Roger Deakins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sir Roger Deakins CBE
Deakins in 2021
Born	Roger Alexander Deakins (1949-05-24) 24 May 1949 (age 76) Torquay, Devon, England
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1974–present
Organization	British Society of Cinematographers American Society of Cinematographers
Spouse(s)	Isabella James Purefoy Ellis ​ (m. 1991)​
Awards	Full list

Sir Roger Alexander Deakins (born on May 24, 1949) is a famous English cinematographer. A cinematographer is the person in charge of how a movie looks. They decide on the lighting, camera angles, and how the film is shot.

Roger Deakins has won many important awards for his work. He has received five BAFTA Awards and two Academy Awards (also known as Oscars) for his amazing cinematography. He has worked with well-known directors like the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve on many films.

Some of his most famous movies include The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Fargo (1996), Skyfall (2012), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and 1917 (2019). He won his two Academy Awards for Blade Runner 2049 and 1917. Many people think he is one of the best and most important cinematographers in movie history.

Deakins studied at the National Film and Television School. He is now an Honorary Fellow there because of his great contributions to British film. He is also a member of important groups like the British Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers. In 2011, he received a special Lifetime Achievement Award. He was honored by the Palace in 2013 and became a Sir in 2021 for his services to film.

Early Life and Art Interests

Roger Deakins was born in Torquay, a town in England. His dad ran a building company, and his mom was an actress and painter. Roger went to Torquay Boys' Grammar School.

From a young age, he loved painting. Later, he went to the Bath Academy of Art to study graphic design. While there, he discovered his passion for photography. A photographer named Roger Mayne, who visited the academy, was a big inspiration for him.

After college, Deakins tried to get into the new National Film School. He was not accepted at first because his photos were not "filmic" enough. So, he spent a year traveling and taking pictures of rural life in North Devon. He was finally accepted into the film school in 1972.

Starting His Film Career

After finishing film school, Roger Deakins worked as a cameraman for about seven years. He helped make many different projects. One of his first jobs was filming a nine-month trip around the world on a yacht. This was for a documentary called Around the World with Ridgeway.

Deakins also filmed two documentaries in Africa. One was about the Rhodesian Bush War in Zimbabwe, and the other was about the Eritrean War of Independence. He also filmed documentaries about people and cultures in India and Sudan.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Deakins worked on many music-related projects. These included a documentary about British rock music called Blue Suede Shoes. He also filmed a concert for Van Morrison and a musical film by Ray Davies. He even made short music videos for famous artists like Eric Clapton and Marvin Gaye.

Working on Feature Films

First Dramatic Films

Deakins's first dramatic project was a TV miniseries called Wolcott. It was about a detective in London. His work on this show impressed his old school friend, Michael Radford. Radford then asked Deakins to work on their first dramatic movie, Another Time, Another Place (1983). This film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and was very popular.

Deakins and Radford worked together again on Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). This movie was based on George Orwell's famous book. Deakins used a special technique called bleach bypass to make the film look washed-out and bleak. This look matched the dark world of the story. Deakins was one of the first Western cinematographers to use this technique, and it became very popular in other films later on.

Collaborations and Awards

In 1991, Deakins began working with the famous Coen brothers. Their first movie together was Barton Fink. The Coen brothers liked Deakins's work so much that he became their regular cinematographer. This film won many awards, and Deakins also received awards for his cinematography.

In 1994, Deakins worked on The Shawshank Redemption. This movie earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography. He also received an award from the American Society of Cinematographers. He got two more Oscar nominations in the 1990s for Fargo (1996) and Kundun (1997).

For the Coen brothers' film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Deakins spent two months making the green landscapes of Mississippi look like a burnt, autumn yellow. This was the first time a movie was completely digitally color-corrected. This work earned him his fourth Oscar nomination. The next year, he won his first BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for The Man Who Wasn't There (2001).

In 2008, Deakins received two Oscar nominations at the same time for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and No Country for Old Men (2007). This was a rare achievement!

Deakins at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of The Goldfinch

Deakins continued his work with the Coen brothers on the western film True Grit (2010), which was their eleventh movie together. He also worked with director Sam Mendes on Skyfall (2012), a James Bond film. For Skyfall, Deakins received another Oscar nomination.

Besides live-action films, Deakins also helped with animated movies. He was a visual consultant for films like Rango (2011), WALL-E (2008), and the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy. This means he helped decide how these animated worlds would look.

Starting with Prisoners (2013), Deakins began working with director Denis Villeneuve. They also made Sicario (2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) together. Deakins received Oscar nominations for all three films. For Blade Runner 2049, he finally won his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography after 14 nominations!

Deakins worked with Sam Mendes again on the war film 1917. This movie was filmed to look like one continuous shot. For his incredible work on 1917, he won his second Academy Award.

Personal Life and Hobbies

Roger Deakins married Isabella James Purefoy Ellis in 1991. She is also known as James Ellis Deakins. They met while working on a movie set in Los Angeles. Since then, James has helped with the digital side of his films, and they have worked together on many projects, including The Goldfinch and 1917. They live in England and California.

Deakins has loved boats since he was a child, when he used to go boating with his father. He still has a boat in his hometown of Torquay, where he enjoys fishing when he is in Britain.

When he is in Devon, he likes to go running. He also still loves still photography. In 2021, he released a book of his black-and-white photographs called Byways.

Since 2005, Deakins has had a website where he talks to fans and other people in the film industry. He answers questions and gives tips about cinematography. Since April 2020, he and his wife have hosted a podcast called Team Deakins, where they interview other film professionals.

Filmography

Film Work

Documentary Films

Television Work

Miniseries

TV Movies

Awards and Special Recognition

Roger Deakins has been nominated for sixteen Academy Awards. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice. His wins were for Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and 1917 (2019).

He is an Honorary Fellow of his old school, the National Film and Television School. This honor is given for "outstanding contribution to the British film and television industry."

Deakins has also won five BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography. These were for The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), No Country for Old Men (2007), True Grit (2010), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and 1917 (2019). Two other films he shot, Fargo (1996) and A Serious Man (2009), won Independent Spirit Awards for Best Cinematography.

In 2009, he received the Lumière Award from the Royal Photographic Society for his great achievements in cinematography. The National Board of Review honored Deakins in 2007 with an award for his entire career in cinematography. He also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Society of Cinematographers in 2011 and the British Society of Cinematographers in 2015.

Deakins was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2013 for his services to film. He was then made a knight in 2021, also for his contributions to film.

See also

In Spanish: Roger Deakins para niños

• List of British Academy Award nominees and winners