The Cinematography Podcast

In the new horror film Strange Darling, a one-night stand at a motel becomes a dangerous game of cat and mouse as the woman is chased down by a serial killer. But nothing is what it seems as the film is cleverly revealed in chapters out of sequence, allowing the audience to slowly piece together the thriller. Giovanni Ribisi, the cinematographer of Strange Darling, has been a familiar face on screen for decades as an actor. Over the past 15 years, he's been quietly honing his skills behind the camera on music videos and commercials. Strange Darling is his first feature as a cinematographer. After growing up on film sets and around cameras, Giovanni was always curious about the mystery, magic and technology of creating images on film. He says, “The difference between acting and cinematography is, with acting, you start from a subjective place where you want to work from the inside out on a character to establish or understand the experience of what the writer had intended for that character. (Cinematography) is the inversion of that. It's an objective launching pad trying to get more subjective for stories.” After working on the visually captivating film, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), Giovanni began exploring the world of visual effects. He enrolled at the Gnomon School in North Hollywood to learn the basics, while continuing to act in order to pay the bills. Giovanni and some partners formed the visual effects company, Stereo D, which they eventually sold. Though he continued acting, Giovanni turned his attention to photography and cinematography, experimenting with film stock and cameras for personal projects and music videos. Once Strange Darling director JT Mollner sent Giovanni the script, they were on the phone within 15 minutes discussing how they could make the film on a tight budget with some of Giovanni's gear and resources. Giovanni feels strongly that most filmmakers don't have the time to really dig in and create a movie. Strange Darling was about $4 million dollars, and typically would have been granted 18 days to shoot. Instead, they budgeted for a 32 day schedule, which allowed Mollner to have time to make something in realistic terms, with a humane schedule for the crew. Giovanni's choice to shoot Strange Darling on 35mm film was a deliberate one. When a film is shot digitally, Giovanni feels the camera crew is often just checking off boxes, “hosing down” a scene with as many shots as possible without much thought to the process as they go. He appreciates the aesthetic qualities of film and the meticulous planning involved. In contrast to the often frantic pace of digital filmmaking, he and Mollner meticulously planned every shot, creating a detailed shotlist that guided the entire production. The visual inspiration for Strange Darling came from classic films of the 60s and 70s, such as Mademoiselle, The Innocents, and The Devils. They worked closely with the production designer to develop a unique color palette for each scene, with vivid primary colors playing a huge part in each scene. As the cinematographer, Giovanni was extremely proud of a long dialogue scene in the film that was bathed in neon blue light from the motel. The carefully crafted lighting and composition create a visually striking and memorable moment. Strange Darling showcases Giovanni's ability to create visually stunning and thought-provoking work as a cinematographer. His passion for filmmaking and transition from actor to cinematographer is rare and inspiring. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The Apple TV+ show, Lessons in Chemistry, is a period piece set in the 1950s. Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) is a brilliant chemist whose career is derailed by sexism. Denied her scientific aspirations, she finds an unexpected platform hosting a cooking show, using it to empower women and challenge societal norms. Zachary Galler, one of the Emmy-nominated cinematographers behind the stunning visuals of Lessons in Chemistry, brought a unique perspective to the 1950s drama. Rather than indulging in nostalgia, Zack aimed to create a lived-in world that resonated with contemporary audiences. The team chose the ARRI Alexa Mini LF camera because it handles natural light very well. After many lens tests, they picked Canon K 35 lenses, which Zack felt were quite flattering. One of the show's most visually striking settings was the chemistry lab. While it might seem like a dream location for a cinematographer, Zack found unique challenges. "So much of what chemists do is pouring clear liquids into other clear liquids," he explained. To overcome this, Zack focused on creating spaces that allowed for dynamic performances, emphasizing natural light and embracing imperfections to enhance the authenticity of the scenes. Zack and his team meticulously planned their shots, opting for side lighting to draw viewers into the characters’ worlds. They also employed practical techniques like dollies and Steadicams for dynamic walk-and-talk scenes. To capture the era's aesthetic, Galler developed a custom LUT inspired by vintage food photography. However, the power of the performances ultimately led to a decision to tone down the LUT, allowing the actors to shine without visual distractions. Collaborating with fellow cinematographer Jason Oldek on the series was a highlight for Zack. "I feel like what’s really successful about the show is the comprehensive world-building that we did," he said. Together, they crafted a visual language that captured the essence of the 1950s without resorting to clichés, creating a world that felt both familiar and fresh. Find Zachary Galler: https://www.zacharygaller.com/ Instagram: @zachary_galler Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

For cinematographer Vanja Černjul, ASC, finding creative inspiration within House of the Dragon season 2 wasn't difficult. “House of the Dragon includes such a range of settings, from huge battle scenes to remote locations with just a small crew, a camera and tripod,” he says. “What's in front of the camera is so strong that you really have to exercise every filmmaking or storytelling muscle that you have developed over the years.” Vanja was the director of photography for episodes 6 and 7 and the production team chose to use the ARRI Alexa 35 for season 2. They knew that the Alexa's superior sensor would retain all the details of candlelight and fire, showing the highlights of light without blowing out the source. Vanja was happy that House of the Dragon Season 2 included many more locations and amazing sets on a large backlot, with much less filming on volume stages. The volume stages were mainly used for the dragon riding scenes, on a stage in London with three large LED screens surrounding the actors on a mechanical device. The pre-production and prep process for House of the Dragon season 2 was lengthy and extremely detailed. Five director and DP teams worked on eight episodes. They started with creating a shot list that was approved by the show producers, then shared with the visual effects department and storyboard artists. “In order to create the best visual effects, they needed to know what we were going to do on location as early as possible,” says Vanja. “It really streamlined the visual effects process and allowed enough time for them to build excellent visual effects.” Prep was just as intense as the pre-production period. House of the Dragon was a huge production that required multiple directors, DPs, and assistant directors to prepare each episode while others were being shot. All five teams had to shoot and share the same locations, so there was a rigorous schedule with little room for extending shoot days. Episode 7 features a stunning dragon battle sequence, seamlessly done as what appears to be a oner. Vanja worked with director Loni Peristere to plot out the scene, which takes place in a huge cave where the dragons live. All the action was centered around the shot, and featured practical stunts. “There were 16 people on fire in a dragon battle in one scene. It's really mind-blowing when you're there in person, they really know what they're doing- but it's people on fire, falling from the ceiling!” says Vanja. Once the stunt person was ignited, they could only be on fire for a few seconds, so it was important to get the shots as fast as possible. Vanja is also Emmy-nominated for the documentary Jim Henson: Idea Man, along with friend and fellow cinematographer Igor Martinović. Vanja grew up watching The Muppet Show, and is a huge fan of Jim Henson's work. Vanja and Igor worked together to shoot all the interviews for the documentary, as well as the stop-motion sequences within it. Vanja had never shot any stop-motion animation before, so it was a fun and interesting challenge. All the interviews were shot first, in several different locations and over a long period of time, so it was important that all of the scenes matched. They chose a set design that could be reproduced no matter where it was located, keeping exact notes of the depth of field, camera placement, and lighting. Find Vanja Černjul: https://vimeo.com/showcase/5574603 Instagram: @vanjacernjul Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Echo continues the journey of Maya Lopez, a skilled fighter who was first seen in the Marvel series, Hawkeye. After the death of her father, Maya escapes Kingpin's gang by returning to her Choctaw Nation home in Oklahoma. It's the first Marvel series to feature a Native American character and explore indigenous culture and history. As Maya Lopez, Echo star Alaqua Cox breaks barriers as a deaf, indigenous amputee. Cinematographer Kira Kelly, ASC enjoyed crafting a Marvel story that didn't require a rigorous backstory from previous Marvel movies or shows. The script included depictions of the history of the Choctaw, including the Choctaw creation myth. “What starts the pilot is the creation myth of the Choctaw people, which had never been shown before,” says Kira. “Sydney Freeland, our director, made sure we did it in a very respectful way, and a way that was authentic to (the Choctaw.) Being able to be part of that visual storytelling is not something that you get to do every day.” Different parts of Echo are separated by a specific look and feel. Most of the series was shot using anamorphic lenses, but Kira chose 12 and 20 mm spherical lenses to depict the beginning of the Choctaw nation at the dawn of time. For Maya's world in New York, Kira used darker and more desaturated lighting. She and director Sydney Freeland agreed that once Maya goes back home to her roots in Oklahoma, deeper, more saturated colors should be part of the visual story. Kira enjoys lighting, and a big part of it is speaking with the production and set designers about what can be built in naturally for success later. She purposefully changed the treatment of the light between the characters of Fisk (Kingpin) and Maya. For Fisk, she played with a direct, single source side light on his face that created more falloff and emphasized shadows to question his loyalties and motivations. Echo was Kira's first experience shooting extensive action sequences and working with a large second unit. She particularly enjoyed recreating the Choctaw Powwow in Oklahoma for the final sequence at the conclusion of the series. The crew had visited the real powwow on a scout, and some of the dancers were hired to perform for the show. “It was a really emotional sequence because we got to be a part of this thing that people who aren't Native American never get to experience. We had created this space for it and the people who are a part of it came up and said, 'This is like a real powwow. You guys created a powwow.' And so it was an honor to be part of something that was visually fulfilling and a great challenge.” Kira is partnering again with director Sydney Freeland for her film, Rez Ball, coming this fall. Hear our previous interview with Kira Kelly. https://www.camnoir.com/ep67/ Find Kira Kelly: https://www.kirakellydp.com/ Instagram: @kirakellydp Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

In the Arena: Serena Williams is the second season of the ESPN+ documentary series. Through a series of intimate interviews with Williams and others, the show offers an in-depth look at the legendary tennis player's life and career. Cinematographer Ayana Baraka was the director of photography for the entire 8-episode series. She met with the production company, Religion of Sports, with her images and pitch prepared. “We had the same ideas about lighting. I was familiar with (Season 1 of the series) Man in the Arena: Tom Brady and so I know that we wanted to honor season one, but at the same time Serena is a a different person, a different athlete.” A few weeks later, Ayana was called to meet with Serena for lunch. It was very nerve wracking, but she felt confident in the meeting. Once she was hired, Ayana researched and tested all the equipment she wanted to use. She selected the ARRI ALEXA LF with Cooke Anamorphic lenses. Illuminating Serena properly for the sit-down interviews was extremely important to her. She created custom LUTs for Serena's skin to bring out her pinkish undertones. The falloff of the light from the backdrop also had to be just right. Ayana used rags (different thicknesses of fabric diffusion to modify light) and bounced the light for a 180-degree lighting setup. To set each episode apart, Ayana changed up the lighting slightly. Growing up in New Jersey, Ayana initially went into the health care industry. While in college, she took a film class and made a short documentary about a person struggling with their mental health. Ayana pursued her career in health care, but didn't feel like she was changing lives the way she wanted to. She started getting film jobs in New York and became an ARRI prep tech, which enabled her to learn the technical aspects of camera work and test into the IATSE Local 600, the International Cinematographer's Guild. Ayana felt she wanted to learn more about film and storytelling, so she went to graduate school at USC. As a woman of color, she felt that director Ryan Coogler, who was a recent graduate of the program, had opened up a world of opportunity. “We have the success of Ryan Coogler, and I know it was different for people who came before me, people of color or black folks. My class, it was so diverse. And I think it was because he let that charge and he showed we have stories to tell, and people will watch our stories.” Ayana also shot the documentary Uncharted, about singer Alicia Keys' She Is the Music songwriting camp. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and is currently on the film festival circuit. In the Arena: Serena Williams is available on ESPN+ and Hulu. Find Ayana Baraka: http://www.ayanabaraka.com/ Instagram @iseeflicks Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The second season of the Amazon Prime horror anthology series THEM takes place in 1989 and 1991 Los Angeles. LAPD detective Dawn Reeve is investigating a horrifying murder. As she gets closer to the truth, a dark and menacing force threatens her and her family. THEM: The Scare explores themes of fear, dark family secrets and the supernatural. Cinematographer Brendan Uegama was a fan of season 1 of THEM, and got a call from his agent to meet with writer, creator and showrunner Little Marvin about shooting season 2. As an anthology series, each season is its own standalone story. Brendan and Little Marvin's guiding idea was not to make the show look exactly like it took place in the early 1990's, and discussed how to create a feeling of warmth, contrasted with the feeling of terror in the shadows. Brendan decided to use just two lenses and two focal lengths on an ARRI Alexa Mini LF, with everything drastically changing look and tone for episode 7. On Episode 7, “One of Us is Gonna Die Tonight” of THEM: The Scare, Brendan had the opportunity to fully unleash his creativity. Little Marvin decided to direct this episode, and he wanted it to feel utterly horrific, using all of the tools they had at their disposal: lighting, camera effects, and sound. They embraced using as much red lighting as they possibly could throughout the episode. “We had lights in different areas, and we had red from the toy store.” says Brendan. “We had red flares, red cop lights. And Little Marvin's like, 'Man, it would be cool if it was even MORE red.' So I started adding red lights behind all the cop cars and uplighting things, really going heavy with the red. And once we started looking at that, we're like, 'Oh, yeah, now it feels like this is a hellscape.'” Brendan chose to use a 4:3 aspect ratio exclusively for episode 7 to make it feel like the walls are literally closing in. After strictly using the same lenses and focal lengths throughout the series, Brendan changed it up for almost half the episode with a Petzval lens, which creates a unique, swirly bokeh in the center of the frame. Along with the red lighting and aspect ratio shift, it helped create a distorted, nightmarish look. (Hear Robbie Ryan's discussion of using a Petzval lens on Poor Things https://www.camnoir.com/ep248/) Brendan enjoyed the creative opportunity to work on THEM: The Scare. “A huge part of it was the overall excitement to make something great,” he says. “It was exciting to push boundaries and not do formulaic television of any kind.” Find Brendan Uegama: Instagram @brendanuegama_dp Hear our interview with THEM season 1 cinematographer Checco Varese, ASC. https://www.camnoir.com/ep136/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The post-apocalyptic TV show Fallout is based on the 1997 videogame, which was a huge commercial and critical success. Centuries after a nuclear war, Lucy (Ella Purnell) must venture out of her sheltered underground Vault dwelling into the dangerous Wasteland of Los Angeles to find her kidnapped father (Kyle MacLachlan.) She encounters strange characters, including a Ghoul bounty hunter (Walton Goggins) and Maximus (Aaron Moten) a member of the militaristic Brotherhood of Steel. Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh is best known for his work on the 1993 film, The Piano, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. It opened up opportunities for him outside of New Zealand, and he frequently worked with women directors like Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) and Susan Seidelman (Sex and the City TV pilot.) Stuart also shot Bridget Jones's Diary, The Runaway Bride, and the New Zealand indie film Once Were Warriors. He particularly enjoyed working with director John Sayles on the 1996 western mystery drama, Lone Star. Stuart's cinematography captured the vastness and beauty of Texas. The low budget forced him to use “poor man's process” an old film technique used for staging a driving sequence. When Stuart read the script for Fallout, he watched play throughs of the game to get an idea of what it should look like. “I had some idea what the basis is, because the game has been around for 30 years. I pulled a lot of images and built a Pinterest board, which turned out to be completely wrong, because I'd gone very atmospheric, very gamey with my references.” says Stuart. “And Jonathan (Nolan) said 'No, I don't want to do it that way. I want to play it real, not too many tricks. There's going to be enough crazy stuff in this movie content-wise- play it straight, and just make it nice.'” Fallout creator Jonathan Nolan chose to shoot on 35mm film, using ARRI cameras and anamorphic lenses. The show is set in three main spaces, each with its own distinct color palette and look: the underground vault, the wasteland, and the past, before the nuclear disaster. The vault is lit entirely by artificial lighting and Stuart worked closely with the art department to make sure the visible lighting provided enough ambient light to shoot film. It allowed the camera freedom of movement within the space. By contrast, for the wasteland, Stuart leaned into the Western genre the show evokes, balancing the washed-out, desolate surroundings with the vibrancy of pre-war remnants. The wasteland was shot in several different locations including Namibia, the Utah salt flats and upstate New York. Find Stuart Dryburgh: Instagram @stuartdryburgh Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

In case you missed it, we're reposting our 2023 Sundance interview with Fancy Dance director/writer Erica Tremblay and cinematographer Carolina Costa, AMC. Fancy Dance is now available in select theaters and streaming on AppleTV+. Fancy Dance follows Jax (Lily Gladstone), a Native American woman on Oklahoma's Seneca-Cayuga reservation. When her sister Tawi vanishes mysteriously, Jax becomes guardian to her niece Roki. Their search for Tawi is met with indifference from law enforcement. Facing financial hardship, Jax resorts to petty crimes that threaten custody of Roki, who's placed with her non-Indigenous grandparents. Determined to keep a promise and celebrate their heritage, Jax takes Roki on a daring journey to the state powwow, hoping to find answers about Tawi's fate and to give Roki the opportunity to perform the traditional dance she and her mother practiced together. Fancy Dance director and writer Erica Tremblay and cinematographer Carolina Costa met when Erica was searching for a DP and Carolina was on a short list. Carolina loved the script, and saw the film was special just from reading the page- she could see all the visuals in her mind, and felt it was important to see these characters come alive on the big screen. She decided to keep the lighting natural and didn’t use many additional lights. They wanted the film to feel specific to the topography of Oklahoma in the summer- a hot, humid time, when the sky is a washed-out blue. Erica and Carolina had several conversations about what the film would look and feel like, including using natural moonlight to represent Tawi, the missing sister and mother. The moon is a symbol of matrilineal kinship which is vital to the Native American community. One of the biggest challenges facing director Erica Tremblay was finding financing for Fancy Dance. It was hard to convince the right people to fund a film whose main character is an abrasive, lawless, queer indigenous woman. Erica grew up in the Seneca Cayuga nation, and drew upon characters she knew. She wanted her script to reflect the issues faced by Native Americans today, especially the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women who are never found. But she also includes humor, loving family connections and the celebration of joyous culture at the powwow. Erica was also a writer on the acclaimed FX series, Reservation Dogs. Fancy Dance is available now in theaters and on AppleTV+ Find Erica Tremblay: Instagram @ericajtremblay Find Carolina Costa: Instagram @ccostacine Find Fancy Dance: Instagram #fancydancemovie Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Netflix's Baby Reindeer is a dark comedic thriller that chronicles the true story of a struggling comedian, Donny (Richard Gadd) as he's stalked by a seemingly harmless woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning). As her pursuit of him escalates and becomes progressively unhinged, the audience learns more about why Donny may be so passive about stopping her advances. Cinematographer Kryzsztof Trojnar reunited with his fellow Polish film school classmate, director Weronika Tofilska, on Baby Reindeer's first four episodes. The show's unique origin, a one-man stage play, proved a valuable resource for Kryzsztof. He immersed himself in the audio recording alongside the script, capturing the story's rhythm and intensity. “It was all about how we create that intensity, how we create the intrusion of Martha, how we show her overtures in that pub.” says Kryzsztof. “It all has to be really close and really intense that as an audience you feel that intrusion.” Both Kryzsztof and Tofilska were inspired by Coen brothers movies and Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, admiring their treatment of character-driven narratives. Kryzsztof made sure to keep the perspective of the story firmly in Donny's first person point of view. Wide-angle lenses frequently frame him in the center, and the use of Steadicam shots keep up the frantic pace of Donny's increasing unease. Kryzsztof and Tofilska chose lighting and a color palette they jokingly called “decomposing body” for Baby Reindeer. It creates a stylized world with a LUT heavy on earth tones of yellow, brown, and green. Against those colors, naturally lit moments and other hues stand out with a jarring vibrancy. Kryzsztof also favored unflattering, hard lighting for Donny as he feels more haunted and hunted by Martha. Martha, on the other hand, is lit in a flattering way, as she admires and flirts with Donny, making him feel adored. Find Kryzsztof Trojnar: Instagram: @krzysztof_trojnar Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Jonathan Freeman, ASC faced a unique challenge on Netflix's sci-fi series 3 Body Problem. The books, written by Cixin Liu, are extremely intellectually dense novels. Translating them into visually compelling television seemed like a daunting task. Show creators DB Weiss and David Benioff had worked with Jonathan previously on Game of Thrones, and they leaned into filmmaking that was motivated by impactful storytelling rather than just "cool shots." A key reveal moment in particular was achieved simply by pushing in on a photo of one of the characters in the first episode, revealing how the stories were interconnected. Together, they decided on the look of the show and chose three distinct visual styles for 1960s China, modern London, and the virtual world of a videogame. The 2:3:5 aspect ratio and ARRI ALFA lenses helped differentiate these environments. The lenses were prototypes that Greig Fraser was developing on The Batman. “They had exactly all that beautiful bokeh that you would expect, but the center was optically pure,” says Jonathan. “They also had these chromatic aberrations to them. These distorted, stretchy little bits in the edges of the frame just looked funky and kind of otherworldly. I just like the idea that it could be interpreted as sort of an alien's point of view.” Filming the virtual world within a limited physical space required innovation. Jonathan's "low-res volume" stage concept used a massive wall of SkyPanels and strategically placed lighting to create a realistic, immersive environment for actors. “Each (panel) was almost like a pixel, so we created an array of 110 feet by 45 wide wrapped around 180 degrees.” says Jonathan. “It was a very complex system, but overall the intent was to recreate these live environments the way you might be able to do in a regular volume. Then, there was the lighting on top, similar to the skylight, where we programmed animated lights to recreate sunrise, sunset, dusk, and dawn. It was quite complicated, but we were able to use a real space and transition in camera. It took a lot of minds to put it together, but I thought it was really successful.” Find Jonathan Freeman: http://freemandp.com/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The acclaimed crime drama Tokyo Vice on Max follows American journalist, Jake Adelstein (Ansel Elgort.) As a reporter for a large Japanese newspaper in the 1990's, he dives into the dangerous world of the Yakuza, the Japanese organized crime syndicate. The series is based on the book and real life experiences of Jake Adelstein, who named his memoir Tokyo Vice as a wink to the 1980's show, Miami Vice. Michael Mann, creator of Miami Vice, was interested in the show and came on board to executive produce the series and to shoot the pilot. Producer and director Alan Poul joined the Tokyo Vice team later into the development process. “I was aware of Tokyo Vice because of course I had read Jake's book when it came out,” says Alan. With a college degree in Japanese literature and a background in Japanese cinema and theater, Alan began his film career in Japan when director Paul Schrader hired him as an associate producer on Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. The movie Black Rain, directed by Ridley Scott, quickly followed for him, but Alan didn't want to become known as “the Japan guy” in Hollywood. He built his career producing episodic television for shows like Tales of the City, My So-Called Life, Six Feet Under, and The Newsroom. But Tokyo Vice creator J.T. Rogers knew they needed someone with experience in Japanese production, language and episodic television, so Alan was asked to join the project. “It represented a kind of full circle closure/homecoming,” says Alan, about going back to produce in Japan. “It doesn't happen very often in one's career and so it became an extraordinarily fulfilling experience for me.” The first season of Tokyo Vice began location scouting in 2019 and shooting began in March 2020- for only 6 days before the pandemic shut everything down. Production resumed in October 2020, and the team had to shoot the entire first season under strict Japanese quarantine and COVID testing rules. As a result, Season One uses tighter shots and fewer locations, with more closeups on Jake and the other characters who shape the story. By Season Two, Alan was excited that they were able to expand the visual range of the show, shooting more of Tokyo and the surrounding area. Alan had the opportunity to direct episodes one and two of the second season. “When I am directing, it is always an incredible joy. At least during those 12 hours I try to let go of all the other hats that I have to wear and just wear the hat that allows me to focus 100% on what is taking place in front of the camera.” Though Tokyo Vice has completed its series run on Max, Alan and creator J.T. Rogers are optimistic about the show's future on another platform. Find Alan Poul: Instagram @alanpoul Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The FX miniseries Shōgun takes viewers on a journey filled with action and adventure through historically accurate 1600's Edo-era Japan. Englishman John Blackthorne arrives on a Dutch trading ship after a rough voyage, interested in beginning trade with the Japanese. The country is governed by five regents locked in a power struggle, and the ruler Toranaga thinks the Englishman might be useful to him. Director Jonathan van Tulleken and cinematographer Christopher Ross worked on episodes one and two together, establishing the look of the series. They have a deep understanding of each other's creative vision, collaborating on several TV shows over the years. For Shōgun, Jonathan and Chris created a visual experience that honors both the grandeur of feudal Japan and the disorientation of a foreign visitor like the “anjin,” John Blackthorne. The two met and created a look book and sizzle reel to present to FX. Jonathan drew inspiration from movies such as The Revenant and Apocalypse Now. Chris was influenced by classic Japanese films Ran, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Akira Kirosawa's jidaigeki (historical drama) films. Most importantly, they wanted the show to be bold and stand out with a cinematic look and genuine artistic intention behind it. Chris chose anamorphic lenses and wider aspect ratios for the first two episodes, playing with the point of view of the outsider's subjectivity and disorientation. The choice of anamorphic lenses, which create a lot of background blur but keeps the character in crisp focus, may have seemed controversial, but has become more widely used on today's television shows. (Read this article from The Ringer to learn more.) Shōgun was shot in British Columbia during the winter, with the wild ocean shores of Canada and carefully designed soundstages standing in for Japan. Jonathan, Chris and the production team chose a lighting and color palette of browns and greens for the warring factions. Opulent costumes, warmer lights and colors represented palace life in Osaka, while in the village, the use of blues and grays reflected the harsh realities of the time period. The dialog is almost entirely in Japanese, and Jonathan actually enjoyed directing in a language he didn't speak. “It meant that you were not giving line readings, you couldn't give line readings. You had to direct in a much more pure way, dealing with the bigger arcs of the scene, the character development, without getting into very macro stuff that isn't helpful. I think you could just feel the emotion.” Chris agrees. “What you're hoping to achieve is some sort of emotional resonance with a character that is in tune with what they're saying and synchronous with what they're saying.” Find Jonathan Van Tulleken: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1743387/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Find Chris Ross: Instagram @edjibevel Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Get Tickets to Cinebeer 2024! https://www.tickettailor.com/events/hotrodcameras/1263845? The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

As a pioneer in digital visual effects, Scott Ross was instrumental in the advancement of VFX in Hollywood. He led groundbreaking work at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and co-founded Digital Domain with James Cameron and Stan Winston. Scott looks back on his career, discusses systemic problems within the VFX industry, and possible ways to fix them. Scott began his career in sound recording for television and film in the San Francisco Bay Area for a video production company, becoming president of the San Francisco office. The success of Star Wars ignited a space race for studios, and ILM became the holy grail for VFX artists. “I get a phone call from a headhunter who says, 'Hey, Lucasfilm is looking for somebody to head up production operations at Industrial Light and Magic.' And my head exploded," says Scott. "If you're going to live in San Francisco, you want to work at Lucasfilm. That's how I got hired.” At the time, ILM was creating visual effects for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His experience in the nascent digital video industry sped up the process, and by 1989, ILM developed a technique to work in a digital medium for making special effects. While Scott was at ILM, the company won five Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects. However, ILM's creative spirit began to wane under corporate pressure. "It turned into cubicles and whatnot," says Ross, favoring a "work hard, play hard" environment. This philosophy fueled his decision to leave and co-found Digital Domain in 1993. “When I started Digital Domain, we're going to play hard, work hard and party hard. And that's the culture that I wanted to create. I think generally we did a pretty good job of it.” Digital Domain became a leading VFX company, creating visual effects for films such as Cameron's Titanic. The VFX industry is notoriously troubled, with visual effects houses underbidding on projects to stay competitive and creating dismal working conditions for employees. “There are certain companies that the only way that they could stay alive is by taking advantage of their employees, not paying them overtime, not having health care,” says Scott. “That really comes as a result of the way the clients, studios and the directors deal with the visual effects companies.” He blames a producer mentality that prioritizes squeezing VFX houses rather than fostering a sustainable industry. “The visual effects industry workers need advocates for themselves. Currently, they have no one fighting for them. They need an international trade association that changes the business model.” Today, effects workers continue to voice their need to form a union. The rise of AI further complicates the picture, with some fearing job replacement. Find Scott Ross: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottross/ Instagram: @scott_ross Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Get Tickets to Cinebeer 2024! https://www.tickettailor.com/events/hotrodcameras/1263845? The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Netflix's gripping new series, Griselda, takes viewers deep into the world of Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. But behind the drugs and violence is a masterfully crafted world, built by cinematographer Armando Salas, ASC. Armando, known for his work on Ozark, brings a unique perspective to Griselda. His approach to color throughout the series tells a story that's more about character than it is about the drug trade. “In the end, we're making a work of fiction, and we really want to connect with the audience,” says Armando. “And the things you know and hear about Griselda Blanco is, you know, she's a killer, a psychopath. There's not a lot of redeeming qualities when you're looking into the drug wars in Miami at that time.” Even through all the death and destruction in the series, director Andrés Baiz didn't want Griselda to be too dark. He still wanted to find some joy and absurdity within the story. Armando met with director Andrés Baiz, who wanted to hire a local Los Angeles DP who also spoke Spanish, since a majority of Griselda's script is in Spanish. Growing up in Miami, Armando happened to know the story of Griselda Blanco very well. He also worked on a 2006 documentary called Cocaine Cowboys, about how Miami became the cocaine capital of the US. They did careful location scouting around LA for places that looked like Miami in the late 1970's and early 80's. Armando and Baiz wanted the show to have the right period look. “We didn't take an intellectual conceit, I wasn't only using lenses or camera technology that existed at that time. We were really more interested in finding the right feeling,” Armando explains. “And so, we looked at a lot of photography from the period, we looked at a lot of films from the period, we looked at modern films that were doing a good job of recreating the period, but we kind of landed our our own version. Again, it's really just like capturing the vibe and building the world. And so we had a very aggressive and unique approach to the LUT and the color characteristics of our negative.” The Polaroid pictures Baiz took during location scouting became a big inspiration for the color palette of the show. Throughout the six episode series, Armando used color to help tell a compelling character story. Griselda's world is full of deep, rich colors as she's living the high life. In contrast, Armando chose a bluer, more desaturated color for scenes with June Hawkins (Juliana Aidén Martinez), the Miami PD intelligence analyst. As she breaks the case and convinces law enforcement officers to go after Griselda, she enters a world of color. “And on top of that, we unleash the camera. We go flying down the sidewalk with her from multiple angles. It's the fastest camera movements in the series. And over the course of the series, her storyline and Griselda's storyline meet, and the color, the glitz and glamour of Griselda's world has been mostly stripped out at that point. June has come into her own, and they meet in that world. The two arcs have now connected, and it's one story.” Griselda is available on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/81133447 Hear our previous interview with Armando discussing his work on Ozark and more. https://www.camnoir.com/ep91/ Find Armando Salas: https://www.salasfilm.com/ Instagram: @cinesalas Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Get Tickets to Cinebeer 2024! https://www.tickettailor.com/events/hotrodcameras/1263845? The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

HBO's True Detective: Night Country has captivated audiences with its chilling atmosphere and compelling narrative. Cinematographer Florian Hoffmeister, BSC worked with director Issa López to craft the haunting visuals for the supernatural whodunit. “The detective procedural is part of the brand and it's part of the show, but it should not affect the cinematography,” says Florian. “The cinematography is never motivated just in terms of solving the mystery. We must be sure to show every important fact or clue, to understand the mystery or to build up a bigger mystery. But it's important to follow the characters and their internal struggles and secrets, the relationships, the darkness, the supernatural as the case unfolds.” When he first met with Lopez to discuss shooting True Detective: Night Country, Florian liked the feeling of eerie isolation and darkness of the location. The influence of nature adds to the supernatural and to the characters' fragmentation from each other. Florian found inspirational images by photographer Alexander Gronsky, who took photos of Russian workers in mines near the Arctic Circle. John Carpenter's The Thing and the movie Sicario were also influences for the look of the series. True Detective: Night Country takes place in Alaska near the Arctic Circle, with Iceland as the filming location. Most of the show was shot outside during the winter months, although it happened to be the coldest winter in Iceland in a hundred years. They used a soundstage only for the scenes where characters had to be outside in the snow naked or barefoot. Florian enjoys shooting in extreme climates, noting that proper clothing for the temperature is what matters the most. Even with the extreme cold, the ARRI Alexa 35 cameras all functioned just fine. The filming was over a period of 112 days, starting in October on the soundstage. Once winter really hit after Christmas, they began shooting in the snow and darkness. Each day provided about four hours of light, with just about five minutes of sunlight, then a few blue hours of sunrise and sunset. True Detective: Night Country is available on Max. Hear our previous interview with Florian Hoffmeister discussing his work on TÁR. https://www.camnoir.com/ep194/ Find Florian Hoffmeister: http://florianhoffmeister.de/ Instagram: @florian.hoffmeister Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The critically acclaimed horror movie Late Night With the Devil blends found-footage, mockumentary and 1970s late-night television into a movie with genuine scares. Cinematographer Matthew Temple, ACS used shaky camerawork, close-ups, and multiple video sources to add to the feeling of watching “behind the scenes” documentary found footage. Though they didn't use vintage tube cameras for the 1970's TV look, Matt and the camera operators used studio pedestal bases or a crane for the cameras. “Right from the get-go, (directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes) came at me with this word, 'verisimilitude,' which means to make something feel real.” says Matt. “And that was kind of the seed for the television show.” During the preproduction period on Late Night with the Devil, the Cairnes brothers gave Matt a lookbook that they'd created referencing documentaries from the time. Matt had honed his craft on Australian TV shows like Comedy Inc., a sketch comedy show that spoofed movies and TV shows. He learned how to deconstruct a movie and replicate a specific look. Matt used the same approach for the film and watched several late night talk shows from the 1970's to get the visual aesthetic right. As he learned and took notes, Matt made an extensive document setting out rules for the camera crew to follow to keep the look authentic. Using the studio pedestal bases and cranes were key, with Sony Venice cameras in 4K mode with Fujinon zooms. “We had three pedestal cameras. They were new Venices, but nonetheless they were on pedestals. Each operator had to do their own focus and zoom and trucking up the pedestals in shot. I was careful to hire two camera operators who really knew what they were doing with studio cameras because the last time I did that was 35 years ago.” Matt himself acted as the third camera operator. He would brief the other camera operators in preproduction, break down the scene, and map out how all the cameras would work together. It was critical that the cameras always have a logic and placement and appear to be moving together. Growing up in Australia, Matt was impressed with the Australian movie Mad Max as a teenager. After studying some photography and stage production, he got a trainee job at ABC Television in Sydney. He slowly worked his way up as an assistant, operator, Steadicam operator and DP in Australian television. Late Night with the Devil is Matt's first feature film as a cinematographer. He previously worked with directors Cameron and Colin Cairnes as a Steadicam operator on their first feature, 100 Bloody Acres. Matt thinks Australia is its own independent film and TV powerhouse because of their ability to innovate and work with very small budgets. Find Matthew Temple: https://www.matthewtemple.com.au/ Instagram @dpwolfie Late Night with the Devil is still playing in some theaters and is available on Shudder and VOD. https://www.latenightwiththedevil.movie/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Hundreds of Beavers is a callback to slapstick comedies like classic WB Looney Tunes cartoons. It's full of live-action wacky pratfalls, ridiculous situations, and a healthy dose of beaver-related mayhem. Shot on a micro-budget of $150,000, Hundreds of Beavers was made with passion, creativity, and a whole lot of beaver costumes. Director Mike Cheslik and cinematographer Quinn Hester and most of the cast and crew are all from Wisconsin, where Hundreds of Beavers was shot. Everyone was comfortable with snow, loved physical comedy, and had the desire to make a film that would stand out as a true indie. After first meeting at the Milwaukee Film Festival in 2018, Mike called Quinn in October, 2020 to ask if he'd DP the film during the winter in zero degree weather. “It couldn't have been anybody but Quinn because he's just a tough guy and he's used to the winter,” says Mike. In total, the film took about 8 weeks of shooting with a core crew of about 4-6 people over the course of two winters. The main location was a remote cabin in Northern Wisconsin. “We're out there in the elements. It's very rare to be on a production where you are not only making a movie and having to use all your energy, focus and creativity and meditate on how to accomplish certain looks and goals and shots,” says Quinn. “But you're also trying to not die. All of us almost died at least once.” To make Hundreds of Beavers, Mike spent years creating extensive storyboards and animatics. “People could watch the animatic on the DIT computer and they could also see the boards in my binders that I was carrying around,” he says.”But it still takes a lot of explaining and there's a lot to wrap your head around because there's so much in this movie. It is a lot. I was just thinking about it nonstop for years. And then just doing my best to explain it to the team. I was always surprised how much trust we got.” The film is very effects-heavy and made to look old-timey in grainy black and white. “The freedom of picking a grainy black and white style, it frees you up to tell a bigger story and to have bigger visual ideas. This style gave us permission to work that way in the modern day,” says Mike. Since they were shooting in the winter, they would have to wrap by 4:30 pm. Mike imported everything into Adobe After Effects and edited with Adobe Premiere every night. That way, Quinn and the crew knew exactly what they needed by the next day. Quinn shot on a Panasonic LUMIX GH5 camera that worked well even in extremely cold weather. All the footage could easily be imported into Adobe Premiere and After Effects. Hundreds of Beavers is still playing in select theaters and is tons of fun to see with a live audience. Go to the Hundreds of Beavers website to find cities where it's playing. https://www.hundredsofbeavers.com/ Hundreds of Beavers is also available to rent on Amazon and Apple. Find Mike Cheslik: Instagram @mikeches Find Quinn Hester: Instagram @quinn.hester Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Kyle Roberts is a DP working in Birmingham, Alabama. One of the important aspects of working in a smaller market is to be skilled enough to function in multiple roles depending on what each project demands. “I'm a big problem solver,” says Kyle. “I feel like my career has taken off mainly because I'm the guy that can not just do multiple jobs, but it's using my creative mind, doing the problem solving, that's taken me far. That's what still brings me to the job every day.” After working in LA at Radiant Images, Kyle relocated back home to Birmingham to work for a local ad agency. He began shooting corporate video and regional commercials. Though he loves shooting narratives, commercials in this market are what pays the bills. Fortunately, production in the area has grown enough to support more work. Alabama is a pretty good central location for Kyle to work in Atlanta, Nashville and New Orleans, so he's able to work as a local in any of those markets. He also finds and trains those who are eager to learn, so there's more experienced crew available and work can be shared. With his partners, Kyle opened Next Level Productions, a rental house, and Moonmen DJS, a production studio with an LED video wall. Find Kyle Roberts: Instagram @nextlevelfilm Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Amy Vincent, ASC did not originally set out to become a cinematographer. While studying veterinary medicine at UC Santa Cruz, she got a work study job hanging lights for the theater department. She fell in love with the creative art of lighting, and soon transitioned to the theater arts department. Amy found her natural affinity for math and science matched the skill set needed for technical theater production. She began making short films at UCSC, moving to Los Angeles after college to pursue a career in film. Amy's first job was as an assistant editor, but she really wanted to work in the camera department. So she began working her way up from camera intern to camera assistant, working with notable DPs such as Bill Pope on Clueless and Robert Richardson on Natural Born Killers. A few years into her career as a camera assistant, Amy decided to go to grad school at AFI. She shot many student short films for free before meeting writer and director Kasi Lemmons. Amy could tell from page one that the script for Eve's Bayou was something personal and special. They made the short film together, then over the course of three years, Lemmons raised enough money and interest to turn Eve's Bayou into a feature. It was Amy's first movie as a cinematographer and it became her first big breakout. One of Amy's frequent collaborators was director Craig Brewer. She was given a copy of his first film on VHS, then the two met to discuss making 2005's Hustle & Flow. “I think the beauty of where my collaboration with Craig and the process of making the movie was what the movie was about. The two folded over on each other. I mean, it's the idea of making music or making a movie by whatever means necessary. And there was something that became so apparent in the process. For example, we tried on a whole bunch of different formats, like, what are we going to shoot? At one point we were going to shoot Mini DV, because that's what Craig knew and then we settled into Super 16.” She and Brewer went on to work together on Black Snake Moan and the 2011 Footloose remake. Throughout her career, Amy has enjoyed collaborating with directors on smaller movies. Her most recent project, A Nice Indian Boy, had a very low budget and it had to be shot quickly before the actors strike. “It is so cool to have a really funny rom com that's gay and Indian. It would have been great to have more time and more money to make that movie, but I love all of the things that came together to make this simple little movie. It's really important to me to be able to make a movie that means something to a slightly different community.” Amy recently received the ASC Presidents Award, which recognizes her long career as a cinematographer and a mentor to new cinematographers. She's also an artist in residence at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches film classes and mentors students making short films. You can see Amy's recent work on the show Parish with Giancarlo Esposito on AMC+. A Nice Indian Boy premiered at the SXSW Film Festival to critical acclaim, and is seeking distribution. Find Amy Vincent: https://www.amyvincentasc.com/ Instagram: @amyvvincent Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Michael Cioni is one of the film industry's most influential people in digital cinema and post production technology. He is uniquely gifted at identifying and following fads that turn into trends, and trends that convert into industry standards. Michael was always drawn to the challenge of helping filmmakers figure out their best workflows. “I really wanted to embody knowledge to help workflows, so that I could inform customers, partners and filmmakers. And then together we would figure out what's the best recipe for this particular film.” Michael began his career at post house Plaster City, then co-founded the post house Light Iron, which was acquired by Panavision. He then worked for Frame.io where he found several workflow shortcuts, including Camera to Cloud. Shortly after Adobe acquired Frame.io, Michael started paying closer attention to a new trend: AI. Last year he decided to leave Frame.io and together with his brother Peter, they founded Strada. With Strada, Michael wants to enable creative professionals the freedom to work entirely from the cloud, using helpful AI tools. “The most lucrative, and I think the most useful forms of AI is in utilitarian tasks. The first major part of filmmaking workflow that Strada wants to use AI to eliminate is the mundane aspects of creating a story. If creative people can get rid of the boring, mundane, repeatable, low-skill stuff, then it means we have more time to do the satisfying, creative, fun stuff.” Strada can transfer assets from cloud to cloud without having to download them and then reupload them. Using AI, Strada can provide a transcription and a translation of narrative content early and up front. It can also tag and analyze images so that it's easy to search using just one word for a specific scene, saving hours in the editing process. Plus, all the work can be done remotely, from any location, because everything is stored in the cloud. Strada is currently still in private beta but anyone can apply to try it. If you have a project you're working on, go to Strada's website to contact them about trying out the beta version. The company plans to start rolling out the public beta by fall 2024. The entire Strada team will be at NAB Las Vegas next week April 13-17 at the Atlas Lens Co. booth in Central Hall C5539 to provide live demos of the AI-powered workflow technology platform and allow filmmakers to test out Strada's capabilities firsthand. Find Michael Cioni: Instagram: @michaelcioni Strada: https://strada.tech/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Cinematographer Greig Fraser, ACS, ASC doesn't see Dune: Part Two as a sequel, but as simply the second half of the Dune story. Shooting the second movie made Greig feel “emboldened, to make decisions that we may not have made in the first instance. We weren't necessarily considering how to outdo ourselves. I think the fact that we were kind of riding a wave- no pun intended- but a wave of success for that last movie.” Dune: Part Two was shot digitally on the ARRI ALEXA 35, the ALEXA 65 and the ALEXA Mini LF then printed to 70 mm film in post production for the final print. Greig prefers the look of film to that of raw digital, but he doesn't feel like he has to shoot on film. He used a small set of spherical lenses that were easily transportable. Lighting for the movie included plenty of hard light and open shade, since most of Dune: Part Two takes place in the harsh desert sands of Arrakis. Greig chose to uplight in order to illuminate faces, because harsh sunlight would naturally bounce off the ground and reflect upwards onto the characters. “I think that the most important thing in this movie is that everything feels honest. When you're going to extremes in a story, if you're running a thousand foot long sandworm in the middle of the movie, which is obviously fantasy, then you've got to also fill it with reality and honesty. You can tell Denis' direction with the actors was absolutely honest. I needed to make sure that I had the same kind of approach for the lighting.” The production featured a massive crew, shooting in four countries: Budapest, Italy, Jordan and Abu Dhabi. The second unit was essential for staying on schedule. Greig also relied on his DIT to help him match shots across different locations, sometimes months apart. He often had to choose whether to shoot on the sound stage or outside on location for the desert sequences. Though filming outside was best for daylight, the reality is that real sand is messy, uncontrolled, and harsh on equipment. The huge sandstorm sequence was shot on the soundstage, which was pumped full of atmospheric haze and color graded in post to be sand colored. Greig enjoyed testing and using infrared black and white film for the gladiator-style fight scenes on Giedi Prime. He used a modified ARRI ALEXA 65 to shoot infrared. Since the people there have very pale white skin, he imagined that Giedi Prime has only infrared light from the sun, and no visible sunlight. Greig partnered with actor Josh Brolin to create a beautiful art book of photography called Dune: Exposures. It features photos he took on the set of Dune and Dune: Part Two, with prose written by Josh Brolin. You can find it at Insight Editions or on Amazon. Find Greig Fraser: Instagram: @greigfraser_dp Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Gregory Irwin is an extremely experienced A Camera First AC who first got into the business 44 years ago. He received a 2016 Society of Camera Operators Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions as Camera Technician. His most recent project is the Joker sequel Joker: Folie à Deux coming soon. Greg frequently gives talks on the importance of character and credibility in the camera department. The camera department is in a leadership role on any production. There's always going to be challenges on set, but it's important to remember that if the camera department seems like they're panicking, it affects the rest of the production. A good camera department is always helpful, no matter what department needs it. Never be rude or show panic, even when things aren't going to plan. Greg says, “I want my team to know everything at all times, and I want them to be better than me. If I can develop a young camera person into a rock solid, good human being as well as a good camera technician then I've done my job.” Greg discusses: Character and credibility in the camera department-remembering you are in a leadership role Taking a business approach to the camera department Interacting with the director, cinematographer, producers and showrunners How to hire others in the camera department- be sure to vet your camera crew before hiring them Be a “one minute manager”- choose people you don't have to micromanage Handling the first phone calls with the filmmakers and producers: save talk about rates, money, deals until about the 4th phone call so you can get to know the person who you're negotiating with Generally talk rates/business aspects for your camera team as well Prep for the camera prep day: prep should already be done ahead, including what you need for your camera package Prep and budget: build everything you need for prep based on meetings with the filmmakers & DP, timestamp prep lists to keep track of everything. By draft 10, you should be clear on what's needed and camera budget should be very clear at that point Look the part- better to dress like a professional Be organized and don't have a sense of entitlement How to get noticed and move up in the camera department Find Greg Irwin: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0410389/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Masters of the Air on AppleTV+ is about the pilots who served in the 100th Bomb Group in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. Cinematographer Richard Rutkowski shot episodes 107 and 108, which included both aerial flying, bombing and imprisoned airmen at a German POW camp. From the beginning, Richard was impressed with how everything was organized on such a massive scale. The props, set design and costumes were extremely exact to the time period. “I really am attracted to stories that have authenticity in them,” says Richard. “And they put the authentic on camera. It is all exactly what it's meant to be, what it was at the time, as close as they can get.” Richard worked with director Dee Rees on their block of Masters of the Air. The prison camp scenes involved working with searchlights, mud and absolute darkness at night, with up to 250 people in a scene. He chose to light in a way that would emphasize the dim lighting, gray atmosphere and unhealthy look for the POWs. Some of the Tuskegee Airmen, the legendary African-American fighter pilots, are also brought to the POW camp and the prisoners are integrated into the previously racially-segregated fighting force. Shooting the action inside the planes involved large-scale LED volume screens surrounding the aircraft sections, with an LED roof overhead, which created most of the lighting for the scene. The actors were placed on a gimbal controlled articulated steel deck so they could react to the motion. The cameras tracked with the video system, and had GPS locators that allowed the background to respond to where the camera was so that it knew how much background to put in. Richard was the sole cinematographer on the FX series The Americans for several seasons. The Americans was about a Russian spy couple posing as Americans in suburban Washington D.C. during the Cold War in the 1980's. Richard established the look of the show, with the couple's “normal” DC life leaning into bolder primary colors, in a kind of red, white, and blue cleanliness. By contrast, in their double life as spies, Richard chose a grittier, darker and grainy look. On The Americans, Richard says he learned the value of letting the actors do their work. “(There is) an unspoken connection being made about whether a scene is moving well, whether a take is truly finished. I would learn to stop reaching for that cut button. No matter who said what, if the actor was in it, we don't cut. You leave the boom up, keep out of the frame. If the actor's in it, we're not cutting. We'll go till they're ready.” As a kid, Richard's father was a fine art painter and he grew up all over the country. He began making 16mm films in college and working with theatrical director Robert Wilson. After college, Richard started working on small budget films, working his way up through the camera department, including being a second assistant camera on School Ties with cinematographer Freddie Francis, a two time Oscar winner. After School Ties, Richard wrote Ed Lachman asking to work with him, and he went on to work with Ed on several movies. He feels that working your way up and learning all the different crafts in the camera department is a great education for a DP. Masters of the Air is available on AppleTV+. Find Richard Rutkowski: Instagram @richardrutkowskidp Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The Netflix series House of Ninjas has become a hit show, rising to #1 in the streaming service's top 10 list. The story follows the Tawara family, who have been ninjas, or shinobi, for generations. Tragically, the oldest son and brother disappeared six years before in a battle with their rivals, leading the Tawaras to stop being ninjas. But the family must fight together again as the rival clan gets more powerful and threatens the entire country. Showrunner Dave Boyle was first brought on as showrunner for House of Ninjas by an executive at Netflix Japan, who knew he was familiar with the culture. Dave's second language is Japanese, which he studied as a Mormon missionary in Australia. He had written and directed a few independent Japanese American and Japanese language films, such as Man from Reno, Daylight Savings and Surrogate Valentine, which all took place in the U.S. This was his first experience with shooting anything in Japan. He was drawn to the tone of House of Ninjas, which combines both drama, action and violence with comedy and warmhearted playfulness. “Tone was the reason why we all wanted to make this project. It's more than the plot mechanics and the story. It was all about creating this atmosphere, this tone that an audience could sink into and enjoy for many, many episodes. And so I think that tone was something that we were talking about from the very, very get-go and something that we really wanted to nail and get right.” Once he was on board, Dave began working on the preproduction and show bible for House of Ninjas. The show bible had to be written in three weeks, which is a very fast process, especially since Dave knew the show's foundation required a deep understanding of shinobi culture and history. He found the preproduction process in Japan to be much different from the U.S., with casting happening even before the show's scripts were written. The script format in Japan read from right to left, and the top half of the page is left blank for the director to draw storyboards and a shotlist, as a clear way for the director to show what they're planning to do. House of Ninjas is available on Netflix. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Long-time friend and colleague Jenelle Riley of Variety magazine chats with Ben and Illya for our fifth annual Oscar nominations special. With a focus on cinematography, they discuss what they liked, what will win, what should win, and their favorite movies of the year that may have been overlooked. They also talk about the past year in movies, Oscar campaigning and the accusations of film “snubs.” Here’s a rundown of some of the films and topics discussed in this episode. Listen to our recent interviews with the nominated DPs as well as other films of note! Spike Lee, who won an ASC Board of Governors award Hoyte Van Hoytema, Oppenheimer, who also won an ASC award for theatrical feature film Ed Lachman, El Conde Matty Libatique, Maestro Robbie Ryan, Poor Things Rodrigo Prieto, Martin Scorsese Killers of the Flower Moon Barbie, Ryan Gosling Nyad, Anette Bening The Holdovers (DP Eigil Bryld) , Alexander Payne, Da'Vine Joy Randolph Past Lives (DP Shabier Kirchner), Greta Lee American Fiction (DP Cristina Dunlap) Wonka Saltburn (DP Linus Sandgren) The Killer (DP Eric Messerschmidt) May/December Find Jenelle Riley on Instagram and X: @jenelleriley and Variety: https://variety.com/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

In this bonus episode of The Cinematography Podcast, we interview director Nisha Pahuja and editor Mike Munn about the documentary To Kill a Tiger. The film is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. **A warning that this episode discusses sexual assault and violence, so please take care.** To Kill a Tiger is the story of Ranjit, a farmer in Jharkhand, India whose 13 year old daughter is raped by three men from her village. Ranjit is determined to get justice for his daughter through the legal system. In India, men rarely stand up for their daughters and conviction rates for rape are less than 30 percent. It’s common practice in the village for a girl to be married off to her abuser instead. Rangit and his family faced down threats of violence and ostracism by the townspeople. Director Nisha Pahuja was originally making a documentary studying Indian masculinity when she met Ranjit and his daughter. She followed their story for about 18 months, thinking they would only be one part of the story. Only in the editing process did the story start to take shape. It became clear that Ranjit and his daughter Kiran were the strongest characters. Nisha admired Ranjit's courage and love for his daughter. “I just think Ranjit is the kind of person who has this idea of doing the right thing inside of him. He's just a very ethical, thoughtful person.” Because Kiran was only 13 at the time, Nisha had to be careful about revealing her identity. By the time the film was finished, Kiran was 18, and gave permission to show her face. Nisha says, “She said it was because she couldn't believe how courageous she was when she was watching herself, she couldn't believe her own courage and her own bravery. And she wanted to celebrate that.” Nisha's husband Mrinal Desai was the primary cinematographer on To Kill a Tiger, and they lived together in India while making the documentary. Nisha finds that he has a very quiet and gentle way with the people they film. She, Mrinal and their sound recordist Anita Kushwaha have worked together for a long time and are able to create an atmosphere of intimacy and trust. Editor Mike Munn spent about 8 months working on the film before he decided that they had to distill it down to the best story. “We were wrestling a lot because we had, in fact, two different films. So Ranjit's story was so specific and so well drawn out that it needed its own place. So, we jettisoned all of that work that we'd done.” Mike started expanding Ranjit's story and discovered that this version of the film has a clear narrative arc with interesting characters. Fortunately, the raw footage came back from India with a basic transcription and subtitles that could be polished during the edit with the help of a translator. Mike says, “My favorite part overall was working with the observational and verite nature of the film. It was so intimate and real and we're all creating scenes out of real emotion. This was a film where the narrative was all happening within real scenes with the family. That was challenging, but rewarding in just the truthfulness of it.” To Kill a Tiger is in select theaters. https://tokillatigerfilm.com/ Find Nisha Pahuja: http://www.noticepicturesinc.com/ Instagram @nishappics Find Mike Munn: https://mikemunneditor.com/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

We have the multi-talented Kays Al-Atrakchi as our special guest host this week! Shortly after working together on A Star Is Born, director and actor Bradley Cooper told cinematographer Matty Libatique that he'd like their next project to be about conductor Leonard Bernstein. Cooper hadn't even begun writing the screenplay for Maestro yet, but over the next six years, he and Matty discussed how to evolve the story and shoot the biopic. They spent a lot of time shooting tests in multiple formats. Matty and Cooper decided to shoot on Kodak film, using both black and white and color, and two different aspect ratios (1.33:1 and 1.85:1) for the story. The film takes place over 50 years, and it was important to test the aging makeup and prosthetics Cooper would wear as Bernstein. Maestro was a complex story to tell, and Cooper wanted to explore Bernstein's life in as many visually creative ways as possible. Every shot was thought out, including all the montages that deal with the passage of time. For several scenes, much of what Cooper had described on the page was what ended up on screen. “It's one of those rare cases where the the writing really matched up with what we ended up doing, very early on. There were subsequent drafts, but those moments that he had crafted ahead of time never went away,” says Matty. In order to keep himself organized, Matty created a spreadsheet that mapped out all the shots and equipment for every beat and scene in the script, which could also be altered if Cooper made changes. At the heart of Maestro is the complicated relationship between Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia Montealegre. Cooper frequently used the motif of Montealegre waiting in the wings for Bernstein, as she put everything in her life on hold to be with him. Their love grounds the story, and Matty wanted it to look as naturalistic as possible. “Instead of going for the glam, even though it might feel like an old movie at the beginning of the film, I was trying to keep it more candid... I think Bradley and I gravitate towards naturalism because we don't want anything that smells false or pretentious. It's just something to stay away from. Bradley has a real sensitivity to it.” Cooper's approach as a director is extremely artistic and sensitive to the emotions in the scene, and he doesn't use a conventional shot list or get traditional coverage. If the scene feels wrong after they've shot it, he and Matty will mull it over and then come up with a better way to shoot it. “Bradley is so editorially minded, he keeps in mind whether or not we're going to end a scene in a wide or start in a wide or ended in tight or start in a tight. So those are conscious decisions, but they aren't necessarily made ahead of time. We respond to the space and we respond to the light. And then we just react and it's organic, it's his process.” Maestro is available on Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/title/81171868 Matty Libatique is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Find Matty Libatique: Instagram @libatique Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

In this bonus episode of The Cinematography Podcast, we interview Shabier Kirchner, the cinematographer of Past Lives. The film is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Past Lives, written and directed by Celine Song, is about childhood sweethearts reconnecting as adults after many years. When cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, who is from Antigua, was sent the script, it immediately resonated with him. “Past Lives was not just a standalone amazing script, but I found myself in the material. A lot of what I was going through, being an immigrant to the US, being from the Caribbean, reconnecting with a friend, falling in love, all of that stuff was happening while I was reading the material and it just felt like it was written for me.” Shabier and director Celine Song had an amazing first conversation, and he wasn't aware that she'd never made a film before. Fortunately, they had an extensive amount of time to prep the movie, and they chose to shoot on Kodak 35mm film. The film takes place in New York and Korea, and they knew they had to shoot it out of order, starting with all of the New York scenes which take place later in the story. Shabier and Song also spent time discussing how to use the language of the film to express what the characters were experiencing. Past Lives tells a story about how relationships change over time. Shabier chose to translate this into deliberate pacing with long tracking shots, keeping the lighting natural and simple. In the film, natural elements tell the passage of time as well, through rain, clouds and the changing light. Even the characters Nora and Hae Sung tell a story about time in their movements. “We were speaking about the final scene in the film, and I asked Celine a question of what direction should they walk? In a very Celine fashion, she (said) 'Well, they should walk right to left because that is into the past. And she should drop him off in the past and then walk from left to right back into the future and up the stairs.' That very small and simple moment in our conversation led and informed the entire language of the film in terms of how we move the camera from left to right.” Shabier broke out as a cinematographer a few years ago on director Steve McQueen's five-part anthology series, Small Axe, winning a BAFTA for lighting and photography. The series tells both real and fictional stories about London's West Indian community in the 1970's and 80's. McQueen chose to treat each episode as a series of small films, rather than a TV series. They would discuss and prep one, scout it, shoot it, break for a week, then begin prep for the next episode. Starting with Mangrove, the longest in the series, they shot in order as much as possible, with Lovers Rock next. Shabier says it was a nice release for the crew's pent-up emotions on Mangrove, which dealt with anti-police protests and then the trial of nine Black men accused of starting a riot. They knew they could put joy and energy into Lovers Rock, a much simpler story about a house party, love and music. Shabier thinks McQueen structured the shoots for Small Axe in a way that was very smart, creating a serious mood when they needed to be serious, and lightening the mood as needed. Past Lives is still in some theaters and available on VOD. https://a24films.com/films/past-lives The Small Axe series is on Amazon Prime. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

In this bonus episode of The Cinematography Podcast, we interview Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp, who collaborated as directors on Bobi Wine: The People's President. The film is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Co-director and producer Christopher Sharp grew up in Uganda and was a fan of Bobi Wine's music. He met Bobi and his wife Barbie in London. Christoper says, “When I met him, he'd just run to be an independent member of parliament and he was sort of transitioning from being solely a musician into an activist and a politician. When he told me what he was about to sacrifice, it seemed pretty obvious that we needed to stick with him and see where it went.” Bobi Wine (Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) had grown up in the slums of Kampala, Uganda and through his musical talent, had risen to become an extremely popular and famous Afrobeat musician. Bobi's music often communicates a socially conscious message aimed at political change. He put himself through university, where he met his wife Barbie. Political activism was extremely important to him, so Bobi successfully ran as an independent candidate for Uganda's parliament. He then decided to run for president against the dictator Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for 38 years. Christopher brought the idea of making the documentary to Moses Bwayo, a Ugandan journalist and filmmaker. Moses followed Bobi with cameras for five years, sometimes with a small crew, using a monopod and available light. Moses used the Sony FS7 and the smaller Sony Alpha a7 III. He often had to just run and gun, serving as both cameraman and director, documenting the tense and frequently dangerous situations Bobi, his family and Moses himself encountered. “We wanted to tell a story of this young, talented musician who comes out of the ghetto to inspire the nation, and he rises into politics and the coalitions he was building in parliament and the bills he was trying to bring. But, as we kept filming, it was very dangerous for him and there was a few attempted assassinations on him. More and more we realized the camera was actually a protection to him... So we just kept on going and going.” Uganda has been under the control of Yoweri Museveni since 1986. Museveni uses the might of the military police and his political operatives in Parliament to stay in power. When Bobi announced he was going to run for president against Museveni, the military police stepped up their aggressive attacks on him, his family and his campaign workers. “We knew that the closer we stuck with him and his wife and people close to him, it would bring some level of protection, and indeed, even the days I spent under house arrest with Bobby and Barbie, what worried us was that the military and police would break into the house at any moment. But I think what stopped them is when they knew that there was a cameraman in that house- it probably stopped them from breaking into the house.” Moses and the crew risked their lives to make the film. “I was arrested a few times. I was locked up in jail. I was interrogated, and I was shot in the face close to the election.” Fortunately, Moses recovered from his gunshot wound and the documentary continued. The political situation in Uganda had become very violent, so before they released the film, Moses and his family decided to flee and are seeking asylum in the United States. Though Museveni won election again through terrifying attacks and imprisonment of Bobi and his supporters, Bobi still goes back to Uganda and continues to risk his life to speak out against the government. “This story is still happening today. It's urgent. Christopher and I, we've been thinking maybe we should find a way to start filming again because the situation has not improved, and we have this incredible access, we have this story still happening right now. And the camera had become like a protection to them and now we feel like we're indebted to this struggle.

Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema, ASC and director Christopher Nolan have crafted some of the most visually stunning and intellectually stimulating films of the 21st century. The film Oppenheimer marks their fourth collaboration, and they've achieved an ease and rapport with each other over time. “In all these years, we've spent so many endless hours in scouting vans and on airplanes and on film sets. So we have done a lot of the talking together. Chris is a very meticulous filmmaker, but this process has also allowed us to be very intuitive and we can kind of skim through a lot of bullshit just by knowing each other,” Hoyte says. Hoyte first began working with Nolan on Interstellar in 2014. At first he found the scale of the film extremely daunting. “I was literally looking up at that crazy, gigantic mountain in front of me and thinking, how am I going to do this and how am I going to even technically wrap my head around this? But (Nolan) was always very calm and very reassuring and he said, 'Let's just start'.” Despite it being their first project together, the synergy between Nolan's bold vision and Hoyte's keen eye for detail was immediately apparent. They employed a combination of practical effects and cutting-edge visual techniques to bring the vastness of space and the intricacies of theoretical physics to life on the screen. Nolan uses practical effects as much as possible, and he needed creative techniques to get across the idea of atomic energy on Oppenheimer. The second unit crew spent time experimenting with shots to create the effects of atomic particles and atoms interacting for scenes when Robert Oppenheimer envisions harnessing nuclear energy. To tell a story as big and complex as Oppenheimer, Nolan and Hoyte chose to shoot on IMAX. This required some invention and innovation. Nolan wanted to shoot the congressional hearing scenes in black and white, but black and white film stock for IMAX did not exist. Kodak was happy to manufacture it for the movie, although it was challenging to use. The black and white film didn't fit into the camera the same way, so they had to re-engineer the camera gates and pressure plates. Even though they were shooting with an extremely large format camera, Hoyte wanted to get very intimate, close shots. “Chris and I had to decide that our vistas in this film, our scope, is not something that comes from landscapes or wideness or action, but it has to come from faces, you know? I always say the faces kind of became our landscapes. But I also believe that scope is something that comes from what you as an audience project onto something.” They opted for a very simple, naturalistic style to the cinematography to support the unfolding psychological drama. Each frame is not just a visual composition but a narrative device, serving to deepen the emotional resonance of the story and engage the audience on a visceral level. Oppenheimer is playing in theaters, available on VOD, or streaming on Peacock starting February 16. Hoyte Van Hoytema is nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

El Conde is a a dark comedy/horror film that portrays former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a 250 year old vampire. Director Pablo Larraín wanted to play with the idea that a dictatorship is a blood-sucking drain on society with lasting generational impacts. Cinematographer Ed Lachman immediately liked Larraín's message. “El Conde is his allegory of how we are seduced into yielding to fascism. And it isn't just in Chile. It's like the last 50 years, we're facing that all over the world. That's why I think the film has something to say- if you can get past the gore.” Ed had been a long time admirer of Larraín's work. He found Larraín's films to be conceptually brilliant with camera placement and movement to tell the story. “They say a cinematographer and a director is a marriage. But I always like to think of it as a dance partner- you hear the same music, but do your steps compliment each other? And I've certainly felt I have that relationship with Pablo.” Ed knew he wanted to shoot El Conde in black and white, referencing gothic vampire movies such as Nosferatu and Vampyr (1932). Working with Netflix Latin America, Larraín obtained approval to originate the film in black and white rather than shoot in color and then desaturate it later. For production design, special effects and costumes, all the color choices could be made for the best look in black and white. Ed decided to use the ARRI LF camera, and fortunately, ARRI had just developed a monochromatic sensor for them to use. He enjoys shooting with an actual black and white camera because the exposure latitude and grain structure is different, and he can use monochromatic filters meant for black and white cinematography. El Conde features some amazingly realistic scenes of vampires flying. The night flying sequences had to be done with a blue screen, which did require a color camera. But all of the day flying sequences and stunts were shot with the black and white camera. The flying sequences were done practically, with no special effects. A 120ft crane suspended the camera operator, who moved through the air with the actors and stunt acrobats on wires. Ed used the EL Zone System, a method he invented, to figure out the proper exposures for the cameras on El Conde. He's developed the EL Zone system over the past 10 years, in an effort to measure light values and standardize exposures for digital cameras, and won a technical Emmy in 2023 for the technology. The system uses 18% gray as the standard, which is a universal photography standard. The camera’s sensor data is used as a reference point and filmmakers can view the entire exposure of a shot on a monitor to make lighting adjustments easier. El Conde is streaming on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81590652 Find Ed Lachman, and learn more about the EL Zone System: https://www.elzonesystem.com/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The film American Fiction has been nominated for over two dozen awards, including five Academy Awards. Director Cord Jefferson is a seasoned writer who worked on acclaimed series such as Watchmen, Station Eleven, and The Good Place. He adapted the screenplay and wrote the script for American Fiction himself. Jefferson knew that he would also like to direct the film, although it would be his first time ever directing. Cinematographer Cristina Dunlap knew immediately after reading the script that she wanted to work on the film. “I think there's always a concern every time you work with a new director, just learning their style and how they work. But the second I sat down with Cord, I could tell immediately that he was going to be a wonderful person to work with because he is just very joyous and positive and excited, collaborative and open to ideas. And so when we started talking about the script, it was really more excitement. And, you know, he was very honest. He said, 'I've never even directed traffic before. So you're going to have to maybe hold my hand through some things or answer questions.' And I was completely willing to do that.” Fortunately, Cristina and Jefferson had about eight weeks of prep time in Boston, with only about 25 actual shoot days. Cristina likes to break down each scene psychologically, to explore visually what each character is going through. They scouted locations with the rest of the crew, and spent time figuring out the blocking so that they would have a concrete plan when the actors were on set. Cristina relied on the Artemis Pro app to map the location spaces which really helped create photo storyboards, figure out the lighting setup and plan Steadicam moves. She knew it would be challenging to be able to fit everything in on each shoot day, especially when there would be six or seven people in a scene. The beach house was an especially challenging location for lighting- it had dark wood walls and low ceilings. Cristina knew they wanted to able to see the ocean through the windows, but they couldn't afford to light with a Condor lighting rig every day from the outside. She had to pull out a lot of lighting tricks and build off the practical sources in the space. For one scene, an arborist helped the gaffer by climbing a tree in order to rig several gem ball lights in the branches. Cristina got her start in photography. She went on to shoot music videos for artists such as Coldplay and Lizzo, and was the DP of the 2022 Sundance Audience Award winning feature, Cha Cha Real Smooth. American Fiction is in theaters now. Find Cristina Dunlap: https://www.cristinadunlap.com/ Instagram: @cristina_dunlap Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, ASC has worked with director Ridley Scott on nine different films. He loves working with Scott because he's extremely self-assured, not afraid to take chances, and always pushes the envelope. On the last day of their shoot for House of Gucci in Italy, Scott said to Dariusz, “You know, we're in Rome, we're so close to Malta, we should just hop on a plane and look at some locations. Why don't we just go there to scout locations?” Confused, Daruisz said, “For what?” “For Napoleon.” Dariusz says, “That's how that happened, it wasn't 'let's make a big epic.' And it was quite nice because Malta, which is a big part of the film, it was very special for him because that's where he shot the original Gladiator, so we actually revisited all the sets that were very familiar to him.” Scott did use a lot of the same locations he'd used for Gladiator for the late 1700's era of Napoleon. After they'd settled on their shooting locations, Daruisz began looking at an abundance of references available from the Napoleonic era. “There's just as many versions of Napoleon as you can imagine. So, we're not trying to make a historical film. But cinematically, you just load yourself with as many references as possible,” says Dariusz. They also relied on historical consultants, and experts on warfare from the period. Napoleon was known as a brilliant strategist, so it was important to understand some of the famous battle campaigns he had led. Coordinating the battle scenes was like shooting a rock concert- with 500 extras and 250 horses. They used 11 cameras for the battle scenes, plus a drone, and a small digital camera (the DJI Osmo Pocket) that a stunt person carried on horseback. Dariusz credits pulling off the battle sequences with Scott's extensive experience. “He has tremendous experience and he's done so many battles. He really understands what matters, what doesn't,” he says. Lighting for the non-battle scenes was trickier when shooting in historic locations. The sun and cloud cover for natural light would be intermittent in England, requiring some extra coverage, though it didn't trouble Scott very much. Indoors, Daruisz used a combination of a big window light, fire light and real candlelight. He wanted the lighting to reflect the most flattering portraits of Napoleon. As a film reference, Daruisz was also influenced by the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon, which was primarily lit with candles. “That was a revolutionary movie, that was a masterpiece. We were trying to do that too, and keep the shots very simple- a big wide shot, couple of close-ups, just nothing fancy.” Napoleon is available on Apple TV+ and on VOD. Find Dariusz Wolski: Instagram @dariusz_wolski_official Listen to our previous interview with Dariusz Wolski from 2021 about News of the World, The Crow, Dark City, and more. https://www.camnoir.com/ep118/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Poor Things is a brilliantly imaginative, comedic and visually stunning film about Bella Baxter, a young woman who is brought back to life by mad scientist Godwin Baxter. She experiences a personal and sexual awakening as she travels the world, discovering what it means to be a confident woman free of societal constraints. Director Yorgos Lanthimos and cinematographer Robbie Ryan had previously worked together on The Favourite. They wanted to push the boundaries of how Poor Things looked in every possible way. “He's so prolific with ideas that you go, 'Okay, you want to try that? Okay, let's try that!' And, he gives me a lot of challenges that I go off and find a lens that he's trying to talk about,” says Robbie. Robbie shot Poor Things in a variety of different formats and with a range of unusual lenses. The film is a period piece, so he and Lanthimos decided to use the 1:6:6 aspect ratio, which is closer in composition to portraiture. They also chose to shoot entirely on film, using KODAK 35mm black and white, color negative and Ektachrome Reversal film stocks. For Bella's reanimation sequence, Robbie used a Vista Vision camera, which is a special widescreen format from the 1950's. The 35mm film stock is turned on its side, so that the picture is ultra-widescreen and high resolution. The film is energized with purposefully intrusive cinematography, lenses and zooms. Robbie selected a Petzval lens once used on old projectors. He also placed a 4mm lens, made for 16mm cameras, onto a 35mm camera, to create an extreme fish-eye, vignetted frame. “Yorgos wanted even wider fish eye lenses that created a vignette, with a dreamy focus bokeh on it. We wanted another era feeling to it, with a painterly quality to it, and to have a lot of character. You're jumping between so many different lens choices that would, they would definitely jar, but that's what the attempt is- to jar the audience.” On set, Lanthimos prefers to be able to use all 360 degrees of the entire space. He also didn't want any lights on the set, so it had to be completely built and lit with every direction shootable. It was more freeing for the actors and for the camera, but it did present a challenge for shooting on film, which needs a lot more light to make images. Robbie had to use many practical lights throughout the set, with sky lighting in the ceiling, especially for the outdoor scenes. Robbie is very proud of Poor Things, and he thinks it's funny and more accessible than some of Lanthimos' other work. “The universe that Yorgos has created is the one you want to enjoy and get into with this film,” he says. Find Robbie Ryan: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0752811/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Listen to our previous interview from 2019 with Robbie Ryan on The Favourite and his other work. https://www.camnoir.com/ep32/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI: https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

With the film Ferrari, cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, ASC has now had the opportunity to work with two huge directors: Michael Mann and David Fincher. In 2021, Erik won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Mank, directed by Fincher. He finds Fincher to be very methodical and precise about film structure and camera placement. Michael Mann tends to be more spontaneous, interested in capturing visceral moments, but still detail oriented. He is hyperfocused on the emotional response of the audience and how best to capture the character's interactions. “That is the joy of being a cinematographer, coming and playing in someone else's sandbox and learning how you can contribute to making their film,” Erik says. Ferrari was a passion project for director Michael Mann, who had been developing the film for decades. Once he was hired to work on Ferrari, Erik saw that Mann had tons of material on Enzo Ferrari. He had an incredible collection of photos, newsreel footage, and personal letters that provided a great start to shaping the film. Mann knew exactly what he wanted to make and it came down to the two of them discussing the film's look, pacing, and structure. The entire film was shot in 58 days with no second unit. They filmed on location in Italy, which was a huge contributor to the aesthetic of the movie and lent it authenticity. Most of the locations were historically accurate to Enzo Ferrari's story- they shot exteriors of the Ferrari home, his barber shop, and even inside the Ferrari mausoleum. Adding classic Ferraris and other vehicles from 1957 with people in period costume made it easy to make the movie feel of its time without needing to add more. The dramatic scenes in Ferrari had to be differentiated from the racing scenes. While all of the racing scenes were meticulously planned and storyboarded, the dramatic scenes such as a fight between Adam Driver & Penelope Cruz's characters was rehearsed, blocked and planned on the day. Erik chose to use more structured, classically composed framing, with subtle zoom moves in on the actor's faces for a nuanced emotional response. By contrast, the racing scenes had to be kinetic and visceral. Mann wanted the audience to feel like they are right there in the car, and all of the racing scenes take place in real cars on Italian roads. The camera operators sat in the car with the professional drivers, shooting handheld right next to them. As an amateur race car driver, actor Patrick Dempsey actually did all of his own driving in the film. Each Ferrari was actually a replica, and safety gear like roll cages and harnesses were added. Erik also used older camera mounts on the outside of the cars to capture every shake and bump, since the suspension on cars from that time period were much stiffer. Find Erik Messerschmidt: Instagram @emesserschmidt Listen to our previous interview from 2020 with Erik Messerschmidt on Mank and his other work. https://www.camnoir.com/ep107/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt was thrilled to be the DP for House of the Dragon, episode eight, “The Lord of the Tides.” It was a huge behemoth of a production, with many cast and crew members, complex set design and costumes, as well as tons of visual effects to work with. But her hard work has paid off with an Emmy nomination for the episode. Catherine worked with director Geeta Patel for “The Lord of the Tides.” House of the Dragon is mainly shot with two cameras, plus a third camera that floats between units. For this episode, which included an epic family dinner and dramatic throne room scenes, they used 4 cameras and lots of planning to capture all the action. Her favorite scene in “The Lord of the Tides” was when Daemon Targaryen hunts for dragon eggs, which mainly used practical effects and stunts. “The camera glides along the floor and up the mound, and you see somebody kneel down- you don't see who they are. They're digging, they're digging, they're digging, the egg comes out and then you reveal it's Daemon, all in one shot.” Growing up in New Jersey, Catherine tried theater and then helped make a short student film in college, which inspired her to pursue film. She soon moved to LA and began working as a camera assistant, then went to AFI for grad school. Catherine worked on the first scripted Quibi series, Dummy starring Anna Kendrick. She was asked to shoot the series so that it could be viewed on phones in two different aspect ratios, both horizontal and vertical. It seemed like it would be overly complicated, but Catherine figured out a way to frame for a square. Both aspect ratios could be taken from that, without affecting the framing of the shots. Catherine was cinematographer on two episodes of the upcoming House of the Dragon Season 2. Find Catherine Goldschmidt: https://catherinegoldschmidt.com/ Instagram @cgdop Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Flamin' Hot is an entertaining biopic about Richard Montañez, a janitor at the Frito Lay chip factory who rose to become a marketing executive after (he claims) he came up with the idea for Flamin' Hot Cheetos. While Monteñez may be exaggerating his role in the invention of Flamin' Hot, the movie is based on his real life experience as detailed in his book, “Flamin’ Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man’s Rise from Janitor to Top Executive.” Director Eva Longoria was drawn to telling Montañez's story for her first feature film debut. She wanted to tell a heroic, positive story about a Mexican American who worked hard to achieve the American dream, with the support of his family and community. Cinematographer Federico Cantini had previously worked with Eva on Unplugging, a small indie movie, where the two of them were the only Spanish speakers on set. Eva admired his energy, passion and collaboration with the female director. When it came time for her to choose her DP for Flamin' Hot, Federico was Eva's top choice. The original script Eva received for Flamin' Hot was a very straightforward, factual biography film, without any elements of humor. Eva knew she needed to capture the charismatic character and voice of Richard Monteñez, so she watched videos of his TED talks and other public appearances. She worked with writer Linda Yvette Chávez to rework the script during COVID. It was important to keep the film high energy and constantly push the narrative forward. “Ron Howard's one of my mentors,” says Eva, “and his motto is something should be happening every nine to ten pages. So you should have nine to ten page sequences. It's a page turner, you know, it's constantly moving.” She also admires the narrative style of director Adam McKay's films (The Big Short, Winning Time) and the way he fluidly uses montages and voiceovers to tell stories based on fact. Flamin' Hot has 11 montages, with tons of information crammed into each shot. The movie also never strays from Montañez's point of view. Even in scenes where he isn't there, Eva used the comedic device of Moñtenez narrating what might have happened in certain scenes, such as at Frito Lay executive board meetings. Once the script was complete, Federico read it and found it extremely relatable. As an immigrant himself, Flamin' Hot was an opportunity to make his mark, much as Monteñez had. Fortunately, he and Eva had lots of pre-production prep time. They are both big planners, which was important- the shooting schedule was extremely tight, with just 30 days to shoot Flamin' Hot on 108 sets, during COVID. The film was primarily shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the entire Frito Lay factory was a set. Today's Frito Lay factories are extremely modern and automated, so they knew it would not have the right look for the 80s and early 1990s. With the set, they had lots of control over where they could shoot and what it would look like with depth and color. The set pieces such as the tumbler and conveyor belt were all on wheels, so they could easily be moved around. Coming from TV, Eva felt confident that they could accomplish all they wanted in the time that they had, and they left all their creative energy on the screen. Federico and Eva wanted to break up Monteñez's story into three different decades with three distinct looks to separate them. Federico used Crystal Express lenses for Montañez's childhood, Canon K-35s for his gang banger days, and then for the 80s and 90s, Panavision Panaspeeds, but modified to look like Super Speeds from the 80s. He also used a probe lens to emphasize the size of the factory and for drama in the tasting scenes. Eva enjoyed directing a biopic, and she looks forward to telling more stories from her community. She likes directing projects she's also acting in, and she wants to continue to direct and produce films with purpose. Federico had a great experience working on Flamin' Hot, and he and Eva plan to work together again soon.

Cinematographer Linus Sandgren believes that films don't always have to look pretty. “A film should look appropriate for the story we're telling. It's about communicating the emotions of the film. And that can be ugly.” For his latest project, Saltburn, the beautiful images counterbalance the evil within the main character, Oliver Quick. Oliver is an outsider at Oxford who grows obsessed with Felix Catton and his friends, who are effortlessly born to power and privilege. Director Emerald Fennell wanted to create a “vampire movie without vampires” due to Oliver's ability to latch on to Felix and his family. Linus met with Fennell, who described her vision of the film. She was influenced by the rich colors in Caravaggio paintings, the early vampire film Nosferatu, and Hitchcock movies for suspense and voyeurism. It was important to tell the story as though the viewer is observing the film from a distance, as if it were a painting. To create the language, Linus found images of paintings and photography that were light-specific to put into a lookbook. They chose to shoot on Kodak film that emphasized the red spectrum, and for a portrait style look, Linus shot in the nearly square aspect ratio of 1.33:1. With the exception of shooting around Oxford University, Saltburn was almost entirely filmed at one estate in Northamptonshire. Linus and the team scouted around the grounds and inside the building, thinking like a painter to decide on shot composition, lighting, furniture placement and blocking for the actors. Outdoors in daylight at the Saltburn estate, it's summer, so Linus felt inspired by fashion photography, impressionist paintings and the square framing and colors of a Polaroid picture. He captured the Gothic feel of the grounds at night, adding to the suspense of Oliver's encounter with Felix's sister Venetia and the showdown he has with Felix in the maze. Saltburn is currently in theaters. Find Linus Sandgren: Instagram @linussandgren_dp Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

As a production assistant first coming up in the film and television industry in New York, Josh Friedman always saw his fellow crew members not as job competition, but as collaborators. Once he'd moved up to assistant director, Josh decided to share what he'd learned as a PA, and wrote "Getting It Done: The Ultimate Production Assistant Guide." His number one advice to production assistants is to listen. “More often than not, everybody is so excited to be the hero, to be the problem solver, to speak up and get the attention.” says Josh. “But they don't hear everything that's being asked. So this might be a two-part question. And they're only answering the first part without hearing the second part, which is actually more important.” With Crew Me Up, Josh and his partners have created a new job and networking app that connects filmmakers and production crew to film and TV jobs posted across different regions. It all started when he had to replace a crew member while on a shoot in Texas, and had a very hard time finding anyone local who could work. Crew Me Up allows users to build a profile that hosts information such as their availability calendar, resume, website and IMDB page. Instead of job listings that people apply for, users can directly find other members on the platform, and hire them directly. They can also join Crew Me Up groups, where there's many active film communities. The app also provides vendor and services listings for camera rentals, post production, and more across different regions. Find out more about Crew Me Up: Instagram: @crewmeup Joshua Friedman: @crubie_rex You can get the FREE Crew Me Up app for iPhones in the Apple store or for Android in the Google Play store. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

For the second season of the Marvel series Loki, cinematographer Isaac Bauman decided to bring his own unique look to the show, especially when it came to the lighting design. Loki Season 1 DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC brought a lot of herself and her own unique look to the show. But Isaac feels that his approach to cinematography is very different from Autumn's, and he wanted to creatively stick his neck out to define his own voice for season two. During his initial interview for Loki, Isaac presented a detailed vision to directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead of how he would have shot scenes differently for season one. Once he was hired for season two, Isaac created an extremely detailed bible for the lighting and look of Loki. Season 2 is a mix of 1970's-inspired lighting and color palette, with warm browns, yellows and oranges within the TVA, shifting to cooler blues and greens with rainbow hues further down in the control room as the timelines begin to collapse. Loki Season 2 utilizes wide angles, handheld camerawork and monochromatic colors. As with season one, the sets are often full 360-degree builds, so that every possible environment has four walls and a ceiling. The lighting was also achieved with all practicals on set, with a lighting rig built into the ceiling. Isaac had to learn to work with the scenes being lit from overhead, which is not a very flattering look for the actors. He introduced a lot of handheld camera movement into season two, which would have made it challenging to have lights on the set. Instead, for a little extra light on the actors' faces, they often used a battery powered gem ball LED on the eyeline of the actors. The shoot for season two was more dynamic, as the actors were allowed to move more freely around the set, with the cameras just following and panning between the characters, using wide spherical lenses. Isaac loves shooting on a stage, because he loves being able to control all of the lighting. Isaac went to USC Film School where he met his friend, director Lee Roy Kunz, who convinced him to drop out and shoot their first feature film, A Beer Tale. He then started shooting low budget rap videos, which led to bigger music videos, which led to commercials and feature films. Growing up, he made his own video projects at home using a camcorder, but it wasn't until film school that Isaac realized that working with the camera, image and lighting was his true passion. Find Issac Bauman: https://www.isaacbauman.com/ Instagram: @isaacbauman Loki Season 2 is currently available on Disney+. Hear our interview with Loki Season 1 cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC. https://www.camnoir.com/ep193/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The film Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is an adaptation of the 1970 Judy Blume book about a pre-teen girl coming of age. Cinematographer Tim Ives, ASC was drawn to working on the film because with three kids, including two daughters, he was interested in opening up the conversation about girls going through puberty and getting their first period. Tim also admired screenwriter and director Kelly Fremon Craig's work on The Edge of Seventeen. Tim had previously shot the series Stranger Things, so he had a comfort and familiarity with kids in their early teens. Tim also appreciated that Kelly Fremon Craig brought so much enthusiasm, love and commitment to the film, and deeply respected the book by Judy Blume. Though the film is set in the 1970's, neither Tim nor Craig wanted Margaret to feel too dusty and faded. They wanted the film to have a nostalgic feel while still seeming contemporary. At first, they had trouble finding just the right look, until Tim showed Craig a book of photographs by Tina Barney. Her photos influenced the look of the movie, with a very amber, Kodak Gold film look. Tim wanted every scene in the movie to feel like it was a snapshot taken from real life. In his work, Tim most enjoys working on stories with flawed characters with hopes of redemption. He first broke into narrative storytelling through the HBO series Girls, then went on to shoot the pilot for Mr. Robot and several seasons of Stranger Things. Tim enjoyed working on Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret because he likes the timeframe of film, where it's working on one thing for about half a year, with one singular vision from one director. In series television, it usually means working intensely on one thing for almost a year, with a few different directors. Tim Ives' latest project, Love & Death, another period piece set in 1980, is currently on Max. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is currently available on VOD or DVD. Find Tim Ives: https://www.timives.com/ Instagram: @timives Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Cinematographer Robert Yeoman has been a consistent collaborator with director Wes Anderson since the 1990's. Together, Bob and Anderson have crafted a signature visual style that combines meticulous set design, vibrant color palettes, and symmetrical framing. Each frame feels like a carefully composed painting, with every detail thoughtfully arranged to enhance the overall narrative. Bob's latest collaboration with Anderson is the film Asteroid City and a series of short films adapted from the writings of Roald Dahl. Bob was the DP for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Rat Catcher and Poison. Both the film Asteroid City and the Roald Dahl shorts feature the actors speaking directly to the camera as in a stage play, and props and sets pieces are obviously moved in and out of frame. For the Dahl short films, most of the script is taken directly from Dahl's writing, with the actors reciting the story to the audience. They shot all of the short films in England on two stages right next to each other. While the crew was shooting on one stage, the art department designed and built the stage next to it. Anderson's pre-production process includes the creation of animatics to plan and visualize scenes before shooting begins. An animatic is a series of storyboard images edited together to give a rough preview of the film's pacing and visual composition. Once the animatic is complete, everyone on the creative team is on the same page regarding the visual and narrative direction of the film. The art department then takes the animatic and turns it into a physical space. Since Anderson is so specific about how he wants his compositions to look, Bob usually uses a camera on a dolly track- a steadicam or a technocrane can't get the same level of precision. They imported a special dolly track from Paris for shooting the Roald Dahl shorts. Because of the size of the track, some of the sets that had to slide open and closed were built so that they were slightly elevated from the floor. To accommodate the dolly, all of the lights had to be placed in the ceiling and were operated from a main control board. There were many rehearsals with the art and props department to get the set and prop movements right. The actors knew exactly where to position themselves in the scene just from the detailed animatics. The film Asteroid City explores themes of grief, melancholy and disconnection. It melds together two very distinctive looks- the format of a black and white 1950's era TV documentary in 4:3 aspect ratio about a play, “Asteriod City,” which is then intercut with the staging of “Asteroid City” in a sunny desert town, shot in widescreen with bright pastel colors and lighting. The town set was built from scratch, in a desert in Spain. To create the look, they chose to shoot on film, and Bob tested several different film stocks. He embraced the harsh, high contrast desert light as a character in the movie, even though it went against his instincts as a cinematographer. They made the pastel colors pop in the DI (digital intermediate), and gave it more of a low-contrast look. Though it was shot on a set, Anderson didn't want to use any movie lights on Asteroid City. Instead, skylights were built into each of the buildings such as the diner and the motel office. The skylights were then covered with very thick diffusion so that the light was very soft and even. Under the desert sun, bounce cards and the occasional silk was used to throw more light on the actor's faces. By contrast, they used a very complex theatrical lighting setup when shooting the black and white sequences. They used a lot of harder lights on dimmers, and shot on black and white film. Bob finds that the less gear you have on a set coming between the actors and the director, the more intimate the experience. There's always a huge crew for making Anderson's films, but while shooting a scene, there are only about 10 people present.

With the passing of director and cinematographer John Bailey, ASC, we are re-releasing our 2021 interview with him. He discusses his work on the film, Groundhog Day, and briefly touched on his other work. The screenplay is the most important part of a film, John believes. It can be a leap of faith to work with a first time director, when they don't have a body of work, so a good script is always a solid starting point. As the DP of Ordinary People, John noticed the craftsmanship of that particular screenplay, which was carefully written and structured for several years by screenwriter Alvin Sargent and first-time director Robert Redford. He knew right away it would become a meaningful and important film. Both Sargent and Redford won Academy Awards for their work as screenwriter and director, respectively, and Ordinary People won the Best Picture Oscar. Groundhog Day grabbed John immediately as an interesting and offbeat idea for a film, but no one guessed that it would actually become part of the film canon and popular culture. To this day, John is surprised when people tell him how much they like that film and how much it has touched people. The movie famously had its own chaos, since star Bill Murray and director Harold Ramis had a very combative relationship on set. John spent two years as the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His passion was in furthering the Academy Film Archive, the Margaret Herrick Library, and other AMPAS charitable projects. He became frustrated with the industry's focus on the Academy's role in the Oscars and how much punditry went into how to fix the awards process. John was a veteran cinematographer who has left us with a huge amount of notable films, including “The Big Chill,” “As Good as it Gets,” “In the Line of Fire” and “The Accidental Tourist.” He will be missed. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

The Holdovers is set in the early 1970's at a New England boarding school where a few students have to stay on campus over the winter holidays. Cranky ancient history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) has to stay and supervise. Slowly, the curmudgeonly teacher, the school's head cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and the one remaining student, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), form a family-like bond. Eigil Bryld is an accomplished Danish cinematographer, known for his work on In Bruges, House of Cards, Ocean's 8 and much more. He thinks of cinematography as a kind of performance art. Making a movie means working with different people across departments who have complex and artistic personalities, and interacting with actors who are responsible for playing different characters. All these human elements of a movie must then be orchestrated in the best possible way and captured on film at one single point in time. Eigil found it a true delight to work with director Alexander Payne on The Holdovers. Payne has a great sense of humor and is genuinely interested in people and their lives, which is always a thread in his movies. Eigil had known Payne for a few years, but this was the first movie they have worked on together. He loved the script and found himself laughing out loud several times, while also finding the characters rich and poignant. The Holdovers is a 1970s period film, so Eigil and Payne had lengthy discussions of how it should look. Eigil referenced films from the early '70s, such as the Hal Ashby movies The Last Detail and The Landlord. “The problem was that everyone has an idea or recollection of what the '70s looked like, but that's probably very far from what movies ACTUALLY looked like back then,” Eigil says. “One of the things we tend to forget in the '70s, they would do everything to avoid grain. I mean, it's ironic nowadays, everybody's fighting to have grainy images. Back then they would fight to have the best possible lenses and now there's this gold rush for old lenses with lots of mistakes and half of it is not really in focus.” He and Payne went through a testing process to find the right 1970's look. At first, Eigil tested period lenses and cameras, but realized it was more about capturing the spirit of the time- early '70s mid-budget movies had a kind of freedom to them, using lots of handheld shots and mostly available light. He tested 16 and 35mm cameras, but ended up shooting digital on an ARRI Alexa Mini and worked with the colorist to create a LUT with lots of yellow tonality in the highlights. Eigil shot The Holdovers with just one camera, and was also the sole operator. Camera placement was very important, with many of the shots in the movie framed portrait-style. The Holdovers is currently in theaters. Find Eigil Bryld: https://www.eigilbryld.com/ Instagram @eigilbryld Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

The Pigeon Tunnel is director Errol Morris' latest documentary about David Cornwell, otherwise known as the author John le Carré, who wrote several best-selling spy novels after serving as a spy himself. Cinematographer Igor Martinović explores the nature of deception visually in the film, using multiple mirrors and reflections of Cornwell as he's being interviewed. For The Pigeon Tunnel, Igor wanted to create a visual story that enhances the story Cornwell tells about his life, adding another layer that the viewer might not notice right away. They used four cameras to shoot the interviews, and 12 mirrors to reflect Cornwell in different parts of the room. Igor liked the idea of a spy's multiple personas represented by multiplying images. It was tricky to shoot with so many mirrors reflecting the cameras and lights, so for some shots, the equipment had to be erased in post. Igor also used mirrors in some b-roll shots, as Cornwell walks though the forest between the mirrors. For the re-creations dealing with Cornwell's troubled childhood, Igor played around with some surrealist composition and kept the frame imbalanced, to represent the unstable conditions that he grew up in. Igor has worked on several commercials, documentary features and documentary series with director Errol Morris. With his 1988 film, The Thin Blue Line, Morris changed how documentaries were made. His approach to documentary filmmaking is something he describes as “anti-verité.” Even though his films are non-fiction, Morris always approaches each one as a filmed story, using composed interviews with the subject speaking directly to the camera, and creating artful reenactments. As a cinematographer, Igor was a long admirer of Morris' work. When shooting the documentary Man on Wire, Igor watched The Thin Blue Line as a reference, and it inspired some scenes in the film. He's enjoyed being able to work with Morris now. In 2011, Igor shot a horror movie, Silent House, that was almost entirely filmed in one take. It was actually about 15 total shots, limited mainly by the amount of space they had on each memory card. He found it to be an interesting challenge, as if they were filming a dance or a play. They were able to accomplish the long takes through extensive rehearsals and improved the performances each time. The Pigeon Tunnel is currently on Apple TV+. Find Igor Martinovic: https://igormartinovic.com/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Cinematographer Steve Cosens, CSC first met actor and director Ethan Hawke on the movie Born to Be Blue, a biographical re-imagining of the life of Chet Baker. Ethan played Chet Baker, and he and Steve connected over their similar film tastes. A few years later, Hawke called Steve to shoot Blaze, a film he was directing. Blaze is a semi-biographical imagining of the life of Texas songwriting legend Blaze Foley. While Ethan Hawke is drawn to directing films based on real people, the idea to make Wildcat came from his daughter, actor Maya Hawke, who is a huge fan of Flannery O'Connor's work. Though Wildcat is based on writer Flannery O'Connor's life, it also interweaves her short stories into the plot as she goes through the process of publishing her first novel, Wise Blood in 1952. Steve was unfamiliar with the writer, so he read her short stories and was blown away. For that time, it was unusual for a woman to write darkly humorous and disturbing stories. Hawke proposed they shoot in Kentucky, and sent Steve videos of a few location scouts. They both liked the idea of O'Connor's fictional short stories overlapping into the story of her real life, weaving together fact and fiction. Both Maya Hawke and Laura Linney play multiple roles and characters, adding to the layers of story within story. Steve decided to keep the camera locked off and more controlled for the sections dealing with O'Connor's real life. He contrasted that by shooting the fictional stories handheld. In post, he played a little bit with the contrast and color of the stories, but the color palette remains a consistent cool blue and green. Wildcat is a small independent film with a tight budget, so shooting for the 1950's presented a bit of a challenge. On location in Kentucky, the production crew needed to find the right period buildings and houses, and Steve was limited by what direction he could shoot to keep anything modern out of frame. They had a script and extensively location scouted, so that they knew what the shot and light limitations would be. But once shooting began, Hawke could keep it loose so that the actors were able to explore more with their characters within the scene. Steve really enjoys working with Hawke because he's a confident director who is not afraid to take chances or change the plan if necessary. As a DP, he finds it freeing, since many directors get locked into the script or the shotlist, and they can't see that there might be another way to be creative. Once he graduated art school in Vancouver, Canada, Steve got his start shooting the music video backgrounds for karaoke songs that were then sent to Hong Kong. The job required him to shoot two videos per day, without being able to scout locations ahead of time. It taught him to be flexible and adapt to the different locations that they would go. It also taught him to light quickly and in many different situations. Wildcat recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and is seeking distribution. Find Steve Cosens: https://www.stevecosens.com/ Instagram: @cosenssteve Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Cinematographer Eric Steelberg, ASC has always loved movies, which is what led him to a career as a director of photography. He tries to find compelling film and television projects, putting his own stamp on the story's visuals. Back in 2006, Eric was at the beginning of his career as a DP when he shot the small independent film, Quinceañera which won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury prize at Sundance that year. It was shot in HD, which was very new technology at the time, especially for smaller films. After Quinceañera, Eric's career began to take off. He'd been a frequent collaborator with director Jason Reitman, whom he met shooting commercials and smaller projects, but not films. Working on Quinceañera gave Eric more credibility as a DP, so Reitman asked him to shoot his next film, Juno. At first it was an uphill battle to get Juno's financiers, Fox Searchlight, to sign off on Eric, because they didn't see him as experienced enough for the job. But Reitman fought for him, and it led to a long relationship with Eric as Reitman's director of photography for Juno, Up in the Air, Young Adult, Labor Day, Men, Women & Children, Tully, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Eric never dreamed he'd start at Juno and end up working on the Disney + Star Wars series, Ahsoka. Eric was cinematographer for episodes 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7, with director of photography Quyen Tran, ASC taking on episodes 3, 5, and 8. He began prepping the show with executive producer/showrunner Dave Filoni, frequently touching base with Q since she wasn't able to come on set until later. Both Eric and Q have similar approaches to lighting and composition, and Eric feels it was the best version of a two DP collaboration that there could be. One of the biggest successes of their working relationship was doing their camera testing together and knowing they were aligned with the cameras, lenses and lighting for the show. As a Star Wars fan, Eric was familiar with the source material and he felt so much joy working on a piece of the saga. He had never done a show shot on volume and blue screen stages, and Eric saw it as an opportunity to learn something new. As a DP, he feels his biggest job is listening, looking and paying attention to what the director and the rest of the team wants to see on the screen. Developing the look of Ahsoka began with the art department's concept art for the show, but there was lots of room for creativity as the characters travel to different planets. Eric found Ahsoka to be by far the HARDEST show he has ever worked on, but he also feels extremely proud of his work. Ahsoka is currently on Disney+. Find Eric Steelberg: http://www.ericsteelberg.com/ Instagram: @ericsteelberg Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Filmmaker Gareth Edwards and co-cinematographers Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer embraced the unconventional while making the new science fiction movie The Creator. From the camera used, to how it was shot, to the visual effects, the team brought together film techniques both new and old. It's rare to have two cinematographers working on the same film, but Greig Fraser had a set date to begin prepping for Dune and could not be on location in Thailand for shooting The Creator. Gareth was the co-writer, director and camera operator on the film, and Greig knew Gareth needed support prepping the camera and lighting each location. Greig enjoyed the close collaboration with another cinematographer while shooting the series The Mandalorian and he knew having a second DP would be the ideal situation for shooting The Creator. Cinematographer Oren Soffer was brought in, and Oren, Gareth and Greig all prepped the film together, discussing in detail how Gareth wanted to tell the story. Once shooting began, Greig was tasked with managing the LUT and screening the dailies in a Los Angeles theater, while Gareth and Oren managed the day to day on set. Oren and Greig would talk every day about lighting setups, and they both appreciated having another DP around for feedback and ideas. With a collaborator, they both felt like working on the film was less stressful and it led to better creativity. As Greig told us in his interview with The Cinematography Podcast in 2022, The Creator was shot on a Sony FX3. The FX3 is a very affordable, small, lightweight camera that Gareth was familiar with. It was easier for him to move around handheld, explore his shots, and have the freedom to interact with his actors. Gareth's approach to The Creator was documentary-style, much like his first film, Monsters, but it was important to him that it still looked composed like a film. The FX3 could deliver a quality image at the level they needed for color grading and for visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to add VFX. Oren points out that if a camera can deliver an image quality that looks like what you want, and fits the technical specifications you need, then any camera the director or DP chooses is the right tool. The images shot on the FX3 did have a lot of digital noise at higher ISOs, but this was a look they embraced for its similarity to film grain. The tools a cinematographer uses will continue to evolve and unlock more creativity. With advances in post production and lighting technology, how the image is made matters a lot less. The most important thing to consider is how does the audience respond to the film? Is the cinematographer doing their job as the storyteller? For his part, Greig likes to know about all the tools available to tell the story, and he wants to have enough knowledge about what's possible to pass on to a director when he's asked. While shooting The Creator, Gareth would let the crew know the general story beats they needed for the day, but he would not share the shot list- it was a reference he kept for himself, so that he could shoot on the fly in an improvisational manner. As the operator, he didn't need to spend a lot of time explaining the shots he needed to get, or rely on storyboards. Since the visual effects were designed after the footage was shot, the storyboards only acted as a reference. Gareth wanted all of the pieces, including the action, to have the energy of spontaneity. Oren was able to “set up the sandbox for him and the actors to play in. It meant lighting more broadly, but we would know which direction he'd be shooting, and augmenting it on a shot by shot basis with small LED lights or a helios tube on a boom pole. It was like growing a film in a pot of dirt in your backyard.” For the visual effects on The Creator, Gareth chose to be very sparing in his use of 3D special effects., spending the budget only when it was needed to render detailed objects like the robots.

Cinematographer Mark Patten, BSC's most recent project, Silo, is a post-apocalyptic science fiction drama that's been a huge success for AppleTV+. The thousands of people who live in the silo don't know why the silo exists, who built it, or why the world outside is uninhabitable. Citizens who express a desire to go outside, or are convicted of a crime, are sent outside to “clean” the cameras and never survive. After being recruited as the new silo sheriff, engineer Juliette starts to uncover shocking secrets and the truth about the silo. Silo was shot in Essex, England in a huge former cold storage facility. The set had to be completely built out, retrofitting the space into a working film stage. Lighting rigs were hung even before the sets were built so that the set building and production design crew could see in such a huge dark space. The production crew built three working levels of the actual silo set, complete with the spiral staircase. Mark found the richness of the set decoration created a lived-in, worn down place that made the silo itself seem like a character. Everything is very analog or “lo-fi sci-fi” in this dystopian world. It was interesting to think about how society would act together, in a closed vessel, and maintain their sanity in a locked in culture, especially after just coming out of the pandemic. Mark thought of the Silo as a slow ship moving through time, and it felt like shooting a submarine film. The central staircase acts as a helix through the society of the silo, and Juliette is climbing her way up through the layers of it to solve a mystery. Mark worked alongside production designer Gavin Bocquet to visualize the Silo's society, honing in and letting the visuals sing. He decided to subtly use different color palettes for each level. It was a great way to add texture to the images, with the mechanical level becoming very desaturated, except for some touches of bright yellow and orange glow from the heat of the power generators. Since the silo is a mile down into the ground, there is no natural light at all, and Mark needed to figure out what would motivate the light all the way at the bottom. He decided the lighting in the top of the silo would be strongest, and the light would filter down from there. Practical lights were built in everywhere throughout the set and as characters descend to the lowest level of mechanical, the practical lights are the only source. Since every light source was designed and built in, there was no hard light anywhere to manipulate, so for Mark it was an exercise in restraint manipulating reflective light. Mark recently finished shooting Season 2 of Andor on Disney+. Silo is available to stream on AppleTV+. Find Mark Patten: https://www.markpatten.tv/ Instagram: @kiesh Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

Director and writer Ben Ketai's latest movie, River Wild, is a thriller inspired by the original 90's movie The River Wild, but with a reimagined plot. In River Wild, a group of friends take a white water rafting trip that becomes a desperate fight for survival as they get caught in serious rapids. Things only get worse once they realize that one of their friends has a dangerous and violent past. River Wild was shot in Eastern Europe in just 25 days with the added burdens of water, kids, and animals thrown in. With such stunt-heavy scenes, Ben worked with stunt coordinators and experienced river rafting guides to carefully storyboard the white water rafting sequences. The rapids in the movie really exist, and professional rafters practiced for weeks to know exactly where and how to shoot the sequences on the river. Ben had to make sure that the water scenes looked amazing, and he wanted to capture the power of the water as a raft is sucked through it. Fortunately, he had a long prep period with the cast and came up with an efficient coverage strategy for each scene. For the closer scenes with actors on the rafts, the production was able to use a special Olympic kayak training facility, where the water was shallow and could be turned on and off. As a Netflix movie, Ben knew River Wild was set to go straight to streaming on the platform. Though there was no big marketing push, it crept up to number three and stayed in the top 10 for over a month, and River Wild became the third most watched movie on Netflix in August. Ben says he doesn't mind making movies that go straight to streaming- he likes the idea that more people can actually watch things there. His show, Startup, also spread and charted well on Netflix. Ben and Ben Rock worked together on a series for Crackle called Chosen that was shot in 22 days for six 30-minute episodes. Both Bens fondly remember it as a lot of fun, and Ben Ketai thinks the challenge of a short time period and less money keeps you on your toes and forces you to be creative. On Chosen, he had the opportunity to make mistakes- with less money, there's also not a lot of people standing in your way. Growing up, Ben always wanted to make movies as a career and would use his dad's video camera to make movies with his friends. As soon as he graduated from college, Ben moved to L.A. Luckily, his mom casually knew director Sam Raimi's mother, and she was able to give him Raimi's contact info. Raimi was just starting Spiderman 3, so Ben was able to get a job as an office PA for Ghost House Pictures. After working at the production company and scriptwriting for a few years, they asked him to direct his first movie, 30 Days of Night- Dark Days. River Wild is available to stream on Netflix. Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz