American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 52

Lives Under Siege

By Rachael K. Bosley
No two projects are alike for any cinematographer, but this
year marked a particularly varied slate for Roger Deakins,
ASC, BSC, who shot John Crowley's contemporary drama The
Goldfinch, released in September, and Sam Mendes' period
combat film 1917, released Christmas Day.
Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch tells a story that spans two decades,
following a boy who loses his mother in a bombing in
Manhattan and contends with the effects as he evolves into
adulthood. 1917 simulates a single, unbroken shot to follow
two British soldiers taking an urgent message to the Western
Front. The Goldfinch was Deakins' first collaboration with
Crowley, and 1917 was his fourth feature with Mendes,
following Jarhead (AC Nov. '05), Revolutionary Road (AC Jan.
'09) and Skyfall (AC Dec. '12).
The cinematographer recently met with AC in New
York to discuss both productions. His wife, James Ellis
Deakins, was the digital-workflow consultant on the projects
and provided additional details during the conversation.
52

January 2020

American Cinematographer: Let's begin with your
approach to two scenes in The Goldfinch that bookend the
relationship between Theo and Pippa, his love interest. In
the first, they're children [played by Oakes Fegley and
Aimee Laurence], and he visits her in her room after the
bombing. In the second, they're adults [played by Ansel
Elgort and Ashleigh Cummings] at a restaurant, and she
tells him she doesn't plan to return to New York.
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC: That scene in Pippa's room
is a good example of how we approached location work in
New York in general: We were shooting in winter, so daylight
was short and inconsistent, and we basically had to take out
the natural light and re-create it so we could get a 12-hour
shooting day. That scene was shot on the second floor of a
small townhouse in Bedford-Stuyvesant. John and I wanted
this pastel light, motivated by the window blinds, and then to
have the sun come out at a key moment in the scene. I needed
to create a wide, soft source to mimic natural daylight whilst
at the same time bypass the density and color changes that
would occur as day went into night. [Gaffer] Steve Ramsey
and his crew suspended a 20-by-20-foot Ultrabounce from a
crane to cut out the natural daylight, and then we bounced an
Arri M90 off that same rag to create some soft ambience. There

American Cinematographer - 100 Years

The Goldfinch unit photography by Macall Polay; images courtesy of Warner Bros.
Entertainment and Amazon Content Services. 1917 unit photography by François
Duhamel, SMPSP, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Taking on contemporary
drama and the depths of war,
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC
shoots The Goldfinch
and 1917



American Cinematographer - January 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2020

Contents
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - Intro
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 1
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - Contents
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 3
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 4
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 5
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 6
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American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 70a
American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 70b
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American Cinematographer - January 2020 - Cover3
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