"BOBBY Carlyle was in the first film I ever shot," recalls cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. "I hardly knew what end of the camera to look through." Marooned was a short film made in Glasgow, shot on 35mm film, in 1994. Carlyle, in those pre-Trainspotting days, played Peter, a humble porter in Glasgow's Queen Street Station, who finds out about people's lives by investigating their luggage.
Cut forward 15 years. This month McGarvey joined Carlyle, Sir Sean Connery, and Tilda Swinton as the fourth patron of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Carlyle's acting credits run from The Full Monty to Stone of Destiny; McGarvey has shot
films from Atonement, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, to The Hours and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center.
For the initiated, what does a cinematographer do? He works with the director, the set and production designers, hopefully in parallel, to "create a look," McGarvey explains.
It is a huge responsibility, on the nearly 40 films he has worked on, whatever the scale. The work on Atonement included intimate scenes with just himself, the focus puller, and loader, operating the camera. It also included recreating Dunkirk – actually Redcar beach – with 1,000 extras. The action was set up for one continuous five-minute steadicam shot, but five other cameras were shooting parts of it as a safety net. "We decided to do it all one take," recalls McGarvey. "I get nervous when I watch it, because it was so nerve-wracking to shoot it."
The EIFF's other patrons are major red carpet attractions; McGarvey represents the film trade behind the camera. "It's a great honour, but I'm the runt of the litter," he says. In fact the Irish-born, Edinburgh resident McGarvey has plenty of festival connections. He worked with Tilda Swinton, for example, through her long-time collaborator, the director Derek Jarman.
McGarvey got his first stills camera at the age of 13. A teacher in Armagh lent him a Super 8 film camera, and he got into a London polytechnic to study film. His first film work was on December Bride, an Irish family drama.
As a patron, he reflects the festival's goal of broadening its horizons and encouraging debate about the technical side of film-making. He will do an on-stage interview with Anthony Dod Mantle, the Oscar-winning cinematographer of Slumdog Millionaire.
The festival will also be hoping, he says, that "maybe I can bring in some of my pals... I'm not going to attract heavy-hitters, but having me on the board can hopefully attract cinematographers and some directors to come."
Oliver Stone "has always said how much he loved Edinburgh," he says. "He's been here several times. I tried to ask him last year, he was busy." The director Stephen Frears, another friend, is a regular.
Then there is Sam Taylor-Wood, the conceptual artist. McGarvey's Edinburgh home is full of her photographs, along with early Beatles prints – a particular passion. They have worked together for a dozen years. McGarvey's work has gone from lighting her photographs to recently shooting her first feature film Nowhere Boy, about the young John Lennon. The film's planned December release means an Edinburgh showing is unlikely, but McGarvey hopes she will be a festival visitor. "I would love to see Sam coming," he says. "She was here a couple of years ago because she had a show at the Edinburgh College of Art. It would great to show her next film here."
The film industry recession, McGarvey acknowledges, is a slightly terrifying time. But while there are reports of a 50 per cent slowdown in Los Angeles production, there has been a boost in Britain, he says, perhaps on the back of the weak pound. Smaller films – the kind embraced by Edinburgh – may do better.
"I'm confident that the scaling down may have a good effect on independent production, people will may be do smaller films, more modest but with vaulting ambitions."
• The Edinburgh International Film Festival runs from 17 to 28 June. For more details see the programme, free with today's newspaper, or visit the website
www.edfilmfest.org.uk