Biografie

Despite his reputation among cinematographers, he has never once shot a film with anamorphic lenses. When he shoots for 2.35:1, he either shoots with Super 35 film stock or crops it in post. This is because he prefers working with Spherical Lenses for the look of his films, and anamorphic lenses are slower with processing light, and can give unwanted blemishes such as lens flares.

Operates the camera himself, which is rare for British cinematographers.

Views 'cinematography as a collection of images, not individual images', according to Andrew Dominik.

Was tied with George J. Folsey for 13 Academy Award nominations for best achievement in cinematography without a win, but has since "lost" the record upon winning for Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

A collaborator of notable loyalty, his gaffer/lighting technician Bill O'Leary has been with him since their first joint venture on Sid & Nancy (1986). Irish gaffer John Higgins has also assisted Roger on several features from 1984 (1984) through 1917 (2019).

Things usually work out better than you plan. When you're shooting a film you're so close to it, it rarely lives up to your expectations while you're there. You always want it to be better, more perfect. When you see a cut, maybe two or three months later, you come to it fresh. It's generally much better than you thought it would be.

Someone said to me, early on in film school... if you can photograph the human face you can photograph anything, because that is the most difficult and most interesting thing to photograph. If you can light and photograph the human face to bring out what's within that human face you can do anything.

All I've ever wanted to do is take stills of people, or take documentaries about people, and try to express to an audience how somebody lives next door. You know what I mean? Just how similar we all are as individuals.

[on preferring to do post-production digitally] On a film like A Serious Man (2009) without a huge budget, you're on a tight schedule and shoot when you have to, even if the light isn't exactly what you want. If you do a digital intermediate (DI) you can change the lighting, the saturation and the contrast. You can do a lot without spending the money to go to an effects house.

The prep period is especially important. Joel and Ethan Coen and I really enjoy it. By the time we're on the set, we're discussing not what we're doing that day but rather something we're doing later that may be a problem.