DEFINITION March 2018

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SHOOT STORY PEAKY BLINDERS

joy for me to see that shoot-out and what you might say would be over the top shooting, but it works beautifully.” “Traditionally it was one DOP per season,” Watters muses. “If I was asked again, being honest, I’d find it difficult to refuse. It’s an incredible thing to do. You don’t often get to light like that, to shoot like that.” Having achieved enviable viewing figures on its BBC2 broadcast, the production built further support when it was released in a single block on Netflix. “When it was going out, I was gone on recess, I wasn’t in the country,” Watters recalls, “but people were telling me, ‘I can’t wait for next week!’ I’m not a big social media fan but it was incredible to hear what people think. You get a very raw, very immediate reaction on the likes of Twitter. Since it went on Netflix in the States it’s been incredible. People have contacted me from Sweden, Brazil, Canada, different people, and I think that’s incredible. It’s something I’d never experienced – it was amazing to see the reaction.” Peaky Blinders won BAFTA Television Craft awards for George Steel’s cinematography and Simone

IF I WAS ASKED AGAIN, BEING HONEST, I'D FIND IT DIFFICULT TO REFUSE

Grattarola’s colour work in 2014. Watters’ work on season four is set to continue that tradition, standing nominated for the Irish Film and Television Academy’s award for cinematography, among several other 2018 IFTA nominations. Everyone involved with the production is clear that Peaky Blinders gleefully occupies its own somewhat hyper-realised world. “It’s in the world, you don’t question it. That’s what I love about Peaky ,” says Watters. “That’s what the other DOPs who have worked on it have done, particularly George Steel who started it. He and director Otto Bathurst created a world where you could. You’ve got this modern music, this modern way of telling stories. It just really works.”

ABOVE A talented ensemble cast, coupled with a consistently strong visual style, ensures Peaky Blinders ' continued success.

DEFINITION MARCH 2018

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