Legendary Cinematographer Roger Deakins Now Has His Own Podcast

Roger Deakins, the cinematographer behind Barton Fink, No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Blade Runner 2049, 1917, and so much more, now has his own podcast. Co-hosted with his wife and collaborator James Deakins, the podcast – titled Team Deakins – features the cinematographer talking about the tricks of the trade, including lighting, location scouting, and more. Think of it as a film school for your ears.

There are a handful of cinematographers who have achieved a certain rock star status, and Roger Deakins is definitely one of them. His credits go all the way back to the 1970s, and his imagery is constantly singled out for its striking, one-of-a-kind appearance. And now he has his own podcast. Team Deakins has actually been around since the end of April, but it only just came to our attention now (thanks to Collider).

The first episode has Deakins and wife/collaborator James Deakins discussing how they got into the film business. From there, episodes deal with working with collaborators, “the ins and outs of location scouting,” the journey from film to digital, the difference between still and moving images (Deakins says he thinks he’s actually not the best at taking still photographs, believe it or not), and more. Listeners can email in questions for Team Deakins to discuss.

James Deakins released the following statement to Collider:

“We have been doing our website (rogerdeakins.com) for years now and love connecting with people who are starting out and sharing our experience with them. Over the years, we have done many Q&As and, afterwards, answered individual questions and realized that we often answer the same questions. So the idea of a podcast came to me late last year and Roger thought it would be something interesting. I didn’t really get a chance to start moving forward until January and then the shelter in place time took away any excuses I could have used to put it off! It has meant a huge amount of learning for me since I know visuals but sound was a new area for me. Once we started making the episodes, it just grew. We have so many ideas for episodes now and are being joined by people in different areas of the craft. We find ourselves continually coming back to the collaborative nature of the film business and this makes us want to delve into all the areas of making a film. We also discovered that having a young cinematographer, Matt Wyman, join us in this really added to the podcast and its relevance.”

You can find the Team Deakins podcast here. Also, check out this video that delves more into Deakins’ style.