Billy Williams - Creating an Ingmar Bergman atmosphere in 'On Golden Pond' (108/172)

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Born in London in 1929, cinematographer Billy Williams shot more than 40 high profile films throughout his career, being nominated for an Oscar for ‘On Golden Pond’ and ‘Women in Love’, then winning the Oscar for ‘Gandhi’ in 1983. He received an OBE in 2009. [Listener: Neil Binney]
TRANSCRIPT: There was one sequence in the film where she sends him off to pick strawberries and he goes into the woods and Mark wanted a very kind of Ingmar Bergman atmosphere, a very dark threatening atmosphere in these woods. And so we chose a spot where there was a little bit of sunlight coming through but in other areas there was extreme darkness. And he gets lost and he panics and can't find out where he is. And for this sequence I didn't use any lights, I just took some little bits of white card and just reflected enough light onto his face to capture his expression. And we finished up with a really dramatic scene that we shot during the daylight. But, then he comes back to the house and he's very distraught and you know there's a... a scene where they come together and she tells him that he's her knight in shining armour. And we did a very long take with the two of them starting in mid shot and tracking very slowly in until we're in a tight two with no cover and it played beautifully. We didn't have video assist in those days but it played beautifully. And that was it, no coverage and I... I thought that's great, I think, when the director's got the courage to do that it's absolutely great.