BRIAN PROBYN: Cameraman
BRIAN PROBYN
Brian Probyn is an English cameraman with an impressive list of credits which include Poor Cow, Downhill Racer and Innocent Bystanders. Probyn has been in Australia recently shooting two features for Terryrod Productions, a local comDanv headed by director Terry Bourke and editor Rod Hay. Inn of the Damned was Probyn’s first project, taking him into the Australian outback to shoot a western style-horror-actionadventure which is scheduled for release in July. After an interlude, in which Probyn shot Monte Heilman’s latest movie Shatter, for producer Michael Carreras in Hong Kong, Probyn returned to Western Australia to shoot Plugg, his second feature for Terry Bourke. Cinema Papers correspondent Eric Reade took the opportuni ty to talk with Probyn and drove to Perth for some of the shooting. The following interview was conducted in the closing stages of production. How did you find the Australian crew you worked with on “Plugg”? I was most impressed with the crew and the backup. It came as a big surprise, because I was led to believe in England that there were only a couple of operators and a few focus pullers in the whole country — and if you didn’t get these people, you were in trouble. I had never heard of the ones I worked with, but they proved to be first class. The only department in which they are not completely conversant is lighting for feature films, although most of them had considerable experience in mak ing commercials. The technique of lighting for color in features will probably take two to three years to be fully understood — then they will be able to hold their own anywhere. However, there are a number of documentary cameramen who are ready and able to take on that task right now. Do you have a basic approach to lighting a feature? In broad terms, I like to approach lighting as an artist rather than a technician. I was a mural painter before I found the screen as another wall to work on. I am concerned more with the mood of the film, as I feel that the lighting should be governed by the content and should flow accordingly. I don’t believe in an automatic ratio of fill to key light and so much backlight. That’s alright in an emergency, but general ly one should approach everything
a c c o rd in g to th e d ic ta te s o f th e sto ry an d th e scenes in th a t sto ry . W h ich , o f co u rse, m e an s th a t each film is tre a te d d ifferen tly .
L e ft: D ir e c to r of Photography Brian Probyn checks a light heading with a Spectra meter during the shooting of the main title se quence for Plugg. A s a lig h tin g c a m e ra m a n , m y real ch allen g e is to go in to b la ck space, lik e a stu d io o r h a n g a r, and w ith a few pieces o f c a rd b o a rd an d h essian , re -c re a te a m a n sio n o r B a b y lo n ian tem p le. E x te rio rs a re a n o th e r sto ry . W h ereas, a rtific ia lly I h av e c o m p lete c o n tro l in th e stu d io , o u tsid e, th a t c o n tro l is lessened, as h a lf th e scene is a lre a d y p ro v id ed . I m erely re in fo rce w h at N a tu re h as su pp lied . T a k e Inn of the Damned as an ex am p le. H e re I w o rk ed on a p lan o f g e ttin g th e e x te rio rs ra th e r so ft an d g reen . I d id n ’t w an t th e u sual c o n cep t o f th e A u s tra lia n o u tb a c k . In th e early d ay s, se ttle rs w ere c o n c e rn ed m o re w ith th e co a st an d n o t w ith p u sh in g in w ard s into in h o sp ita b le co u n try . C o n seq u en tly th e green s h ad to be lush , an d in o rd e r n o t to m a k e th e m to o g reen o r v io len t, a n u m b e r o f ideas w ere used to k eep co n tro l over th e co lo rin g — fog filters, o ver ex p o su re o r a sto p dow n in p rin tin g .
B ut w hen it co m es to lig h tin g itself, ag ain it is th e m o o d th a t co u n ts. In Inn o f th e D am n ed , I w as a g a in s t th e p u re ly te c h n ic a l a p p ro a c h o f w h ite lig h t — b ecau se it is co lo r in itse lf — an d ev ery th in g has to be 3400° K elvin. E v ery o n e k n ow s th a t th e re is a v a ria tio n o f light from m o rn in g to n ig h t. A n d w here y ou h av e a p erio d film lik e Inn of the Damned, it w ould be fa ta l to h ave w h ite lig h t — all p eo p le h ad in th o se d ay s w ere can d les an d oil lam p s. I p refer to w o rk as a p a in te r w ith w a rm a n d c o o l — w ith s lig h tly q u a rte r blues in th e sh ad o w s — an d o ra n g e lig h t. O n an e x te rio r, I like a q u a rte r blu e on th e lig h t c o m in g in. By th is m ean s you can tu rn an o r d in a r y se t in to s o m e th in g th r e e d im en sio n al. T h en on e really feels th a t it’s d a y lig h t o u tsid e, o r th a t it’s oil lig h tin g w ithin. C o n v ersely one can clim b to th e to p o f a b u ild in g , set up
Cinema Papers, March-April — 73