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Savage Messiah: Ken Russell => Savage Messiah: Ken Russell => Topic started by: Iain Fisher on March 14, 2021, 07:53:00 PM

Title: Dick Bush, one of Ken's cinematographers
Post by: Iain Fisher on March 14, 2021, 07:53:00 PM
An update on Dick Bush, cinematographer on  Isadora and Song of Summer, and later on Savage Messiah, Mahler, Tommy, Clouds of Glory, Crimes of Passion, Lair and A British Picture.

"When I was asked to do a Ken Russell film I was only an acting cameraman. I’d never been taught lighting, I taught myself really by watching other films, and went ahead to work with this terrifying creature as Ken was in those days. He would get through sound crews and camera crews in seconds. And I realised Ken was being really helpful. We’d go off to locations or work in the studio and I would light the set and he would come up and quietly say “Dick, do you really need that lamp on there”, and I’d switch it off and realise the set looked better. And just by listening to Ken, and switching lights off I’d learnt a great deal and his ideas of composition, the use of light, and actually watching him directing was fascinating." (radio documentary Behind the Credits: Director of Photographer, BBC World Service, 1 Jan 1986).

It is on the Behind the Camera page here
http://www.iainfisher.com/russell/ken-russell-people-technicians.html (http://www.iainfisher.com/russell/ken-russell-people-technicians.html)