James Ellis Deakins, Roger Deakins
376 episodes listed below
Cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins interview film crew about the craft behind specific shots.
Team Deakins treats filmmaking as a lived trade, not a highlight reel. Roger and James Deakins sit with guests from across the screen arts and let origin stories, set memories, and technical choices unfold at human speed.
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Team Deakins runs as a long-form conversation between Roger Deakins, a cinematographer with credits including Skyfall and Blade Runner 2049, and his co-host and collaborator James Deakins. Each episode opens from a submitted question and moves between the two hosts and a guest, most often a working cinematographer, gaffer, production designer, composer, or director. Episodes generally run 60 to 80 minutes and follow a guest's trajectory from early training or first jobs through to specific decisions made on named productions. Recurring technical threads include LED versus tungsten fixture design and color calibration, production design logistics such as build budgets and location-versus-stage decisions, and how composers and directors develop a film's tone from an initial creative brief. Guests sampled include production designer Chris Lowe, composer Nicholas Britell, director Edgar Wright, gaffer Steve Ramsey, LED engineer Jeffrey Lee, and writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho. The tone is educational and process-focused, with hosts asking about craft mechanics — how a shot was rigged, how a score was structured, how a set was budgeted — rather than plot summaries or promotional talking points. The show carries sponsor mentions from lighting manufacturer Aputure in some lighting-focused episodes. The format is consistent across episodes: question-driven, interview-based, two recurring hosts, and one guest per episode drawn from the film production world. Listeners working in or studying film production, cinematography, lighting, or other below-the-line crafts get the most from the level of technical detail.
Made for: Film and TV production professionals, students, and cinephiles interested in the technical craft behind cinematography, lighting, production design, and scoring.
What sets it apart: Hosted by a working A-list cinematographer, the show stays focused on technical process — lighting rigs, budgets, build logistics — rather than career narrative or film promotion common to other film-interview shows.
The Team Deakins podcast is an ongoing conversation between acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins and James Deakins, his collaborator, about cinematography, the film business and whatever other questions are submitted. We start with a specific question and end....who knows where! We are joined by guests periodically. Followup questions can be posted in the forums at www.rogerdeakins.com.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Roger and James Deakins make filmmaking legible through precise conversations about how creative intentions survive the realities of production.
Team Deakins turns film craft into a conversation about choices, constraints, and the work required to put an idea on screen. Roger and James Deakins often begin with a guest's route into the profession, then press into the decisions behind particular results.
A brake-pedal insert matters here, and Roger and James Deakins make you care why.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A precise, generous crew-level talk about lighting, collaboration, and the hidden mechanics of movie atmosphere.
Steve Ramsey's Team Deakins visit is a clean, crew-level conversation about what a gaffer really negotiates: taste, placement, collaboration, and the practical absurdity of hiding large lights in small corners of a set.
Britell makes film scoring feel like instinct, experiment, and discovery unfolding alongside the cut.
Nicholas Britell's conversation with Roger and James Deakins treats film music as a process of testing, listening, and recalibration rather than a polished layer added at the end.
A precise, low-key craft conversation about making The Mastermind feel, sound, and nearly smell like the 1970s.
On Team Deakins, Kelly Reichardt and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt discuss The Mastermind as a period piece shaped less by decorative nostalgia than by pressure, absence, and texture.
Chris Lowe makes production design feel like careful listening, hard budgeting, and still leaving room for the impossible shot.
Chris Lowe's Team Deakins conversation treats production design as practical imagination: listening first, costing hard, then finding the version of a world the film can actually afford. His Skyfall memories give the episode its clearest shape.
A clear, craft-minded Team Deakins conversation with Kleber Mendonca Filho about films made through place, pressure, and revision.
Roger and James Deakins sit down with writer-director Kleber Mendonca Filho for a relaxed, practical conversation about how his cinema took shape.
A practical Team Deakins conversation about LED heat, color stability, fan control, and the challenge of making modern fixtures feel familiar on set.
LEDs get treated here as a working cinematography problem, not a shiny gear upgrade. Roger and James Deakins talk with Jeffrey Lee about the part of modern lighting that often stays hidden behind the image: heat, fan control, color stability, and the difficulty of packing enough…
A sharp, craft-minded Edgar Wright conversation about storyboards, inserts, and why a director still needs something on set that feels unsolved.
Edgar Wright's visit with Roger and James Deakins is at its best when it settles into the practical grammar of filmmaking. Wright talks about learning from early limits, then carrying that lesson into a working method built around storyboards, shared plans, and the small insert…
Art historian Tamar Avishai interviews critics, curators, and writers about single paintings and ideas.
Jennifer Dasal narrates art history's overlooked lives, from Picasso's police file to Rauschenberg and Twombly's romance.
Russell Tovey and Robert Diament interview artists about their materials, biography, and process.
Robert Bound interviews artists and reviews new film, book, and music releases with critics.
Sound art from places, recordings, and memory.
Steve Ramsey starts at the beginning.
This episode features an interview with director John Hillcoat, discussing his career and filmmaking journey, including works like The Proposition and The Road.
This episode features an interview with Peter Bradshaw, chief film critic at The Guardian, discussing his career journey and passion for films.
This episode features an interview with costume designer Malgosia Turzanska, discussing her career journey and work on films like Hell or High Water, Train Dreams, and Hamnet.
This episode features an interview with production designer Fiona Crombie, discussing her career journey and work on films like Hamnet, Cruella, and The Favourite.
This episode features an interview with Icelandic writer-director Hlynur Pálmason, discussing his career, films like 'Godland' and 'A White White Day', and his journey into filmmaking.
Roger and James Deakins interview director Martin Campbell about his career and path into filmmaking.
Roger and James Deakins interview production designer Jack Fisk about his work on films like The Thin Red Line and The Revenant.
Nicholas Britell traces his path from a Manhattan childhood, Juilliard pre-college, and Harvard to scoring his friend’s $10,000 student film at college.
The question starts in the seventies.
Roger and James Deakins interview director Fatih Akin about his career journey and filmmaking process.
This episode features an interview with colorist James Slattery, discussing his career journey from Dublin to working on films like 1917 and Wonder Woman.
Chris Lowe traces his path from drawing at school in Lancashire to art direction on Granada television, Kingston, and then features like The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.
This episode features an interview with actor and director Embeth Davidtz, discussing her career journey from childhood in South Africa to her roles in films like Schindler's List and her directorial work.
This episode features an interview with cinematographer César Charlone, discussing his career journey from Uruguay to working on films like The Constant Gardener and meeting his hero Roger Deakins.
Roger and James Deakins interview actress and director Kate Winslet about her career and upcoming film Goodbye June.
The question starts with childhood.
LEDs get a patient look under the hood.
Roger and James Deakins interview director Christian Mungiu about his career and filmmaking journey.
Edgar Wright traces his way into filmmaking.
Roger and James Deakins interview futurist Ted Shilowitz about the future of film technology and his work with Paramount and RED camera.
Roger and James Deakins interview cinematographer James Laxton about his career and craft.
Roger and James Deakins discuss cinematography with guest Roberto Schaefer, focusing on Roger's new book.
Roger and James Deakins discuss LED lighting technology with cinematographer Tim Kang from Aputure.
An interview with a cinematographer discussing his work on films like Slumdog Millionaire and The Celebration, focusing on camera choices and techniques.
Roger and James Deakins discuss cinematography and the film business with guest Lewis Bailey of the Iris Prize Film Festival.
Roger and James Deakins interview cinematographer Dante Spinotti about his career and path into filmmaking.
Roger and James Deakins interview director Atom Egoyan about his career and filmmaking journey.
Roger and James Deakins discuss cinematography and filmmaking with editor Joe Walker, focusing on the film Army of Shadows.
An interview with editor Joe Walker discussing film editing evolution and deep dives into specific films.
Roger and James Deakins discuss the process of getting a film project made, from development to screen.
Roger and James Deakins discuss cinematography and the film business with guest interrogator David Mullin.
Roger and James Deakins discuss post-production deliverables and maintaining the original look across formats, with sponsor messages about lighting equipment.
Roger and James Deakins discuss how cinematographers and visual effects supervisors collaborate, with guests Greg Frazier and Paul Lambert.
Roger and James Deakins discuss post-production with cinematographer Ed Lachman, starting with traditional film lab timing.