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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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