually became aware of a cinematographer at work collaborating
with a director, helping to tell a story visually. He was the first
DP name I ever wrote down and tried to look at other films he had
done.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:05:47 AM)
Growing up in high school in Munich, I did film studies. I was exposed
to the German new wave which was Schloendorf, Herzog, Wenders. The
films I related to most aesthetically were Wim Wender’s collaboration
with Robby Muller. Movies like Alice in the Cities, Kings
of the Road, and in particular The American Friend with
Dennis Hopper really had a big influence on me. So it was a great
experience for me ,15 years later, to have the opportunity
to photograph a film for Wenders, Million Dollar Hotel.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:07:00 AM)
As I mentioned earlier, and as probably every working cinematographer
today , I was also influenced by Vittorio Storaro's work, in
particular 1900 and The Conformist. I also was really
affected by Antonioni movies, in particular The Passenger.
Henry (May 13, 2006 11:07:07 AM)
What was it about Wim Wenders that you so admire? Can you tell us what
it was like to work with him?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:10:14 AM)
I admire the pacing of his movies, sort of the compositions and the
way they tell the story that work well. It had a dreamy yet natural
quality. Later, working with him it was almost like I felt that I
had already worked with him in the past -- emotionally and aesthetically
I felt very familiar with the story he wanted to tell. It was actually
one of the easiest working experiences for me. I was looking forward
to having a lot of dialog with him about how we were going to photograph
the film. He told me 3 days before the shoot started that he didn't
know what the movie should look like and how we should approach it.
I remember thinking the story will find its own language and the
location will tell us what to do. Once we started shooting we didn't
ever look back. It was like we were one mind thinking and we were
together on the setups. I was sure that whatever I was doing he would
like , because I was so influenced by his work. I didn't need to
ask him what he thought of the shot, the lighting, the composition, -
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:10:39 AM)
because I knew that he would like it.
cam_man (May 13, 2006 11:10:46 AM)
Have you worked very much with digital cameras? How do you think this
technology will affect our industry?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:12:42 AM)
I shot with a Panavised Sony 900 hd 24p camera with Wim Wenders. We
did a U2 music video for Million Dollar Hotel. This was
a prototype that we were asked to use and test. I said I've never
done anything on video and I don't know how to do it at all. They
said, that's perfect, that's the type of person we're looking for.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:12:52 AM)
It was a very low light level situation and I was impressed with the
results.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:14:29 AM)
It was screened as a film projection at a film festival and I remember
really being impressed by the quality of the image. But recently,
I used that same camera on Will Smith's short film that he directed.
It was a location shoot and I must say I was wishing I had a film
camera. It's not really the most practical configuration to take
out on location -- you still have to deal with calibrating the monitors… and
the camera is big, ... I think once the camera becomes more
user-friendly and smaller that there is no question that it will
be the future.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:15:46 AM)
Also, personally, I have no problem if I'm shooting on an excellent
video camera or on film. If it gets to the point where people can't
tell the difference or video actually exceeds the quality of film
-- we're certainly not there yet --- I don't think it will affect
the film making process. It still takes a person to tell the story
to shoot and light an actor appropriately. It doesn't mean that because
the video camera is out there we'll have a whole new wave of brilliant
film makers just because people have access to making movies
DI Fan (May 13, 2006 11:16:25 AM)
There has been a lot of controversy about the operator position. What
do you think about the importance of the operator position and how
do they improve a production?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:17:52 AM)
I personally would not want to go into a big feature film being stuck
in the position where I will have to operate every setup. I think
the collaboration between the cameraman and the operator can be fruitful.
It's great to have another set of eyes on the set. When I run multiple
cameras, I don't want to be operating any of them because I need
to be aware of what every camera is doing and coordinating the coverage.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:18:38 AM)
I think it is going to be difficult to replace the position entirely.
Of course, producers are going to ask DP's to operate, and those
who don't want to or don't feel comfortable will lose the job, and
that's a terrible thing. Also, operators will be forced to go out
for DP work before they're really ready, and maybe it's not something
they really want to do.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:19:30 AM)
In general I think it's a bad thing that this has happened. If a DP
requests to have an operator at least at the level of pictures I'm
doing, he will still be able to hire them, but I am concerned about
what will happen with TV productions, movies of the week and lower
budget films where they will pressure the DP to operate himself.
The DP might lose work for a reason that is not just.
Asst_Cam (May 13, 2006 11:19:42 AM)
Broad question - what is the future of cinematography and film? And
secondly, how do you see the role of the cinematographer changing?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:20:39 AM)
I don't think the role of the cinematographer during production will
change much from what it is or has been. Like I said, you need to
collaborate with the director, support him and help him tell the
story visually. That basic function of the DP will not change.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:21:57 AM)
When we enter post production our role will be redefined. I think it
is important for the cinematographer to be present during the DI,
and should be compensated for his work during the DI… although
no studio is willing to contractualize this at the moment, even to
the point where some studios don't even guarantee the presence contractually
of the DP during the DI process. This doesn't mean that I don't think
the whole intermediate work doesn't benefit me. You have to look
at it as an extension of our creative involvement.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:23:47 AM)
It's just another tool that we have to use with discipline. It's just
another tool that we have available to use, to achieve the look for
the project …and the DI really gives us a whole other stage
that we have to work on. It helps us during production because there
are certain things that you spend a lot of time on in conventional
production, but if you're experienced with DI work you know you can
master it in minutes and there is no reason to hold up.
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:24:08 AM)
... to hold up, you know, shooting for something you can take care
of in post.
gino (May 13, 2006 11:24:15 AM)
Can you tell us anything at all about your future projects?
Phedon Papamichael (May 13, 2006 11:25:46 AM)
My next project will be a Western, which I feel very fortunate to have
the opportunity to do… it is every cinematographer's dream.
It is a remake of 3:10 to Yuma, directed by James Mangold
who directed Walk the Line and Identity. We're
hoping to do this in October of this year.
Moderator (May 13, 2006 11:27:01 AM)
Thank you all for attending our live chat. The transcript of the chat
will be available on the web site later this week. |
