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Fred Schepisi and Ian Baker: Companions on a cinematic journey
After enjoying a long working relationship legendary Australian director Fred Schepisi and cinematographer Ian Baker both agree that by now, they can read each otherâs creative minds
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fter enjoying a long working relationship legendary Australian director Fred Schepisi and cinematographer Ian Baker both agree that by now, they can read each other's creative minds.
The two have been working together since the very beginning of their careers, when they both started out during the renaissance of the Australian film industry in the early 1970s.
Baker joked that back in the early days, he was happy to 'sweep the floor for Fred'. Since then Baker has worked with him on every film except one, Last Orders.
'I was around to take on the shooting of his first feature film, The Devil's Playground,' Baker said,
adding that the idea came out of a short piece Schepisi made for the omnibus film, Libido (1973).
At the Brisbane International Film Festival in mid November, there was an 'In-conversation' session with Schepisi and Baker. A retrospective of their work was part of the festival's program.
Schepisi has worked in Hollywood for many years and is known around the world for his highly successful films, including Roxanne, The Russia House, Plenty, Evil Angels, Six Degrees of Separation and The Eye of the Storm.
His latest film Words and Pictures, which stars Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche, was a big hit at the Toronto Film Festival in September this year.
The film centers on two teachers ' one a writer and the other a painter ' and how each tries to convince the other that their art is the more important while inspiring their students and falling in love with each other in the process.
Schepisi has been frequently described as an actors' director, but when asked about that, he laughed and said it did not mean he would take them into a corner and talk psycho-babble to them for half an hour.
'It means listening to their vision for the character, then I become a focus of that, and I just allow them to do it ' keep them on track. I am a mirror and a sounding board. They need to know they can trust you and you will never let them go over the top, where they will look silly,' he said.
He was credited with guiding two actresses to performances that earned Academy Award nominations ' Meryl Streep in Evil Angels and Stockard Channing in Six Degrees of Separation.
Schepisi, now 74, began his career in advertising and worked his way up from a copywriter to owning his own agency. He later joined the new Producers and Directors Guild, a cooperative in which he felt he could learn about all of the different disciplines involved in filmmaking.
While Baker on the other hand, attended art school, studying fine arts, which he said was an excellent experience and preparation for a cinematographer. Both disciplines ' painting and cinematography ' deal with composition, light and shade, color, tonality and have many more common aspects.
'We study famous paintings quite often, to decide on the 'look' for our film. And we talk about light, perhaps describing it as 'Vermeer style lighting',' Baker said.
During the shooting of Plenty, Baker and Schepisi agreed on a philosophy for shooting, which lasted from then on. Sound and image are coworkers, meaning the sound can tell something and save the camera from having to do it.
Schepisi often contributes a lot to the scripts and said there were nineteen drafts of Roxanne before he was satisfied with it.
'Making films is extremely organic and everything may have to change if it's not working,' he said.
Baker agreed that filmmaking was a process that should be open to change. He just shot his first film with digital equipment.
'I liked it more than I thought I would and I loved having quick access to the material. We can look at the final image, right there on the set. We are still novices in the digital era at the moment. Words and Pictures look fabulous,' he said.
On the switch to working with digital cameras, Schepisi said people should see the positive.
'Don't say I can't do this or that.
'Talk about the positives. Film went through progressions and now digital photography will too. It's here to stay and soon film won't be around anymore.'
Baker said that he enjoys and greatly values working with Schepisi.
'He is the best director I've worked with because he pushes. He's tough. Yes, he pushes me and everyone for their ultimate best. He'll say, 'Let's do it again. It can be better.''
