Every cinematographer I worked with had his own way of solving problems.
So many directors say nothing beautifully, and so many others say great and profound things but have no idea how to read a light meter or arrange a shot.
It's one of the things I love about my job: it's my job to help a director tell the story, to just be willing to help.
There's two aspects of film crafting that I'm very strict about, and that's how I move my camera and where I cut the film.
Every single director stops at the moment he thinks he has the shot. Sometimes, directors shoot an establishing shot where everything is in the shot. He's going to use this at the beginning and the end.
When I write a screenplay - and I think it's one of the reasons why it was frustrating for me just to be a screenwriter - I'm not thinking of it in terms of words on a page; I'm thinking in terms of visual images - basically, a comic book. I'm thinking of it in a series of shots.
If I'm ever working on a set and anyone talks about a master shot, I say there is no master shot. Before I even went to film school, I learned about movies by being in a British feature film, where everything was shot master shot, mid-shot, close-up. But I reject the idea of a master shot. You don't shoot everything mechanically; you find imaginative ways that serve the action.
I design my shots. I walk the rehearsal as the camera and say 'this is where I want to be... I want this look.
I'm really specific in the way that I shoot. I've always had a very good sense of what I need in the editing room. I used to shoot in a way that drew more attention to the camera and I've tried, in each film, to draw less and less attention to the camera. I think when you pay attention to the shots, you're aware of the fact that there's a director.
McQueen is an astonishing film maker. He uses really unusual shots and builds incredible dramatic tension.
I'm not a big fan of shooting something that looks like it could belong in any movie. I'm not a fan of, okay, 'wide shot, wide shot, medium shot, close-up, close-up - we'll figure it out in post.' I hate that.
Film gives us the luxury of deciding where the viewpoint of the audience is, and by knowing that, we can very effectively design around what is actually seen on camera.
I want to challenge my cinematography and my editing.
Having been a cameraman, I think about, 'Well, if this was real, how would this be shot?' I try to inject as much realism as much as possible.
There's always the temptation, as a cinematographer, to make the shot look as perfect as possible.
When you make a movie, you do it so piecemeal. You're doing it, not only scene by scene, out of order, but shot by shot, line by line. And there's this idea that the director has the whole thing in his or her head and they're going to somehow weave it all together in the end.
Oh yeah - I watched Knife in the Water, saw the shot, and repeated it. But even if I hadn't seen that film, inevitably the camera would've ended up on top of that mast, I mean if you think of it there are only so many dynamic shots on a boat.
As a director, I start with the visual.
As an adult, there are technical aspects of filmmaking you understand, like having to pick up a cup on the same line every time.
What I'm still grappling with and learning how to do is to be looking and thinking cinematically, having come from television.
I've storyboarded for things other people have shot. So thinking in shots and orchestrating shots is not foreign to me at all.
I also know what looks good before the camera, how to move the camera, and how to get a story on the screen.
When I started, you didn't focus so much on production, certainly not - gosh - down to the finest little detail of how you shifted your eyes or how you turned to somebody. A lot of the shots were far away from a still camera. There weren't as many close-ups and intimacy.
What's the hardest thing about making a show like 'Vinyl' or 'Handmaid's Tale' is they are expecting movie-level cinematic quality in every way - from the performances to the visuals and the shots - especially on a show where you are doing Scorsese style.
Everything about camera movement, about how film was made, shot architecture, and time management... I was horrible at all that.
