Authors — Matt Mulcahey
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Practical Magic: DP Aaron McLisky on Bring Her Back
In A24’s Bring Her Back, a grieving mother (Sally Hawkins) takes a pair of orphaned siblings into her secluded home with nefarious ulterior motives. It’s another slice of southern Australian horror steeped in trauma and grief from Talk to Me twins Mark and Danny Philippou, infused with ample gore and unsettling dental carnage. The brothers’ sophomore directorial effort reteams them with Talk to Me cinematographer Aaron McLisky, who spoke to Filmmaker about their latest venture on the eve of its theatrical release. Filmmaker: I saw Talk to Me in the theater when it came out and loved it, but I didn’t know anything […]
by Matt Mulcahey on May 30, 2025 -
“Not Everything Could Have Been IMAX”: DP Andrew Droz Palermo on Thunderbolts*
In the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry Thunderbolts*, a reluctant squad of antiheroes team up to save New York City. Behind the scenes, another superteam comprised of A24 alumni joined forces. As this trailer breaks down, Thunderbolts* is brought to you by “the writers and director of Beef, the cinematographer of The Green Knight, the production designer of Hereditary, the editor of Minari and the composers of Everything Everywhere All at Once.” That Green Knight cinematographer would be Andrew Droz Palermo, whose resume includes work for both Marvel (the Disney+ series Moon Knight) and A24 (David Lowery’s A Ghost Story and […]
by Matt Mulcahey on May 22, 2025 -
“Two Giant Oners Put Together into One Piece”: DP Hillary Fyfe Spera on Daredevil: Born Again
When it comes to the work of cinematographer Hillary Fyfe Spera, you’ll find two consistent elements – 1970s inspirations and Panavision glass. Both are present in Daredevil: Born Again, a new Disney+ series that continues the story of lawyer by day/vigilante by night Matt Murdock originally begun on Netflix. The season opens with Murdock (played by Charlie Cox) and his nemesis Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) trying to forsake their daker halves before they’re ultimately pulled back into their respective alter egos as crime fighter and crime lord. The show’s final arc took a circuitous route to fruition. Nearly six […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Apr 18, 2025 -
Paging Peter Andrews: Steven Soderbergh on Being His Own DP
When Steven Soderbergh was 13 years old, his father enrolled him in an animation class taught by Louisiana State University students. Soderbergh could draw but quickly became bored with the tedious process of bringing those drawings to life. Instead, he pulled the film camera off the copy stand and began shooting whatever he pleased. From the very beginning, Soderbergh had no interest in doing things as prescribed. Whether alternating between the commercial and the experimental, challenging traditional release conventions or embracing new technologies in a quest to expedite the filmmaking process, Soderbergh has spent his career upending the status quo. […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Mar 18, 2025 -
“1.66 Just Felt Good”: DP Jarin Blaschke on Nosferatu
Over the course of his four feature films, Robert Eggers has gained a reputation as a filmmaker obsessed with meticulous period accuracy. After listening to Jarin Blaschke talk about moon size as a mathematical equation, it’s easy to see why Eggers has enjoyed working with the equally meticulous cinematographer for almost two decades. “I’m kind of a stickler about how big a moon is when a CG moon is in frame,” said Blaschke. “It needs to be 1/80th the width of the screen, because the moon is a half a degree wide and our lens takes in 40 degrees. So, […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Feb 18, 2025 -
“It Doesn’t Have to Always Cost $200 Million”: DP Lol Crawley on Shooting The Brutalist (Mostly) in VistaVision
In The Brutalist, a creatively uncompromising Hungarian-Jewish architect (Adrien Brody) immigrates to Pennsylvania after World War II and struggles to complete an ambitious project financed by a wealthy industrialist (Guy Pearce). Creating a three-hour epic in 34 days for under $10 million doesn’t allow the luxury of boundless obstinance, yet it’s easy to draw parallels between the protagonist’s unyielding artistry and a team of filmmakers that insisted on using the VistaVision format whose heyday ended more than 60 years ago. With the film, which is up for 10 Academy Awards, still in theaters and now also on VOD, Oscar-nominated cinematographer […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Feb 11, 2025 -
Get In/On the Car: DP Terry Stacey on Den of Thieves 2: Pantera
The original Den of Thieves was all about the thin line separating insular tribes of cops and robbers in Los Angeles. In the breezier Den of Thieves 2: Pantera, Gerard Butler’s detective crosses that line to join forces with former nemesis O’Shea Jackson Jr. to rob the World Diamond Center in Nice. The heist franchise represents a line crossing for cinematographer Terry Stacey as well. The British DP began his features career lensing early aught indies (including American Splendor and films with Larry Fessenden, Allison Anders, Brad Anderson and Lisa Cholodenko) before working on a slew of studio romances and […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Jan 22, 2025 -
Christmas with Art the Clown: DP George Steuber on Terrifier 3
Movies are a uniquely collaborative art form. A painting, a novel or a song can be created in solitude, but you can’t make a commercial narrative film by yourself. That said, the original Terrifier came about as close as you can get: Writer-director Damien Leone is also credited for producing, editing, special make-up effects, visual effects, sound design and props. In addition to putting up money, producer Phil Falcone served as UPM, AD and stunt driver and also assisted with the effects. As for cinematographer George Steuber, he was the entirety of the camera department. He operated, pulled his own […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Dec 19, 2024 -
Ways of Seeing: DP Jomo Fray on Nickel Boys
From RaMell Ross’s first meeting with cinematographer Jomo Fray, the director was clear on why he wanted to lens his adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Nickel Boys from a first-person point of view. How to do it was an entirely different matter: A puzzle that required months of tests, a 33-page typed shot list and an assortment of creative camera rigs to solve. The debut narrative feature from Oscar-nominated documentarian Ross, Nickel Boys details the brutal experiences of two Black teenagers at the segregated Nickel Academy reform school in Tallahassee, Florida, in the early 1960s. Initially, the […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Dec 16, 2024 -
Until the Last Beat: Nick Emerson on Editing Conclave
In Conclave, corruption, betrayal and clashing ideologies turn the selection of a new pope into fertile ground for a taut political thriller as English cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is caught in the middle of the struggle between a conservative caucus wishing to return the Catholic church to its dogmatic past and a liberal wing pushing for a more open-minded future. As dean of the proceedings, Fiennes is tasked with shaking off his own crisis of faith in order to guide 120 fractious cardinals sequestered in the Vatican to a consensus on a new leader. The parallels between the film’s […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Dec 16, 2024
