Oscar Preview/Cinematographer Focus: Ben Smithard, BSC - My Week With Marilyn

SHOOT

Ben Smithard Type: News Category: News Options: SHOOT provides a taste of what's in store on two fronts in next week's Directors Issue; My Week With Marilyn generates Academy Awards buzz LOS ANGELES, October 14, 2011, Robert Goldrich --- Among the feature stories in next week's Directors Issue will be a focus on Cinematographers & Cameras as well as the first installment of our Road to Oscar series. In a sense, our interview with Ben Smithard, BSC, covers both those bases. Smithard is one of three DPs being profiled in the Cinematographers & Cameras feature--and he happens to have shot My Week With Marilyn, the Simon Curtis-directed film which is generating a fair share of early Oscar buzz.      Here are some insights from Smithard into the movie, his working relationship with Curtis, shooting with film and digital cameras, and his commercialmaking career. Ben Smithard, BSC My Week With Marilyn takes us behind the scenes of a week shooting The Prince and the Showgirl, a 1957 movie directed by Laurence Olivier and starring him and Marilyn Monroe in the title roles. Colin Clark, who's in the employ of Olivier, chronicles the week, and is portrayed by Eddie Redmayne in My Week With Marilyn--with Michelle Williams as Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Olivier. The supporting cast includes Judi Dench as actress Sybil Thorndike, Julia Ormond as Olivier's wife, Vivian Leigh, and Dougray Scott as Monroe's husband at the time, playwright Arthur Miller.      Director Simon Curtis and cinematographer Ben Smithard, BSC, bring a track record of noteworthy collaborations to My Week With Marilyn, starting with the BBC miniseries Cranford (nominated for six BAFTA Awards) and then Return To Cranford (nominated for a 2010 Best Cinematography Emmy). Both Cranford projects were directed by Curtis and Steve Hudson. My Week With Marilyn was shot over a span of just seven weeks. "Every single second on that film set was precious with time being so tight," said Smithard. "We had to make the most out of every moment."      That proposition was made more feasible thanks in part to the already well honed working relationship between Smithard and Curtis based on their prior collaborations. "There are times Simon doesn't have to say anything to me," related Smithard. "I know where he wants me to be. He understands what I'm doing and why. I know what he wants, how he works. It also helps that I like him as a person. He's a decent man, a real humanitarian, a great people person and a great actors' director. It's easier to spend a lot of time--particularly in a tight schedule when you're under pressure--with someone you like and respect. We were doing post together a year later and recently shot a couple extra bits with Michelle [Williams] for the film."      Also better enabling Smithard to handle a relatively short shoot for an ambitious feature was the fact that "my prep work was two weeks longer than the whole shoot. To have time to plan and prepare is invaluable--as is knowing most of the crew, the first assistant director and of course my rapport with Simon. With preparation, you sometimes better know where you might have to compromise a bit to accommodate the shooting schedule. You might have to sacrifice a little bit of this or that, a bit of lighting, to make sure you get out the best story possible. Ultimately the story is everything. You try to simplify things. Sometimes you can make things too complex so I always ask myself, 'Will what I'm considering help the story?' If the answer is 'no,' you can move on to something else that will advance the story. In preparation, I try to explore the story as much as possible."      My Week With Marilyn was shot on 35mm film. "In the back and forth that goes on between film and digital," said Smithard, "one thing I know for a fact is that for a period film, like this one, shooting film gives you that period look. And ten years from now that will be even more so--you'll want that little bit of grain, texture, that film feel to convey an earlier period."      At the same time, Smithard--who's handled by agent Dattner Dispoto and Associates--is no stranger to digital. The last few years he has shot TV series with digital cameras. "Given the choice I would still shoot film," he affirmed. But in the case of the original Cranford miniseries, Smithard was a strong proponent of deploying the Genesis. "There were some budget issues and I didn't want to shoot Judy Dench, who was the main lead, on 16mm film. We couldn't afford to shoot 35mm. So we wound up going with the Genesis camera, which was a bit too expensive at first but Panavision helped to make the budget work."      Smithard says he loves the Genesis. Furthermore, at press time he was having a favorable experience with the RED Epic on a BBC TV series carrying a working title of Love Life and being directed by Dominic Savage.      Besides Curtis, Smithard enjoys working relationships with a number of directors, among the more notable being Tom Hooper who won the Oscar and DGA Award earlier this year for The King's Speech (which was shot by Danny Cohen, BSC). Smithard lensed the film The Damned United, directed by Hooper for Sony Pictures. And the DP has since reteamed with Hooper on his initial commercials for production house Smuggler, one for Captain Morgan, the other for Guinness. Smithard lensed the ad assignments for Hooper with ARRI's Alexa digital camera, with both jobs turning out well.      Commercials represent the foundation of Smithard's career in cinematography. "I had 300 to 400 commercials to my credit before I ever got near a movie," he recalled. "My experience on commercials made me a better, more versatile cinematographer. You have to be just by virtue of the variety of the work over an extended period of time--one week I'm on the Serengeti shooting wildebeests, the next week I'm doing a hair commercial with a beautiful model in studio, then I'm shooting food, action and so on. You learn your craft by doing commercials."      Smithard-lensed spots span such clients as the BBC, Yakult, Nike, Radio 5, Rolo, and the Daily Telegraph, among assorted others. While commercials have informed Smithard's diversification into TV and features, so too has this longer form fare enabled him to bring more back to commercials. "Once you've shot TV programs, for example, you have had to perfect your craft at working quickly and thinking on your feet. You learn all the time," said Smithard. "Spending so much time with actors on long form helps you learn to concentrate on performance, the various subtleties of performance. It can only help you in commercials and branded content."      Smithard's filmography also includes music videos, which he isn't all that active in anymore. But over a brief stretch, he shot clips for the likes of such performers as Moby, Alfie, Groove Armada, David Bowie, Rum DMC, Wise Guys, DJ Shadow, Gemma Hayes and New Order. Another key benefit of crossing over from one filmmaking discipline to another, continued Smithard, is the opportunity to collaborate with artisans you might not get to meet otherwise. "You learn from all these different artists and hopefully they learn from you."      In one instance, a commercial proved to be much more than a learning experience for Smithard--it was a life-enriching one. Some 10-plus years ago, he shot the first commercial directed by documentary filmmaker Joanna Bailey who now helms commercials via Bare Films, London. Their meeting sparked what turned into a romance and they are now married with kids. Over the years, he has had occasion to shoot other commercials directed by Bailey and she has helped make him a better cinematographer. Smithard explained, "She has a documentary background and needed to work with DPs who understand observational photography. I had to learn that, to observe people, capture them and do justice to who they are. That was one of the biggest single attributes I've ever learned from anyone in the business."      As for what's on the horizon, Smithard is scheduled to begin shooting in January 2012 a two-part BBC series, Shakespeare's Henry IV, directed by Richard Eyre whose credits include the acclaimed feature film Notes On A Scandal.