"The more I can work [outside] of the U.K., the happier I am," admits veteran British director of photography Richard Greatrex.

Greatrex's workplace of choice these days is Vancouver, where he just completed the action-thriller Chaos, a U.K./Canada copro directed by Tony Giglio for Franchise Pictures and Vancouver's Rampage Entertainment. Canadian producers include Michael Derbas and Gavin Wilding.

The project is a far cry from the cameraman's big U.K. period pieces Mrs. Brown and Academy Award winner Shakespeare in Love, which garnered Greatrex an Oscar nomination of his own.

"That's why I was interested in Chaos - I had never done anything like it before," says the London-based lenser. "I love Vancouver and I think the Canadian crews are terrific, so when this project came up it gave me a chance to come back here."

Greatrex worked in Vancouver last year on the comedy feature Connie and Carla, written by and starring Winnipeg-born Nia Vardalos.

Production on Chaos was slated for 37 days beginning on March 17, but due to funding difficulties triggered by a U.K. tax-shelter clampdown announced in February, the crew was laid off twice and Greatrex returned to England.

"That has been the one thing that spoiled the experience for me to some degree," says Greatrex. "At one point we had worked for six weeks and not yet seen a penny."

After the film was refinanced, the crew returned to work for good April 12, but had six days knocked off the original shooting schedule.

Chaos, director Giglio's fourth feature film, tells the tale of disgraced veteran cop Quentin Conners (Jason Statham of The Italian Job) in pursuit of bank robbers along with rookie partner Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe of Gosford Park). As the pursuit unfolds, Dekker begins to suspect the heist was an inside job. Wesley Snipes plays the bank heist leader who has connections to Conners.

Giglio wanted a dark, film noirish yet energetic feel.

"Tony called me and asked if I was afraid of the dark," recalls Greatrex. "I told him no, not realizing the film was going to be quite as dark and 'broody' as it turns out to be."

In addition, Chaos would be shot entirely hand-held, with two cameras side-by-side.

"It's been a challenge for me, because filming hand-held, you're not quite sure what might happen with the camera. It's a very uncontrolled style, which I'm not used to," Greatrex explains. "I have two safety nets; one is if the director really wants it to be dark, things can sort of fade to blackness or disappear in terms of lighting. You just have to ignore some of your previous instincts."

The other safety net is the film stocks at the cinematographer's disposal, which in this case was Kodak's new Vision2 Expression 500T 5229 negative.

"With modern-day stocks you can take risks that 10 years ago you just really couldn't have," Greatrex notes. "The Kodak film has such a fantastic latitude, especially in the shadow areas, that you only need to put out one light."