DRAMA | THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
feel of the present day, where the cameras are more observant. In the ‘past’ the cameras are much more fluid. Then eventually you swap the styles with each other as well when the story demands it.” Shooting had a big family vibe, says Neville. “Everyone was competing with each other to bring a better performance. That’s what happens when you get a family together, they all start behaving like a family.” NO FARGO-LIKE RULES “There were some Fargo-like rules when we found our favourite lenses, I think mine was the Canon 24mm which became one of our favourites. It was fantastic. It was a 24 and a 35mm world, I think 80% of the show was shot on those two lenses. The 14mm was great when you really wanted to go bigger with the 65. “There was no cemented discipline, I don’t want to be known for a specific style, I can bring in a variety of different styles. I’m always aware of trying to make everything relevant to the scripts. But you can be known for a certain look, for instance I know some of my friend’s styles and can recognise them. For producers it’s purely subjective, I like that. “It’s like when I’m choosing camera operators I look at their showreel and I can see that they see the world the way I see it. I look at other camera operators who are phenomenal but they don’t compose how I see the world so I don’t hire them. There is no point in me constantly telling them how to frame so I always look for camera operators who subjectively see the world as I do, roughly, so I can just leave them to it. You tell them what you’re looking for and then you very rarely have to tell them how to see it. It’s fantastic when you get that team together, it’s one of the most satisfying
I always look for camera operators who subjectively see the world as I do
things; you’ve got a gaffer who likes the same films that you like and camera operators who if we all took a photograph of something we would all take the same one without knowing it. “It’s a fascinating visual world we’ll all moving into now where everyone is taking hundreds of photographs every week, they’re watching YouTube and Vimeo. The access to the visual medium has exploded. For DOPs it’s a fantastic time to be alive; to be producing work with the technology moving so fast with cameras giving us images that were unthinkable ten years ago. If you produce something on YouTube and it’s good and the world likes it, you could be discovered insanely quickly and be propelled up the ladder very quickly.” THE FIRST SERIES OF THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY IS ON NETFLIX NOW.
44 DEF I N I T ION | MARCH 20 1 9
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