The latest edition of KVIFF Talk, held in the Festival Lounge, welcomed acclaimed cinematographer Robert Richardson. He was interviewed by renowned American journalist Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter, with the conversation recorded as part of Feinberg’s Awards Chatter Live podcast.
The interview started at the very beginning – Richardson’s hometown and family – before turning to how the longtime collaborator of Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino first found his way into filmmaking. “I wasn’t the most intelligent kid. I went to the University of Vermont and chose to study oceanography, even though Vermont is nowhere near the ocean. But then I attended a film festival where I saw Ingmar Bergman’s films. That was the turning point,” recalled the three-time Academy Award winner. “After leaving Vermont, I spent a year managing a cinema, watching every film several times over. Then I applied to all the film schools I could.”
The KVIFF Talk, which will also be available on KVIFF.TV, explored how Richardson found his way through a chain of industry connections to Oliver Stone, with whom he later made the first two feature films of his career. The conversation also delved into the technical side of Richardson’s craft – why he, unlike many cinematographers, prefers to operate the camera himself, why he is so fond of crane shots, and whether he prefers shooting indoors or outdoors.
