BEN DAVIS - Cinematographer

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 131 - Ben Davis - Cinematographer

In this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with cinematographer Ben Davis (THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, LAYER CAKE). During our conversation, we talk all things cinematography, and we learn what it was about a film set that initially appealed to a younger Ben. We also discuss the importance of knowing how a film is going to be cut, and Ben reflects on his path working up the grades of the camera department. A frequent collaborator with director Martin McDonagh (Season 2, Episode 19), Ben shares how he and Martin typically prep, and he describes their process for working on THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN. We also discuss how Ben balances shooting with multiple cameras, and he compares the experiences of shooting on films with many resources against those with much fewer. We later discuss the pitfalls of pre-vis, and we reflect on the different practices of manipulating film stock and digital footage. Plus, Ben shares his best impression of producer Dino De Laurentiis

This episode is sponsored by Aputure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to Season 2 of the Team Deacons podcast, a collection of informal conversations
0:10.1	between Roger and James Deacons and a guest.
0:14.0	We never know where the conversation will take us, so listen in and see where it goes.
0:28.7	This episode is sponsored by Aperture, a premier manufacturer of LED lighting with the industry's greatest variety of fixtures for your complete lighting needs.
0:33.8	Aperture recently announced the new storm family of lights.
0:43.4	With LED white light quality that matches natural daylight and classic tungsten bulbs,
0:47.3	plus extreme low-end dimming while maintaining color quality.
0:55.6	Discover more about the new storm lights and the complete Aperture lighting ecosystem at Aperture.com.
1:04.4	Today we're speaking with the cinematographer. His credits are many and include guardians of the galaxy, the king's man, and the banshees of Inashiren were pleased to welcome Ben Davis.
1:11.7	Ben, thank you for doing this.
1:13.4	Thank you for having me.
1:14.6	We'd love to start with our first question, which is, how did you get to where you are today?
1:20.9	Your dad's a cinematographer, so was it always sort of planned that you would go that direction,
1:27.1	or did you want to be a dog
1:29.7	walker before you found this?
1:31.9	What's your story?
1:33.1	No, I don't think it was planned in that direction.
1:35.8	I do, you know, what I remember most distinctly about my father's profession was his absence
1:43.7	most of the time because he was away a lot
1:46.1	working uh you know he was working yeah there was a lot of documentary work he did so he was away
1:51.1	for long periods and it wasn't an intention i mean i was always interested in photography we had a
1:56.8	a lab you know we used to develop and print our own stuff, my brother and I.
	...

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