CAREER STORIES
INTERVIEW Nicola Foley IMAGES Kerry Brown/Netflix
Cinematographer Laurie Rose is known for his work on Rebecca (2020), Kill List (2011), Peaky Blinders and Rosaline (2022). He was granted the British Academy Television Craft award for photography & lighting in fiction for his work on London Spy (2015)
Definition: How did you get into filmmaking? Laurie Rose: I went to art school; but I couldn’t draw so wanted to do sculpture. I did a lot of welding things together – and blowing things up! – which somehow developed into performance art and installations. I sometimes videoed these events; those were the days of video editing tape to tape, something I did not enjoy! I left art school pretty disillusioned by it all and had no plans to carry on… Def: What initially appealed to you about becoming a DOP? LR: It was never a conscious plan for me, and it was a long and winding path. From
LR: Every director and cinematographer relationship is different – and it should be. People’s backgrounds and approaches can vary wildly, but I hope that I can be a solid partner for any director. It’s always a team effort: none of us can do this work alone without any input from others, and the best teams always bring different things to a project, even if it’s a sense of humour! Similarly, cinematographers alone cannot make good cinematography, they always need talented people around them and a director to motivate, inspire and encourage that process. I hope I can do that in return.
running at a TV company, to freelance documentary sound, to TV location camera, to full-time narrative work, it was about a 15-year process in total. But what I love about what I do is the creation of ‘things’ to convey a story or a message, which I guess speaks to my time at art school. I love the blend of craft and technology. I love working with people who are on the same journey as you, with collaborative crew – or friends as I like to see them – this is the centre for me on any project. Def: How would you describe the dynamics between DOP and director?
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