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Man of Light

Feb 25, 2009 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman

Roger Deakins shares his wisdom for Doubt and Revolutionary Road.

           

Photo by Francois Duhamel © 2007 DREAMWORKS LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Although Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, says he prefers to keep his films simple, the complexities, nuances, and great success of his work are routinely analyzed, debated, and emulated by cinematography aficionados and students around the world. Deakins, in fact, is routinely inundated with requests to participate in seminars and panel discussions in order to describe the technical specifics of his work to the film community — so much so that he has started posting lighting diagrams from his movies and answering direct technical questions on his website, www.rogerdeakins.com.

“The web thing progressed from doing Q&A sessions and people coming up to me and asking so many questions,” he says. “At one point, my wife suggested I start the website so that people can ask me questions there. That took off, and then, at some point, people were always asking how I light every set on every film. I began getting requests for the diagrams, so I started putting them up there. Most of the people who ask me questions on the site are film students or young people considering studying film, and I find it nice to be able to help them. When I started, there was no one giving that kind of help, so I'm glad I can do that.”

On the forums on his site, Deakins is already discussing his work from a very busy past couple of years — a prolific run that saw him shoot Revolutionary Road for Director Sam Mendes and start The Reader for Director Stephen Daldry before handing that project to Chris Menges, ASC, BSC, during a lengthy hiatus so that Deakins could take on DP duties for John Patrick Shanley's film Doubt. At press time, Deakins was nominated for an ASC Award for his work on Revolutionary Road, and he and Menges were jointly nominated for ASC and Academy Awards for their work on The Reader. (One of the surprising ironies of Deakins' career is that he has received six Oscar nominations without a win, including two last year following another prolific cycle on No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.)