Practitioner research - Roger Deakins

1. Practitioner Research – Roger Deakins
Cinematographer
Roger Deakins is a British Cinematographer born in Devon 1949.
Education and Career
Rogers first form of education was in Devon at Torquay Boys’ Grammar school. Roger took up
painting from a young age and went on to enrol in the Bath Academy of Art where he studied
graphic design. Deakins found a love for photography whilst studying there. After college Deakins
applied to go to the Nation Film School in Buckinghamshire, he was denied entry the first time
because photography was not “filmic”. A year later though he finally got in.
After graduating film school Deakins found work as a camera man, he assisted many projects. He did
this for 7 Years. One of Deakins early projects was filming a 9 month around the world sail on a
Yacht, this lead Deakins to be hired and do two documentaries in Africa. In the 70’s and 80’s
Deakins did documentaries on some musical related projects like “Blue Suede Shoes” a documentary
on British rock.
In 1982 Deakins started to work on films, his first project which started his career was called
“Wolcott” which he did the camerawork for. This camerawork impressed a man named Michael
Radford who was a former schoolmate and now a director. Deakins was hired by Radford to do the
cinematography on his new film “Another Time, Another Place” this film was well-received and his
career boosted from there.
The next big step in Deakins career was in 1991 where he was hired by the Coen brothers (
American Directors) he was hired after they had seen his work and where impressed. The first film
he did with them was called “Barton Fink” This film won the Coens the best Director awards in 1991,
but most importantly it won Deakins best cinematography wards from New York, Chicago and Los
Angeles film critics.
Deakins also oversaw some animated movies like “WALL-E”, “Rango” and the “How to train you
dragon” movies.
Achievements
Deakins has been nominated for the Academy Awards 15 times, winning the Academy Award for
Best Cinematography twice for Blade Runner (2017) and 1917 (2019)

2. He has also received 5 BAFTA Awards for Cinematography.
Deakins was also honoured by the Queen for his services to film.
Quotes
Deakins has lots of quotes but here’s 3 of my favourites:
“I like simplicity. I like using natural sources. I like images to look natural – as though somebody
sitting in a room by a lamp is being lit by that lamp.”
“If you shoot with a billion cameras, then there’s no perspective. You want to use one shot at a time,
so it’s better to discover what that is before you shoot, rather than trying to make something in the
cutting room, and then it just becomes generic.”
“I feel every shot, every camera move, every frame, and the way you frame something and the choice
of lens, I see all those things are really important on every shot.”
Refrences
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Deakins#Early_life
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005683/
https://www.brainyquote.com/lists/authors/top-10-roger-deakins-quotes