The Long Good Friday 1980 Interviews Cinematographer Phil Meheux

Initial Hesitation and Project Evolution

• 💡 The cinematographer initially resisted working on "The Long Good Friday" because it was planned as a television film, and he preferred feature films.
• ✅ He eventually agreed after realizing director John Mackenzie was a good director and the script was improving significantly over time.
• 🎬 The project was later upgraded from a TV show to a feature film, requiring formatting for both 4x3 television and 1.85:1 cinema aspect ratios.

Technical Challenges and Digital Restoration

• 🛠️ The digital intermediate (DI) process during restoration allowed for correcting technical issues that were difficult to fix with traditional film methods.
• ☁️ A notable challenge was a scene with Bob Hoskins giving a speech where the background lighting progressively darkened due to it being the darkest day of the English summer.
• ✨ The DI enabled the cinematographer to even out the background lighting throughout the shot, which was not possible during original filming on film stock.

Director's Approach and Actor Performance

• 🎭 Director John Mackenzie preferred not to stop actors, especially intuitive ones like Bob Hoskins, even if it meant technical compromises.
• 💬 Mackenzie decided against a second take for Hoskins' speech, believing it was the best performance he would get from the actor, despite the lighting issue.