Roger D | d243

Roger Deakins

Born: 24th of May 1949

Nationality: British

Occupation: Cinematographer

Years active: 1984 – present

Roger Deakins is a British Cinematographer, he was born in Torquay, Devon on the 24th of May 1949. Roger was the son of an actress, and his father a builder. He was educated at a boy’s grammar school also in Devon.

While Roger grew up in Devon he spent a large amount of time outside of school painting. Several years later he would enrol in the Bath arts school (in Bath City) where he went on to study graphic design. Whilst Roger was studying in the bath he became addicted to his camera and became a photographer. He actually became a pretty successful one as well! From this, he was hired to create a photographic documentary of his hometown Torque, Devon. Roughly a year later, he started studying in the film industry for the national film and television school in Buckinghamshire. After finishing as a graduate, Roger finally found a job in his preferred subject, assisting in the production of documentaries in various locations abroad. Several years later, he managed and controlled his first project filming, The Around The World Yacht Race. His show captured the lives and growing tensions between several of the yacht crewmen. After completing this, he was hired by a television company, where he would soon film, several documentaries in Africa followed by coverage of Zimbabwe’s civil war and then filming the borders of Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti.

After leaving the documentaries behind him, he then moved onto filming cinematic music videos, for Carl Perkins, and the ‘Blue Suede Shoes’. And many more.

He then moved on to film the movie, Mountains of the moon in 1990.

and many more:

The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Fargo (1996)

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Skyfall (2012)

Prisoners (2013)

Unbroken (2014)

True Grit (2010)

A Serious Man (2009)

Roger Deakins also helped with the animations of Pixar movie WALL-E and DreamWorks animation, How to Train Your Dragon and Nickelodeon’s movie Rango.

Here is some of Roger's work

After watching the film Skyfall and researching how Roger filmed it, I took down some notes and this is why I believe Roger is successful.

Firstly the Fight In Shanghai

James Bond catches a ride below an elevator to hunt down an assassin. Deakins’ use of bokeh, supports what could be just another fight scene into pure art. While the scene was shot on set in Pinewood, it evokes a futuristic Shanghai. The choice of film in a glass filled room echoes the credits progression, the visual language implying that this is a film about reflections and the history of Bond himself.

The killer looks out on a single yellowish lit apartment, contrasting with the deep blues of the projections on the skyscraper. What is most striking about this scene and perhaps invisible to the viewer, is the number of mirrors and reflections, which would have made it especially difficult to shoot without getting the camera in the frame.

Secondly the scenes in Scotland

The Scotland scenes really made my jaw drop. The film manages the transition from a grey day to a black night, seamlessly also catching the twilight hours. The control of this changing light is especially difficult.

It’s the layering of light that struck me the most in these scenes, especially when the house explodes, it appears that everyone is silhouetted in decreasing layers of light. The light falls from yellow to orange to red, with the shapes of Bond and the villains in the foreground. The difference between blue and yellow continues when Bond falls into the lake, falling once again into the blue world.

Deakins has an excellent eye for style. There’s a famous tracking shot from the rocks past the classic car to the men strolling towards the house. My favourite choice of a shot from the film is at the start of the Scottish set piece, where the Aston Martin is left in a valley filled with sinking clouds, Bond stands only looking at the road forward towards his past.

It’s a wonder to watch when The Director and Director of Photography work collectively to create a strong visual language. It takes great men to tell a story not simply through talk or actions, but the images on the screen.