Daily Highlights from Camerimage: November 18

Tuesday opened with an early morning screening of Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan that I would have loved to watched again after he stated at Cannes the film “wasn’t really about Russia”… stunningly photographed by the great Mikhail Krichman, RGC, and while running parallel to that masterpiece was Andrej Wajda’s The Ashes in “Remembering the Masters: Jerzy Lipman” section, the young crowds flooded to Panavision’s Seminar moderated by our own Benjamin B, about “Cinematographers today: Tradition and Innovation”.
Young, talented “emerging” cinematographers demonstrated some excellent samples of their work ranging from commercials, music videos, and clips from films appearing here in competition. Excerpts from Jack Strong were exceptionally strong and impressive - the film screened later in the day in the Polish film competition, and Magdalena Gorka’s photography was captured on film celluloid.
The two female cinematographers on the panel, who shoot all over the world, explained how they still must work much harder than men to be taken seriously, and the panel shared the universal ‘angst’ of: after having created an original ‘look’ for the commercial (or film), then having to fly off, leaving the material to the devices of the Agency who will distort, pervert, destroy that look (because they have the tools and they “can”)… which can be saddening, disappointing, heart breaking, or soul destroying in varying degrees.

Many powerful documentaries screened downstairs in the Opera Nova, while the afternoon’s important Panavision gathering was a Masterclass from Caleb Deschanel, ASC, who receives Camerimage’s 2014 Life Achievement Award.
I was anxious to hear Gokham Tiryaki explain how he photographed the magnificent Winter Sleep and when asked about the special effects used to break the car window, he explained they used a hammer. Gokham operates the F65 Sony camera himself and says he burns as much of the look into the film as he can, knowing he can correct it later on.
I missed the Colorfront Seminar , and I regretted missing Thelma Schoonmaker’s talk with Steven Schklair, but I did leap in and out of the Panasonic Varicom Seminar to hear about the many things I should know, understand, and get excited about - like the 14 + stops of dynamic range or the promise of 21 stops of dynamic range on these new cameras - but I kept asking myself WHY? - Do we really need that?

Stephen Lighthill gave an AFI Conservatory Cinematography Program and there was a Masterclass by Kim Longinotto who received this year’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking, but my little film crew was patiently waiting on the availability of bundle of energy that is Matthew Libatique, ASC, who is completely overbooked, overcommitted, overworked on two juries and participating in Panels, while showing some of his own films. He still made time for us to interview him. Among other things, Matty spoke about the differences in the ways of working between French directors and American directors... always a tricky subject.

There was a Bob Dylan art seminar (pour quoi?) and Matty Libatique ran off to introduce the 10:30 Special Screening of Noah, his latest collaboration with Darren Aronofsky, while the last screening of the night was Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water as part of the Jerzy Lipman Retrospective.

We were spending our ‘Hard Day’s Night’ at the Arri party, not so much mingling and networking, but grabbing a few of the jury members to get their thoughts on cinematography today. The difference in the film people who regularly block time in their year to attend Camerimage is that they are really enthusiastic, sincere, (I hate the word, but “passionate” but they are) about filmmaking generally and cinematography specifically. It is a real buzz to spend time with them watching films and discussing them afterwards… I cherish these days.

Alas, it came to an end all too quickly this year; after two hours sleep, I rushed off in the darkness of night to Bydgoszcz’s rikkety station to catch a train to Warsaw to catch a plane to Amsterdam for my next work adventure. I fall soundly asleep, but awake to notice we have stopped dead on the tracks - and for several hours we sit, as the train in front of us has collided with a car. We are frozen in time for several hours - and that is something to shakes you into reality once you leave this “Brigadoon” like setting… Daily life’s ordinary routines and pitfalls return and you long for the thrill of sitting in the darkness with all the enthusiastic crowds gazing up at the silver screen.

This train accident gives me time to reflect on the Camerimage experience - always so rich, so densely packed with great cinema experiences, fun events, wonderful people, news and information, parties and gatherings: it is full of mixed emotions - you are glad to be there but frustrated by so much going on simultaneously.

I am aware this is not a very informative report, but it gives you a small idea of the joy and the stress you feel within the chaos and the magic that is uniquely Camerimage.