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Fade To Black: John Seale, Cinematographer

Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM, By Michael Goldman

With Cold Mountain behind him, DP John Seale eased into a more laid-back L.A. shoot for director James L. Brooks' Spanglish. In a recent conversation, Seale agreed to reveal the basics of his shooting secret, which is, of course, no secret to any professional who has worked with him.

“It's really quite simple — multiple cameras always, zooms, cross-shooting, high-speed Kodak stock. That's the way I do all my movies,” explains the four-time Oscar nominee and winner for The English Patient in 1996. (Seale adds that from Cold Mountain onward, whenever possible, this formula now includes a digital intermediate, as well.)

Seale admits that his shooting style has caused people to occasionally accuse him of “compromising light.” That's OK, though, he says. In his view, multiple cameras provide him with so much more coverage, so many more options to pace the film better, that any significant compromises can easily be dumped from the final product with no loss of crucial footage.

“I have a couple rules for the multiple cameras,” Seale explains. “The second or third cameras have to go in every bit as fast as the first camera. I make focus pullers crazy by swinging all the cameras around and zooming like crazy, almost never locked off.

“The second rule is that no camera repeats the exact shot of the other cameras — they must all be doing different things to advance the film. This way, we don't restrict actors to hitting a bloody mark, and we just light in a reality driven style, so that you can cross shots from multiple cameras. This usually helps your budget, because you get three shots for the price of one.”

Seale brought this approach to the comedy Spanglish. He says the film is being shot “very documentary, with a dash of sitcom, and one hopes, the quality of film.”

“Jim Brooks was a little wary [of the multiple-camera approach],” says Seale. “He has come to accept the style, albeit slowly. He would come in the morning and tell me we could get the coverage with one camera. But when the setup was ready, there would be two cameras there, and I would tell him, ‘Well, we just have a little cutaway here that will cut nicely in continuity.’ That second camera would then be there for the rest of the day, and the next day the ritual would be repeated.”

Seale has been getting away with this approach since starting as a DP in Australia in the early 1980s. Within five years, he was nominated for an Oscar for Witness (1985), and three years later for Rain Man (1988). But it was his collaborations with director Anthony Minghella on The English Patient and, last year, on Cold Mountain, that moved Seale into lofty cinematography status.

“Anthony [Minghella], after we finished Cold Mountain, said my approach to moving the cameras around helped him creatively with the actors, which is something we've talked about for years,” says Seale. “We don't worry about marks anymore, we don't try to contain the performers — it kills an actor's performance to do that.”

Seale feels his methods are particularly useful now that he has been able to add the DI to his repertoire.

“You can't light digitally and make it look realistic, but you can enhance lighting, and this is a major step forward,” he says. “I can save money in gels and filters and things on-set this way, we can do more with windows, and so on. That's why I've become a convert [to the DI process].

“I've also become intrigued by shooting digitally. I haven't done it yet, but I do think cameramen had better grab new recording devices and put craftsmanship into them, rather than complaining about them. There is obviously a future in this digital way of working. I don't know if I'll get around to it — I may be out of the game by then — but I am intrigued by it.”

Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.
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