11/08/2009
After last month’s filming in Singapore for Sony, I just returned from Rome, where I joined the Magidson Films crew at the Vatican.
Nostalgia for the old days of film? Try this — A/C Alex Falk loading 70mm film. And lifting one of the two O’Connor cameras would definitely make you think twice before complaining about the weight of a DSLR.
Sunlight streaming through the windows of the dome moves rapidly across the walls and floor in the early morning and late afternoon, revealing special moments for just minutes at a time.
This story goes back 18 years, to when my first book on Angkor appeared. I was doing a publicity tour for the book in the U.S. before flying on to Tokyo, and was staying with friends in Hollywood. The day before my flight, the ‘phone rang, and it was Mark Magidson. They were prepping the film Baraka, and had just seen the book, which at the time was the only publication on Angkor and Cambodia. They wanted to go and shoot there.
My first book on Angkor, shot between 1989 and 1990. What you can’t hear is the accompanying noise from government field guns when the cover shot was taken.
Now, if you haven’t seen Baraka, I strongly urge you to rent, buy, borrow or in any way get hold of the DVD. Even better, the Blu-ray, because the movie was shot on 70mm, which hardly anyone uses these days because of the expense, but which offers a very different viewing experience because of the quality. Baraka is what’s called in Hollywood a ‘non-verbal movie’, meaning no dialogue, no actors, just images and music. But what images! Roger Ebert has it in his Great Movies: The First 100, and if you know nothing about it, look at the website here. As usual, I have an ulterior motive in talking about Baraka, but I’ll come to that in a minute. Meanwhile, back to Angkor and the making of the movie….
Follow the link above for this
Coincidentally, then, Mark and director Ron Fricke had caught up with me just before I was about to leave, and was just up the road from them, on Mulholland. We had a breakfast meeting before my flight, and I took the job of getting them to Cambodia and taking them round the ruins. Now, to anyone who’s been to Angkor (and that seems to be most people I meet these days), this doesn’t sound a big deal, but in 1990 the war was still on, and there was fighting within 20 km of Angkor Wat. This even caused a slight problem for the cover shot for the book, calm and peaceful though it looks. I was using a 4×5 camera and a slow exposure – about 2 seconds, I think. As I was finally levelling the camera at sunrise, I saw the bubble in the spirit level move, and a boom echoed around the walls. An artillery barrage had started a couple of kilometres away. I had to time my shots for the intervals between salvoes. As you can imagine, there were zero tourists. The crew were also carrying a thousand kilos of equipment, and consular representation at the time was limited to Moscow, east Berlin and Hanoi. So, it was a real job of work I’d been given.
But it all worked out in the end, and the filming was one of my most enjoyable assignments ever. And, I got to see some of my photographs turned into filmed sequences, which prompted some interesting discussions with Ron. In fact, one of the reasons I urge you to see the movie is that Ron frames shots like a still photographer — he says this himself.
Ron filming at Angkor Wat
Setting up the rails for a MoCo dolly shot to last all through the night of the full moon
Skulls of Cambodians murdered during the Pol Pot regime, disinterred from the trenches close to Angkor Wat and laid out in a shelled-out schoolhouse that was near the front line in the ‘70s — one of many killing fields.
Baraka, filmed in 4 countries, had its theatrical release in 1992, and became the most admired film of its genre. Mark became a good friend. Fast forward 16 years, and Mark and Ron got together again to make the sequel, which is now in production. I joined them in Burma last November to take them around Pagan, and when the chance came up to join them at the Vatican last week, I jumped at it.
2008 filming at Mount Popa, near Pagan, Burma
Mount Popa, 2008
And one of the reasons I mention Baraka and its forthcoming sequel is that when Ron has finished editing in the next several months, we’ll have a dialogue on this website. He’ll be guest cinematographer, and I promise you there’ll be plenty of food for thought.
Meanwhile, by the time this is up on the site, I’ll be on the flight to Hong Kong, followed by China and Tibet. More from the road later…
