Shooting 007: And Other Celluloid Adventures (40 page)

With so much happening on
The Living Daylights
I was very pleased with the end result, where the established 007 formula continued to wow the audiences, guaranteeing success at the box office. However, in keeping with the ‘all change at the top’ policy, this time a new James Bond would be joined by a new and younger Miss Moneypenny, played by the attractive Caroline Bliss. Agent 007 would still cast his eye over a beautiful girl, this time a Czech cellist played by Maryam d’Abo, while the usual regulars from the Ministry were still around, with M, now played by Robert Brown, and Q keeping up their disdain for the secret agent, which of course is what we all expect and enjoy.

I was grateful for my sixth mission with 007, but especially grateful to John who had given me an opportunity I thought was lost. I had found myself back home in a team that I had wrongly believed had already disappeared forever.

From a cinematographer’s point of view, work on films or on a television series is much the same, except that television budgets and schedules tend to be tighter and we probably work longer hours in the day – ten or twelve would not be unusual.

The main television series on which I worked as a cinematographer were
Press Gang
, for which the writer Stephen Moffat won a BAFTA award for Best Children’s Programme,
The Dirty Dozen
,
About Face
,
Seekers
and
Soldier Soldier.
Maureen Lipman’s
About Face
was probably my favourite, with the actress appearing as a different character in each episode, which reminds me of an amusing tale …

On location in Zagreb, Yugoslavia in 1988 while filming
The Dirty Dozen
television mini-series, a spin-off of the successful 1967 movie.

Waiting for the sun to come out from behind a cloud.

For one episode Maureen was dressed and made up to look like a filthy old hag living on the streets of London – ‘The Bag Lady’! An early morning call was planned, with our filming scheduled to take place during London’s rush hour, where we would find our unrecognisable actress – dirty, scruffy, in full tattered garb – pushing her way through London’s unsuspecting West End crowds as they hurried past her on their way to work. With our camera hidden inside a telephone maintenance tent, we could now record every reaction on a long zoom lens. Of course no one recognised Maureen, this scruffy old hag cadging ‘dosh for a cuppa’, nor would she get any sympathy from a distrustful public desperately trying to avoid her as they hurried on by.

With little success from the fleeing public, Maureen eventually arrived outside the theatre where she also happened to be performing in a play during the evening. Unscripted, Maureen decided to go inside in her rags to ‘scrounge’ a couple of free tickets, but was speedily cast back into the street, protesting to the doorman who she really was. The moment was sadly lost to the camera in the passing crowd. Maureen is a delightful lady to work with but also a talented actress blessed with a wonderful sense of humour.

Filming on location in Northumberland for
Come Snow, Come Blow
(1993); Gary Love and Robson Green teamed up again after working on
Soldier Soldier
, with Gary directing and Robson producing. The cast included Rodney Bewes, Denise Welch (another
Soldier Soldier
veteran) and her husband, Tim Healy.

The same could be said of the
Soldier Soldier
series, where we were working with a team of actors who performed together on a regular daily basis. Two of the series were filmed on Cyprus and in Münster, Germany, where the producer Annie Tricklebank would always be around in support of the cause. I enjoyed working with this lady, and the whole team of actors who made this an interesting experience.

Now the only reason I mention this subject is that television inevitably brings together a mix of the various people with whom we need to deal in our working lives. Some have strange personalities while others are difficult to reach out to or even describe, which brings to mind
The Dirty Dozen
, a television series filmed in Yugoslavia. This would not be a pleasant experience for anyone, and my one consolation from this episode would be my happy return to England to prepare for my next film, my seventh assignment with 007 … our grand finale?

The fairy tale continued; perhaps ‘Licence to Thrill’ would a be more appropriate title when it comes to describing my life with James Bond. In twenty years of service with the secret agent I would learn to accept his various guises, which for me would change on three occasions.

Whatever mask 007 chose to wear I would always remember the fights we shared together and the bruises suffered, even when taking on the challenge of a Japanese swordsman. There were times when I played the villain in the fight, holding my handheld Arri IIC camera with the focus set on 007, then the same thing again in reverse, but this time filming the villain. The flexibility of the camera harness gave me the freedom to move around, adding realism to the fight. However, there were times when the so-called choreography did not go quite as planned, as my wife would testify when on one occasion I came home with a black eye because I became too ambitious with the camera and somehow got tangled up in the brawl. Needless to say, she refused to believe my explanation.

With these close ties soon to end, even though I did not realise it at the time, I would miss the many punch-ups which James and I shared together, so perhaps this is also my last opportunity to relive those past 007 moments with ageing colleagues, who agree that a little exaggeration is acceptable with old tales. Reminiscing about the past would leave me with a great deal of satisfaction, and on reflection I was grateful for my own survival after the close calls we had shared together. Now as cinematographer, I could watch the punch-ups from a distance and in relative safety, with the camera-operating responsibilities now handed over to Michael Frift.

Licence
to Kill
, written with Timothy Dalton’s more hard-edged depiction of the agent in mind, was a violent film about drugs, the seedy world of its manufacture, cartels and distribution. John Glen captured the atmosphere so that you could sense the mood and the smell of danger with the cover-ups and betrayal, yet for all John’s efforts this was be his last mission with the secret agent, as it would be mine.

For tax reasons Eon Productions had been forced to leave Pinewood for sunnier climes. This time we would be based at Churubusco Studios in Mexico City with locations in Cancun, the Florida Keys, Key West, Mexicali and Acapulco, which would not only provide the usual combination of technical challenges but also one or two occurrences that were less easy to explain.

I was not in a position to recce a location in Acapulco where filming would be a challenge for any cinematographer. It was a beautiful luxurious home owned by a friend of Cubby Broccoli, and the interior of the property appeared to be built entirely out of white marble, the complete reverse of the problem I had experienced with Denis Lewiston on
Hot Target
. The doors opened out onto the bay with Acapulco across the glistening water; there was a waterfall one could only dream of with a funicular down to the water line where a private motor boat waited to transport guests back to the mainland. I pinched myself; I was in heaven. However, although this privileged lifestyle was pleasing to the eye, for a cinematographer without the help of a generator there would be little chance of balancing the interior exposure to that of the spectacular view of the exterior. Although I was concerned by this, in the end ‘Lady Luck’ came to my rescue in the form of reflected light bouncing off the glossy marbled structure surrounding us – not perfect, but it would still be my saving grace. We never stop learning in the film industry and grateful cinematographers take advantage of any unexpected aids.

Lining up the interior sequences for the Casino de Isthmus, in reality the Casino Español in Mexico City. Timothy Dalton (James Bond) and Carrie Lowell (Pam Bouvier) are seated at the blackjack table, with Talisa Soto (Lupe Lamora) ready to take their money. (© 1989 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. All rights reserved)