Danny Cohen (cinematographer)

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Daniel "Danny" Cohen (* 1963 ) is a British cameraman . Since the mid-1990s, he has worked on more than 40 television and film productions and worked for the music and advertising industries. He was nominated for an Oscar for his work on the feature film The King's Speech (2010) .

Life

Training and working in film and television

Danny Cohen's maternal grandparents were German Jews who after the seizure of power of the Nazis in 1933 after London relocated. He earned a degree in social science and was passionate about photography. Cohen then worked as a photo technician at the Middlesex Polytechnic in London . Soon after, he began working as a camera assistant on small documentary projects, music videos, and in advertising. As a camera and material assistant , Cohen also came into contact with the cinema. For eight years he worked with various cameramen such as B. met the French Jean-François Robin ( Betty Blue - 37.2 degrees in the morning ) and got to know their different styles. He would later refer to this phase of his life as his "film school" .

As a self-employed cameraman, Cohen began his career in the mid-1990s with numerous short film productions and in advertising. For his work on Ravi Kumar's short film My Other Wheelchair Is a Porsche (2001) he received the first award on the Portuguese festival image . This was followed by his collaboration on Christopher Morris ' award-winning short film debut My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117 (2002), which won him the 2003 BAFTA Kodak Cinematography Award .

At the end of the 1990s, Cohen turned to his first film projects as a cameraman. In the following years he worked several times with well-known British film directors such as Stephen Poliakoff ( Joe's Place , Glorious 39 , A Real Summer , Capturing Mary ), Shane Meadows ( Blood revenge - Dead Man's Shoes , This Is England , This Is England '86 ) or Richard Curtis ( Radio Rock Revolution ) together. He shot some films in HD , commercials on video , but larger projects in film format , which Cohen believes allows greater flexibility, simplicity and texture: “[...] there is a consistency in this process: You can literally use the camera turn on and turn. You don't lose control of the film in post-production either, ” says Cohen.

Cohen's work with British film and television director Tom Hooper brought greater success . For her first collaboration on the award-winning television drama The Moor Murderer of Manchester (2006), which is about the relationship between British Minister Lord Longford (played by Jim Broadbent ) and the multiple child killer Myra Hindley ( Samantha Morton ), the cameraman became one First nomination for the British Academy Television Award . In 2008, Cohen and American Tak Fujimoto were part of the camera team for Hooper's successful multi-part television program, John Adams - Freedom for America , which dramatized the life of the US President of the same name (played by Paul Giamatti ). The production won 13 Emmys and four Golden Globe Awards , while Cohen himself received an Emmy nomination for the pictures for the episode Don't Tread Me .

Success with The King's Speech

The greatest success so far in Cohen's film career came again with Tom Hooper, with whom he worked on the historical drama The King's Speech (2010). For the film that explores the relationship between the stuttering British monarch George VI. (played by Colin Firth ) and his language trainer Lionel Logue ( Geoffrey Rush ) retold, the cameraman used harder, colder light as he did when shooting John Adams - Freedom for America . As a result, the story , which was also played in the Second World War , should appear more unvarnished and more contemporary to the viewer. “Tom [Hooper] wanted to take on a historical drama that wasn't up to normal standards. Making things seem real rather than nice will make the movie more understandable for a modern audience. They want to see the dirt on the street and under people's fingernails, ” said Cohen.

Some film critics pointed to the unusual image settings Cohen used for The King's Speech which, according to the cameraman, had a rather positive impact on the story. Cohen used very powerful wide-angle lenses ( ARRI Master Prime lenses) for the shoot and placed the cameras close to the actors, a foot or two away. In this way, close-ups (so-called close-ups ) of the faces were taken, while at the same time a large part of the background and context for the viewer - usually the walls of Lionel Logue's practice - were preserved. The Los Angeles Times would later attribute the success of the film to the fact that The King's Speech always stayed with the king. The film has won more than 60 film awards and won four Academy Awards in 2011 , including Best Picture . Cohen himself also received an Oscar nomination, as well as nominations for the British Academy Film Award and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) award .

Cohen found the fact that the film was shot in the UK from November to January 2009 as a problem. As a result, the sun set very early, usually between 4 and 4:30 p.m. That is why the main location - Lionel Logue's treatment room with a skylight - was fitted with a lighting system from the outside, and a blackout tent was installed above it. In this way, scenes could be filmed at any time of the day. Still, Cohen found the weak light at the end of the year a little more atmospheric for the film. During the shoot, he was also inspired by the work of the British-German photographer Bill Brandt .

Following the success of The King's Speech , Cohen took on camera work on the television productions This Is England '86 (2010) and This Is England '88 (2011), sequels to Shane Meadow's feature film This Is England . Engagements for the movie comedy Johnny English followed - even more so! as well as Luke Snellin's six-minute short film Jess // Jim , made in just 24 hours , which was made as part of the Old Vic New Voices program. In 2012 Cohen worked again with Tom Hooper on the theatrical version of the musical Les Misérables .

Others

Danny Cohen lives in London. He has a great fondness for the films of the British cameraman Roger Deakins , who claims to have influenced him a lot. Cohen counts the Deakins work Button - In the Swamp of the Atomic Mafia (1986) and especially The Big Lebowski (1998) to his favorite films. He shot music videos for bands like Blur ( Crazy Beats ), New Order ( Sirens Call ) and the Arctic Monkeys ( Crying Lightning ).

Cohen is a member of the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC). In June 2011, Cohen was inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which awards the Oscars annually.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Profile at cinematographers.nl (English; accessed on June 18, 2012).
  2. ↑ a b c 'The King's Speech' cinematographer, Danny Cohen ( Memento of the original dated August 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at jewishjournal.com, February 23, 2011 (accessed August 14, 2011).  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jewishjournal.com
  3. ↑ a b c d What is a cinematographer? at bbc.co.uk, February 25, 2011 (accessed August 19, 2011).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Marchant, Beth: Cinematographer Danny Cohen on The King's Speech at studiodaily.com, February 17, 2011 (accessed August 19, 2011).
  5. ↑ Lights, Cameras… Cinematographer Danny Cohen on 'The King's Speech' at latimes.com, December 7, 2010 (accessed August 19, 2011).
  6. ↑ Hurwitz, Matt: Danny Cohen on 'The King's Speech' ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from variety.com, February 10, 2011 (accessed August 19, 2011). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.variety.com
  7. ↑ Music videos at dannycohendp.com (English; accessed on August 19, 2011).
  8. ↑ Profile at bscine.com (English, accessed on August 14, 2011).
  9. ↑ Stone, Sasha: Russell Brand and Others Invited to Join the AMPAS at awardsdaily.com, June 17, 2011 (accessed August 14, 2011).
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Danny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohen, Daniel (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH United Kingdom