Do you have any major influences on your work?
There are a few filmmakers that were very influential for my work. For example, there is a Portuguese filmmaker called Pedro Costa. I like his work. There is also, Abbas Kiarostami, an Iranian filmmaker. Chaplin of course, I really like his films although I wouldn’t say he was a direct influence on my actual filmmaking. I also like the work of Yasujirō Ozu (link opens in a new tab), a Japanese filmmaker. These are the people whose work I like and is important to me.
In terms of your work is there something you’re always trying to achieve with the use of colours. Your own films and photographs seem especially vibrant?
I don’t know. Maybe it’s the colour science of the cameras I use. I don’t think there is anything I do specifically. I use a Panasonic S5 and I really like it. So for my filmmaking I think it really isn’t anything I do particularly; it is more the equipment. I really like how the film footage comes directly from the camera. I always try when I’m filming something, to make the image really good so I avoid having to do a lot of work when in the editing. I really don’t want to have to do a lot of colour correction or things like that.
With my photographs, I do a little bit of post-processing in the editing, but it’s very minor things, not a lot. I add a bit of highlights or shadows, if there are some parts overexposed I reduce the highlights, a little bit of contrast or of clarity, but very minor things, not really a lot of post-processing.
Do you apply that technique to all the work you do?
I do try to keep to a particular aesthetic but the films, the story being told, can be quite different in their presentation.
There was a commissioned work about new Moorish architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I had to follow a certain script of what to film and how to film things. I had some freedoms, but not 100%. I had to follow a certain style, what I would call an educational approach so that the work could be accessible. But in terms of the technical side, I think I followed my usual approach.
Recently, I made an artistic project called “Shapes of Earth” in Tunisia. “Shapes of Earth” is about brickmaking in Tozeur, Tunisia and the brickmakers are still using the same process that they have been using for thousands of years. They just use clay, water and fire and that’s it. And the whole city of Tozeur has been built with these bricks.
With that film, I had a lot more freedom and so it’s more contemplative. The viewer is watching the brickmakers. The shots have a certain duration, so the film gives you time to see the effort that it takes for them to make each brick.
Again my own aesthetic, along with the technical side of the filmmaking, might be the same, but the film is quite different to watch than other films because of my approach to the subject matter.
When you produce your work are you trying to achieve a certain technical clarity as much as you are telling the story?
Yes, I mean I always try, whether in video or in photographs, to be aware of the framing. When I’m taking photographs in the city or in the mountains, I always try to see what is in the framing and what I want to be in the frame. Sometimes it’s just a matter of moving the camera, tilting the camera a bit down or up or left or right or giving two or three steps forward or back or on the side. Sometimes that’s all that matters.
Other times it can come down to the difference between looking at the frame at 20 millimetres or 22 millimetres if you zoom in a bit. It’s already a big difference in the framing. Sometimes 20 millimetres is fine, but maybe I will change the framing to 22 millimetres because there was some branch or something that I didn’t want to be in the shot.
I’m sure that subconsciously I’m aware of what I’m doing, but when I’m doing it I’m not thinking about it, I am just doing it automatically. I hate losing shots because I was too slow to frame something. I like capturing really amazing things that will not be repeated. Sometimes you lose some shots, sometimes you get the shots, but that’s just part of the work.
If you would like to see more of Dioga Pereira’s work go to the links below
