The
Archive of David Watkin: Oscar-winning Cinematographer  |
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 Goldfinger (1964) cinematographer: title sequence (uncredited) Oscar Winner – Academy Awards, USA The 58th Annual Academy Awards Oscar Best Cinematography for: Out of Africa (1985)BAFTA Awards 1987 Won BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: Out of Africa (1985) 1982 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: Chariots of Fire (1981) 1978 Nominated BAFTA TV Award Best Film Cameraman for: "Jesus of Nazareth" (1977) (mini) Shared with: Armando Nannuzzi 1975 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: The Three Musketeers (1973) 1971 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: Catch-22 (1970) 1969 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Cinematography for: The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968) 1968 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best British Cinematography (B/W) for: Mademoiselle (1966) 1966 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best British Cinematography (B/W) for: The Knack ...and How to Get It (1965)Best British Cinematography (Colour) for: Help! (1965) British Society of Cinematographers 1990 Nominated Best Cinematography Award for: Memphis Belle (1990) 1986 Won Best Cinematography Award for: Out of Africa (1985) 1981 Nominated Best Cinematography Award for: Chariots of Fire (1981) Camerimage 2004 - Lifetime Achievement Award Evening Standard British Film Awards 1991 Won Evening Standard British Film Award Best Technical/Artistic Achievement for: Memphis Belle (1990) Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards Year Result Award Category/Recipient(s) 1985 Won LAFCA Award Best Cinematography for: Out of Africa (1985)New York Film Critics Circle Awards 1985 Won NYFCC Award Best Cinematographer for: Out of Africa (1985) 1981 Won NYFCC Award Best Cinematographer for: Chariots of Fire (1981) |
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David
Watkin stands out as a maverick even in a field renowned for
individualism. One of Britain's most gifted cinematographers,
Watkin has always spurned the conventional in the pursuit of
his art. His love of experimentation, whether in lighting,
composition, or use of film stock, has earned him a reputation
as a true innovator. His originality has been brought to bear
on such diverse subjects as the Beatles, Jesus of Nazareth,
the Four Musketeers, Robin Hood, and the inhabitants of Oz.
Watkin's work has displayed a variety of texture, ranging from
the crisp, high-contrast photography of The
Knack to the muted visual narrative of Yentl. Although Watkin believes in matching his style to directorial intent, he favours naturalism. Working with director Caton-Jones, he photographed This Boy's Life, the cinematic adaptation of Tobias Wolf's memoir, a disturbing childhood portrait of boredom and violence. Watkin's naturalistic cinematography in This Boy's Life has been praised as among the most remarkable features of the film. Concrete, Washington, is rendered as visually dreary as its name suggests. In the film, images of the mundane, of the brutal in Concrete, are juxtaposed with the state's more majestic landscapes—the resulting photographic contrast reinforcing the central character's sense of entrapment in a dull world and an abusive situation. Few cinematographers are better at using light to echo the experiences of real life. Yet despite the breadth and quality of his achievements, Watkin has not earned the recognition enjoyed by many of his contemporaries. It was only when he earned the 1985 Academy Award for Out of Africa that Watkin stepped out of the shadows and shared the spotlight with the top names in cinematography. Watkin's early career was spent in documentaries. Starting out as a messenger boy, he worked his way up through the industry, making his debut as a cameraman on Holiday in 1955. He switched to features in 1965. At that time, a crop of young directors was struggling to help the British film industry break free from the constraints of studio production and was developing a fresh, more natural visual language. Cameramen such as Watkin, with backgrounds in the more adventurous fields of commercials and documentaries, were eagerly sought out by these directors. Watkin was chosen by American-born director Richard Lester to film The Knack, a witty statement on the changing moral climate of 1960s London. Watkin's giddy camerawork intensified the film's mood of spontaneity, and his sharp, monochromic photography underscored its thematic emphasis on opposing viewpoints. Watkin and Lester have since worked together on more than a half-dozen films—the director's eclecticism in subject matter having been equally matched by the cinematographer's stylistic diversity. Their collaboration includes Help!, a vividly colored Beatles romp; How I Won the War, an antiwar movie in which alternating use of colored, monochromic, and tinted footage functions as a Brechtian alienating device; and The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers, for which Watkin harnessed the dazzling light of the Spanish locations to create exceptionally rich tableaux. Watkin is nothing if not unconventional. When filming Out of Africa, he reversed traditional applications of film stock, using fast film for night and interior shots (situations in which slow film would normally be used) and slow film for exterior shots. The intention was to give the film a soft quality, appropriate to its lush, romantic mood. For The Charge of the Light Brigade, Watkin used Ross Express lenses, equipment which had long since passed out of favour with most cinematographers because of its unpredictable effects, but which Watkin drenched certain scenes in a single, dramatic color—in one case a lurid red, in another an electric blue. Stark colouration of this kind is typically shunned by filmmakers because of its highly stylized effects, but for Watkin it was a way of signposting the film's shifting emotional currents. Although Watkin is now very much part of mainstream cinema, in his early career he was associated with directors who were themselves considered unconventional—Ken Russell, Peter Brook, Tony Richardson, and Lester. Watkin's ingenuity is best exemplified by the "Wendy Light", a lighting unit whose development he supervised. The "Wendy Light" consists of some 200 bulbs and is mounted on a crane at heights of up to 150 feet. It functions as a single, powerful light source capable of producing natural effects in both exterior and interior conditions. The unit creates the type of shadows and degree of smoothness found in the real world. Watkin brings a painterly quality to his work. Like the Dutch artist Vermeer, he often illuminates his subjects with light passing through windows. Yentl, The Hotel New Hampshire, White Nights, and The Four Musketeers all contain striking examples of his use of this technique. His work is full of arresting images—a decaying apple in Robin and Marian, a huddle of athletes running across the sand in Chariots of Fire, an eviscerated serviceman in Catch-22, and the majestic Kenyan plains in Out of Africa. Yet while there are certain Watkin trademarks, it is incorrect to describe him as having a fixed style. He has always varied his techniques to fit narrative logic and to facilitate the director's aims. One needs only compare Marat/Sade's dizzy camera movements and unpredictable changes of focus (designed to simulate the feel of live theatre) with the stately images of Out of Africa to appreciate the range of his professional vocabulary. Although his opinions on certain matters are unshakable—the superiority of Zeiss lenses over all their competitors, for example—after nearly 30 years in features, Watkin is still striving to attempt something new. —Fiona Valentine, updated by Carrie O'Neill from the Film Reference website. Publications By David Watkin: articles – American Cinematographer (Hollywood), May 1985. Eyepiece (Middlesex, Great Britain), vol. 13, no. 5, 1992. On WATKIN: articles – Screen International (London), 27 September 1975. Chase, Donald, in American Cinematographer (Hollywood), March 1984. American Cinematographer (Hollywood), February and April 1986. McCarthy, T., in Film Comment (New York), vol. 25, September/October 1989. The 12th annual Camerimage International Festival of the Art of Cinematography, which includes competitive and non-competitive screenings, student films, seminars, and an awards gala where an international jury selects the most artful cinematography of the year. Reporting from Poland is David Heuring. Heuring served as editor of American Cinematographer Magazine from 1990-1995, and has been writing about cinematography, filmmaking and postproduction ever since. Monday, November 29, 2004: The day’s screenings began with The Charge of the Light Brigade, photographed in 1968 by David Watkin and directed by Tony Richardson. That epic chronicle of a bungled war . . . Sunday, November 28, 2004: Day two of the festival featured six screenings, workshops on Zeiss lenses and Avid editing software, and a two-hour Q&A with the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement honoree David Watkin, BSC. Watkin’s retrospective continued with a screening of The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez, which could be described as a 1991 update of the classic German silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Earlier in the day, Watkin reminisced about his career while answering questions in a wide-ranging session. “My father was against my becoming a musician,” he said. “I thought of filmmaking because I knew filmmakers didn’t have to wear a suit. In the long run I’m grateful to my father because I’ve really enjoyed my career, especially the wonderful people I’ve worked with.” Watkin emphasized the importance of spontaneity in his work. “I always avoided reading the script too carefully, and if a director insisted on extensive rehearsals, I’d make myself scarce,” he said. “Sometimes directors would be cross with me for skipping rehearsals, but I’d tell them that it was my duty to not let myself get bored. Over familiarity breeds mediocrity. If I hear the actors go over the scene, then I’ve lit it in my head once. If I hear them go over it again, I’ve lit it in my head twice. After that, it begins to lose freshness, and can only lose quality.” Watkin was charming and self-deprecating throughout. “Most of my best ideas are born of laziness,” he said. “I liked using soft light because it looks nice and it’s easy. I’ve also found that a good approach is to have only a few stipulations – I usually like to shoot against the light, for instance – but once you make them, stick to them doggedly.” |
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