Ben Davis, BSC on The Banshees of Inisherin, My Policeman, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more

Cinematographer Ben Davis enjoys working on both big budget Marvel
movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel and Doctor
Strange as well as smaller films such as The Banshees of Inisherin,
My Policeman, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Ben
feels that the challenges of shooting large scale movies vs. small
intimate movies might be different, but each film speaks for itself
and needs to be told in a particular visual style. Ben and The
Banshees of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh have enjoyed working
together regularly, beginning with Seven Psychopaths, then Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. When McDonagh called him about
shooting Banshees, Ben agreed before even reading the script,
because he knows McDonagh's scripts are lyrical with humor
sprinkled into the drama. They were shooting during the pandemic,
so the two had to spend 10 days quarantined in a house together,
which was a great opportunity to talk through and visualize the
film. McDonagh knew that he wanted a period piece about a remote,
gray and dreary place, but he wanted to bring in a more colorful
palette, so costume design became important to bring in more
colors. Ben found Banshees difficult to shoot emotionally and
physically, with everything shot on location on a couple of small,
uninhabited islands- Inisherin is not actually a real place. They
had to build all the sets for the movie from scratch on the coastal
Atlantic islands, so everything had to withstand powerful winds and
storms. The wide landscape vistas Ben shot were influenced by John
Ford and Terrence Malick, and he enjoyed going off independently in
the early morning with a camera to shoot small intimate aspects of
the island. For the night exteriors using moonlight, Ben couldn't
use large equipment like cranes due to high winds. He used old
techniques of lighting black and white, making shapes with mesh
over hard light. The Banshees of Inisherin is currently playing in
theaters. My Policeman can be found on Amazon Prime. Sponsored by
Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast
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