blending idyllic expositional imagery with surveillance footage. It also features interviews with local journalists and activists, shipwreck survivors and the Greek coastguard’s former head of special operations who – unaware the cameras were still rolling – accidentally incriminated the national organisation. “Everyone has the person they’d like to be presented as and then the person that they are,” begins Steele. “My job is to get the person that they are.” To that end, Steele always keeps his camera on; “that’s when the good stuff happens,” he shares. Too large a team can also be “unhelpful in terms of establishing intimacy and authenticity,” he argues. “When it’s just me, people relax and become themselves. Pretending to be somebody else is incredibly hard work.” In the interview with the coastguard’s former head of special operations, Dimitris Baltakos, Steele (off screen) presents Baltakos with a video of a suspected forced return. To the camera, Baltakos denies its illegality, refusing to
“I’m really proud of that interview because I knew that guy – given his role and given what I knew about the story – was not a good guy,” reveals Steele. “The way I’ve shot that is with a massive shadow in the interview,” he describes, which conveniently serves as a visual metaphor for the truth Baltakos is trying to conceal. “He goes and reveals his true, darker self.” Go-to gear Dead Calm took nine months to make, with Roundtable’s Paul Koren handling the grade, Dan Weinberg creating the sound mix and Lucile Smith producing. Steele’s since been working with Idris Elba on a documentary for BBC One. Across every project, he sources kit from CVP. “When I decided to step up my camera gear, I went to CVP,” Steele states. “They’re the only people I’ve bought gear from in the UK. They were incredibly brilliant at letting me get my hands on the cameras.”
suggest that the masked men seen in the video are with the coastguard. Steele prods even further: “There’s a reason I get involved; it’s motivated by the narrative,” he claims – seemingly with no luck. Eventually, Baltakos speaks to someone else (also off screen) during downtime, saying, “I don’t know why they did it in broad daylight. It’s clearly illegal. It’s an international crime.” THERE’S A REASON I GET INVOLVED; it’s motivated by the narrative ”
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