Gandy
Dancer Shooter Loves
Film
and Trains
Gandy
Dancer was the term used for the railroad track
workers back in the
1800s. The tools they
used were made by the Gandy Tool Company of Chicago,
Illinois. The shovel
was used to measure between the rails. The head of the
shovel was used to
measure the width between the ties and it was strong
enough
to pry the tie up
against the rail as the spike was driven home. Work
songs and
chants along with
folklore about standing on the handle and trying to
balance
made for a wild
looking “dance,” hence the term Gandy Dancer.
It’s
his love of trains, particularly “steam” engines
that prompted Jonathan
Guilbert to name his
production company Gandy Dancer Productions. He also
pursued train related
production opportunities, one of which Guilbert is
particularly fond.
“The
PBS series ‘Dinner on the Diner” is probably my
favorite,” he says.
“I was
executive producer,
director, cameraman and editor. I had complete
control. I
spent two years
traveling on great trains around the world (I love
steam trains
they’re another of
my passions) and eating wonderful food. Also taking
celebrated chefs like
Graham Kerr and Martin Yan on these adventures and
putting them through
the ringer. It was great fun and I think that came
across.”
Not
a cooking show per se, “Dinner on the Diner”
provided novel opportunity to
shoot aboard great
trains of intrigue such as the Royal Scotsman, South
Africa’s
Union Limited, the
Eastern and Oriental Express, and Al Andalus Expreso
in
Spain. Each trip did
feature a celebrated chef who would cook a meal aboard
the
train, but Guilbert
focused on catching the culture, terrain, customs,
challenges,
and the adventure. In
addition to PBS outlets, Dinner on the Diner was seen
in
Finland, Hong Kong,
Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Israel, Australia, France
and the
U.K,
Originally
from Britain Jonathan Guilbert has over twenty-eight
years experience
behind the camera
directing and shooting film. Trained by Granada
Television
and the BBC he has
produced and directed more than 75 films for network
television, as well as
more than two dozen commercials for companies and
institutions in New
England. He has won a number of awards and is known
for
his ability to tell
great stories with a poetic eye.
In
his early teens black and white photography became one
of his great
passions.
He discovered images could generate strong
emotional connections
between the people and
places he photographed and the people who viewed the
pictures, compelling
stuff he thought. This naturally progressed into
shooting
moving images when a
neighbor loaned Guilbert his 8mm home movie camera.
 |
|
“I
cut my teeth shooting scenes in and around Manchester,
England, my
hometown: Manchester
was at the heart of the industrial revolution and at
that
time still full of
heavy industry but changing fast. I tried to capture
some of this
before it all
disappeared using my pocket money to
buy rolls of film and
riding around on an old girl’s bicycle. At
university I migrated
onto 16mm and was
mentored by a professor of fine art who taught me what
a cut-away was and the
skill of editing. These films have become a unique
part of
Manchester’s history
and am honored that they are now preserved at the
North
West Film Archives at
Manchester University being used for exhibitions and
recently two
television series appropriately called ‘The Way We
Were’.” Jonathan
Guilbert recounts.
The
idea of a career as a filmmaker was beyond his wildest
dreams. At university
he was studying to be
an electrical engineer but because of these quirky
documentaries he’d
made, he was offered a production traineeship with
Granada
Television, the
network TV stations in Manchester and best known for
the series
“Brideshead
Revisited.”
“There
was strong union demarcation in television and by
following a career to
become a
producer/director, strange as it seems, I wasn’t
allowed to touch a
camera. I cut my teeth
on 30-minute documentary series with short turn-around
times of three weeks,
one week’s research, three days shooting and seven
days
editing. All shot on
film. I gazed longingly at the cameras but wasn’t
able to pick
one up until
independent production started in earnest in the early
’90s and
demarcation fell away.
Then I started to shoot my own films again not
realizing
just how much I’d
missed it and the freedom to be spontaneous and tell
stories
on film in a far more
friendly way,” remembers Guilbert.
Jonathan
Guilbert has directed and shot over 70 hours of
Documentary for TV
and many TV Spots all
of them on film. He is careful not to criticize the
digital
approach, but it is
clear what he prefers and that he is completely
comfortable
and trusting of
himself with film.
According
to Guilbert, “there’s so much hype and
misinformation around HDV.
HDV is a medium in
transition and won’t be around long in this format.
People
who are new to
filmmaking hold film in fear and awe believing it
requires large
crews with lots of
lights. The video manufacturers are happy to feed this
misconception. In
reality film is extremely user friendly; it flatters
the subject
giving much more added
value and emotion connectivity. I think it’s harder
to
emotionally connect to
video. In
the overall cost of a production, shooting super
16 should cost only a
little more than shooting HDV and it’s a great
investment in
the longevity of the
project.”
Guilbert
believes every project is challenging and every
project teaches him
something new. He
says, “I love to be at the sharp end looking through
the
viewfinder with my
thumb on the trigger. No excuses. (Got to get that
ephemeral
moment onto film.) The
camera becomes a part of me though I’m my own worst
critic. I‘ve come
off shoots completely depressed, thinking my
career’s over only
later to discover
wonderful stuff in the rushes. It’s like being a
performer just
before you go on
stage; scared stiff and excited at the same time.
A
part of me would rather be anywhere else than behind
the camera while
another part isn’t
ever going to be anywhere else.”
His
toughest assignments have been the ones requiring
physical endurance like
carrying camera gear
up mountains and over rough terrain in Kamchatka,
Russia
filming Nova’s
“Last Flight of Bomber
31” or at The Gulf
of Slides on Mount Washington filming “No
Boundaries”
for Fox TV.
When asked if he has a
favorite cinematographer, he’ll explain that he
doesn’t.
Guilbert admires more
cinematic moments or collaborations between directors
and cinematographers
like Ridley Scott and Jordan Cronenweth in BLADE
RUNNER. A particular
moment that stands out for him was when Decker
(Harrison Ford) and
Rachael (Sean Young) are playing an intense scene in
Decker’s apartment
lit only be a strong search light coming in through a
window
behind them.
“The searchlight plays directly into the lens
completely obliterating
the two characters
faces in the flare for a time, very risky and unusual.
I also love
the camera work and
atmosphere of TOUCH OF EVIL directed by Orson Welles
with cinematographer
Russell Metty. Shot in black and white, the lighting
and the
camera moves set a
standard for modern cinema. A great achievement for
1957,” says Guilbert.
Jonathan
Guilbert has had a number of
TV spots and short
documentaries for corporate clients in the pipeline
and a
large documentary
project (see WWW April 06).
He wants to shoot and direct
more feature films and
that’s his biggest project at the moment.
It’s an
independent feature
film called “Lake Valentine.” He says it’s a
thriller set in a
lakeside community in
Northern New England, hopefully with a little bit of
BLADE
RUNNER and TOUCH OF
EVIL thrown in.
In
1992, Guilbert moved from London to New York to do a
job for the Discovery
Channel. When that
finished, he started looking for a more user friendly
place to
live and friends
showed him Portsmouth, NH. I fell in love with the
place and
moved there at the end
of 1994. ”It has a European character with a real
alive
town center full of
coffee shops, bars, restaurants and businesses. I can
go
downtown any night of
the week and it's busy. It feeds my soul,” says
Guilbert.
Jonathan
Guilbert loves listening to dance and trance music and
when he’s
driving chooses books
on tape.
For
more information and to view clips of Jonathan
Guilbert’s work visit:
www.gandydancerproductions.com
Carol
Patton is a former GM of several TV and Radio stations
around the
country. She is the
founder and publisher of IMAGINE and advocates for the
region’s Film,
Television, and New Media production industry. She is
a recent
recipient of Women in
Film Video New England’s Image Award for Vision and
Excellence.
