IEC
#2: 2010
ANTHONY DOD MANTLE DFF/BSC/ASC
Born: 1955, Oxford, UK. Moved to Denmark in 1985.
Education: London College of Printing [Photography, 1980-84]; Den Danske Filmskole [DDF]/National Film School of Denmark [1985-89].
Career: 'A late-blooming DP, he did not leave film school until he had turned 30, spending the early part of his twenties traveling the world. It was while in India that he began to recognize his growing love of stills photography. "My mum's a painter and my dad's a scientist," he explains, "and they were always trying me out with anything artistic everything from the piano to painting. When I came back from India I applied to the London College of Printing, got in and studied there for three years before getting my degree. So I started off in stills photography and then moved into film. I remember shooting my first film project on a CP-16 [Cinema Products Corporation] camera which was a little strange, a little box with a funny long lens and what looked like a spare tire balanced on top of it." Encouraged to pursue his growing fascination with film, Dod Mantle found himself in one of only five available places at the National Film School of Denmark, drawn to the country because of a vague, linguistic connection.' [From 'Exposure – The Magazine', Summer 2003.]
Ph commercials dir by Jens Mikkelsen, Julia Jason, a.o. Ph music videos.
Member of the DFF since 1989 and the ASC since 2011.
Appeared in the doc's 'The Name of This Film Is Dogme95' [2000, Saul Metzstein; 50m], 'ADM: DOP [Anthony Dod Mantle - Director of Photography]' [2003, Shari Roman; ph: John Bailey], 'The Making of 'Dear Wendy'' [2003, Frank Stender], a.o.
Awards: 'Robert' Festival Award [1996] for 'Menneskedyret'; Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [1998] & 'Robert' Festival Award [1999] for 'Festen'; Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [1999] & 'Robert' Award nom [2000] for 'Mifunes sidste sang'; 'Robert' Festival Award nom [2000] for 'Bornholms stemme'; Independent Spirit Award nom [2000] & Buenos Aires IFF 'ADF Award - Special Mention' [2000] for 'Julien Donkey-Boy'; European Film Award [2003] for 'Dogville' & '28 Days Later...'; Bodil 'Johan Ankerstjernes Cinematography Award' [2004]; 'Robert' Festival Award [2004] for 'It's All About Love'; Plus Camerimage 'Golden Frog' Award [2008], BAFTA Film Award [2008], 'Oscar' AA [2008] & ASC Film Award [2008] for 'Slumdog Millionaire'; ICFF Manaki Brothers 'Special Golden Camera 300' Award [2009] for outstanding contribution to the art of film; BAFTA Film Award nom [2010; shared] for '127 Hours'; Marburger Kamerapreis [2011]; Camerimage 'Bronze Frog Award' [2016] for 'Snowden'; Camerimage 'Bronze Frog Award' [2017] for 'First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers'.
Website: Anthony Dod Mantle
[Left] with doph Christopher Doyle
Anthony Dod Mantle: 'I don't like being called 'Mr. Dogme'. The soul, not the style, is what matters. Technique that does not become art is of no interest. People fear the new and unpredictable. It's difficult to understand why, because the language of cinema needs to be renewed. Every story has its form and now I've experimented with the Dogme method, I want to move on to something new. I get a lot of offers from America, but I want to keep my base in Denmark, where I do the odd commercial to keep my technique in trim and to enjoy a bit of family life. Major Hollywood projects which may offer dramatic technical challenges but have no interesting ideas or plots, are not what I want to waste my energy on. I'd much rather make films with a dedicated director who is seeking out new paths. Habits are there to be broken.'
'Festen/The Celebration' [1998]: 'I was more into the plot than the Dogme rules and about a week before shooting I got the feeling we were on the trail of something significant and exceptional. And then we had the happy experience of everything - plot, acting, cinematography - resolving into a greater whole. I felt as if I had become a member of the cast when I had to capture situations in a flash. What I had to do was create an emotional space with room for the uncontrollable.' [...] On that film I basically told the actors to go wherever they wanted, which was very confusing for them and rather amusing to watch. These very well trained actors are so used to coming into a room and knowing where the camera would be. I would tease them and lie to them, and say that I would be in one place, and when they actually come into the room I would deliberately stand somewhere else. I would deliberately place myself in near impossible situations to see what kind of energy that created. That was really one of the constants on that film, creating an odd vitality or energy in the camera that forces situations that would never normally occur.' [From article by Liselotte Michelsen & Morten Piil and from 'Exposure - The Magazine', Summer 2003.]
'Slumdog Millionaire' [2007]: 'The challenge of shooting in one of the densest and fasting moving cities in the world fell upon Director of Photography Anthony Dod Mantle. The plan was to shoot in the heart of the city's infamous but rarely explored slums, capturing their energy and urgency on-the-fly, with an unforced realism.
Danny Boyle was adamant that he did not want to take large, cumbersome 35mm cameras into the slums. He wanted to use smaller, more flexible, digital cameras to enable them to shoot quickly with minimal disturbance to the natural flow and communities.
"We started off using classical kinds of film cameras and I didn't like it," Boyle explains. "I wanted to feel really involved in the city. I didn't want to be looking at it, examining it. I wanted to be thrown right into the chaos as much as possible."
"I had to find a camera set up that would be ergonomic enough for me to throw myself around the slums chasing the children whilst, at the same time, withhold as much detail in the shadows and highlights," says Anthony Dod Mantle. "We needed a digital camera with enough latitude to hold highlights and something very small so we could enter the children's world at their level. 'Slumdog Millionaire' needed a completely different tactical approach."
Silicon Imaging SI-2K Mini with gyro stabilizer
They found the right combination in the innovative IT-centric Silicon Imaging SI-2K Digital Cinema camera. It delivered over 11 stops of dynamic range, flexible connectivity and film-like digital content, which could be easily inter-cut with traditional film footage.
Unlike modern HD cameras, which develop and compress colorized imagery inside the camera, the Silicon Imaging SI-2K streams 2K [2048×1152] data as uncompressed raw 'digital negatives' over a standard gigabit Ethernet connection. An Intel Core 2 Duo processor-based computer embedded in the camera or tethered to a laptop up to 100 feet away, processes the digital negatives, where they are non-destructively developed and colorized for preview using the cinematographer's desired 'look' for the scene.
The digital negatives and 'look' metadata are simultaneously recorded to hard drive or solid state disk where up to 4-hours of continuous footage are captured on a single 160GB notebook drive; this is the equivalent of 14-reels of 35mm film which has an associated cost exceeding $25,000 for materials and processing. The recorded files, can be immediately played with the target color look at full resolution, without the need for film scanning, tape ingest, format conversions or off-line proxies.
"I've done some odd things, but this was the oddest," Mantle says. "It was unknown territory and unknown technology, which was exciting. Attaching a gyro to the base of the handheld unit enabled me to move the camera in a very unusual way, somewhere between handheld and immaculate Steadicam," says the cinematographer. "I could make fast movements, throw the camera a certain way, swipe it up and sideways, and make a brake just before the gyro kicked in so it came to an abrupt stop."
"The SI-2K's handled the highlights amazingly well," stated Mantle. "I have since shot on the RED camera and found I had to be more wary of clipping the highlights in Scandinavia than I had to be with the SI-2K in scorching India. Its weight factor obviously allowed me to operate more intuitively and emotionally instantaneously than I can with the normal weight of even a modern celluloid camera." [From the Silicon Imaging website, 2009.]
| FILMS | |
|---|---|
|
1989 |
See You Maybe [Birgitte Christensen] ? |
|
1989 |
Kaj's fødselsdag/The Birthday Trip [Lone Scherfig] c; cph: Kim Hattesen |
|
1990 |
Tale uden ord/Speechless [Poul Rude] c; doc/24m |
|
1991 |
Jern Henrik [Albert Hytteballe Petersen] c; doc/41m |
|
1991 |
Da natten forsvandt - et elektrisk eventyr/Edge of Darkness [Jens Loftager] ?; doc/18m |
|
1991 |
Noget med mennesker - en film om hjemmehjælp i storbyen [Marianne Kjær] ?; doc/35m; cph: Niels Westh |
|
1992 |
Die Terroristen!/The Terrorists! [Philip Gröning] 16mm-35bu/c; cph: Max Jonathan Silberstein |
|
1992 |
Domestic Nightmares [Curtis Radclyffe] 16mm+dv/c; trailer for series comm by TVS |
|
199? |
Chike Stone [Curtis Radclyffe] s8+16mm+dv/c; mus doc/?m; prod Virgin Records |
|
1993 |
Natskygger/Deadly Nightshade [Anthony Dod Mantle & Poul Rude] c; doc/51m |
|
1994 |
Ord/Words [Jens Loftager] c; doc/48m; 1st part of trilogy; see 'Krig' (2002) |
|
1994 |
Fra grønt til hvidt [Klaus Kjeldsen] BetaSP/c; doc/10m; cph: Bøje Lomholdt |
|
1994 |
Den usynlige kunst/Invisible Art [Cæcilia Holbek Trier] c; doc/70m |
|
1995 |
Menneskedyret/The Beast Within [Carsten Rudolf] c; 2uc: Eric Kress |
|
1995 |
Operation Cobra [Lasse Spang Olsen] c; 2uc: Jens Schlosser |
|
1995 |
Kun en pige/Just a Girl [Peter Schrøder] c; 2uc; ph: Dirk Brüel |
|
1995 |
Love & Hate - European Stories [seg/15m 'The Letter' dir by Amir Rezazadeh] c; comp of 5 shorts; other ph: Hans Welin, Edward Klosinski, Radoslav Vladic & Erik Poppe |
|
1995 |
Velo negro/Drømmeslør/Rouwsluier/Black Veil [Arjanne Laan] c; doc/72m; cph: Bernd Wouthuysen |
|
1996 |
De største helte/The Biggest Heroes [Thomas Vinterberg] c |
|
1996 |
Fredens port/Portal to Peace [Thomas Stenderup] c; doc/30m |
|
1996 |
Ska' vi være kærester?/Sweethearts [Birger Larsen] c; short/11m |
|
1996 |
Amanda [Katrine Nyholm] c; doc/14m |
|
1996 |
Det store flip/Wild Flowers [Niels Gråbøl] c |
|
1997 |
Nonnebørn/Agnus Dei [Cæcilia Holbek Trier] c |
|
1997 |
Tranceformer - A Portrait of Lars von Trier [Stig Björkman; co-dir: Fredrik von Krusenstjerna] b&w-c; doc/54m; cph: Björn Blixt & Jan Röed |
|
1998 |
Festen/The Celebration [Thomas Vinterberg] dv-to-35mm/c; Dogme #1; see above |
|
1998 |
Mifunes sidste sang/Mifune/Mifune's Last Song [Søren Kragh-Jacobsen] 16mm-35bu/c; 2uc: Torben Forsberg; Dogme #3 |
|
1998 |
Bille August - Manden og mediemaskinen [Peter Hjorth] ?; doc/?m |
|
1999 |
Den onde cirkel [David Fox] c; doc/42m; cph: Morten Søborg |
|
1999 |
Bornholms stemme/Gone with the Fish [Lotte Svendsen] c; 2uc: Eric Kress |
|
1999 |
Manden med tubaen/The Man with the Tuba [Anders Gustafsson] BetaSP-to-35mm/c; short/22m |
|
1999 |
julien donkey-boy [Harmony Korine] dv-to-35mm/c; Dogme #6 |
|
1999 |
Dancer in the Dark [Lars von Trier] DVcam (Sony DSR-1P, PD-100P, PD-150 & D30WSP)-to-35mm scope/c; co-dance seq ph; ph: Robby Müller |
|
2000 |
Jokes [seg #1 'Easter' dir by Gus Van Sant] DigiBeta/c; 3 seg (seg #2 & #3 were not filmed) |
|
2000 |
Den förtrollade sonen/Fortabte sønner/Lost Sons [Fredrik von Krusenstjerna] c; doc/58m; cph: Peter Dörfler, Lars Barthel, a.o. |
|
2001 |
It's All About Love [Thomas Vinterberg] s35/c; addph: Eric Kress |
|
2001 |
28 Days Later.../29 Days Later [Danny Boyle] mdv+8mm+35mm-to-35mm/c; 2uc: Thomas Townend; aph: Adam Dale |
|
2002 |
Dogville [Lars von Trier] HD+DVcam-to-35mm 2.35/c |
|
2002 |
Krig/War [Jens Loftager] DigiBeta/c; doc/51m; 2nd part of trilogy; see 'Ord' (1994) |
|
2002 |
Die große Stille/Into Great Silence [Philip Gröning] 8mm+HD-to-35mm/c; doc/164m; uncred co-2uc; ph: P. Gröning; filmed Spring/Summer 2002 & Winter 2003 |
|
2002 |
Volkswagen - Zusammen [Alice Agneskirchner] HD-to-70mm/c; corporate doc/14m; cph: Benedict Neuenfels; 2uc: Stefan Ciupek; for Autostadt, Wolfsburg |
|
2003 |
The Sick House [Curtis Radclyffe] c; ph trailer (90s) & promo (10m); feature filmed in November/December 2005 by doph Sam McCurdy |
|
2003 |
Små skred/Small Avalanches [Birgitte Stærmose] c; short/15m; 2uc: Manuel Claro |
|
2003 |
Millions [Danny Boyle] c; 2uc: Daf Hobson; addph: Brian Tufano |
|
2003 |
Dear Wendy [Thomas Vinterberg] HD (Sony HKT950)-to-35mm/c; 2uc: Jens Schlosser |
|
2004 |
Manderlay [Lars von Trier] HD (Sony F900)+DVcam (Sony DSR-PD150P)-to-35mm scope/c |
|
2004 |
Familien Gregersen/Lost Generation [Charlotte Sachs Bostrup] scope/c; co-addph; ph: Dirk Brüel |
|
2004 |
Brothers of the Head [Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe] s16-35bu/c |
|
2005 |
The Last King of Scotland [Kevin Macdonald] s16+s35-to-35mm scope/c; ph Scotland: Eigil Bryld |
|
2005 |
Trip to Asia [: Die Suche nach dem Einklang] [: The Quest for Harmony]/A Trip to Asia: On the Road with the Berlin Philharmonic [Thomas Grube] HD-to-35mm/c; mus doc/108m; cph: René Dame & Alberto Venzago |
|
2006 |
Istedgade/Principles of Attraction [Birgitte Stærmose] c; short/47m |
|
2006 |
Mit Danmark - Film Nr. 1 [Jens Loftager] c; doc/?m; ep of 10-part doc series |
|
2006 |
Sophie [Birgitte Stærmose] dv/c; short/14m |
|
2006 |
En mand kommer hjem/A Man Comes Home [Thomas Vinterberg] scope/c |
|
2006 |
Hjemve/Just Like Home [Lone Scherfig] scope/c |
|
2007 |
Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence/To Each His Own Cinema [seg (3m) 'Occupations' dir by Lars von Trier] b&w-c; 33 seg/119m |
|
2007 |
Sveitabrúokaup/Country Wedding [Valdis Óskarsdóttir] HD (JVC GY-HD200)-to-35mm scope/c |
[Right] with dir Danny Boyle - "Slumdog Millionaire"
|
2007 |
Slumdog Millionaire [Danny Boyle (co-dir India: Loveleen Tandan)] s35+HD (Canon EOS 1D + Silicon Imaging SI-2K)-to-35mm scope/c; 2uc: Mrinal Desai; see above |
|
2008 |
Antichrist [Lars von Trier] RED+HD (Phantom HD)-to-35mm scope/b&w-c |
|
2009 |
Das letzte Schweigen [Baran bo Odar] scheduled as doph, but film was ph by Nikolaus Summerer |
|
2009 |
The Eagle/The Eagle of the Ninth [Kevin Macdonald] s35+HD (Canon EOS 1D)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Masanobu Takayanagi |
[Left] with cph Enrique Chediak - "127 Hours"
|
2010 |
127 Hours [Danny Boyle] s35+HD (Silicon Imaging SI-2K Mini + Canon EOS 1D, 5D & 7D + Redlake Y5 [high-speed])-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; cph: Enrique Chediak; aph: David B. Nowell; uwph: Peter Zuccarini |
|
2010 |
In Embryo [Ulrich Thomsen] in development; shown during the Stockholm FF (November 2010) as a 'Work in Progress' (30m; ph by A. Dod Mantle ?); film was ph in February/March 2013 by Stefan Ciupek |
|
2010 |
Dredd/Dredd 3D [Pete Travis] RED+HD (Phantom Flex + Silicon Imaging SI-2K)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; 2uc (+ c.op 'a' cam): Niels Reedtz Johansen; version of 'Judge Dredd' (1994, Danny Cannon; ph: Adrian Biddle) |
|
2011 |
Trance [Danny Boyle] HD (ARRI ALEXA M/Hawk Scope & Plus/Hawk Scope + Canon EOS 1D & C500 + Phantom HD Gold/Hawk Scope)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Niels Reedtz Johansen; uncred aph: John Marzano; uwph: Sean Connor |
|
2012 |
Rush [Ron Howard] HD (ARRI ALEXA Plus & Studio + Canon EOS C300)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Michael Wood; Nürburgring pre-shoot ph: Michael Coulter; aph: Jeremy Braben & Jim Swanson |
|
2013 |
In the Heart of the Sea/Heart of the Sea [Ron Howard] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT + Canon EOS 1DC, C300 & C500 + Indiecam GS2K)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; addph (reshoots May-July 2014): Salvatore Totino; 2uc: Michael Wood |
|
2014 |
Our Kind of Traitor [Susanna White] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT Plus + Canon EOS C500 + IndieCam)/c; 2uc: Michael Wood; addph (pickups in March 2015): Mike Eley |
|
2015 |
Snowden [Oliver Stone] HD (ARRI ALEXA 65, XT Studio & Mini + Canon EOS C500)-to-D-Cinema (scope)/c; 2uc: Jo Heim |
|
2016 |
T2 Trainspotting [Danny Boyle] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT Plus & Mini)-to-D-Cinema/c; addph: Keith Ingram |
|
2017 |
Kursk [Thomas Vinterberg] HD (ARRI ALEXA Mini)/c |
|
2017 |
Gutterbee/Welcome to Gutterbee/Willenberger [Ulrich Thomsen] HD (Panavision DXL)/c |
|
2018 |
Radioactive [Marjane Satrapi] HD/c; 2uc: Michael Wood |
| TELEVISION & INTERNET | |
|---|---|
|
1999 |
En verdensomsejling under bordet [Maria Walbom] tvm |
|
1999 |
D-dag [seg 'Lise' dir by Lars von Trier] tvm/65m/dv; 4 seg |
|
2001 |
Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise [Danny Boyle] tvm/75m/dv |
|
2001 |
Strumpet [Danny Boyle] tvm/72m/dv |
|
2008 |
Wallander [ep #1 'Sidetracked' & #3 'One Step Behind' dir by Philip Martin] 6-part series/RED, 2008 & 2010; 1st series (3 ep); other ph: Jan Jonaeus |
|
2016 |
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers [Angelina Jolie] HD (Sony F55)/c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Alexander Witt; splinter unit ph 2u (+ main unit c.op 'b' cam/Steadicam op): Bela Trutz; for Netflix |
| MISCELLANEOUS | |
|---|---|
|
1995 |
Breaking the Waves [Lars von Trier] co-loc scout Scotland; ph: Robby Müller |
|
1996 |
Ørnens øje/Eye of the Eagle [Peter Flinth] 2u co-c.asst; ph: Eric Kress |
|
2002 |
Pagten/The Pact [Heidi Maria Faisst; short] ph cons; ph: Sebastian Winterø; prod DDF |
|
2003 |
Bokseren [Daniel Espinosa; short] ph cons; ph: Camilla Hjelm Knudsen; prod DDF |
|
2009 |
Paradis [Jens Loftager, Erlend E. Mo & Sami Saif; doc] co-c.op; ph: Lars Reinholdt Jensen |
