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thelondonfilmschool · 7 years

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“LFS imbued me with a sense of passion and wonder for filmmaking that I’ve carried with me.” - LFS Alumnus Yiannis Manolopoulos

Interview by Sophie McVeigh | Photo by Paul Stephenson

Greek cinematographer Yiannis Manolopoulos graduated from London Film School three years ago and has since forged a flourishing career in the industry, with his work on an LFS graduation film recently selected by the British Society of Cinematographers Emerging Photographers event. We talked to him about life in London, what it takes to be a success in the industry, and what filmmaking has in common with military service …

Sophie McVeigh: Could you tell me a little bit about your background before LFS?

Yiannis Manolopoulos: I’m from Athens and my first degree was in Philosophy and Economics, so it had nothing to do with filmmaking. I always wanted to do filmmaking, but for different reasons I never took that route. After I did my undergrad in York, here in the UK, I went back to Greece and went into the army because it’s mandatory there. Then I did a Masters - I wanted to do filmmaking but for several reasons that didn’t end up being so. I went to NYU and did Project Management, then I went back to Greece and I was working in a publishing house but filmmaking was always eating me away. So there came a point where I realised that I had to do it. I started doing some classes in a school in Greece, I did some directing classes, some cinematography classes, I did some shorts. And then I decided I needed to do it properly. So, I applied to LFS, which is known as one of the best filmmaking schools.

S.M: Was your focus always on cinematography?

Y.M: Yes, from Term 1 really, it was. I was always interested in photography and the visual aspect of storytelling – how to use symbolism, how to use colour and light to tell a story and create emotion. From the beginning I was always geared towards camera and light. I think that just came from films, watching films as a kid, going to the cinema. I was a kid of the 80’s, so I was in the VHS revolution. Besides having cinema on the weekends, my brother and I would rent five or six films and stay in for entire days and watch them back to back. I was always in love with film.

S.M: You graduated in 2014.

Y.M: Officially, yes. I graduated as a cinematographer. I shot my first grad film at the end of the 5th term which was the end of the second year in 2012, but then I kept shooting grad films.

S.M: Everybody needs the cinematographer?

Y.M: Yeah, it’s a good place to be! You have so many directors and people wanted to work with me and I was happy to shoot different things. So, I kept shooting grad films until almost a year and a half later and I submitted a portfolio of many films. I graduated in 2014.

S.M: Was it always your plan to stay in London after you graduated?

Y.M: Not really, I didn’t have that specific goal in mind, it was just learning the craft and doing it, basically. I just wanted to go wherever the projects and the work is. I mean, that’s one of the things that I got from LFS, it’s like a network. Coming out and graduating and being an alumnus, I’ve got people that I keep working with, like directors that were in my term or a few terms above or below, and we do projects together again and again. It tends to gravitate around London and the UK and around the school because of those connections.

S.M: Is there any other reason why you think London is a good place to be for the kind of work you’re doing?

Y.M: It’s also the industry. In Europe I think it’s the biggest and the more voluminous in terms of jobs, job availability and demand. And the language element, for me, because I speak English and Greek so it’s easy for me to work here versus going to, say, France or somewhere. I’ve been here permanently since 2010, it’s been seven years now.

S.M: Can you tell me about your career since graduation?

Y.M: During the last year of my being at LFS, because I love operating so much and I thought it would be a good development for me as an operator, I did some Steadicam courses and became a Steadicam operator. My career has taken two parallel paths, basically. I work both as a Director of Photography, mostly on drama and I’ve done a few commercials and music videos, and then I work a lot as a Steadicam operator as well. Being a DOP, you are basically responsible for the image of the projects, that being light, camera and frame. So that has a more directorial and over-arching responsibility over the project, and being a Steadicam operator is basically operating on a specific kind of rig, it’s a speciality kind of operating. You would be hired in by other DOPs to do those speciality shots. In terms of career, I’ve been fortunate enough to have that Steadicam angle to be able to keep shooting more and more projects, and then be able to do more passion projects. I want to do drama and my goal is to do features. That way I can be more involved in low-budget or no- budget shorts and keep shooting and developing my craft, and at the same time I’ve got some connections so that I can do more paid projects and commercials. I’m fortunate enough to have some of my work being recognised. I had the Panalux award (Yiannis was the recipient of the LFS 2014 PANALUX award for Cinematography) and this year I’ve been selected to be BAFTA crew. That means you’re part of a network of filmmakers, be that directors, producers, crew, camera crew, sound crew, who collaborate and share knowledge. There are different events and networking events that we attend, there are different kinds of workshops. I’ve been asked to sit in on one-on-one meetings with students and talk to them about cinematography, and also I’ve been in workshops taking advice from seasoned cinematographers. It’s a kind of community to help you move along. It’s been very rewarding so far. And recently I’ve been selected for the BSC Emerging Cinematographers panel, which was a great honour. Actually, it was with a grad film from LFS that I shot, so that’s great. In terms of career I’m inching towards my goal because I’ve been asked to shoot a feature as a DOP at the UK unit of a film called Utopia that shot in Afghanistan and India. I was very fortunate enough to be part of this very good production which got picked by the Afghani government to be submitted for the foreign Oscars submission. And then I’ve also been involved in a few other feature projects as an operator. The most notable would be Notes on Blindness, which is a very nice documentary which was BAFTA nominated, and then it won the Cameraimage Frog for Best Cinematography.

S.M: Does being involved in something that was long-listed for an Oscar open up a lot of opportunities?

Y.M: It’s a good thing to mention, to get your foot in the door and get people to pay more attention. In general, I find that the industry is very saturated. There’s a lot of people doing the same thing and it’s an over-abundance of cinematographers and camera people, and at the same time we also have this culture of distraction and there’s a low focus point. When you get people to see or talk about your work, usually you get 10 or 20 seconds to give your show reel and your website. So, having something like that to put up front and having some awards hopefully gets producers and directors or any future collaborators to pay more attention to what your work is. Hopefully it rises more to the top among the multitude of amazing work that is out there.

S.M: So, in this saturated environment, what advice would you have for a student leaving LFS who wants to be a successful cinematographer?

Y.M: I would say, I mean I think it’s the only way to do it but at the same time it’s kind of counterintuitive advice – if you want to get into an industry you have to have good material. Basically, you have to do good work. That’s the only thing that should matter to you, that you always deliver the best possible result and service. It’s not only about the film being good, it’s also about your attitude on set – how you work with directors and producers, how you behave. That all counts, because, as everybody knows at LFS, it’s long hours, it’s working very closely with people, so it matters, your people management and how you carry yourself on set. Always try and do your best because you’re always remembered by your last project. The industry works in a way where there are no interviews, there is no sending CV’s or going through the normal process that usually gets you a job. The way you get a job is either someone knows you and knows your work, or you get mentioned by someone for your work. The only way for one of those two things to happen is that the last thing you did was really good, so people will remember it. You always have to be at your best. That means, I think, shooting as much as you can. You might aspire to get to a level but you always do work and it never really reaches it – you always feel you’re lacking. That, I think, is the process – you keep shooting and you keep doing it. There’s a great quote by Ira Glass (host and producer of This American Life) that says more or less that. In your creative life there’s a phase where your work never reaches your expectations. And you just need to keep grinding away, and at some point your skill level and the quality of your production will reach your aspirations. So, you just have to keep shooting. I said it’s a bit counterintuitive because that means that you have to get involved with a lot of low-budget or no- money projects which sometimes lead you to compromise, because you have these aspirations but then there’s no budget because it’s an expensive art, filmmaking. There’s no budget for the right equipment, or the right amount of time, the right locations to get everything you need right! So, it’s a kind of push and pull – trying to do good work with no resources and trying to rise to the top so that you can have the resources and do the work that you want to do.

S.M: You’re always relying on someone else’s vision for the project as well.

Y.M: Yes, which in another sense, for me, is the great part about it because I jump from project to project and I get to share different visions and talk with directors that have different ways of thinking and working. And then you translate that through your own filter into a visual language. So, you always find something new. It’s a craft that makes you grow every time because it’s new challenges every time and new ways of approaching things. So, I would say don’t get discouraged and just keep shooting. And it will get better, I hope!

S.M: You’ve worked on a lot of international projects – was that something that was always important to you in terms of sharing different visions, and was that part of your reason for coming to LFS?

Y.M: It’s something I cherish and that I really embrace. I look at a project more favourably if there’s travel and it’s international because you get to see different cultures, different people, different ways of thinking. Different light, which I’ve found is very interesting. I’ve shot in Iran, I’ve shot in Lebanon, in Greece and Italy. The light is different every time, and it’s a great surprise. But that was not the goal, really, and that was not one of my main prerequisites for coming to LFS. My main reason was the interdisciplinary nature of it. Because I came from a non-filmmaking and non-photographic background, I found it very worthwhile that I was able to go through all the steps and assume an editor’s role, a director’s role, a sound person’s role, and understand what the process is throughout. I think that’s made me a better collaborator now because I can understand all the departments and how they work, and I can talk better with everyone. That was the main reason – it was less of a steep learning curve into filmmaking. Although, having said that, it was still very intense coming in and them just throwing everything at you! But it’s great.

S.M: What kind of qualities do you need to do your job?

Y.M: Another nice quote I read on a website, which a gaffer had put up, was that to always have work in filmmaking you have to have two out of three things: be on time, be good at what you do and be fun to work with. So, if you have at least two out of three you’ll always be employed. Filmmaking has the kind of structure that you find in the military – you have this kind of pyramid of responsibility, and it has long hours and this group mentality where everybody works together. And I think punctuality is an important thing to take out it. If you’re always on time and reliable, that’s really good. That’s one thing, the other is be good at what you do – love it, have passion for it and give everything to it. And the third is, I think we mentioned it – 12 hours in a hot studio with everyone, if you’re grumpy or you’re particular … you have to have good people skills and give leeway to relationships so that you’re fun to work with.

S.M: Did your time in the army help you with that?

Y.M: I like to think people skills and punctuality are things I had anyway! (laughs)

S.M: What projects are coming up for you in the near future?

Y.M: At the moment it’s a busy November. I have two short films I’m prepping – one is an LFS graduation film, actually. People from LFS know me and have seen my work and keep coming back, which I’m very fortunate to have. Another is a short film with another director I’ve met. I have a music video which I’m doing Steadicam on. I have a content commercial which I’m DOPing. And then I’m also doing four days on a feature which has some pick-ups – I did some B Camera for a low-budget feature, they’ve done assembly and they need some pick-ups. The original DOP is back in the States where he’s from and can’t come so they asked me to do it. That’s what a busy month looks like. From month to month it really changes. It’s been quite a busy summer but there are months where you could have just one job or a couple of Steadicam dailies, and then a month like this which is kind of crazy.

S.M: Do you find you have to say yes to everything because you don’t know when it’s going to be a quiet month?

Y.M: Not really, for me it always comes down to the content. It starts with the script and the story or what the commercial is, what it’s about and how the treatment is and what we’re going to shoot. I have to be invested somehow in that - either I love the story or the subject matter, or I’m attracted to the vision or find that visually I can give something. If there’s nothing in the material that I can relate to then I can’t really adhere to what I said before and actually make it good. I have to be invested in it. It’s also important to have good working relationships, so if it’s a director or producer that I know I can work well with, that’s also very good. There’s been projects that I’ve turned down because I just couldn’t relate to the material, or sometimes I could relate to it but because the calendar was full I knew that I couldn’t give my best, so I would have to pass.

S.M: If you were to give advice to a student thinking of coming to LFS, why would you recommend the course?

Y.M: I think it’s the infectious culture of passion for film that’s the most important thing. Coming in, we would work very long hours and everything else in my life during those two years was in the back of my mind. The forefront was, “What project are we shooting, how are we doing this?” That’s all in the process of learning, and it leads you to discover new things – technical things, or theoretical things or creative things. And you discover things about yourself while you’re working with others. Being in the space with everyone having this kind of mentality imbued me with a sense of passion and wonder for filmmaking that I think I’ve carried through with me.

You can follow Yiannis’s work at http://www.yiannismanolopoulos.com/.

Yiannis is from Athens, Greece. His first feature film as a Director of Photography, "Utopia", was longlisted for the 88th Academy awards, as the 2016 Afghanistan foreign film submission. He is a member of Bafta Crew as well as a member of the Association of Steadicam Operators. His work was recently selected for the BSC Emerging Cinematographers (https://bscine.com/news?id=227)

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