John Conroy Talks ‘Sweeney Todd’ | The Irish Film & Television Network

What did your role on the camera crew on ‘Sweeney Todd’ involve?

I was a first assistant cameraman - myself, Des Whelan and Philip Murphy, who are also Irish, were in the main camera unit. When this work was completed I carried on for another four weeks and I was the cinematographer on the visual effects unit.

What is Tim Burton’s approach to filming like?

Normally on Tim’s films he only uses one camera. For ‘Sweeney Todd’ we had two cameras and even with those we did very little shots. Tim is very structured in his work and uses a lot of crane and body shots. We did have a steadicam there, but normally with Tim it’s a one-camera setup. Tim has a very specific style - he tends to use wide lenses up close a lot.

The film sets are also very important as well as the formatting, the attention to detail in the background is very strong. A lot of his work is not just performance related - every frame has to encompass the right points on the set, and tell the right story.

What is he like to work with?

He is fantastic to work with, he is really nice and a very generous man and is very normal and approachable. We had worked with him and some of the actors before on ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ so we knew them very well. All of us got on well, it was a very pleasurable experience.

Did you learn any new techniques or skills from shooting ‘Sweeney Todd’?

From a personal point of view, I learned a lot about Motion Control and shooting on Green Screen because on the visual effects unit we had a lot of Motion Control set-ups. In the main unit, I suppose every day at work you learn something new, if you didn’t learn something you’d be worried! Generally every film you do you pick up something small every day.

The whole film was shot in Pinewood Studios, London. How did you find working there?

The sets were really amazing. All the shots were interior, even the big market sequences that were set outside - we actually shot those against green screen. The sky was put in afterwards in post-production. The props and lights were real, but the backgrounds were put in afterwards. The de-saturation to get that grey, colourless look for the film was done later, at the digital stage.

You were also part of the camera crew on ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ with Paul Greengrass, a very different film to ‘Sweeney Todd’. How was that experience?

Yes, I was first assistant camera on ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’. In comparison to ‘Sweeney Todd’, the shoot was much more free-flowing, and didn’t necessarily have a plan. We travelled all over Europe for that, we went to a café in Madrid to shoot at night, we shot in an apartment in Paris. Everything in ‘Sweeney Todd’ was faked by set design, whereas in ‘Bourne’ everything was as real as possible. There was no building of sets for ‘Bourne’, they were all real locations.

Johnny Depp in Sweeney Todd

Do you have any plans to work with Burton again in the future?

I would love to work with Tim Burton again, but I think he is taking some time off now as his partner Helena has just had a little baby. We all got on very well together and would often go out for dinner together.

You have worked a lot on international projects over the last few years. Where are you based at the moment?

I live in Laois at the moment, though in the last five years or so most of my work has been abroad. ‘Dorothy Mills’ is the only film I’ve done here in the last five years. I just go wherever the work is. The two Burton films were in England...it’s taken a while for people like me to be accepted in England because when we go over there we are essentially taking their jobs, but hopefully now we are there on our own merit.

What’s next in the pipeline for you?

Well I have just come back from shooting some second unit stuff on ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ director Paul Greengrass’ new film in Spain, and before that I did the television drama ‘Single Handed’. Hopefully ‘Single Handed’ will go again.

I am moving into the role of camera operator from now on, I’m not doing first and second assistant camera anymore. When you’re operating you’re more into composition, telling of the narrative that sort of thing. It’s a change from a technical to a more artistic direction.

‘Sweeney Todd’ is currently on general release in Irish cinemas.

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