SEASON 2 - EPISODE 125 - Deborah Scott - Costume Designer

Costume designer Deborah Scott (AVATAR, TITANIC, DEFENDING YOUR LIFE) joins us in this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast. During our wide-ranging conversation, we learn how a childhood diet of drive-in theatre westerns developed her appetite for cinematic storytelling, and we discuss Deborah’s long career outfitting characters representing extraterrestrial aliens, the denizens of the afterlife, and everyday people from our past, present, and potential futures. Deborah also reflects on her experience embodying the characters of E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL to develop the children’s costumes for the film, and she details the level of rigor with which she preps before presenting a director with ideas after being brought aboard a project. Deborah also contrasts the difficulty inherent in the open-ended nature of designing for sci-fi films with the specificity inherent in period films, and she highlights the invaluable contributions from the entire costume department that facilitate the realization of all that clothing on screen. Plus, towards the end, Deborah shares how she juggles being a parent and being a filmmaker.

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This episode is sponsored by Aputure

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 124 - Quyen Tran - Cinematographer

On this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast, we speak with cinematographer Quyen Tran (AHSOKA, MAID, PALM SPRINGS). We start the episode with Quyen’s harrowing recollection of her experience in New York City on 9/11, and she reflects on how the event steered her life towards filmmaking. While studying film at UCLA, Quyen fell into documentary filmmaking, and she shares how she’s since branched into directing television and miniseries. She reveals who gave her the initial push to even try directing, and she reveals what she enjoys about it compared to cinematography. We also discuss the films and shows that influenced Quyen early in life, and we share our appreciation for the universal visual storytelling in THE BENNY HILL SHOW and I LOVE LUCY. We later learn how Quyen used lighting to lean into the darker moments of the sci-fi comedy PALM SPRINGS, and she shares how she feels her experiences as a director has made her a better cinematographer. Plus, Quyen reveals what we included in the “Roger Deakins lighting kit” distributed to her class while we were the cinematographer-in-residence at UCLA years ago.

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This episode is sponsored by Aputure

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 123 - Andrew Dunn - Cinematographer

Cinematographer Andrew Dunn (GOSFORD PARK, THE CRUCIBLE, THREADS) joins us on this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast. Andrew has worked on a wide range of films throughout his career, and we discuss the many different problems he was faced with and the lessons he learned overcoming them. Among these stories, we focus on Andrew’s time shooting THE CRUCIBLE, and we learn how the cast and crew worked through the challenges of shooting the renowned story on-location. Andrew later reflects on shooting DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA and honouring the hit show on the big screen, and he shares why he doesn’t mind making movie stars look like movie stars. We also learn how Andrew initially broke into the industry through editing at the BBC, and we discuss the value of knowing how to construct a scene in relation to what precedes and follows it. Later, Andrew regales us with tales of his days shooting docs for the BBC, which acted as a training ground for upcoming talent at the time, and, at the end, he shares how he’s seen filmmaking change from those early years to today.

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This episode is sponsored by Aputure