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Finding a Movie’s Core
Famed DP John Seale claims it's all about the actors
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| John Seale (right) and Anthony Minghella discuss a shot on Cold Mountain. |
There are many in the film industry who can lay claim to "discovering" great new talent, but few cinematographers have as keen an eye for new directorial talent as veteran cinematographer John Seale.
In a career that’s spanned almost three decades and several Academy Award nominations, Seale is proud to count Peter Weir, John Badham, Michael Apted, Barry Levinson, George Miller, Sydney Pollack, Ron Howard, John Boorman, Rob Reiner, Lawrence Kasdan and Anthony Minghella among his list of collaborators. While awaiting the release of Cold Mountain, his third film with Minghella, and settling into James L. Brooks' new project, Spanglish, Seale took a few minutes to speak with MM. He discussed the differences between the industry in the States and his native Australia, how he keeps his work fresh and why his best film will always be his next one.
Jennifer Wood (MM): You began your career in Australia, moved to Hollywood and have now worked with a number of directors from various countries. How is the Hollywood film industry different from the rest of the world, or specifically Australia’s film industry?
John Seale (JS): There’s a big difference. Hollywood has a lot more money, of course; the budgets are much bigger than any indigenous film industry around the world. I think we know that’s because the commercial outlook of American films is far greater than most other country’s percentage of films released internationally. But it’s funny that I’ve been lucky enough to work with the directors I’ve worked with because I really believe that it doesn’t matter how much hype surrounds the Hollywood industry. In fact, when you get on a set and when you get that camera rolling and the scene is lit and the sound is rolling, everybody—that core that surrounds the director and the actors—is fundamentally a very excited and energetic filmmaking machine. The hype around it is incredible and one that we in the industry kind of laugh at it. The press is trying to get in there all the time and create stories. But I just find that from Australia to America, the core is identical: it’s an absolute desire to make a good film. And maybe they’re more commercially viable in some instances in America and not Australia, but there are still good movies coming out of both countries.
A lot of people ask me why I came to Hollywood, but I was asked to come here by an Australian director who made—and is still making—very good films in the American system.
MM: I assume you’re talking about Peter Weir?
JS: Yes.
MM: It’s interesting, because I think that almost all the directors that you’ve worked with tend to sort of transcend the typical idea of a "Hollywood" director. They might have big budgets and A-List actors, but they’re making very personal films, like the films you’ve done with Anthony Minghella or Peter Weir...
JS: Which I think is so lovely, to allow those kinds of directors with those kinds of minds to be able to afford to make the films they really want to make. I think the American system does that and does it really well.
MM: But you definitely have your own eye for talent, as you’ve begun working with these directors at the very beginning of their careers, before all the “hype” or acclaim. How are you looking to connect with a director before deciding whether or not to collaborate on a project?
JS: I don’t think I’ve ever taken a script because of the director. I believe that if the director is on the project, then they’re worthy of it; it doesn’t matter to me what their experience is. But I do read a script very carefully and I read in them in one hit—I read it right through. And when I put it down, if I really feel that it’s a movie I’d love to go and see, then I’ll do it.
MM: So it’s always script first for you?
JS: It is. I feel it should be. I do love to read them and, as I said, if I put it down and think ‘I wouldn’t mind paying money to see that,’ then I’m happy. After that, I like to find out who’s in it, because I think that once again that’s another criteria of the quality of the script—its appeal to actors. And that, of course, would go through to the audience.
MM: Are you a visual reader? Do you read through with ideas of how a certain scene or shot might look, or do you try to keep a blank mind?
JS: I try to go through a script simply as a story line and entertainment value, but it never works. (laughing)
MM: A lot of DPs will say that cinematographers don’t have a specialty as it relates to style or genre, like horror or action films only, for example. But you really seem to gravitate toward personal, character-driven stories. Is this a conscious choice, based on your own personal taste as you're reading a script, or is it that you can do great things visually based on very well-written characters?
JS: I don’t lean too heavily toward the “visual” side in the long term, because I’m a realist cameraman. I can’t shoot fantasy. I’ll look at guys who can and think ‘Gosh, that’s fantastic! How do they do it?’ I read magazines avidly to try and find out. (laughing) But I do realism; I like realism. I love the interaction of actors. I love watching good actors get together with a good director and a good script. To me, that’s filmmaking. The visuals come later.
I try to work out the best approach with the director for that film. I don’t believe in a constant style from a cinematographer because I believe that each film is different and should be. It’s set in a different time, a different location, a different period, a different geographic situation, a different climatic situation and it has its own colors built into the script. I believe that each film is different and that’s why I love taking three to four months off between projects to clear your brain and start again with a whole new person and a whole new outlook. I don’t look to the visuals as a deciding factor at all.
MM: You’re talking about loving to watch good actors get together with a good director, so Cold Mountain must have been a really amazing experience. How far ahead of production did Anthony approach you about shooting the film?
JS: About four years! We talked about it on Ripley; it just took a while to get it together. It was about four years. We had a couple of meetings in various locations around the world. When we met up we’d have a meeting about Cold Mountain. And then two years later we’d have another meeting! But it was an ongoing thing for Anthony and finally it got together.
MM: So was it a pretty easy decision for you as far as shooting it?
JS: Oh, it was. Absolutely. You know, Anthony does write a pretty good screenplay—including from a book. And this one is a little bit different in that there’s more action in it than normal.
MM: You talk about being a “realist” cameraman. In what way did you apply this trait to Cold Mountain?
JS: The battle scene is based on a true incident. A giant explosion occurred that basically caused the destruction of thousands of soldiers who had planted this bomb underneath the Confederate trenches. They promptly charged across no man's land and fell into the big hole that they had created and couldn't get out. So that became Dante's inferno—not [production designer] Dante Ferretti's inferno (laughing)—but Dante's inferno in the true sense of horror. So that we had to time very carefully to make sure that it had the horror that was built into this carnage of war. And that was going to be imprinted on Inman's (Jude Law) mind, as it would be on the audience's mind as to why, after he's wounded badly, he walks out of the hospital at dawn and heads west to try and get back to Ada (Nicole Kidman). So it has to be a fear of carnage that would drive him out of the war zone and basically become a traitor or a deserter.
MM: The film was shot mostly in Romania, correct?
JS: It was, yes.
MM: It would seem that working on multiple projects with the same director, as you have a number of times, would make the process easier with each successive collaboration. But is that the case, or can there be a downside to this easy shorthand that comes to exist between a DP and a director who have worked together a number of times? In other words, how do you keep things fresh? Are you always looking to do something different each time out?
JS: Yes, you are. I believe you should always be looking for that. And it is a very good point that it can become a little bit, 'Well, I know what he'll want. He'll want this, this and that because that's what he wanted on the other thing.' To me, that is deadly dangerous in lots of ways. It's why I don't like to do too much talking. I think with Anthony, in particular, he's a director who does his own screenplays and he builds into each film a difference—so therefore I listen carefully to those differences that will come out of his writing and dialogue and discussions. And I hope that that keeps it fresh. Certainly we tried to change the style a little bit to suit each film. I think that there's a flowing camera style on Cold Mountain; we tried to keep the camera moving all the time. It's got an edge to it because Inman's journey has to have that constant edge; we tried to keep the camera moving and the audience moving—feeling like 'I must move on, I must move on.'
MM: How do you generally prepare yourself before you begin shooting a film, as far as research or anything else you deem necessary?
JS: A lot of the research is always done before I get there. Production designers have gone in and literally found the location and have pretty well started into building the sets.
MM: But is there anything that you like to do, personally?
JS: Oh, I read and read and read the script! Any storyboards, you obviously devour those. The usual technical things of checking out the production designer's plans very carefully so you can try to imagine how the scene will be handled. And making sure that there are windows or practical lamps or fireplaces in the right spots; you try to enhance all of that in your own reading, as well.
MM: People do sometimes overlook the idea that you really need to be in the mindset of the time and place; you really need to be living that life in order to capture it.
JS: I think everybody will be satisfied with Cold Mountain that there's not a clean fingernail to be seen. The wardrobe is fantastic; the make-up is stunning—and when they've got dirt on them they have got dirt on them. There's not much gore, per se. We steered away from body disintegration and limb removal and things like that. It's the unseen horrors of war that I think are the most painful, and that's what we tried to capture.
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