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FEATURE THE FORGIVEN
illiamWages, ASC, is a hugely experienced cinematographer with credits behind the camera stretching all the
he met director Roland Joffé. William remembers the latter production as being “about the beginning of rock and roll in Sun Studio. Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, was the centre of the rock and roll universe in this converted garage in Memphis.” This production would turn out to be prophetic, based on William’s use of Panasonic’s Varicam series alongside their compact Lumix stills cameras, for use in tight spaces. Williamdescribes Roland, who immediately liked the combination of Varicam and Lumix, as being “as progressive a thinker as anyone I’ve ever been around.” On Sun Records , Roland and William found themselves in such a state of creative agreement that much of the usual discussion could be short-circuited. “If we did a shot list, it was the same. I still did the prep but we didn’t compare notes any more because we were on the same page... and halfway through he told me about The Forgiven in South Africa.” William had worked in the country before, and “I know the ropes, so I jumped at the chance.” Even so, the production was immediately challenging. “The budget was still in flux. When we got there we had to decide what we could do. My philosophy of making movies, and
way back to 1979. As such, he is a rare example of the Hollywood moviemaker who has never lived in Los Angeles. “I never moved out there to Hollywood,” he chuckles. “I don’t keep it a secret – nobody asked, so I don’t tell them!” William began shooting at the tender age of 16. He worked, he says, “a summer job at a machine shop and bought the Bolex and a 25mm lens... the only thing I didn’t have was film, that was the expensive part. A show came into Atlanta which was basically like MTV. They made videos of people dancing, typical stuff of the 70s. They said, ‘here’s three rolls of film. If we like it, we’ll give you two hundred and fifty dollars’. I was at high school. My grades plummeted, but my filmmaking...”. History finishes the sentence. PAYING THEWAGES Having worked on almost every type of production, William’s recent credits include several television series, including episodes of Burn Notice , Revolution , Containment and most recently Sun Records , on which
We speak to DOPWilliamWages and Director Roland Joffé about the look for this moment in time newmovie
WORDS PHIL RHODES PICTURES SABAN FILMS
SHOT DURING 2016 ON LOCATION IN CAPE TOWN’S POLLSMOOR PRISON, THE PRODUCTION BOASTS A CAST INCLUDING ERIC BANA AND FOREST WHITTAKER AS DESMOND TUTU
DEFINITION APRIL 2018
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