Getting Back to Basics

Despite huge advances in filmmaking technology and equipment, making movies often still comes down to the basics. The ‘Behind the DoP’ workshops held across the country recently focused on the importance of crew communication, collaboration and practicality, without which films like Kiwi classic Goodbye Pork Pie would not have been made. Carolyn Brooke went along to hear what cinematographers Alun Bollinger and Simon Raby had to say.

A bit of quality one-on-one with the director early on is a must for cinematographer Alun Bollinger.

Communication, it’s how he gets the ball rolling.

For 1981’s Goodbye Pork Pie it was driving the entire length of the country with Geoff Murphy scoping out locations, albeit Murphy was his flatmate at the time.

“The germ of the idea for the film came from a mate of Martyn Sanderson’s who turned up having hitchhiked down from Auckland, he told us this story about a lift he’d got with these two guys who would pull into get petrol then sell the spare tyre,” Bollinger says. “At some stage he’d flicked open the glove box and discovered he was in a rental car, they were just selling bits of the car and obviously weren’t planning on taking it back.”

Nearly 30 years on, for the 2010 feature Matariki, Bollinger spent three days at his West Coast bach with director Michael Bennett, living in the bush and talking about the movie.

“You’re trying to establish a good basis of communication,” he says.

“Basically you’re interpreting the director’s vision when it comes down to it – I think a lot of us on the crew are interpreters.”

Resourcefulness is another key element of Kiwi filmmaking. Working with what is around you. None more so than in Goodbye Pork Pie where the crew took on many roles, including Murphy, who was also the mechanic and a set builder.

“We did some things which we wouldn’t dream of doing now,” Bollinger says. “We got a lot done with a small crew over seven weeks, travelling from one end of the country to the other.” There was also a bit of back-tracking as the Haast Pass was closed that year.

When a stuntie rolled the mini needed for a particular scene (there were three minis with various forms of damage), the crew pieced filming around what could be done without the car while the director fixed the car. The day was shot totally out of sequence.

“We’d set up the scene, rehearse it and then we’d call Geoff and then he’d go back to fixing the car,” he says.

“I always remember after looking at the rushes for that scene a couple of days later, Geoff and I were looking at each other thinking, yes we’ve got it but you could kind of tell the rest of the crew couldn’t actually make sense of it.”

Team collaboration really starts with reading the script, Bollinger says. It’s not just feeling out challenges you may be facing but also the possible issues for other departments.

“On that first read, you are the audience but on the second read, you’re reading to see what the challenges are. If you’re a designer you’re going to read the script with quite a different slant to a make-up person, who might be thinking there is a lot of prosthetics in this shoot.”

Everyone has their specialist task but don’t assume yours is the most important, he says.

Appreciate others, try to get an understanding of what they do, even if it’s just a wander around a different department.

“I can’t get my head around how you would schedule a movie – I just don’t know how they do it.”

Always give accurate time estimations (not too much and not too little) to a 1st AD – they will take you at your word and are working across all departments.

Everyone has their rightful place. Remembering that everyone on set is important and deserves respect for what they do also helps.

“As DoP I would be the highest paid person in the camera department, but when we’re shooting film, I never actually even touch the stuff. It’s the clapper loader who unloads it, one of the lowest paid people in the camera department,” he says. “This film is now gold, once it’s got pictures on it, and they then give it to the runner, one of the other lowest paid people on set. Those two people are just as important as I am in the process.”

Understanding that production has a tough job putting resources where they’re most needed, will help you to understand the importance of not asking for more than you need.

Problem solving is also about being practical and often the best suggestions come from other crew members, Bollinger says. So listen to others and don’t be afraid to speak up either. If something is disrupting filming, it’s everyone’s problem – it’s not just the boomie’s problem because it’s his shadow.

Sometimes a compromise is needed and sometimes it can actually enhance the scene, he says.

“But the problem if you don’t sort out your compromises before the shoot, is that stuff just gets chopped,” Bollinger says. “It can get peeled back to the basic plot line whereas you need room to develop character and contrast.”

Problem solving of course ideally happens in pre-production but the reality is budgets and schedules don’t always allow for it. A budget will largely control the production, it doesn’t define the project.

“I often relate filmmaking to architecture,” he says.

“Most of it is mediocre, some of it is really classy and some is complete crap.”

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