DAYDREAM BELIEVER

Filmography (so far): In A Cane Field (2016, dir. Emily Avila); All These Creatures (2018, dir. Charles Williams); The Flame (2020, dir. Nick Waterman); A Mouthful Of Petrol (2022, dir. Jess Kohl) and White Ant (2023, dir. Shalini Adnani).

Winning Accolades: In A Cane Field – Flickerfest Best Cinematography Award;

All These Creatures – Cannes Short Film Palme d’Or, Manaki Brothers Small Golden Camera, AACTA Best Short Film, plus Melbourne, Sydney and Hong Kong International Film Festival awards; and A Mouthful Of Petrol – EnergaCamerimage Golden Frog (Short Documentary) 2022.

Official Selection/Nominee: Toronto International Film Festival 2018; BFI 2019 & 2021; Berlinale 2020; IDFA 2022; Doc NYC 2022; Grierson Awards 2021; and Sundance Film Festival 2023.

When did you discover you wanted to be a cinematographer?

I grew-up in the bush in rural Australia, where filmmaking wasn’t exactly considered a career choice, but luckily boredom was never in short supply. Inspired by the tactile filmmaking of early Peter Jackson movies, when I was 15, I saved up for a miniDV camcorder and began making short films with my mates.

We were immediately hooked by the escapist power it gave us and the creative and social explosion that came with the filmmaking process. We made a series of violent, inventive and crude shorts and a feature by the time we had graduated from high school. Each film we would cut to DVD, make the cover art, and then hawk them to townsfolk, making enough cash to fund the next one. Since then, I’ve not remotely considered another option. Cinematography wasn’t really a career choice. It was more like, ‘well this is my life now’.

Where did you train?

I moved to Brisbane to study a Bachelor of Film & TV at Queensland University Of Technology (QUT), followed by a Graduate Diploma in Cinematography at Australian Film Television & Radio School (AFTRS), the national film school in Sydney.

Outside of continuing to shoot and edit independent shorts with my friends, I spent nearly a decade after high school assisting in a variety of roles – lighting, grip, camera, art dept, and even some stand-by costume on Fury Road (2015, dir. George Miller, DP John Seale ACS ASC).

What lessons did you learn from your training?

The art dept are cooler.

How did you get your first break?

I’d never done a commercial in my life and I got picked-up somehow by director/DP Dimitri Karakatsanis for the Australian unit of a Jeep Super Bowl commercial. It was just me, the producer and my assistant, Steivan Hasler, working for a week, filming beautiful parts of the country. I was so proud of the achievement that I invited all of my friends to watch on the big screen for its premier during the grand final. They used about one second of some out-of-focus footage of a kangaroo. Quite possibly the perfect introduction to the world of commercials.

What are you favourite films, and why? Mirror (1975, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, DP Georgy Rerberg) – really anything by Tarkovsky could be in this list. He sculpted the cinematographic image into a new film language. It’s pure cinema, pure expression.

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia (2011, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylon, DP Gokhan Tiryaki) – Ceylon paints landscapes of the human soul, spectral widescreen emptiness and the petty desires of fearful men. It is meditative and transportive cinema.

Happy As Lazzaro (2018, dir. Alice Rohrwacher, DP Hélène Louvart AFC) – Rohrwacher deftly balances the fantastical with soulful humanity. I love her ability to elevate small moments into something sublime and mysterious.

La Haine (1995, dir. Matthew Kassovitz, DP Pierre Aïm AFC) – every moment of La Haine is at once arrestingly beautiful and devastatingly tragic. The cinematography is in a constant dance with light and dark, spiralling always down to its inevitable conclusion. Kassovitz’s use of perpetual movement in his blocking is incredible.

Where do you get your visual inspirations?

Daydreaming.

What was the worst knock-back/rejection you ever had?

During the pandemic I was confirmed on my first feature – my big narrative break, a £4million budget and gorgeous, period locations. The evening before flying to the Outer Hebrides of Scotland to begin preproduction I got a call from the line producer. My fit-to-fly test was Covid-positive. The end!

What is your most treasured cinematographic possession?

My Aaton XTR Prod Super16mm camera. I bought it back when celluloid film was in serious trouble and I couldn’t even be sure if I’d ever get to use it. Since then it’s shot almost all of my narratives. I like to think about all the film that has run through it and the moments in time it has witnessed. I think it holds those memories somewhere in its machine soul.

What’s the strangest place you’ve ever shot in?

A close tie between the Alps on Christmas Day, on the rubble of an avalanche in an abandoned Italian ghost-village, versus inside the tent of a man who has stood on one foot for 12 years at the Hindu pilgrimage Maha Kumbh Mela, the largest gathering of humans in recorded history.

Away from work, what are your greatest passions?

Returning to nature.

How do you like to “waste” your time?

I watch YouTube videos of lonely, middle-aged men building survival shelters.

It can be tough being a DP, how do you keep yourself match-fit?

Yoga. Cycling. Walking.

Who would you invite to your dream industry dinner party?

It would be at Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem’s Spanish villa, with Herzog as MC, Buñuel on guestlist and security, Almodovar doing the cooking, Jodorowsky on the decor, Malick as the videographer, and Lynch and Varda back-to-back on the decks ‘til sunrise.

In the entire history of filmmaking, which film would you love to have shot?

I just watched Godland (2022, dir. Hlynur Palmason, DP Maria Von Hausswolff DFF) – 4-perf 35mm, severe natural landscapes, contemplative visual restraint and niche period authenticity. The perfect storm.

Tell us your greatest extravagance? Gore-Tex boots.

What’s the best thing about being a DP?

Being a cinematographer gives you access to such a wide spectrum of experiences and people that it’s kind of hard to believe. One week you’re sitting in a coal miner’s living room somewhere in the Balkans, the next you’re in the control room of a Royal Naval Destroyer, the next you’re standing on the edge of an active volcano. It’s utterly absurd and I love it.

What’s the worst thing about being a DP?

The flip side of the coin – perpetual and unpredictable absence. Comes with all the expected downsides.

What do you consider your greatest achievement, so far?

Pretty stoked with the Palme D’Or and the Camerimage Golden Frog to be honest.

What is the most important lesson your working life has taught you?

Just keep choosing what you love. You’ll survive! What advice do you have for other people who want to become cinematographers?

Don’t be too precious to begin with. I’ve always believed in saying yes to what comes your way and putting your whole self into it. No matter what it is, you will always come away with something, even the bad experiences. If you’re lucky its a beautiful film, you learn a new technique or you meet someone who opens a new path for you. At the very least you learn what not to do.

For you, what are the burning issues in the world of cinematography, filmmaking and cinema, that need to be addressed?

Bring your own water bottles people!

Who is your agent?

My Management, United Kingdom & Europe and Gersh, United States.

Give us three adjectives that best describe you and your approach to cinematography?

Dynamic. Intuitive. Thoughtful

If you weren’t a DP, what job would you be doing now?

Children’s book illustrator

What are your aspirations for the future?

To work predominantly in long-form narrative and documentary. To make a meaningful contribution to the culture of cinema with people that I love and that continue inspire me.

What is your URL/website address? www.adricwatson.com