DRAMA | SEX EDUCAT ION
IT’S BEEN EMOTIONAL Netflix’s Sex Education is a huge production with multiple set-ups, magnetic casting and a new camera. We talk to DOP Jamie Cairney
QUESTIONS JULI AN M ITCHELL / PICTURES NETFLIX
DEFINITION: With so much episodic shooting happening, how did you want to make this show different? What was your plan or aesthetic from pre-production? JAMIE CAIRNEY: As with all my projects, I don’t start with time, money or kit; I have to be led by the script. I need to feel some kind of connection with the story and the characters and, importantly, I need to believe it. The quality of Laurie Nunn’s writing and the depth to the characters made for a quick first read and the images formed quickly. I realised straight away: I have to shoot this! The icing on the cake was that Ben Taylor would be directing, who I’ve worked with many times. Ben always pushes for the best and this is one of the reasons we get on so well. We spent a lot of time talking about
what the look of the show would be. A key point for Ben was the idea of bringing an American high-school-film feel to the UK, but at the same time creating a sense the show could be set anywhere and at any time in the last 30 years. This led us to several references. First, John Hughes – in particular an old favourite of ours, The Breakfast Club . Hughes shaped the cast and photographed them in such a way that everyone in the audience couldn’t fail to feel a connection with all the characters on some level. It’s like the camera was the unseen member of the group of misfits; one minute you’d be laughing with them, the next, crying. It was really important for Ben that we treat the characters of Sex Education in a similar way. Another important reference for us was Dazed and Confused . Both of us always loved
this film and we watched a very clean version together that looked like it was shot yesterday. If Mr Linklater has watched our show, I hope he can see his influence! We were certainly inspired by the colour palette and costumes in his film. Finally, with production designer SamHarley, we spent lots of time enjoying Venetia Scott’s splendid photography. DEF: How did you feel about using the new Sony Venice? Can you tell us what you got from the Venice and how it performed? JC: Being Netflix, this show was always going to be digital. I like to think of myself as ‘format agnostic’ in that I always take time to choose the right system for the job and happily flit between film and digital cameras. Obviously, whatever system and workflow we ultimately used would
28 DEF I N I T ION | MARCH 20 1 9
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