By Jeremy Nigro
Canadian-born Los Angeles local, Paul Cameron, knows a thing or two about shooting big budget movies. Some of his credits include Gone In 60 Seconds, Swordfish, Man On Fire, Collateral, Déjà Vu, and most recently, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – the biggest ever film production in Australian history. “It was amazing,” Cameron says of his time shooting in Queensland. “I have to commend everybody who was part of the crew. These people know how to move lights and move cameras, and they can deal with big problems. They’re strong. They were a pleasure to be with every day, and I look forward to working with them again.”
The first four Pirates films were shot by Dariusz Wolski, who, as well as shooting Alex Proyas’ cult films, The Crow and Dark City, is known for collaborating with Ridley Scott on Prometheus, The Counsellor, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Martian, and next year’s Alien: Covenant. With such big shoes to fill, how did Paul Cameron approach his first entry into an established franchise? “You gotta go in fresh no matter what you do,” he replies. “Dariusz Wolski shot four beautiful Pirates films. He established a great feel with these movies, and all the people involved who came back to work on it were all part of that too. For me, it’s just about doing what we can do to take it further. There’s some new stuff that we did with drones which was fun. I hope that it’s visually as good as any of the previous movies.”
And as Wolski collaborated regularly with Ridley Scott, so Paul Cameron had previously worked with that director’s brother, the late Tony Scott. The two worked together on Man On Fire and Déjà Vu, with Scott giving a young Cameron sage advice as he started out in the industry. “The best advice that I got was from Tony Scott,” says Cameron. “He said, ‘You gotta be two things if you want to make it: you gotta be interesting, and you gotta be interested. That’s what I’d say as a DP, and I’ve found that over my career, it rings true.”
It was actually Tony Scott who helped Cameron land the role as cinematographer for Collateral, for which he and co-cinematographer, Australian, Dion Beebe, shared a BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography. Collateral is often cited as one of the first major motion pictures to use digital film, with Cameron recounting how that came about. “The experience of doing Collateral really started with trying to find that kind of acidic, acrid, night reality,” he explains. “I tested it on film, with a wide open lens, and a fast lens…I kept pushing it. When I was shooting tests with digital systems, at the time they were very basic. We were testing a lot with the Sony900, which looked like the best film stock for that movie at that time. We had all heard that things were happening with digital cameras, but it was never intended to be the start of a revolution. I thought of it at the time as just embracing another film stock.”
Over ten years later, and Cameron is back to using 35mm film, this time for the pilot of HBO’s newest megahit series, Westworld. Cameron recounts his meeting with showrunner, Jonathan Nolan, to discuss using film. “It was pretty simple,” Cameron says. “I met with Jonathan Nolan and I wanted to recommend shooting on film. As soon as it came up ten minutes into the meeting, he said that he wanted to shoot on film and then we just moved on to the next topic and kept going from there. That was a good opportunity meeting Jonathan. He’s a terrific writer, director, showrunner, and creator. He’s a new breed of hybrid director/creator. He’s written a lot of good movies and co-written movies with his brother [Christopher Nolan]. He’s a Renaissance man.”
Cameron also discusses the inspiration for the visual aesthetic of the series. “With Westworld, we wanted a classic western movie,” he says. “We wanted something that felt like a little pocket of that. We didn’t shoot blue screen on anything; everything was practical. The designer, Nathan Crowley, was amazing. He came up conceptually with stuff like the glass walled endless rooms, where the androids are programmed, brought in and washed, bullets pulled out of ‘em, sewn back together again and then put back in the park the next day. That’s Westworld.”
Setting the template, but only lensing the Westworld pilot due to the commitment required of a TV series, Cameron isn’t against coming aboard a few more eps of the hit series if the offer came. “Oh for sure. Why not? To work with Jonathan again or the other directors would be great, so we’ll see what happens. He’s a great filmmaker, so there’s no question, if the phone rings, who wouldn’t want to be there?” Cameron isn’t willing to go into what he’s working on right now, but he dropped a cheeky hint that he might be back in Australia in the near future. “You never know, I might see you guys sooner than you think,” he smiles. “You might see me walking down the streets of Sydney any day now. But I’d love to do another film down there because the studio is great and the city is gorgeous and the people are wonderful.”
Westworld is screening now on Showcase. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will be released on May 25, 2017.
