Shooting at sea cant be easy.
What was your first reaction when Paul Greengrass came to you with the project?
So I guess that was my first reaction, yeah: how are we going to do this?
Its not in my comfort zone as they say, you know?
But wed work it out, I was sure of that.
Logistically, it must have been very difficult to organise.
So how did you begin to plan for it from your end?
So that was all the initial process.
Those were the difficult things.
Did that force you to venture to shoot everything in as few takes as possible?
Thats always my method.
Obviously, you know the script, but not off by heart.
And I dont expect the script to be anything more than a guide, basically.
So my memory of it was that we didnt do much rehearsal we dont often do rehearsal.
Its just getting into the flow, really.
The themes of the film are interesting.
Paul Greengrass once said it was a crime film.
What was your response to the themes in the script?
We have to show sympathy and empathy for all the characters in the film.
That in itself is a political statement thats what I look for.
It could have beenUnder Siege,couldnt it?
It could be that.
Where people take the same subject matters and turn them into something thats more like propaganda.
Hopefully were not making propaganda.
That was a kind of visual reference.
You see it in a different light.
And thats where I draw the influences from the camera.
Thats what lighting is.
But the way I see it, life is…
I hate to say 3D, because 3Ds being used as a technical rig.
I mean three dimensions.
I think what I do is 3D, but using regular film.
And I think its more powerful than 3D, because its sculptural and its kinetic.
I think you miss things when you watch a film in 3D.
It becomes a spectacle.
Yeah, and thats not what I do, because you lose a human scale.
Youre throwing away the human scale for a technical achievement.
But mentally, hes not aware of me, but hes conscious that theres a camera there.
So its forming this pure observational thing, which definitely comes out of documentaries.
And it comes from what I just said about sculpture.
It comes from that.
You want to feel that human beings made those marks, and produced this immaculate thing.
I think thats what my inspiration is.
And you perfected that technique when you worked with people like Nick Broomfield?
Its where it comes from.
Nick had his particular method and I fit into that.
But you cant pin it down to one moment.
Thats what lighting is.
But its not just lighting its camerawork itself.
What are your memories of working with Nick Broomfield?
Was he a collaborative filmmaker to work with?
There are only three of us, and were making decisions, minute by minute.
And I do that through the way I use the camera.
Chris Carreras, the first AD, he influences through his ability to coordinate and understand Pauls thinking process.
He puts that in front of us all so we can capture it.
Chris Rouse can take it and make it into a work of genius.
I think all filmmaking, from documentaries to features, is collaborative.
Look atGravity the relationship between Alfonso [Cuaron] and [his crew].
Thats how important all that stuff is.
I was fascinated by that.
Thats the opposite of what I was saying before.
Youre trying not to empathise with the subject, and thats an example.
Its like being a child, Ill get my own back and I wont do what you say.
But you do that sometimes with a subject, yeah, in a documentary sense.
We didnt want TerreBlanche have his way.
Our film had to be our view of what was going on in South Africa at that particular time.
So to wrap up then, what was the single biggest technical challenge onCaptain Phillips?
Being on the water at night, where the script calls for a lot of stuff to happen.
But also you could see helicopter lights and boat lights.
The complexity of that was incredible.
Barry Ackroyd, thank you very much.
Captain Phillipsis out now on Blu-ray, DVD and digital download.
