Making Light Work
In an extended version of the interview printed in Film Ireland 117, cinematographer Tim Fleming talks to Basil Al-Rawi about his work, including Cré na Cille, Small Engine Repair and Once, and the art and practice of cinematography in Ireland.

Basil: You’ve had quite a lot of success recently with Cré na Cille, Small Engine Repair and now Once. How do feel at the moment with your work being so well received around the world?

Tim: It’s fantastic and I’m looking forward to everybody coming up with more work!

What do you think has contributed to your success?

Honestly, that’s a really difficult thing to say. In terms of each of the projects they’re quite different. With Small Engine, I had done two short films with Niall previously, and we had also done some commercial spots and some pop video, so we knew each other and we had talked about this project for – gosh – I’m thinking maybe four years or something before they were actually able to get it made. So that was fantastic in terms of the work and getting to know someone and the material that well. I think it worked out quite well, even though everything we’re talking about is very low budget. When we moved on to Once – I mean, that was 100k to be honest when we were on board shooting. I know all these figures get bandied around now but that’s what it was. And really that was quite a challenge for me because when I went to meet John first – I had never worked with John nor met him before – I was just a bit unsure. It took some time to get a brief from him of what he wanted, and really what John wanted was to shoot the film himself. He wanted to shoot the film – as I’m sure you’ve heard ad nauseam – as though it was some kind of a diary. And that was quite challenging for me, because obviously he didn’t want lights, he didn’t want a traditional kind of filmmaking. He seems to have some kind of anti-fetish towards the filmmaking process, which is quite difficult because you’re trying to make beautiful images with someone who doesn’t really like beautiful images.

I’m sure that was quite a change from the process you’re used to?

Oh absolutely, completely, man. So we did was, we had a second meeting and his brief really was ‘lookit, come in, show up everyday, I don’t want any planning, I don’t want to know what I’m doing, I don’t want you to know what you’re doing, and we’ll go and shoot it.’ And so that’s exactly what we did, and that was a fantastic challenge in terms of ‘how do you expose a city?’ We were shooting HDV, and I had never shot that before, and indeed I don’t think anyone had ever shot a feature on it before. And ultimately I think the result is quite close to what John wanted, despite him being sometimes dismissive of the look.

And how proud would you be of the look of the film?

Em… Ha ha ha, that’s a difficult one. How proud would I be? The kind of things that are relevant for me are that the city has a personality, the actors are shot – the basic stuff. Because we didn’t have the facilities we normally have; we didn’t have dramatic focus pulling on those cameras, you know this kind of stuff. There are inherent difficulties in that medium that became very apparent when it had to be blown up to 35 mm; obviously there was some slight strobbing sometimes. So from that point of view technically there are issues, I mean certainly if I was asked to shoot something on HDV again I would really want to have a barney about it, spend some time testing and all that kind of stuff.

What do you feel then is the future for that format in terms of being able to shoot low-budget features?

I would say, to be honest with you, from what I’m seeing at the moment in all of this digital world, is that HDV may well fall away quite quickly, but what ‘s coming behind it will be more impressive and as accessible. That’s kind of how I would feel. But in terms of the moment, with the P2 cards, we’re now talking about taking onto cards rather than tape. Even though I know that there are still inherent problems with that process, it’s all working that way and it’s all moving that way, and I think it’s going to come rather rapidly. I mean today I’m shooting a commercial on the Phantom, which is a very high-speed digital camera. Up until three years ago we’d have shot this on Photo-Sonics high speed or 35 mm. So it’s all coming at that speed and we kind of need to embrace it, I guess.

From the projects you’ve been on recently can you see a discernible shift towards shooting on digital due to budgetary constraints?

To be honest with you, from what I can see I think they’re budgeting it in now. But the other thing to be mindful of is that at one level – the HDV level, the micro-budget level – digital works really well; however when you move into HiDef, in terms of the 4K captures and stuff like that, you’re still taking about full production-value crews, so I don’t know what savings are genuinely being made

So you’re still dealing with the same size of crew...

Well pretty much. To do it properly and to get it right. Because there’s quite a lot of lighting in that amount of definition, you know. Cré na Cille was with Robert Quinn; I worked with him before on Cinegael Paradiso as a cameraman, and we worked together a lot when we were both assistants. With Cré na Cille we shot on HiDef, and I have to say I learnt a lot about HiDef on that shoot; I think it worked out quite well, again relative to budget. It would have been nice to shoot more overground, but then it’s in Shanghai this week at the Shanghai Film Festival in competition, so somebody liked it somewhere, so that’s good.

Getting them out there and getting them seen is the main thing.

Absolutely, and particularly with an Irish language film. I just think it’s fantastic that someone in Shanghai was able to see it and go ‘Yeah, this is worth seeing.’

More generally then, looking at your background, you’re a painter and a sculptor, how do feel that background in art has affected your craft?

That’s a really difficult one to grapple with, and I hear it a lot. I tell you what, people seem to think it does, whether it does or not I don’t know. You know the way you are, man, and you’re not quite analysing your references, but obviously it does. I mean I spent two years in a studio by myself going absolutely fucking mad, you know?! And at that point I realised that working in collaborative arts is definitely where I needed to be. But in terms of the skill, in terms of the eye, I guess it’s as valid as the ten or eleven years I spent being an assistant and working my way through. So technically I’m quite proficient having done that. I’ve seen an awful lot on sets, and I’ve been on a lot of sets, and I’m very proficient at that craft. Really in the last three and a half years, since I started lighting full time as a cinematographer, I’m just trying to let all of that stuff filter, and develop properly as an artist.

On that point of assistant work, what would your advice be then to anybody considering trying to be a cinematographer? Would you recommend that as the line to follow?

I don’t know really, I have to say. Just in terms of what I see happening currently, I can see how it must be very difficult for people to look forward and think that they’re gonna spend ten years before they really start lighting. Especially nowadays with people going to college, you know. I mean, I didn’t do that, I was actually in my thirties before I started as a trainee. But I can only say that people should check it out as an option because I really really do think that the people I know and admire in the main have gone through that system. Of course this is completely subjective and my own opinion, but the work you see from people like that tends to step up a little bit.

I suppose what you learn from that environment is priceless really.

T: From my point of view I’m very happy that I did it; everyday I shoot, something I learned, something I saw when I was an assistant is valid, and so I would definitely be one for recommending that people look at the craft rather than college. Going through college for four or five years and then coming out and realising that you need to start all over again must be quite soul destroying.

Yep, I know that feeling!

Well I do talk to the people that are in the colleges here, and I have said a number of times, ‘Look, you can’t be letting people out here thinking they’re qualified, and then coming out to guys like me when they’re not, really’. Because that’s fucking soul destroying, and for me to have to say something like that to somebody – not that I would say it to someone, and especially not like that – but to imply it even or have it as an attitude is not a good way to be carrying on.

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