EFA MASTER CLASSwith Anthony Dod Mantle

January 2005

DEVELOPING A PERSONAL VISUAL DICTIONARY EFA MASTER CLASS

with Anthony Dod Mantle

INDEXIntroduction by Marion DöringThe tutor: Anthony Dod Mantle The participants:Helmut Pirnat Shai Levy Mart Taniel Till Brinkmann Organisation & Crew

DVD CONTENTSEFA Master Class 2005 (documentation)Kleine Giganten (short film)Interview with Anthony Dod MantleSamples Post-productionSamples Camera

IMPRINT Editor: Pascal Edelmann Graphic Design/Production: Andrés Castoldi Photographs: Andreas BöhmigExecutive Producer of the EFA Master Class: Hoferichter & JacobsEuropean Film Academy e.V., Kurfürstendamm 225,10719 Berlin, Germany * www.europeanfilmacademy.org

MUSICSergei Prokofiev: ROMEO AND JULIET, excerpt from "Dance of the Knights"Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony © BMG Music

AN EFA MASTER CLASS FOR CINEMATOGRAPHERS

Marion Döring, Director European Film Academy It has always been one essential part of the activities of the European Film Academy (EFA) to allowfilmmakers to learn from one another and to exchange ideas. Over the years, EFA has organised var-ious Master Classes focusing on many aspects from visual effects to the relationship between actorsand directors. These Master Classes are generally, but not exclusively, addressed to younger film-makers and the tutors are always highly acknowledged in their field of work, experienced and willingto pass on some of their knowledge. When we decided to finally organise our first Master Class for cinematographers it was our expressedwish to win Anthony Dod Mantle as the tutor for this workshop. Not only has his work re-shaped theway we look at film, he is also someone who has absolutely no reservations about sharing his know-how and experience and, as you will see from the participants' statements, he is an ideal teacher wholeft the participants brimming with new enthusiasm and ideas. On behalf of the European FilmAcademy I would like to use this opportunity to say: Thank you, Anthony!

THE TUTOR:ANTHONY DOD MANTLE (DoP)

Anthony Dod Mantle was born in 1955 and grew up in Oxford,England. He is half-Scottish, and came to Denmark for the firsttime in 1979. He qualified as a photographer in 1983 and tookup permanant residence in Denmark in 1985, where he enrolledat the National Film School the same year. His first featurebehind the camera was the German film THE TERRORISTS(1992) by Philip Gröning. He has repeatedly worked with DannyBoyle and Lars von Trier and is one of today's most renownedEuropean cinematographers, winner of various awards includ-ing the European Film Award for European Cinematographer2003 for DOGVILLE and 28 DAYS LATER.

FILMOGRAPHY(excerpt)

MANDERLAY by Lars von Trier, 2005 DEAR WENDY by Thomas Vinterberg, 2005MILLIONS by Danny Boyle, 2004DOGVILLE by Lars von Trier, 2003IT'S ALL ABOUT LOVE by Thomas Vinterberg, 200328 DAYS LATER by Danny Boyle, 2002STRUMPET by Danny Boyle, 2001VACUUMING COMPLETELY NUDE IN PARADISE by Danny Boyle, 2001JULIEN DONKEY-BOY, 1999MIFUNES SIDSTE SANG (Mifune's Last Song) by Anders Thomas Jensen, 1999FESTEN (The Celebration) by Thomas Vinterberg, 1998NONNEBØRN (Agnus Dei) by Cæcilia Holbek Trier, 1997DE STØRSTE HELTE (The Biggest Heroes) by Thomas Vinterberg, 1996OPERATION COBRA by Lasse Spang Olsen, 1995MENNESKEDYRET (The Beast Within) by Carsten Rudolf, 1995DIE TERRORISTEN! (The Terrorists!) by Philip Gröning, 1992

THE PARTICIPANTSNina Blazin, Slovenia Vladimir Bouchler, Belgium Till Brinkmann, Germany Henning Brümmer, Germany Lol Crawley, UK Stefan Grandinetti, Germany Astrid Heubrandtner, Austria Odd Hynnekleiv, Norway Joachim Jung, Germany /USA Audrius Kemezys, Lithuania Bahman Kormi, Germany Shai Levy, Germany /Israel Heiko Merten, Germany Martina Nagel, UK Helmut Pirnat, Austria Wojciech Szepel, Poland Mart Taniel, Estonia Goran Volarevic, Slovakia

Helmut Pirnat, Austria:I am 55 years old and have been a DOP since the late 70s. I haveshot about 70 features (including TV) and a lot of commercials. I think the aim of this Master Class was to bring together peopleof different cultural origins so they would find out what they havein common (the international language of film) and what differ-ences there are due to their cultural origins. Anthony was a great tutor who helped us a lot with his personaland very open-minded explanations. We soon found out that weare all confronted with almost the same professional and artisticproblems, although we were at very different stages in ourcareers. The practical shooting experiences were very useful.We cameramen are always very practical and this shooting

helped us a lot to give the theoretical teachings a practical basis. I learned a lot, every day and every hour - sometimes technicalthings, most of the time something about our visual vocabularyand always about being a member of the international film com-munity. DOPs have a lot of responsibility towards their crew andto the product - it is important to be aware of that. And Anthonyand the other participants demonstrated in a great manner howimportant this issue is for our daily professional life. A Master Class for only cinematographers is very unusual and fan-tastic! It was the first time in my life that I had the feeling of beingin a group where everybody understands the professional situationof the others. Because nobody knows the needs and problems ofa cinematographer better than another cinematographer. When I talked to fellow Austrian cinematographers about thiseverybody said that this kind of event would be their dream, too.That brought me to build up more contacts and exchangebetween cinematographers in Austria because it seems that theone great lack in our daily work is that we are always workingalone. It is important to get into contact with colleagues to shareand solve problems. I think EFA should go on with projects like this. We all want tomeet again (perhaps once a year), so this was the beginning ofsomething. I think it would be very useful to keep working in thisdirection of sharing experiences and to keep on working on ourEuropean film language.

Shai Levy, Germany/Israel:I finished my film studies at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School,Jerusalem, in 1999 and since then I have worked as a freelance cameraman.In 2001 I moved to Berlin and since then I shot mostly documentaries andshort features. In August 2004 I shot my first full length feature FLIEGENDERATTEN, directed by David Jazay, which is now in post-production.Listening to Anthony Dod Mantle talk about his experiences, his technical aswell his artistic approach, was the highlight of the Master Class to me.Meeting with the other participants was also surprisingly good, I found verydifferent people and almost each and every one of them had somethingvaluable to contribute. All and all, it showed that we all share very similarthoughts and problems as we all struggle to find the optimal path betweenversatility on one hand and personal style on the other. It helped me to definewhat being a cinematographer means on a very personal level, how to builda career while staying true to your own special way of doing the job - "deliv-ering the good" without selling your soul, if you will. I always wanted to meet Anthony Dod Mantle, so when I learned about thisMaster Class, I thought my dream was about to come true. To me, he rep-resents one of the most valuable streams of the last decades in cinema. Heplayed an essential role in whatever became of Dogma 95 and his contribu-tion to the evolvement of film language is significant. His approach to work-ing with digital formats is actually THE answer to the debate about the filmto digital crossover. He's probably the one voice that is really worth listeningto in that respect. And after actually listening to him, I can only confirm thatmy expectations were right.

Mart Taniel, Estonia:I finished filmschool last year and I'm working as a cinematog-rapher in a film company in Estonia, shooting short films, com-mercials, documentaries. During the EFA Master Class we saw a lot of films, had somereally nice and inspiring discussions and went through somepractical exercises - shooting for two days in an old, spookyswimmingpool in Berlin. Finally we ended up with editing andgrading the material and a final screening of our stuff at KoppFilm: Lots of great minds in the need for sharing ideas. The best thing for me was to see how these cinematographersfrom all over Europe suddenly opened up and really started tohave an open discussion about their work and aesthetical qual-ities. That is something that rarely happens, I think one can gaina lot from that - very much thanks to Anthony, of course. In the Master Class, I found inspiration. I think the whole thingkind of crawled into my mind and planted something there andwe'll see what's gonna grow out of it. It's important not to fallinto technical details (as many cameramen do) but to have anoverview of the mentality and general possibilities of creatingmoving images for a story, to use your own unique perspective. There was nothing formal or artificial about this Master Class, soI really liked the way it happened. I would always do it againknowing it would never be an exact reprise.

Till Brinkmann, Germany:At the beginning of the course I was very curious and nervous. During the six dayswe 18 cinematographers stayed together, I became more and more enthusiastic. From the beginning on, there was a playful, open and relaxed atmosphere whichlasted over the whole course. Although we were all at different levels in our workand career, I had the impression that we could all profit from each other. Therereally was a very generous and giving atmosphere among us. The technical aspect of the course was very interesting for me. I had never hadthe opportunity to compare 35mm/DV/DH literaly at the same time and use theseformats not only in a test, but in an actual shooting situation. By working with thematerial I understood more about the differences and particular nature of each for-mat. Especially cutting the material, trying to mix these different formats, turnedout to be great fun. Some things worked , others didn`t. The intersting thing aboutthis little film though wasn`t the actual result, but rather the process of shooting onlocation, the analysing, cutting and colour correcting of the material at Kopp Film. Besides these obvious interesting technical aspects, the most astonishing aspectwas, no doubt, Anthony Dod Mantle himself! The opportunity of listening to his lectures and stories made me personally feeldeeply inspired. Learning something about his personal approach towards a newproject and about his standards helped me to define my own. By listening to him,watching the films he made and observing him at work, I learned something whichis not easy to put into words. I think I became a little more courageous myself.Anthony Dod Mantle really is a very invigorating person. I wish I could meet him more often!

OrganisationPeter Effenberg (Hoferichter & Jacobs)

Bettina Schwarz (European Film Academy)

Crew Ralph Brosche (Line Producer)

Mario Striehn (First AD) Torsten Oser (Production Manager)

DocumentationAndreas Böhmig (photo)

Rick Minnich (film)

Partners: MEDIA Plus Programme of the EU Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

With the support of dffb

cine plus ARRI

Kopp Film Studio Babelsberg

KODAK Geyer

Founded in 1988, the European Film Academy currently unites 1,600 Europeanfilm professionals with the common aim of promoting Europe's film culture.The European Film Academy is mainly financed by the German NationalLottery, the Federal Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, as well as bythe MEDIA Plus Programme of the EU, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,and partners and sponsors related to EFA's activities throughout Europe.

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMYKurfürstendamm 225, 10719 Berlin / Germany.www.europeanfilmacademy.org