Cinematography Style: Barry Ackroyd
INTRODUCTION
Barry Ackroyd is a cinematographer who plays to his strengths. Over his career he’s developed an instantly recognisable style to his photography that is based around a vérité, documentary-esque search for truth and capturing realism.
He works with multiple on-the-ground, handheld, reactive cameras that use bold, punch-in zooms and has been hired by directors such as Ken Loach and Paul Greengrass that highly value a sense of realism and heightened naturalism in their films.
So, in this episode of Cinematography Style I’m going to take a look at the renowned work of Barry Ackroyd by going over his philosophical ideas on cinematography and outlining the gear that he uses to execute his vision.
BACKGROUND
“I’m a cinematographer who was brought up in documentaries in Britain on small budgets.”
Ackroyd’s initial plans to become a sculptor changed while he was studying Fine Arts at Portsmouth Polytechnic after he discovered the medium of 16mm film.
He began working as a television cameraman in the 1980s, mainly shooting documentaries. It was there that he first encountered director Ken Loach. After working on a couple of documentaries together, Ackroyd was offered an opportunity to shoot Riff-Raff for Loach - his first feature length fiction film.
He continued to shoot numerous fiction films and documentaries for Loach during this period, culminating in The Wind That Shakes The Barley which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival. Following this success he began working on other fiction projects for various well known directors such as: Paul Greengrass, Kathryn Bigelow and Adam McKay.
PHILOSOPHY
“Sometimes it’s better just to play to your strengths rather than to try to diversify too much…That was a choice I made, to play to my strengths.”
One of those strengths is a look rooted in a documentary style of working - which was informed by his early work on TV docs. Those documentaries relied on usually operating the camera handheld from the shoulder, in order to record the necessary moments as they happened live. In the real world events or moments often only happen once so you need an easily mobile camera to observe and capture them.
This is the opposite of fiction filmmaking, where events and scenes can be played out multiple times, and are more often than not photographed in a carefully curated, composed visual style. Rather than going the usual fiction cinematic route, Ackroyd took documentary conventions and ways of working and applied them to fiction filmmaking.
For example, he prefers always shooting movies on real locations whenever possible, over shooting them on a constructed set or in a soundstage - even if that real location is a ship on the ocean.
Ackroyd tends to steer away from setting things up too perfectly and instead leans towards a look where capturing a version of reality is far more important than capturing a ‘perfect’ image.
“I think if you look at my work I’m always trying to push what I’ve done before…and actually I push it towards imperfection…There’s a kind of state that you get into where you’re just in tune with what’s happening in front of the camera.”
To capture images realistically, honestly and with as few barriers as possible he relies on working with multiple camera operators and puts a lot of trust in his crew members. He gives his crew lots of credit on set and in interviews, from the focus puller to the sound recordist, and maintains the importance of teamwork and a group effort in creating a film.
“I used to say that in documentaries the best shot that you get in documentaries is out of focus and underlit and looks rubbish. You know that it had to be in the film because it was absolutely right at the time…I think that’s what you’re striving for, you know. Not to overwhelm people with the beauty. Not to fall in love with the landscape…But to get the picture that…you’re involved with it.”
An example of how he seeks authenticity through imperfections can be found in his approach to blocking scenes with directors and actors. Usually actors rehearse a scene on set and then marks are put down on the floor to indicate the exact position that actors must stand in in order to be perfectly lit, perfectly framed and perfectly angled for the shot.
Ackroyd prefers not to mark actors. He sets up any lights he needs either overhead or outside the set so that the actors have the freedom to move around as they like when they play out the scene. Since they don’t have to worry about hitting specific marks, he finds that the actors loosen up more, which injects a realist spontaneity into how their performances are captured.
Sometimes this leads to technical imperfections like moments that are out of focus or frames that aren’t classically composed. But it also injects an energy into the images which is undeniable.
GEAR
“You know I like to get physically involved. We ran around with the cameras. We had four or five cameras at times…In any one setup you’re trying to talk to all the guys, see what they’ve done, see what the next shot should be and give, you know, support and advice.”
As we mentioned, Ackroyd likes shooting with multiple handheld cameras. This allows his operators to quickly react and capture details or moments of performance. It also provides the director and the editor with multiple angles and perspectives which they can cut to in order to build up the intensity and pacing in a scene.
Directors who he has repeatedly collaborated with like Paul Greengrass and Kathryn Bigelow are known for their preference for quick cutting. Ackroyd’s style provides them with the high number of angles that are needed to work in this way.
One of the most important camera tools he uses is focus. He describes focus as being the best cinematic tool, even better than a dolly, crane or tripod, because focus mimics what we naturally do with our eyes and can be used to shift the attention of the audience to a particular part of the frame. He isn’t overly strict with his focus pullers and in fact prefers the natural, more organic method where people drift in and out of focus over every single shot having perfectly timed, measured and calculated focus pulls.
Another important tool in his toolbox is his use of zoom lenses. Again this goes against traditional fiction cinematography principles which ascribe a greater value to prime lenses over zooms - which most documentaries are shot with. He uses quick punch-in zooms as a tool to direct the focus of the audience in the moment. For example if a line of dialogue or an energetic moment of performance is particularly important his operators may push into it with a quick zoom for emphasis.
His choice of camera gear is a bit mishmash. In the same film he may use different formats, such as digital, 35mm and 16mm film, with different prime and, of course, zoom lenses. For example Captain Phillips involved shooting aerial shots digitally, while sequences in the fishing village and on the skiff were shot in Super 16, which they then switched to 35mm film once the characters boarded the large shipping vessel.
He likes the texture of film and has often used the higher grain 16mm to compliment his look. He famously used Super 16 to support the raw, on-the-ground documentary aesthetic on The Hurt Locker.
“Well then I thought it has to be Super 16. We have to get back to the basics. Get down to the lenses you can carry and run with and will give you this fantastic range of wide shots and big close ups…The first thing everybody said was that, ‘well, the quality is not going to be good.’ Well, nobody has criticised the quality of the film. They’ve only praised it.”
He has a preference for Fujifilm stock as it fares well in high contrast lighting situations. When shooting on film he would sometimes purposefully underexpose the negative and then bring up the levels later in the DI in order to introduce more grain to the image.
Ackroyd liked to combine 250D and 500T Fujifilm stocks when shooting Super 16 or 35mm. However, after Fujifilm was discontinued and no longer available he transitioned to shooting on Kodak film or with digital cameras - mainly the Arri Alexa Mini.
On Detroit he used the Arri Alexa Mini in Super 16 mode and shot with Super 16 lenses to introduce noise and grain to the image and get a Super 16 feel, which was further amped up in the grade, all while maintaining the benefits of a digital production.
The Aaton XTR is his go to Super 16 camera, so much so that he owns one. He has used different 35mm cameras such as the Aaton Penelope, the Arriflex 235, the Moviecam Compact and the Arricam LT. Some of his favourite Super 35 zooms are the 15-40mm and, in particular the 28-76mm Angenieux Optimo zoom, which are both light enough to be handheld and provide a nice zoom range that he can use to punch-in with.
He’s also used the Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm, sometimes with a doubler when he needs a longer zoom. It’s too heavy to be used handheld but he has used it with a monopod to aid in operating the huge chunk of a lens and still preserve a handheld feel. Some other zooms he has used include a rehoused Nikon 80-200mm and the Canon 10.6-180mm Super 16 zoom.
Although he prefers zooms he often carries a set of primes which have a faster stop and can be used in low light situations such as Zeiss Super Speeds or Cooke S4s.
Due to the lack of blocking or focus marks, he usually gives his focus pullers a generous, deep stop to work with of around T/5.6 and a half.
To further support his look based on realism and documentary, he lights in a very naturalistic manner. He tries to refrain from lighting exteriors all together and for interiors adds touches of artificial light which are motivated when he needs to balance the exposure in a scene. A lighting tool that he likes to use for this are single Kino Flo tubes, which can easily be rigged overhead or out of sight to provide a low level fill to a scene.
CONCLUSION
Barry Ackroyd’s cinematography is more about deconstructing photography than it is about trying to produce a perfectly beautiful image.
To him imperfections are a signal of authenticity and an expression of realism rather than a flaw. Breaking down an image can’t be done competently without a great degree of skill and knowledge.
His film’s aren’t created by just picking up a bunch of cameras and pointing them in the general direction of the action, but are rather made through deliberate thought and cultivation of a style that emits as much intensity, feeling of reality and truth as possible.