The World's Story is Yours to Tell
Profile Spotlight: Grant Wakefield
This week the fine people of One Day on Earth would like to present cinematographer and filmmaker Grant Wakefield.
I was born and raised in Brighton, England. At school I demonstrated no talent whatsoever for art, but was endlessly fascinated by people's ability to create and emote, and not a little envious! Unable to draw or sculpt I was always looking for a way to express and share ideas, and it was a battered snap-style Kodak 110 camera that became an early focal point.
Later my father's ancient Eumig 8mm camera, and a wonderfully heavy Russian 35mm stills 'Zenit' camera became constant companions. My first film took 6 months to make - a blatant steal from / homage to KOYAANISQATSI shot in and around my home town. So basic was the set up that I didn't even have an intervalometer. I recorded myself hitting a piano note every two, or three, or five seconds, and taped 30 mins of each on to a little mono walkman. I would then take these tapes and walkman on location and hand fire each frame to pulse of the piano note.
Who are you and what is your profession?
My name is Grant Wakefield, and I am a cinematographer, specialising in motion controlled timelapse.
What inspired you to be a filmmaker?
Strangely, although I was very affected by KOYAANISQATSI, I was simply an audience member. And despite loving photography, it never actually occurred to me at the time that I would, or even could, pursue it as a career. But that changed the instant I saw the opening shot of BLADE RUNNER in 1982. It hit me like a hammer; that you could create entire worlds in this medium. In 1985 I saw Ron Fricke's IMAX film CHRONOS, and that had an equally powerful effect. The sheer power of images could communicate intense feeling, without words. I immediately joined a local film + video workshop and began learning. Fortunately this period was when video began to become widely available.
Who are your heros?
Ridley Scott and Ron Fricke would have to be up there for first showing me what was possible. The late, great cinematographer Conrad Hall combined phenomenal skill with great humility and love of his craft, similarly Nestor Alemendros and Caleb Deschanel. The pioneer 70mm film makers, particularly Deavid Lean and his cameraman Freddie Young. Gregg Toland for acheiving in 1941 on CITIZEN KANE a visual benchmark that very few since have matched. Documentary maker Adam Curtis, whose body of work includes what I believe to be the finest series that the BBC have ever produced: THE CENTURY OF THE SELF.
In other fields, the late Michael Hedges, perhaps the finest acoustic guitar player ever. Storytellers Laurie Anderson and Spalding Gray, for looking at the world in a very different way. Razor sharp and prophetic comic Bill Hicks, authors Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski and John Fante, and the UK's finest 'comedian' - for lack of a better word - Chris Morris, who has repeatedly, savagely and hilariously revealed the bogus and self-serving nature of media / celebrity saturated life. And, of course, Christopher Walken, for being...well, Christopher Walken.
What do you feel you want to shoot on 10.10.10?
I have several topics in mind, but one that keeps coming to the surface is to film slow motion portraiture of very elderly people, whilst one person in a naration recounts a very personal and profound story from their life.
Why is this important to you?
A friend of mine, admonishing his daughter, once said: "I've been your age, you haven't been mine." That has always stayed with me. Elderly people have been our age (I'm assuming that you're not elderly!) and we haven't been theirs. And this generation, who lived through one of the most traumatic centuries in human history, are almost invisible and inaudible in a world that seems forever obsessed with the 'new.' In western culture there seems to me to be a very distinct lack of the concept of gleaning wisdom from those who've lived before us.
IOKWIB - timelapse: grant wakefield - music: steven wilson from GRANT WAKEFIELD on Vimeo.
Can you tell us a little about your background and upbringing?I was born and raised in Brighton, England. At school I demonstrated no talent whatsoever for art, but was endlessly fascinated by people's ability to create and emote, and not a little envious! Unable to draw or sculpt I was always looking for a way to express and share ideas, and it was a battered snap-style Kodak 110 camera that became an early focal point.
Later my father's ancient Eumig 8mm camera, and a wonderfully heavy Russian 35mm stills 'Zenit' camera became constant companions. My first film took 6 months to make - a blatant steal from / homage to KOYAANISQATSI shot in and around my home town. So basic was the set up that I didn't even have an intervalometer. I recorded myself hitting a piano note every two, or three, or five seconds, and taped 30 mins of each on to a little mono walkman. I would then take these tapes and walkman on location and hand fire each frame to pulse of the piano note.
Who are you and what is your profession?
My name is Grant Wakefield, and I am a cinematographer, specialising in motion controlled timelapse.
What inspired you to be a filmmaker?
Strangely, although I was very affected by KOYAANISQATSI, I was simply an audience member. And despite loving photography, it never actually occurred to me at the time that I would, or even could, pursue it as a career. But that changed the instant I saw the opening shot of BLADE RUNNER in 1982. It hit me like a hammer; that you could create entire worlds in this medium. In 1985 I saw Ron Fricke's IMAX film CHRONOS, and that had an equally powerful effect. The sheer power of images could communicate intense feeling, without words. I immediately joined a local film + video workshop and began learning. Fortunately this period was when video began to become widely available.
Who are your heros?
Ridley Scott and Ron Fricke would have to be up there for first showing me what was possible. The late, great cinematographer Conrad Hall combined phenomenal skill with great humility and love of his craft, similarly Nestor Alemendros and Caleb Deschanel. The pioneer 70mm film makers, particularly Deavid Lean and his cameraman Freddie Young. Gregg Toland for acheiving in 1941 on CITIZEN KANE a visual benchmark that very few since have matched. Documentary maker Adam Curtis, whose body of work includes what I believe to be the finest series that the BBC have ever produced: THE CENTURY OF THE SELF.
In other fields, the late Michael Hedges, perhaps the finest acoustic guitar player ever. Storytellers Laurie Anderson and Spalding Gray, for looking at the world in a very different way. Razor sharp and prophetic comic Bill Hicks, authors Cormac McCarthy, Charles Bukowski and John Fante, and the UK's finest 'comedian' - for lack of a better word - Chris Morris, who has repeatedly, savagely and hilariously revealed the bogus and self-serving nature of media / celebrity saturated life. And, of course, Christopher Walken, for being...well, Christopher Walken.
What do you feel you want to shoot on 10.10.10?
I have several topics in mind, but one that keeps coming to the surface is to film slow motion portraiture of very elderly people, whilst one person in a naration recounts a very personal and profound story from their life.
Why is this important to you?
A friend of mine, admonishing his daughter, once said: "I've been your age, you haven't been mine." That has always stayed with me. Elderly people have been our age (I'm assuming that you're not elderly!) and we haven't been theirs. And this generation, who lived through one of the most traumatic centuries in human history, are almost invisible and inaudible in a world that seems forever obsessed with the 'new.' In western culture there seems to me to be a very distinct lack of the concept of gleaning wisdom from those who've lived before us.
Comment
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Comment by Dugglas Spalding on May 29, 2011 at 7:02pm
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Grant,
I saw this IMAX film CRONOS when I was in high school on some museum field trip. I remember other kids saying "what's the point?" after the film, because they were bored and didn't get it. I think "what's the point?" may have been the point of this film. It was visually stunning and a philosophical revelation.
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