Australian cinematographer John Seale was among the guest speakers at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Goa. In his masterclass on Sunday, Seale talked about different aspects of cinematography as well as the broader film industry.
Seale stated that he was not impressed by Americans who visited Australia with generic notions regarding what constitutes a close-up, wide shot and medium shot, or what lighting to use. "Why should we [use that] system? Those early films in Australia had garnered quite wonderful international awards," said Seale, known for his work on films such as Witness, Rain Man, and Mad Max: Fury Road. Regardless, he went to America in the 1980s to work on the Peter Weir-Harrison Ford film Witness.
"We loved the Australian way of working. Nothing was too much trouble. There were no dramas. It was like, ‘Oh, you want to do that? Okay, give me 10 minutes. I can sort that out.’ And, because the Australian films couldn’t afford any overtime, we used to get [given] a cold beer at the end of a day for doing two hours [extra].”
Talking further about what explains the success of Australian technicians internationally, the ace cinematographer stated, "What we brought to the American system was an honoring of the budget and the schedule, that, I think, helped a lot of Australians to [succeed]. That learning and attitude to life, which we still maintain that to a degree, [means that] there’s an awful lot of Australians now working in America and through Asia and Europe.”
