visions of life

On and off, I have been at it for 2 weeks. And now it is, sorta done. I am talking about my website for my work in cinematography. Most of the pages were done in a day but the rest, mainly 'compressing' video fils, took a while. I leave them overnight and go to sleep. In the morning, I add one more quicktime clip/film. I am awaiting some films and music videos to get finished and to be sent a copy. Some projects going back a whole year.

When I started I had 4 student films on my reel, and 3 were on super8. I have a funny variety. Mostly low/no budget shorts and features and art films. I would say most DP's reels consisted of commercials. It's one washing powder ad after another. Get paid a lot for that crap. I have no commercials. I have shot quite a few in house commercials for BidUp TV but i don't have the footage. Good commercials are like really good shorts films. In fact, most shorts come nowhere near the narrative power of a commercial in 30 seconds. I have been asked for interviews or to shoot on the strength that my reel wasn't all slick and commercial. We get what we can do. Many commercial DP's have never shot a feature, budget or no budget (unless you are of course already shooting features you go back to shooting commercials). Shooting drama is a different aesthetic and really, what most DP's aspire to do (though big commercials pay an immense amount of money to DP's, about £1500 a day). When you're in an industry that pays people £1500 a day to light something for beauty, you can either forget why you got into it in the first place or feel lucky that you are where you aspired to reach. DP's come from all sorts of backgrounds and various experiences. I am still surprised when I occasionally read where some studied, trained, what jobs they has before and how they became successful. More often than not, it is both by good fortune and the willingness to shoot.

Despite the small struggles of constantly looking for the next job and the next paid job, i wouldn't take back one day of any shoot. It is mostly work but there can be a lot of fun to be had and it's always a learning experience. And if we can learn as we work, it's one of the best discourses one can have. Many people will watch 10 second clip from a film and won't think it took 4 hours in the freezing cold, being up 16 hours and under some pressure to finish before the sun comes up. But under budgets, equipment, manpower and time, you have to get it done and you have to do it well, under whatever circumstance you come across.

DP's are regarded as the calmer of the Director/DP relationship. DP's can be and normally are a combination of the following attributes: aesthetically guided, technically knowledgable, managerial, diplomatic, decisive, pragmatic, problem solvers, low temprements and it has been said, generally nice people.

I could go on about cinematographers and but there are already a few books on it. Needless to say, they tend to be the unsung major contributors in a film's making (except within the industry). Sometimes when I am asked what I do, I tend to have to explain the role as well because very few people know what a Director Of Photography (DP/DOP) or Cinematographer actually does. And then, I still find it difficult to explain the intricacies and the duties and responsibilities.

Anyway. I hope you find some time to watch some of my work from over the last 4-8 years (with a break in between).

www.busstrikeproductions.co.uk

- J

far away so close

Some photos taken with my little sony digital compact i got 2nd hand from Hong Kong. It's so old no one sold the original Memory Sticks (it's all gone Pro and Micro). It's great as it has a turrent of head so can turn all the way 180 degrees. It's nice to just whip out and take snaps. I have to say I can't be asked to drag my monster SLR everywhere and the Leica will only hold in decent light. So without further ado- the first is the streets of Mong Kok, the most densely populated area in Hong Kong. Although it is 2am there and the markets are cleaning up. I had never seen this before that night. The second is from my flight back. I sat fairly near the head of the plane though i took this from even further towards the front. I was hard to get the angle and I was lucky my camera tucked all the way into the side of the window for the angle. The third is from behind Charing Cross Road. I was walking around and more often than not I will see something, a building, a sign that I have never seen before despite having walked down that street many many times. It was the combination of a neo 'retro' sign and the distictly 20th century, slightly neglected building that caught me. What is apparantly called 'retro fitting'- though i do not think they meant it this time. Taking something from a past design period and refurbing it and placing it in a future context. Production Design in films such as Bladerunner and Gattaca do this.

I don't have a lot to say today. Just wanted to put these photos ups. I guess they are all related by the fact that I have never seen those sights before despite having been there many times.

One more thing. Two quotes from Gattaca... unfortunately I have to quote from memory...

"The closer I was to my goal, I realized how far I was away from it"

"Now that I am finally leaving this planet that never made me feel I belonged, I find myself strangley missing it"

Taken with a Sony F- 77.

- J

no one home

I was born in London and I grew up in Soho until I was 3 years old. I have lived in London most of my life. There is that sense of home that I have always had about London. And I do love it. But there are many things I do not like in this country.

I was on Lamma island (off Hong Kong) walking around with my friend Beatrice and we saw some English kids (10 years old) playing football. Apart from actually playing football, they were arguing amongst themselves. The general bad feelings amongst the children was not good. The contrast of just coming from Hong Kong was apparant.

I have been to India, Hong Kong and Palestine (amongst other places). I have never seen the kids fight. They play, they have manners and they beg for money- but they don't fight and they don't maliciously tease each other. In fact, there is mostly good vibes and laughter. I am not saying that they don't, it just doesn't seem the order of business in a day. I am pretty sure the correlation between adults who don't like children is directly related to how kids behave in that country. In those forementioned countries, I am fairly sure that not wanting to have children is heard of, but not liking children- is unheard of.

I find it amusing yet disturbing when kids fight or argue or harass each other and adults say, 'they are being kids'. Jeez, I don't want my kids fighting with other kids like that. 'Kids' are NOT like that- I- Shit- You- Not. Just because in the UK we are used to it, it doesn't make it right and you know, it's not right- it's dead wrong. There is little reason why children cannot be caring or loving (if not more) than adults can be. In many other countries, the big kids, they take care of the the little ones. It's ALL about care, not competition.

I have benefitted from growing up in the most culturally diverse environement and despite wanting the same for my children (if I have any), this country scares me. We can only do so much.

What am I getting at? I seem to have been rambling a little over the last few entires with no photographic evidence. I guess I am thinking of my future and where I think I would like to settle. I used it think it was in London. But now it's up in ther air. I don't know. I really don't. What I do know is that I am increasingly feeling like an alien in my own country. It's nice to discover something new in yourself, but it's a little unnerving and something to try to understand or accept.


- J

Choose thyself

It was always there though not as present as it is now. After going to Beijing I felt and increasingly so, that I do not know my own language, that I cannot communicate in words with the people of my blood lines, of history and of the future. Mandarin though, is not my language, English, is. I have become increasingly aware that something is missing from my being, and that is to learn Mandarin. And to do this, and to do it well, I have decided to go to Beijing for 6 months. This is a departure for me as I have made my base in London and to concentrate on my career as a cinematographer and now, I will be taking a break to learn a language that has little to no relevance to the progression of my career, my work. But we should do things in our lives to enrich it and these things will probably have little to do with either work, friends or family. It just comes from a need to learn and understand. I am also taking another departure and this does have absolute relevance to work.

Going to Palestine had an effect on me I did not expect yet welcome. I have also done a project recently concerning asylum seekers in the UK. In months to come I will be trying to collate enough good photographs for a exhibition to raise awareness for the work PCRF are doing. In addition, I may be in discussion to do a documentary about Asylum seekers in the UK with Medway Racial Equality Council. In January I may go to visit Romania and see what the situation is where my friend Warren is doing some work there as a nurse in a small town. We have been talking of Participatory Video work with marginalized people in society. I have more of an interest in working with young people. This may also be a project in Palestine too. It is early days.

I have been shooting mostly fiction up till now. I have always felt the work to be of small consequence though ironically, I have carried out the discourse of the work with extreme importance and due diligence. Though fun and artistically enriching, for myself, there is something missing, something lacking in real meaning or truth. Of poetry and laughter and the ability to see life in a different way, these are the things that drew and continue to draw me, to shoot fiction.

In this current ongoing flow of decisions, I believe I will be concentrating on both fiction and if time and funds allow, devoting time to invest in projects that have meaning to people who are oppressed, marginalized and who live in poverty. This is the reality some people are forced to live in, I have the luxury to choose mine. Your freedom to choose may be the most endearing and empowering discourse one possesses as a human being.

- J