Visualizing Emotion: John Seale talks about Peter Weir

Trevor Hogg chats with Academy Award-winning cinematographer John Seale about his collaborations with filmmaker Peter Weir...

While directing episodes for Luke’s Kingdom (ABC, 1976), a miniseries chronicling the colonial hardships in the Australian Outback, filmmaker Peter Weir worked with a camera operator whom he decided to recruit for his next feature film. The creative partnership would span seven pictures and would result in John Seale evolving into an internationally acclaimed cinematographer.

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), a turn of the twentieth century tale about a group of schoolgirls who vanish while exploring a mysterious rock formation, features Seale cleverly indicating the passage of time by rotating the camera 180 degrees as the girls make their way up a hill. What proved to be difficult was the handling of the enormous PVSR sound cameras for the interior school scenes. “One was the tilt and crane down shot of the girls coming down the stairs,” recalls the native of Warwick, Queensland. “I had to stand on a ladder and walk down as the camera panned with the girls. I felt safer when I removed my shoes and went with bare feet; I could feel the steps more accurately and was less prone to slip.” Other methods were deployed as well. “It was also a case of having to use non-silent cameras for specific shots which would then necessitate the sound being added in post; that’s something most directors tried to avoid at all costs.”

The Last Wave (1977) reunited John Seale with Peter Weir and cinematographer Russell Boyd. “The water was such an important part of the film for Peter,” recalls Seale regarding the nightmarish story about an Australian lawyer (Richard Chamberlain) who has apocalyptic visions of a great flood while defending his aboriginal clients. “As the operator I wanted to make that water as powerful as Peter wanted. In other words pour it onto the camera.” The desired thematic imagery brought with it major logistical problems. “You would setup a big camera on a big tripod and put a spinner in the front that would keep the water off the lens. We wanted to be more versatile but those spinners were so big and heavy you could never do Steadicam or handheld. There were certain doors and windows that we wanted to walk through but you couldn’t. I racked my brain to work out how we could get water off the lens and still pour as much water in as Peter wanted.” The solution called for some ingenuity. “The device used as the air knife was an industrial paint remover; a bronze bar 7" long with minute holes [oxy-acetalyne would be ignited and it would burn off the paint]. We used air from divers’ tanks and placed the knife in front of an optical flat in the matt box; with the right pressure it blew the rain off the optical flat.” Seale was impressed with the end result. “It would all go hazy as the air desperately tried to blast the water off the optical flat and then it would clear. It had this wonderful feeling which put the audience right there in the middle of it.”

Gallipoli (1981) was the third and final picture on which John Seale served as a camera operator for Peter Weir; the movie revolves around the relationship between two runners (Mark Lee and Mel Gibson) who end up on the Turkish battlefield where thousands of Australian soldiers are slaughtered during World War I. “On Gallipoli [1981] it was much the same [issue as with Picnic at Hanging Rock],” says John Seale. “The trenches and tents were small, and getting the equipment into those locations was a problem. The Production Designers were good as they built into the sets fly-away walls that enabled us to facilitate the cameras.” The final scene which concludes with a freeze frame image that resembles an iconic war photograph was a real test for the camera crew. “Peter wanted Mark Lee [The Best of Friends] to be running as fast as he could and then to be shot, taking a stance similar to the [Robert] Capa shot of the Spanish soldier being hit by a machine gun bullet. We did not want to slow the actor so we had to move the dolly as fast as possible. The grip power was insufficient so, to the Key Grips consternation, we towed the dolly with a pick-up. I believe we may have smashed the land speed record for an Elemack dolly!”

The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) saw John Seale working as the Second Unit Photographer. The political thriller set in 1965 stars Mel Gibson (Braveheart) as a rookie Australian correspondent assigned to cover the Indonesian civil war between President Sukarno and the communist revolutionaries. The star power of Gibson and Sigourney Weaver (Aliens) was overshadowed by Peter Weir’s casting decision which resulted in an actress portraying a male dwarf. Linda Hunt was lauded with an Academy Award for her role as freelance cameraman Billy Kwan. “When you’re back to the wall and you haven’t found a pivotal character,” states Seale, “thinking out-of-the-box sometimes is the way to go. It so enhanced that film.” The international success of the film helped to launch the Hollywood careers of Peter Weir, Mel Gibson, and John Seale.

Witness (1985) marked the Hollywood debut of Peter Weir, and John Seale who was hired to be the cinematographer for the picture featuring Harrison Ford as an Internal Affairs detective who protects a young Amish boy from a trio of corrupt police officers. “I got a bit of a shock after we shot a scene and I had to dig everybody up,” reveals Seale when recalling an incident that occurred while filming the Amish farm sequences. “I said to the First AD, ‘Come on. The sun is dead right; we can shoot this now. Where are they? We’re finished lunch.’ In Australia once you’d finished lunch you were working. This had a Hollywood lackadaisical thing where lunch was not three quarters of an hour it was an hour and a half.” The cinematographer turned to Weir for assistance. “He got Harrison, all the actors and the First AD, and said, ‘Come on, we’re going to shoot this.’ And we got it.” Seale reciprocated the support when he spontaneously filmed the wind blowing through the corn fields. “The day was windy and Peter looked down the hill and said, ‘Look at that! Can we shoot that Johnny?’ And I said, ‘You bet.’ Suddenly we yelled, ‘Get the cart out of the barn quickly. Get the stand in on that wagon and drive it through. We don’t care which direction. Just drive it through.’ And we shot it.”

“We went to an art gallery in Philadelphia and Peter found this lovely book,” remembers John Seale who along with Peter Weir found cinematic inspiration in paintings by the Dutch masters. “Vermeer had these beautiful window lights in all of his paintings. Most of the windows were on the left. The window light would wash in and die in a couple of the far corners of the room.” The light is used as a cinematic metaphor when John Book (Harrison Ford) is nurtured back to health from a gunshot wound by an Amish woman (Kelly McGillis). “The room is at it’s darkest while he is near death and as the bullet wound heals and he improves, the windows come up very slowly frame after frame so by the time the sun is shining he’s going to be better.”

Not all of the imagery in the drama is subtle, particularly in a memorable death scene when a crooked police officer dies in the grain silo. “Once again it’s Peter’s ability to be able to hurl into the depths of visual imaging,” admires John Seale. “He said to me one day at lunch, ‘I’m trying to find a way to kill somebody beautifully.’” The two men toured the farm scouting possible sites. “We went into the silo a couple of times and he said, ‘I wonder what it would be like to drown in holding corn?’ That’s how it all started.” When Seale’s methods were questioned by the American film crew, the director said to him, “‘Try to remember it this way. As far as I’m concerned this is an Australian film. It’s just that most of the guys have funny accents. You shoot it as you would in Australia.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Peter.’ I shot it that way and we all got nominated [for Oscars].”

The Mosquito Coast (1986) reteamed Peter Weir, John Seale and Harrison Ford. Tired of living in the capitalistic culture of America, inventor Allie Fox (Ford) transplants his family to the jungle of Honduras. Peter Weir had a particular image in mind. “He didn’t want a lovely jungle that you would fall in love with; he wanted an ugly jungle. He said, ‘I want the audience to look in and think, ‘I’d never walk into there.’” Three film stocks were tested. “Eastman Kodak was beautifully fine grained but the colours were very clinical, a lot of blue in them. Ansco was beautiful, more grainy, warm yellows and lovely greens. Fuji didn’t like the greens; as soon as we saw it come up on a one-light print with the other two, it was straightaway Fuji for shooting because it made the greens look grubby.”

Dead Poets Society (1989) was the last collaboration between Peter Weir and John Seale. English literature teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) upsets the academic establishment at a New England prep school with his unorthodox approach to lecturing. Good fortune happened during the filming such as the night scene where the hooded students run through the forest trees and disappear into the mist. Not everything was accidental such as the dramatic concluding image where several of the students salute their fired teacher as he leaves them. “During pre-production he realized that the position of the boys in the classroom had to match what he wanted in the final shots when they stand on the tables to be counted. We would stand them up on the tables, sit them down and then we’d have to go back and play through scenes that were in the earlier part of the film to make sure that those actors at their desks were compatible with those scenes.”

There was no time wasted while the shooting was taking place as Peter Weir set a fast pace. “He would many times print take one and move on unless the actors had a particularly good reason for why they wanted to go again,” remarks John Seale. “He got fantastic performances out of those boys and kept a very high energy level in all the performers because of that.” Having to handle the wild comedic antics of Robin Williams did not hinder the production. “He would put on a little show and then Peter would quietly go, ‘Let’s get this shot.’ Robin would go, ‘Yes, sir.’ And he would fall straight into the character. The only time that Peter let him become Robin Williams was when he did that John Wayne thing in the classroom, ‘Is this a dagger which I see before me?’ He let him go there because you can sense in the character of Keating a manic man lying underneath.”

A heartbreaking moment occurs when Ethan Hawke learns that his roommate portrayed by Robert Sean Leonard, has committed suicide. The natural elements changed the initial idea of where Hawke would be overcome with grief. “On the way [to work] Peter said to the First Assistant Director, myself, and the Script Supervisor, ‘We’ve been in the bathroom before; I don’t want to repeat it. It’s snowing outside. It’ll be a far more interesting scene if he runs out and is sick in the snow.’” The film crew had to improvise. “We didn’t have the equipment to smooth the snow out for a retake. We had to move the tracking track and the dolly across another 20 feet every time so we would be able to use fresh snow. Unfortunately, it had stopped snowing in the afternoon and the visual effects guys had gone home. We rang them, ‘Get back here real quick.’ They drove back to the location, setup the wind machine and put the snow back in so we were able to finish the scene. Part of Peter Weir’s being able to make extraordinary films is his ability to utilize situations.”

After going on to collaborate with filmmakers such as Anthony Minghella (The English Patient), Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist), Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm), Barry Levinson (Rain Man), and Sydney Pollack (The Firm), John Seale remains unwavering in his admiration of his colleague and fellow countryman. “Peter shines as a director who makes his visuals powerful and simple. He was very economical with his coverage of all the films I’ve ever worked with him on. You could throw him an idea, he’d plop his head down and you could see him visualizing the finished picture. He’s one of the only directors I have worked with who could and would do that.”

Many thanks to John Seale for taking the time out of his busy schedule for this interview.

Read more from this interview with Picture Perfect: A conversation with cinematographer John Seale.

Peter Weir Retrospective

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Picture Perfect: A conversation with cinematographer John Seale

Trevor Hogg chats to the Academy Award-winning cinematographer John Seale...

“I came out of the Outback using a little 8mm camera to record all of my family activities,” states Australian cinematographer John Seale whose experience in making home movies led him to his calling. “I wanted to get into the ABC because I met a guy there who took me through and was very excited by it all. That’s when the Australian Broadcasting Commission, being a government-run station, had a lot of money. They had the best Steroflex cameras, and the latest of this and the latest of that, whereas the commercial companies were using old Second World War combat cameras.” After 18 months of persistence, the aspiring filmmaker was hired by the public broadcaster; he was mentored by a group of ex-World War II combat cameramen who taught him the fundamentals such as how to “pan and follow [racing horses] right round the whole circuit without the frame starting to wobble off crazy as you’re trying to keep your balance.” The ABC afforded Seale the opportunity to cover a wide variety of subject matter which he would be able to draw upon when making movies. “You end up doing a couple of medical films like The Doctor [1991], which spent a lot of time in an operating theatre; I actually had been in an operating theatre with the ABC working on a documentary on a heart valve replacement when I first started.” During his seven year career with the Australian Broadcasting Commission, the Oscar-winner was able to move beyond news and into the drama department. “Not only could you go out in the Outback as a documentary maker, you could go out and put actors in that background; that I found was very exciting.”

“In the early days of Australia film, people would come up and say, ‘Oh, my God. That film was so incredible; it looked gorgeous.’ And I would look at them and say, ‘What about the film?’” recalls John Seale who was part of the cinematic renaissance that swept over his homeland. “We had Peter Weir [Picnic at Hanging Rock], Bruce Beresford doing Breaker Morant [1980], [and] Gillian Armstrong coming in with My Brilliant Career [1979]. We had directors and writers emerging out of the woodwork who were able to combine with these brilliant cinematographers to make films.” Seale forged a creative partnership with an Oscar-winner by serving as his camera operator. “I did some work for Russell Boyd [The Way Back] on The Man from Hong Kong [1975] which he photographed with Brian [Trenchard-Smith] directing.” The project led to the native of Warwick, Queensland becoming a cinematographer in his own right. “I did some secondary stuff on that with Brian and we got on well. Death Cheaters [1976] came along which was very much a lower budget film; he asked me to step up and do the filming.” The opportunity was an unexpected one. “It was terrifying. I was so enthralled with operating that I hadn’t thought too much about lighting.”

After being the camera operator on Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), The Last Wave (1977) and Gallipoli (1981), all helmed by countryman Peter Weir, John Seale was recruited to lens the filmmaker’s Hollywood debut Witness (1985). “I got a bit of a shock on that; after we shot a scene I had to dig everybody up,” remembers Seale. “I said to the First AD [Assistant Director], ‘Come on. The sun is dead right. We can shoot this now. Where are they? They should be on set. We’re finished lunch.’ In Australia once you’d finished lunch you were working. This had a Hollywood lackadaisical thing where lunch was not three quarters of an hour it was done in an hour and a half.” When Seale began to have doubts as to whether or not he was up to the task, Peter Weir told him, “‘As far as I’m concerned this is an Australian film. It’s just that most of the guys have funny accents. You shoot it as you would in Australia.’ I said, ‘Thank you, Peter.’ I shot it that way and we all got nominated [for Oscars].” The two colleagues would subsequently work together on The Mosquito Coast (1986) and Dead Poets Society (1989).

The Australian filmmaking experience of having to work with a limited budget (overtime was paid with cold cans of beer) and a tight production schedule taught John Seale the art of the quick camera setup. “I remember Richard Dreyfuss [Stakeout] came up to me and said, ‘Man, I never worked this fast before.’ I asked him, ‘Is that bad?’ He said, ‘No. It’s fantastic. I haven’t got time to get out of character.’” The cinematographer was pleasantly surprised. “If the actors love it, my theory is that you’re making a better film.” Seale made another significant discovery – the use of multiple cameras. “It all started on Rain Man [1988] when we setup the camera on scene where Dustin and Tom were down on the floor with matches; we only had one camera and they were adlibbing.” The technique is a controversial one. “Some DPs [Directors of Photography] don’t use multiple cameras because they can’t light each camera as perfectly as they want.” The cinematographer has developed fans amongst film editors for his ability to cross-shoot images of different sizes and angles. “A couple of the editors have come up to me and said, ‘I love it because I can cut for emotion. I can cut where I want to cut. I don’t have to wait for a hand to drop away or a cigarette to be puffed on.” However, approach has made life more difficult for those involved with the sound department as it is not always possible to deploy the necessary number of microphones needed to record the sound properly. As for the performers, there is no period of rest for them. “I don’t know if I’m on or I’m not,” Helen Mirren (The Queen) enthusiastically informed Seale. “So I’m acting 100 percent all the time!”

“Studios often want to push things onto the stage to honour the schedule and the budget. A case in point was Gorillas in the Mist [1988] where they felt we should shoot that like a Tarzan movie on stage with guys in suits, and build the jungle. But Michael Apted wouldn’t do it. Michael said, ‘I’ve been to Africa and sat with gorillas. There’s nothing like it. We’re going to go to the gorillas.’” Lead actress Sigourney Weaver (The Year of Living Dangerously) was lauded with an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Dian Fossey. “She would come back and say, ‘Michael we’ve got Scene 83. Wait until you see it.’ It was before they turned around the dailies. When we saw it, she was dead right. She was wonderful. We’d still be there if it wasn’t for her performance.” Seale observes, “The problem on the soundstage is it never gives you the challenge or the lucky mistakes where the sun will suddenly shine through a cloud; you’re shooting and think, ‘I would have never thought of doing it on a soundstage.’” There is a big reason why a stage setting can appear flawed to an audience. “It’s lit too well to be natural. You have to relate back to reality and bring it into the studio; to do it you have to think of nature’s challenges that you would have to accept if you were shooting exteriors.”

“It’s essential that you find out from the director what they originally saw in that film,” instructs John Seale who mentally wipes the slate clean when commencing his next project. “It doesn’t matter if you did brilliant work on the last one. This is a new movie and it’s going to have new ideas for cinematography that should suit the storyline.” The attitude paid off for the cinematographer on Rain Man as he received his second Oscar nomination. “It was about four o’clock in the afternoon and they were trying this scene. Barry [Levinson] looked at me and said, ‘Wrap this up. These boys [Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman] couldn’t get their shit together.’ He made it loud enough that both actors could hear. I went, ‘Oh, geez the actors have just heard this. This could be a big blowup.’ But Dustin left it and went home. The next morning he came in and just knocked the scene over.” Questioned about the notorious antics of Hoffman, the Australian replies, “I love working with Dustin; he’s energy city.” Seale tells me a story. “There was a moment on Rain Man. It was the second or third day of shooting, where Tom has found him at the hospital and they’re sitting on a bench. Tom says, ‘Come on. We’re going.’ He walks diagonally towards the footpath and Dustin follows him. I thought, ‘Hang on. Is that really Dustin’s character?' So I said to him, ‘Dustin would your character follow Tom or would he go straight for the path and turn right?’ To this day I’m Dustin’s best friend. He said, ‘My God! Somebody from the camera department actually thinks for you as an actor!’”

“The three films that I did were an absolute delight,” says John Seale whose collaboration with British writer-director Anthony Minghella resulted in his winning an Oscar for The English Patient (1996) and receiving a fourth Academy Award nomination for Cold Mountain (2003). “In some ways The English Patient [1996] was thrown together. Anthony was quite innocent to filmmaking; he had only done two films before, one in England [Truly Madly Deeply, 1990] and Mr. Wonderful [1993] in America. Sometimes that first film got a little bit lost but in the end, with the brilliance of Walter Murch’s editing it came together very well. The English Patient didn’t have enough coverage. Walter really proved to Anthony that you have to have coverage to be able to cut for emotion. Then on The Talented Mr. Ripley [1999], if I’m to be very honest, we over covered it. There was suddenly this reversal of thinking. Whether that was good for Walter is possibly in evidence in the film because it certainly is very potent. I noticed by the time we did Cold Mountain, the coverage was more economical.”

“I’ve got to say that the toughest ones are the most technical ones. The first big technical film was The Perfect Storm [2000],” revealed John Seale who teamed with German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen to cinematically adapt the seafaring tale. “They gave me three months prep and I used every single second of it. Every night I had to know exactly where every piece of machinery was going to go on that tank. There were four 100 mile an hour wind machines, a 45 foot-high dump tank that couldn’t move, a yacht, two floating camera platforms and 100 people involved.” The task was made easier by the director. “Wolfgang knew exactly what he wanted and that helped me. He edited the animatics, and once he was happy he’d say, ‘That’s exactly what we’re going to do.’ That’s what I started on.” Seale, who likes to ask himself and the director “What if?” when it comes to positioning the cameras, restrained himself. “We could change the camera coverage within those parameters to get what he felt was a moment that was better than anticipated during pre-production.” The camera crew, unlike the cast, was warmly sheltered in the “monitor village,” drinking coffee and eating doughnuts. “George Clooney [Michael Clayton] would stop every morning as he went out of wardrobe and makeup,” chuckles Seale. “He’d look up and say, ‘You guys have a nice day won’t you.’ We’d say, ‘Yes, George. You too. Get on the set.’ He’d laugh, go out there and get wet and cold. They were a great bunch of guys.” The director and the cinematographer reteamed on a remake that was also set out at sea, using multiple cameras. “We had six running on Poseidon [2006]. We were doing complete scenes in one hit.” Unlike traditional close-ups which are shot three feet away from the performers, a different method was deployed. “We were doing anamorphic close-ups from across the room. What we did was compress the atmosphere that was between the camera and the actors; it could be dripping water or the water could be jump floating in the air. The close-up had so much energy.”

“I remember Larry Kasdan on Dreamcatcher [2003],” states John Seale. “We weren’t doing a lot of multiple cameras. There were generally three. A couple of the boys were on two of them and I was on the third.” Once he saw the dailies, the cinematographer was concerned that the footage would annoy moviegoers. “I said, ‘Larry, I’m really worried about all of this.’ He asked, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘A lot of it’s not sharp.” Kasdan was unfazed. “He said, ‘Why I love it is because I feel the camera is there by invitation not by design.’” Dealing with Sydney Pollock on The Firm (1993) was a different matter. “He did at times think he could do everybody’s job better than they could, sometimes mine. But we got around that nicely. He once tried to do a difficult shot and as soon as he sat on the dolly I knew he wouldn’t be able to do it. He lost the shot. I said, ‘Go watch the monitor and I’ll have a go at this.’ I did the shot and his respect for me after that was quite good.” Some creative improvisation was required. “I used to work three days ahead with Sydney because if it was instantaneous; he’d say, ‘No. It’ll never cut.’ because he was in control. If you threw in the idea two or three days ahead, he’d use a big part of it or incorporate it into the way he was thinking. I thought, ‘I don’t mind that. If that’s the way you want to make the film that’s the way I’ll work.’”

“There were hundreds and hundreds of people and crew. I didn’t have a lot of cameras; I had five or six,” says John Seale who had to deal with 110 degree heat while shooting a Hollywood blockbuster. “Mike Newell on Prince of Persia [2010] would sometimes get to camera three and think, ‘I’ve got the scene with those.’ I had the others doing little pickups that I thought would help the editor. The actors were great because they all knew they could be on the entire time.” The scope of the fantasy adventure made things challenging for Seale. “There were a lot of scenes with a lot of actors. Trying to get cameras in there and make them profitable was the name of the game.” He believes, “Put the cameras in a position of jeopardy and you will get a better film.” The multiple cameras were a major asset during the principle photography. “We were able to continue the action because what became unusable on one camera, on a 180 degree reverse became usable on another.”

“I know Dariusz Wolski has done most of his films either with Tim Burton or with the Pirate movies. I was ready to accept rejection on those grounds,” confides John Seale when referring to The Tourist (2010) which stars Johnny Depp (Sleepy Hollow) and Angelina Jolie (Girl, Interrupted). “My track record and being the director’s choice was fully accepted by Johnny and Angelina. We got on well. We both like wooden boats and that became quite a conversation piece.” Seale was aware of the original French film Anthony Zimmer (2005). “I was sure it would be nothing like that so I didn’t pursue it in my own time in pre-production.” However, the cinematographer did eventually see the movie. “I did watch it because the script was still being written and I wanted to get a good idea of the unwritten parts.” Seale admires Johnny Depp. “Johnny is a great guy. I always loved his work.” The actor apparently liked Seale too as he approached him about another picture. “He wanted to reshoot the ending of The Rum Diary [2011] and so they asked us if we would do it on a day off. I put it to the crew. They all said, ‘Yup! We’ll do it.’ We all pitched in and did it. I haven’t heard whether or not it fitted in.”

“I appreciate the director and his job; I think that’s made me a better filmmaker,” says John Seale who directed Till There Was You (1991) featuring Mark Harmon (Freaky Friday) and Deborah Kara Unger (Crash). “I found the technical side of directing a film came not easily but it was familiar territory; therefore I thought I was able to handle that. But the actors were a different bag. They were a handful. I had not ever learned or seen what goes on in the backrooms between directors and actors. I found it very difficult, particularly with an actor who felt he knew exactly what he had to do and a young actress who was like a colt in the starting gates; she could give 18 different performances. Which one do you want?”

“We all knew in those early days that Harry Potter was going to be a burgeoning franchise but not to the degree [it became],” admits John Seale who worked on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001), the first of eight movies. “I believe it pulled in over $6.5 billion in ticket sales. It was an awfully big surprise. You have to hand it to Chris Columbus. He travelled the world looking for Harry Potter, found him in England and the one he selected is still there.”

“We live in the days of the monitor system which came in and took away a very large part of the responsibility of the camera operator, which I feel really sad about,” reflects John Seale who worries that the art of his craft will be lost in the digital age. A positive sign is that renown colleagues such as Roger Deakins (True Grit) have been recruited to serve as consultants for computer animated pictures such as How to Train Your Dragon [2010]. “It’s a credit to the makers of those films to bring on a proper film cinematographer. I hope it continues so that the young guys coming up [using HD] can learn the parameters of film lighting.” As for the future of 3D, Seale is not completely sold on the current Hollywood trend. “I believe it has a lot of problems technically.” He adds, “The amount of money pouring out, the time and energy wasted on the set, with actors standing down, I hate that. I like working fast and furiously.” Seale is not a fan of another prevailing cinematic trend. “There are a lot of films being made that are extremely handheld and energetic visually; I’m not too sure I agree with those because too many people are saying it took them out of the film. George Miller, when he made Lorenzo’s Oil [1992], said this will be a hard hitting film. I want the audience to be emotionally washed out like the original parents [who sought to find the oil which would enable their child to live longer]. I thought, ‘Man. That’s fantastic! That’s really taking moviemaking to the heights of absorption.’”

Contemplating what makes for great cinematography, Seale remarks, “It’s cinematography that suits the story in completeness.” As for why Australian cinematographers have become so successful internationally, Oscar-winner Dean Semler (Dance with Wolves), upon receiving an AM (Member of the Order of Australia) along with Seale told The Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Oh, I’m not too sure really. But I think Johnny Seale once said he thinks it’s something they put in the beer.’” Seale laughs. “The only thing I could think of back then was a humorous line.” The key is the gung ho mentality. “The Australian attitude to almost anything is, ‘Let’s give it a go.’” With 41 film credits as a cinematographer, Seale offers these words of advice. “I’ve always said to students that pre-production is the most important part of their set filmmaking; you must have it all in the brain so when you start shooting, the simple shot is a done deal.” He goes on to make an analogy. “As a cinematographer you’re like a boxer on the balls of his feet. You have to be balanced and ready to go in any direction so as to cover a scene in a way which will enable it to fit into the film.”

Many thanks to John Seale for taking the time out of his busy schedule for this interview.

Read more from this interview in Visualizing Emotion: John Seale talks about Peter Weir.

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Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

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Career Retrospective...

The Cars That Ate Paris, 1974.

Starring John Meillon, Terry Camilleri, Kevin Miles, Rick Scully, Max Gillies and Bruce Spence.

SYNOPSIS:

Residents in the mysterious Australian Outback town of Paris redirect passing traffic with the intention of creating automobile accidents. The wrecked vehicles are then sold for their parts, and the injured travelers are subjected to medical experiments; further mayhem ensues when the close-knit community decides to adopt an unscathed survivor.

Picnic at Hanging Rock, 1975.

Starring Rachel Roberts, Vivean Gray, Helen Morse, Kirsty Child, Anne-Louise Lambert, Jacki Weaver and Tony Llewellyn-Jones.

SYNOPSIS:

At the turn of the twentieth century a group of Australian schoolgirls vanish upon entering a mysterious rock formation while picnicking on Valentine’s Day.

The Last Wave, 1977.

Starring Richard Chamberlain, Olivia Hamnett, David Gulpilil, Frederick Parslow, Vivean Gray and Nandjiwarra Amagula.

SYNOPSIS:

An Australian attorney defends a group of aborigines who are charged with killing one of their own for violating a tribal taboo. As the murder case progresses, he becomes plagued by apocalyptic visions of water that entwine him with the prophetical beliefs of his clients.

Gallipoli, 1981

Starring Mark Lee, Mel Gibson, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins, Charles Yunupingu and Heath Harris.

SYNOPSIS:

Gallipoli evolves around the growing relationship between two runners whose destiny with death takes them to the Turkish battlefield where thousands of Australian soldiers were slaughtered during WWI.

The Year of Living Dangerously, 1982.

Starring Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Michael Murphy, Linda Hunt, Bill Kerr, Noel Ferrier and Bembol Roco.

SYNOPSIS:

In 1965, Indonesia is embroiled in a civil war between President Sukarno’s government and communist revolutionaries. Amidst the country’s social and political unrest, newly arrived Australian correspondent Guy Hamilton wanders aimlessly until he meets the enigmatic freelance cameraman and photographer Billy Kwan. When a piece of highly classified information is told in confidence to him, Hamilton must decide which is more important - the trust of his friends or the story of his career.

Witness, 1985.

Starring Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Jan Rubes, Danny Glover, Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen and Angus MacInnes.

SYNOPSIS:

Internal Affairs Det. John Book’s perfectly defined world of right and wrong is turned dangerously upside down when a young Amish boy identifies a fellow police officer as the murderer of his undercover protégé.

The Mosquito Coast, 1986.

Starring Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Andre Gregory, Conrad Roberts, Martha Plimpton and Dick O'Neill.

SYNOPSIS:

Inventor Allie Fox uproots his wife and children from the comfort of their New England home to start anew in the vast jungle wilderness of Honduras. Fox’s dream of getting away from civilization turns into a very real nightmare.

Dead Poets Society, 1989.

Starring Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Kurtwood Smith, Gale Hansen, Josh Charles, Dylan Kussman, Allelon Ruggiero, James Waterston and Norman Lloyd.

SYNOPSIS:

English Literature teacher John Keating runs afoul of conservative-minded administrators and parents at a prestigious New England prep school when he encourages his pupils to “Seize the day!”.

Green Card, 1990.

Starring Gérard Depardieu, Andie MacDowell, Bebe Neuwirth, Gregg Edelman, Robert Prosky and Lois Smith.

SYNOPSIS:

A Frenchman in need of a green card and a single woman, who desperately wants an apartment for married couples only, embark on a marriage of convenience that transforms their relationship into one of mutual love.

Fearless, 1993.

Starring Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez, Tom Hulce, Benicio del Toro, John Turturro and Deirdre O'Connell.

SYNOPSIS:

Two airplane crash survivors react very differently to the traumatic event. Carla Rodrigo is catatonic over the lost of her baby, while Max Klein continuously pushes the boundaries between life and death. Through each other they are able to reconnect with the world.

The Truman Show, 1998.

Starring Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris, Noah Emmerich, Natascha McElhone, Brian Delate, Holland Taylor and Paul Giamatti.

SYNOPSIS:

Truman Burbank’s perfect world is thrown into turmoil when he unwittingly discovers that his life is being staged by a global television network.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 2003.

Starring Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd, James D'Arcy, Edward Woodall, Chris Larkin and Max Pirkis.

SYNOPSIS:

An embattled British Naval Captain, Jack Aubrey, seeks revenge against an enemy French frigate during the Napoleonic Wars.

The Way Back, 2010.

Starring Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong, Dragoş Bucur and Gustaf Skarsgård.

SYNOPSIS:

A small group of multi-national prisoners escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and attempt an epic journey across five hostile countries.






External Links...

DGA Quarterly - DGA Interview: Peter Weir
IMDb - The Internet Movie Database page for Peter Weir
NY Times - Peter Weir Returns with 'The Way Back'
The Peter Weir Cave - A splendid site devoted entirely to Peter Weir and his movies
The Playlist - The Films of Peter Weir: A Retrospective
Senses of Cinema - An in-depth article on the career of Peter Weir
The Wrap - Peter Weir: I Wouldn't Go Into Film Today... Maybe TV
BAFTA - Peter Weir delivers the 2010 David Lean Lecture

Defiant Success - reviews of The Truman Show and Master and Commander: The Far side of the World


Your favourite Peter Weir movie is...

The Truman Show – 31% (117 votes)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World – 14% (55 votes)
Dead Poets Society – 14% (52 votes)
Witness – 10% (37 votes)
Gallipoli – 7% (26 votes)
Picnic at Hanging Rock – 5% (20 votes)
The Way Back – 3% (14 votes)
Fearless – 2% (11 votes)
Green Card – 2% (10 votes)
The Last Wave – 2% (8 votes)
The Year of Living Dangerously – 2% (8 votes)
The Cars That Ate Paris – 1% (6 votes)
The Mosquito Coast – 1% (4 votes)

Peter Weir delivers BAFTA's 2010 David Lean Lecture

Acclaimed Australian filmmaker Peter Weir recently returned to cinemas with the WWII epic The Way Back, and in December he was invited to deliver the 2010 David Lean lecture at BAFTA's headquarters in London. Weir - who is a three time BAFTA Award winner (Best Film - Dead Poet's Society, Best Director - The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) - offers his insight into his own filmmaking style and provides advice to aspiring directors looking to break into the industry.



BAFTA has recently uploaded a video of the full lecture to its website, along with a special Q&A hosted by British film critic Mark Kermode. The site also includes the lecture in podcast form (which is available to download through iTunes), along with an event brochure and clips from Weir's back catalogue exclusively introduced by the director himself. Check it out here.



The David Lean Lecture series seeks to bring expert insight from the world's leading film directors and serves to continue the legacy of legendary film-maker David Lean, one of the founding members of the British Film Academy. Past speakers include Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa), Robert Altman (The Player), Ken Loach (Kes), John Boorman (Deliverance), Woody Allen (Annie Hall), Oliver Stone (Platoon), David Lynch (Blue Velvet) and Atom Egoyan (Where the Truth Lies).



For more on Peter Weir, be sure to check out Trevor Hogg's extensive career retrospective, which includes reviews of Weir's complete body of work alongside conversations with cinematographer Russell Boyd and film editor Lee Smith.

Master & Commander: Peter Weir Returns with The Way Back

Concluding our Peter Weir Blogathon, Trevor Hogg explores the making of the acclaimed filmmaker's latest epic, The Way Back...



In my quest to learn more about The Way Back, a World War II prison escape and survival epic, I spoke to two cinematic artists who have an unwavering sense of loyalty and respect for their countryman and colleague Peter Weir. “About a year before it actually started shooting, Peter talked to me about the film and I read the script,” states two-time Academy Award-nominated film editor Lee Smith from an edit suite in London, England. “They had a couple of changes of people who were going to finance it…and then we slipped into a weather situation. Where they were going to shoot it was going to be too cold and they had to wait for the weather to be [more] advantageous.” Oscar-winning cinematographer Russell Boyd was happy to leave behind the confines of the Napoleonic British warship which played a pivotal role in his last teaming with the internationally acclaimed director. “It was nice to get out onto different locations,” states Russell from his home in Sydney, Australia. “We shot in Bulgaria for about three months then Morocco and finally India.”



The $30 million independently-funded production features Jim Sturgess (21), Colin Farrell (Minority Report), Ed Harris (Pollack), Alexandru Potocean (The Whistleblower), Gustaf Skarsgård (Trust Me), Dragoş Bucur (The Other Irene) and Sebastian Urzendowsky (The Counterfeiters) playing seven prisoners who escape a Siberian labour camp in 1940, and befriend a young Polish girl portrayed by Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones); it is loosely based on Slavomir Rawicz’s memoir The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom. “I read the book which the film is based upon,” says Lee Smith who was given the responsibility of assembling the footage as he did with the seafaring Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). “When I got to Bulgaria I read a couple of other smaller books on the life and times of people who had gone through those [Siberian prison] camps.” There has been controversy over the historical accuracy regarding Rawicz’s account of traveling 4,000 miles on foot to India. “I think that was in Peter’s mind as well,” remarks Russell Boyd when I inquire as to whether or not the accuracy debate influenced the project being given a name different from that of the memoir. “He wasn’t out to tell a factual story; he adapted it from the background of the book.”



What the director did want to achieve was an authentic atmosphere for the picture. “Peter did a lot of research on the gulags,” explained Russell Boyd, “and he came across [information] that they were lit by one single light, like a domestic household bulb in the middle of these long barracks; he wanted me to try to emulate that. I couldn’t completely or otherwise it would have fallen off into complete blackness…but I tried to keep it as natural as possible.” One of the locations with which Russell was intrigued was a cave which proved to be so treacherous that Peter Weir injured his knee. “It was fairly late in Bulgaria and then we had the three or four weeks in Morocco and then India, so he did find it pretty difficult to get around. It certainly didn’t stop his drive or his ability to direct the film.” One particular example of Weir’s resolve occurred while in Morocco. “The characters that are still part of the story encounter this big sand storm and special effects had setup some huge airplane engine-like fans that can blow either wind or sand towards you. The day we were scheduled to do it…a real sand storm blew in and Peter was saying, ‘We must shoot! We must shoot in it! We’ve got the real thing happening.’ But it overcame us totally and we laid down our tools for a half an hour to let it pass through; it went through as quickly as it came. Once it was gone we continued with special effects blowing sand at us.”



“The snow in The Way Back is real snow,” emphasizes Lee Smith. “I remember shooting on a stage in Bulgaria. It was colder on the stage than it was outside.” Upon being told the remark made by his colleague, Russell Boyd cannot help but chuckle. “The reason for building the forest set was that there were a lot of scenes in the forest after they escape,” states the native of Victoria, “all sorts of things ranging from mid-winter blizzards through to a few scenes shot in the spring. There were also scheduled a lot of night exteriors in the snow which can be extremely difficult to shoot, not only because they’re physically demanding but also just getting equipment out in the right spot. The decision was taken to build a forest set on stage. What that gave us was a light from above which we call a space light, great big balls of quartz lights with a silk surrounding. They give a lovely soft light and we hung sixty of those up in the lighting grid. As the trees went in and they switched them on for me, this is a month before he [Peter] does the shooting, I realized that the trees were stealing a lot of my light so we doubled…the space lights. Being able to shoot a lot of those scenes in day or night or in snow was very flexible for the scheduling, and for production to be able to manage things very carefully for us.”



“It was bearable but it was really hot,” remembers Russell Boyd when recalling the time spent conducting the principle photography in Morocco. “We were gone by the time high summer came along.” Russell adds, “I’d rather be hot than cold so I enjoyed it more than the snow.” A problematic situation for the cinematographer and his camera crew occurred during what was supposed to be a brief one day shoot in India. “It was a busy morning as I was shooting some atmospheric stuff, and then in the afternoon shooting the scene where the guys march into India to freedom. The following day we had a scheduled day off; it poured with rain to the extent that there were a lot of mudslides in Darjeeling and a number of people lost their lives. Also, at that time our entire unit base was washed out. The next day we started shooting and it rained by lunchtime and we had to go home. So we went back the following day to finish shooting, hopefully, and got rained out again and the third day we went on to complete it.”



“The opening scene in the movie is very powerful,” marvels Russell Boyd of the late addition Peter Weir made to the script while on location filming. “It was one of the last things we did in Bulgaria, where he [Jim Sturgess] is being interrogated and forced to sign a piece of paper saying that the allegations against him are true and the allegations have come from his young wife who had been tortured.” The short scene which makes use of dramatic close-up shots also made an impression on Lee Smith. “As soon as you take a sequence seriously, you feel that you’re really there and this is really happening; you can only begin to try to imagine how incredibly difficult it would have been [to be] interned at that time,” observes Lee. “I think the combination of sound effects and music that subtly play in the background give you an idea of the horror it would have been in one of those prisons.” The concept of nature being the central antagonist, emphasized during the prison camp scene, fascinates the Sydney-born film editor. “One of my favourite moments is when they say, ‘It’s not our guns or wires that will keep you. It’s Russia itself.’ It’s where they are. It is such a remote place what is the point of escape? Where would they go? And if the locals don’t round them up for the bounty then surely they’ll perish through fatigue, starvation and cold. I thought that was a bit of a genius thing to play on.” Russell Boyd was impressed with an intelligently-used storytelling device that appears at the halfway point of the picture. “The introduction of Saorise Ronan in the film was a masterstroke I thought,” enthuses the cinematographer. “One of my favourite scenes in the movie is where she runs across this frozen river which you remember is in the trailer. To me it really put the picture on a different level…it pushed the story on much faster. It will give an audience a great feeling that this young girl is [able to] capture the affection of this [group of] harden ex-gulag prisoners.”



Not being able to crosscut between different storylines during the picture resulted in a major creative challenge for Lee Smith. “I think it was nice to stay with them,” believes Lee. “Once you’re walking, there is nowhere else to go and I think that adds to the vibe of the film. You’re as isolated as they are, and cutting back to the camp or back home to the loved ones, I think, would have broken that spell.” The film editor adds, “The great thing with films is that you can go on a journey with the people that you are interested in watching. You almost feel part of them. I certainly felt pretty parched as I got through that desert.” Working with a large principle cast of seven actors was creatively challenging. “Not everyone can have every line and every reaction to every moment,” acknowledges Lee Smith. “It definitely adds a layer of complexity when you have an ensemble cast for a fair chunk of the film.” To help him get a better assessment of the footage, Lee Smith delays incorporating a particular cinematic element. “We run without music the first time just to get an understanding of the film.” He goes on to explain, “My theory is that the longer you can resist putting music on a movie, the more you analyze and the more brutal you are on the images. Music is the great glue that can stick sequences together.”



“[The Way Back] is what I would call a fabulous piece of adult entertainment,” says Lee Smith. “It’s just a movie I would thoroughly enjoy watching. It’s not easily marketable because you can’t pin it to another movie.” When I ask if the unrelenting depressing nature of the story will hurt the picture at the box office, Lee tells me, “I’ve seen it with audiences who loved it and applauded at the end of it. I’ve been to a lot of test screenings in my time and you don’t often get that.” Upon assessing the commercial appeal of the epic tale, Russell Boyd remarks, “I rather believe that certain audiences will go to any film that a certain filmmaker might make. Peter Weir would have an inbuilt audience I would have thought for whatever sort of film he makes.” Lee Smith realizes that there are serious financial forces at work which may well deprive “accessible art” directors like Peter Weir of the opportunity to make films. “At the end of the day movies are expensive to produce and basically they do have to make money. It depends on how brave the people are who are funding the projects…We’re in an age of economic rationalism and I think it’s killed a lot of our thinking.” Despite the changing cinematic landscape, Russell Boyd has unwavering faith in his colleague of over thirty-six years. “One thing I don’t think Peter would ever do is deliberately take on a film that he doesn’t have a one hundred percent emotional attachment to.”



Visit the official site of The Way Back and read our review here.



Thanks to Russell Boyd for supplying the images for this article.



Peter Weir Blogathon



Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Peter Weir Retrospective: The Way Back (2010)

The Way Back, 2010.



Directed by Peter Weir.

Starring Jim Sturgess, Colin Farrell, Ed Harris, Saoirse Ronan, Mark Strong, Dragoş Bucur, Alexandru Potocean, Sebastian Urzendowsky and Gustaf Skarsgård.





SYNOPSIS:



A small group of multi-national prisoners escape from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and attempt an epic journey across five hostile countries.





Leaving behind the high seas adventures of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Australian filmmaker Peter Weir reemerges seven years later with a landlocked tale where the only path to freedom is a 4,000 mile trek through the worst conditions that Mother Nature has to offer. The Way Back takes inspiration from the memoir The Long Walk written by Slavomir Rawicz but has been augmented by other resource material, providing the film with an air of authenticity. Opening with an interrogation scene, a young Polish officer named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) is being betrayed by his tortured wife to the Soviet authorities; Weir serves notice that he is not going to shy away from cinematically depicting the injustices and brutality inflicted by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The camera mingles with the characters causing audience members to feel as claustrophobic and imprisoned as those serving time in the isolated Siberian gulag. As for Janusz, he finds himself having to navigate between a vicious knife-carrying thief (Colin Farrell), a grizzled American (Ed Harris), and an actor who may be either a friend or foe (Mark Strong).



Key to understanding the driving force behind the picture is the line uttered by the camp commandant when informing the new internees as to why there are no watchtowers or machine guns; he tells them, “Nature is your jailer, and she is without mercy.” These words are not rhetoric for even when the escape happens during a blinding blizzard, one gets the impression that Sturgess and his followers (Farrell, Harris, Alexandru Potocean, Gustaf Skarsgård, Dragoş Bucur and Sebastian Urzendowsky) are simply trading a prison defined by barbed wire for one without borders. It is a daring choice by Peter Weir not to follow the standard Hollywood convention of having the group pursued by the prison authorities or crippled by internal conflict; I believe this to be both the strength and the weakness of the film. The singular point of view fosters the sentiment of empathy within the viewer; however, over time it is as if the unrelenting struggle resembles a repetitious musical note. To his credit, Weir does try to rectify the situation by infusing lines of humour and having Saorise Ronan appear at the halfway point to awaken the paternal instincts of the emotionally-harden band of fugitives.



When it comes to the acting, I found myself impressed by the contributions of the lesser known supporting talents of Potocean, Skarsgård, Bucur, and Urzendowsky who certainly hold their own among the Hollywood stars. The trouble with such a large principle cast is that the two-hour screen time cannot be equally distributed amongst them. Bucur is memorable for his quick wit while Farrell believably portrays a man who cannot bring himself to abandon the country which has forsaken him. Strong thankfully does not get stereotypically cast as the cartoon villain and Ronan who flickers out like an exhausted flame definitely has the talent to follow in the footsteps of Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet. Sturgess fully embraces his role as the leader with a contagious sense of determination and optimism. Harris is at home being the handyman of the wilderness; so much so apparently that he created some of the makeshift survival contraptions used onscreen.



In an age where images fly by in two seconds or less, I enjoyed having the camera linger whether it be for a close-up of Ed Harris or an epic landscape shot; it is nice to have the time to study the nuances of the people and the environment which they cinematically encounter. A major relief, Peter Weir focuses on the idea that adversity can be the means of building camaraderie. It is a welcomed change from the exhausting bickering that has become so formulaic in movies nowadays; also, there are no distracting computer graphics to be found. One could say that The Way Back is a product of old-school filmmaking where practical effects ingenuity reigns supreme. The standout sequence occurs when Saorise Ronan crosses a precarious ice bridge to get to the other side of a riverbank; the sound of cracking ice combined with her fleet-footed running had me on the edge of my seat wondering if she was going to fall through at any moment. The Way Back has certainly been influenced by the previous works of Weir as the exploration of ethereal caves harkens back to Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) while the desert crossing echoes of Gallipoli (1981). The project has been described as “David Lean on a shoestring budget”; I agree with the remark for the $30 million picture is best seen on the big screen where one can fully appreciate its visual scope.



The Way Back trailer...

Peter Weir Blogathon



Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

Peter Weir Retrospective: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

Trevor Hogg continues his Peter Weir retrospective with a look at his Academy Award-nominated twelfth feature...



Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, 2003.



Directed by Peter Weir.

Starring Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd, James D'Arcy, Edward Woodall, Chris Larkin and Max Pirkis.





SYNOPSIS:



An embattled British Naval Captain, Jack Aubrey, seeks revenge against an enemy French frigate during the Napoleonic Wars.





Half a decade after the release of The Truman Show, acclaimed filmmaker Peter Weir reemerged in 2003 inspired by the nautical adventure novels of author Patrick O’Brian. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World had the Australian collaborate with fellow countryman and acting juggernaut Russell Crowe. Constructed from several books in the Napoleonic Aubrey-Maturin series, the high-seas adventure featured Crowe as the vengeful British Naval Captain, Jack Aubrey, who commands the H.M.S. Surprise, and Paul Bettany as the introspective Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Stephen Maturin, who views the revengeful pursuit as being reckless.



There was one thing Peter Weir knew that he must do if he was going to capture the true spirit of the original novels. “My approach was very sparse,” he explained, “there was no subplot, no love story, and no scenes on land. A film set entirely at sea. This stemmed partly from my own predisposition to the books, I’d read them all, and loved them all, long before the film came about. It was also the result of studying films in this genre, in preparation for writing the screenplay…I was right in attempting to match the author’s authenticity, his attention to detail; I did the same thing with the film and I went to great lengths to get that detail right”.



The director was reluctant to use computer generated imagery until he saw what Peter Jackson had been able to accomplish with The Fellowship of the Ring. Weir then made a decision to divide the production of the film into three parts. First was the life-size and workable sea vessel placed on top of a hydraulic gimble situated in a large water tank which had been used for another ocean epic Titanic. Second was the construction of huge miniature versions of the ships (coined “bigiatures”) by Oscar winner Richard Taylor and his WETA workshop team. Third was the use of CGI artists to seamlessly blend the different elements together.



After witnessing the creative potential of computer generated special effects, the traditional storyteller became a convert to the technology. “During the process I found myself at a party,” began the Sydney native, “talking with a director of some renown, who shall remain nameless. He told me that he’d never used a CGI shot and I knew by the way he said it, he was proud of this. It was in some way as if using CGI was similar to an athlete using steroids or performance enhancing drugs. And I saw myself in him a couple of years back, and I tried to say to him ‘look, it’s just a tool, a marvellous tool’, but I could see that he was not convinced, but that’s how I feel. It’s just another set of wonderful tools, to be used sparingly, but they are there, and they are there to help tell a story, in this case a story that could not have been told without these particular tools”.



When he was down in Cape Horn good fortune visited Weir. “As luck had it,” the moviemaker recalled, “I saw the Endeavour, Captain Cook’s vessel, which was not dissimilar to the Surprise, though not a warship, and I took a number of trips with a cameraman, learning how the vessel worked. Then we heard that the Endeavour would be taking a trip around the Horn, so we got a cameraman on board, Paul Atkins, and that ship hit some heavy weather going around the Horn, as it's liable to do, and Paul shot some 20,000 feet of film. This weather became the water of the movie. I loved the fact that in the storm scenes there was actual water from the Horn. Who cares? Maybe, but for me I loved that fact“.



To better prepare himself, Peter Weir did some preproduction research. “I read all the books about making movies at sea, particularly informative was the book on the making of John Huston’s Moby Dick and Jaws by Stephen Spielberg; you come only to one conclusion, which was don’t film at sea.” Weir heeded the advice. “I made a critical decision, despite having this ship, fully rigged, ready to go to sea, that I would only risk her for second unit shots, and some main unit shooting, but we would replicate it and put it in the tank in Baja, in Mexico.”



At the commencement of the project, Russell Crowe had misgivings about the script but his director reminded him that the tale would be constantly changing. “In the 60s and 70s in Australia there were very few good writers,” Peter Weir explained, “we didn’t know how to write for screen, and there were very few great actors who could deliver those lines, so constantly you were cutting lines out of the script and telling the story through the camera. And for me that continues, I’m always cutting lines and letting the faces and the camera tell the story”.



Situated in 1805, the movie opens with the sighting of a ghostly ship which turns out to be the very real Acheron. The French privateer vessel attacks and cripples the H.M.S. Surprise. Using the prevailing fog as a cover Aubrey leads his men to safety. A debate breaks out amongst the ship’s officers about whether their assailant is too out of their class to capture. Aubrey overrules the discussion and commands that the warship be refitted at sea rather than be returned to port. They are ambushed once again but are saved by a decoy which enables them to escape into the night. The accidental shooting of Maturin causes Aubrey to halt his obsessive mission of revenge. However, an unexpected sighting of the elusive Acheron during the doctor’s convalescence sets up a final confrontation which results in a British victory.



In regard to his attitudes toward producing a blockbuster, Weir stated: “I am not usually sent them. And if I am, I’m just not drawn to them. Sometimes you sweat it out,” This attitude has resulted in large time gaps between his theatrical endeavors, however, the filmmaker remains steadfast to his creative ideals. “I have to be patient to find that particular kind of project. Occasionally, I’ll write one myself if I can summon up the energy.”



Despite not generating enough box office success to warrant a sequel (though rumours of the contrary continue to persist), Master and Commander had a dominating presence at the Oscars with ten nominations which included Best Picture and Best Director. Not entirely shutout, the high seas adventure was awarded Best Cinematography and Best Sound Editing.





Peter Weir Blogathon



Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.

The Weir Way: Russell Boyd and Lee Smith Talk About Peter Weir

Continuing our Peter Weir Blogathon, Trevor Hogg chats with film editor Lee Smith and cinematographer Russell Boyd about their experiences working with the acclaimed director...

Although he had not made a film since the seafaring Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), internationally acclaimed director Peter Weir had no trouble recruiting willing collaborators for his latest effort The Way Back (2010). “Since 1975 I have shot more than thirty movies,” states Oscar-winning Australian cinematographer Russell Boyd from his home in Sydney. “I enjoy the work and I enjoy making films but I would have to say having done six films with Peter he does spoil you a little bit more than other projects [do].” The feeling of admiration felt by Russell is mutually expressed when I talk to two-time Academy Award-nominated film editor Lee Smith who is currently working on a project in London, England. When I bring up the subject of The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) and the casting of Linda Hunt as the dwarf cameraman Billy Kwan, I get a glimpse of the youthful enthusiasm he would have displayed three decades ago as a twenty-year old movie industry rookie. “Genius piece of casting,” declares Lee without hesitation. “I was a first year editor on that one also did the sound, working in the Philippines on location. I was a young guy and it spurred me to work with him as many times as I could. It was a fantastic experience.”

Russell Boyd agrees with Lee’s assessment of the daring decision made by Peter Weir to cast Linda Hunt who received an Oscar for her performance. “It was an extraordinary bit of casting by Peter. He actually had somebody else picked out for the role but for some reason he didn’t think it was going to work out. It was quite a last minute thing. He disappeared and flew to Hollywood. We were about four or five weeks out of shooting which is a very intense time… A few days later they had recast that role and Linda was going to play it; a woman playing a man but it certainly worked out well.” The political thriller which stars Mel Gibson as an ambitious Australian journalist in 1960s Jakarta, Indonesia, and Sigourney Weaver as a British intelligent agent left a lasting impression on the film’s leading lady. “I worked with Sigourney on a small film in New York called Company Man [2000]; she said to me, ‘Peter was the reason I continued acting.’ She felt in such good directorial hands with him...I thought that was a great mark of respect she paid Peter.” Explaining Weaver’s comment further to me, Russell says, “I think when actors work with Peter they respond to the fact they are working with somebody really great who can steer their characters.” The cinematographer goes on to give an example of the subtle and crafty approach employed by the director. “Peter will often leave his video village and come over to an actor and just say, ‘Look try this. Just think that. Just put that little thing in there or do something or the other.’ He just speaks gently to the actors and they respond. He is probably one of the great masters of getting a good performance from an actor… There is a great ambience on the set and Peter exploits it; he talks to his actors as one professional to another.”

The two pictures of which Russell Boyd is really proud are Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Gallipoli (1981) for they put early Australia on the cinematic map. The strange period tale about a group of schoolgirls who vanish upon entering a mysterious rock formation served as the first collaboration between the director and the cinematographer. “Peter has always liked to experiment, using different lenses and heights in getting a shot, and with the speed of the camera,” remarks Russell. “He likes [to use] slow motion a lot just to heighten one little mannerism or a little movement. In Picnic at Hanging Rock when the girls were crossing the river we shot in thirty-two frames which gives it that slight motion effect.” Gallipoli is a World War I drama which stars Mel Gibson and Mark Lee as two friends who tragically end up on a Turkish battlefield. “I don’t think Peter set out to make a war film but of course it is about war. He was very clever in the way where the characters told the story instead of it being a big battle epic… Essentially, it was also a story about Australia coming of age, which it did. A lot of the young guys went off to wars in some of those early scenes thinking it is going to be a picnic, it is going to be a great time over there but of course the way it was they were getting fired upon with real bullets and a lot of them lost their lives. I think it woke Australia up from a slumber from the Victorian-era life and that is certainly part of Peter’s story as well.” A particular sequence that stands out to the both of us is when the stranded Gibson and Lee have to cross alien landscape of the Outback. “That was Lake Torrens in South Australia which is a salt lake and it hadn’t rain out there for years and years; it is one of my favourite scenes in that film. Those scenes really set Peter up as a masterful storyteller. Just the way he used that eerie, odd, strange location – got some great visuals to enhance the story of the two guys crossing the desert.” As for the dramatic concluding shot, the native of Victoria, Australia informs me, “Peter may have been inspired by [war photographer] Robert Capa but we didn’t actually talk about it. I know he wanted to finish the film with that freeze frame and it is a great ending.”

“Peter likes to do a lot of research and loves to share it with the necessary people so usually six to eight months before, we start on the prep,” says Russell Boyd. “In fact with Master and Commander because it took so long to get going, I think I was talking to him for eighteen months before it started.” The Napoleonic war epic provided film editor Lee Smith with the opportunity to take over the reins from his mentor William Anderson for the first time. “In Master and Commander we always stayed on The Surprise,” remarks Lee. “We never ever jumped to the French boat until we actually boarded [the vessel]. I thought that was really cool. A different film, for example, would have had you suddenly in a scene in the French boat with the French captain getting the news about spotting The Surprise on the horizon in subtitles, and they would have all run up and looked through their telescopes but Peter said he wanted to stay with the guys on the boat.” In comparing the film with Peter Weir’s latest effort which takes place out in the Siberian wilderness, Lee observes, “I would say The Way Back was somewhat more challenging because… there are only so many glorious vistas you can cut into a movie and you need to make sure you can keep the audience with you as you’re going through that journey. Whereas Master and Commander was probably more dialogue driven, and held in the confines of the ship, which is still a very interesting visual place to be.” The Sydney-born film editor adds, “Each film has its own unique way of coming together… With Peter’s they are always a visual feast.”

“If I’m involved I can throw in my ten cents worth as to why shoot morning or night in that location or maybe not use that location but another one for another reason,” says Russell Boyd. “It’s not a collaboration, it’s probably a gentlemen’s agreement when we settle on something. But Peter always has great ideas about why a particular location is going to be useful for his stories. I would have to have a damn good reason to get him to change it but he’ll certainly listen if I pipe up well enough.” Weir is not adverse to the idea of seeking advice from those around him. “Peter does like to get some feedback because he doesn’t feel that he’s the auteur filmmaker, he’s not doing it on his own.” Russell amends his comment by saying, “Nevertheless, I for one and I think most of the people who work with him, trust his judgment so completely that nobody would ever argue with him and say, ‘No, no, no! We can’t do it that way! This is the way we have to do it.’ You just wouldn’t do it to Peter.”

“Peter is always incredibly conscious of his story and he does change it frequently,” reveals Russell Boyd. “One of his approaches when shooting a scene is not to do many takes but to do more different setups which gives him a lot more flexibility in the cutting room.” Lee Smith generally finds himself left alone in the edit suite while the principle photography is taking place. “Mainly Peter would only watch sequences if I had any concerns about them,” states Lee. “On The Way Back he did watch a couple of chunks of the film but sometimes that’s just if time permits. Generally speaking he concentrates on keeping focused on what is coming and what he is going to do next.” Weir’s tendency to experiment with a movie soundtrack by incorporating noises such as earthquake tremors and submarine sonar pings appeals to the film editor who is also a sound designer. “He has a lot of ideas and is very interested in creating moods through sounds which makes him a very exciting director to work with.”

“I think a director owes it to his audience to entertain them but also to observe the honesty of the story,” believes Russell Boyd. “He can’t treat the audience with disdain. He has to respect them all the time. One thing I know about Peter is he does think a lot about the audience and how they might react to a particular scene, which has helped me in my approach to cinematography.” Boyd goes on to make a startling revelation, “For a short time he thought The Way Back may not have gotten a big theatrical release… We were going through the laboratory looking at a print and he said it may go straight to DVD. I was horrified. Fortunately, it has gathered a lot more interest since then. I think the [world premiere at the] Telluride Festival gave it a boost.” The cinematographer recognizes, however, that the climate in the movie industry has changed. “There is now a huge sway to ultra visual effects films with spaceships and aliens from different planets; all sorts of visual trickery which will get eighteen to twenty-four year olds into the cinema. I think what he feels, I don’t know if he is right or wrong, is that the studios are banking on those types of films more and more… There is always a market for very small market films – five to ten million dollars… The Way Back is not really a huge audience film therefore it was hard for him to get $30 million out of somebody to make it.” Russell Boyd is very quick to point out, “Peter is not in it for the glory… He would never take a film if he is not convinced that it is something he should do.”

Many thanks to both Russell Boyd and Lee Smith for taking time out of their busy schedules for these interviews. Read more here...

Picture Perfect: A conversation with cinematographer Russell Boyd
Cutting Edge: A conversation with film editor Lee Smith

Peter Weir Blogathon

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada.