If you’re a regular reader of The Playlist, you know that we, much like the vast majority of film fans, love Roger Deakins. The Academy Award-winning cinematographer is one of the best to have ever worked in Hollywood and has contributed to a number of incredible features over the years, collaborating with directors such as Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, Sam Mendes, and many, many more. So, who better to start a filmmaking podcast?
Well, we might be a couple of weeks late to the game, but apparently Roger Deakins has teamed with his wife, James Deakins, for a new podcast that covers a variety of filmmaking topics, with advice and knowledge dispensed by one of the best working today. Speaking to Collider, James Deakins talked about the origins of the new podcast, and why now is the perfect time to get the ball rolling.
“We have been doing our website for years now and love connecting with people who are starting out and sharing our experience with them,” James Deakins said. “Over the years, we have done many Q&As and, afterwards, answered individual questions and realized that we often answer the same questions. So the idea of a podcast came to me late last year and Roger thought it would be something interesting.”
She continued, “I didn’t really get a chance to start moving forward until January and then the shelter in place time took away any excuses I could have used to put it off! It has meant a huge amount of learning for me since I know visuals but sound was a new area for me. Once we started making the episodes, it just grew. We have so many ideas for episodes now and are being joined by people in different areas of the craft. We find ourselves continually coming back to the collaborative nature of the film business and this makes us want to delve into all the areas of making a film. We also discovered that having a young cinematographer, Matt Wyman, join us in this really added to the podcast and its relevance.”
So far, the Team Deakins podcast has released six episodes, covering practical filmmaking topics such as location scouting, lighting, and composition, as well as an interview with industry professional Bev Wood about the transition from film to digital.
You can find the episodes of Team Deakins at Apple Podcasts.