I didn’t work in the ad world for a long time. I remember always being a bit jealous of my DP friends who somehow found their way on that path early on, usually through music videos. I dabbled in music videos but kept coming back to to narrative shorts and crewing on features instead. Years later I was shooting features of my own. Meanwhile those DPs had really gained ground in commercials, shooting for Mercedes, Nike, Adidas. Anytime we’d catch up, the grass was always greener: “I want to shoot ads!” I’d say. “I want to shoot movies!” they’d say. […]

At NAB Panasonic hinted at a camera that would fit between the GH5 and their Varicam models, and now they’ve announced the AU-EVA1, which will ship in the fall. Back in 2010 Panasonic was one of the first companies to release a sub-$10,000 “large-sensor” video camera with interchangeable lenses. Remember that Canon had only released the 5D Mark II in late 2008 and had — much to their surprise — unleashed HD video with large-sensor cameras. Above I put the large-sensor in quotes because Panasonic’s AG-AF100 used the micro 4/3 lens mount. This gave you a larger sensor than you […]

It’s been two years since Canon announced the Canon C300 Mk II and C100 Mk II, and now, with the announcement of the C200, the company has produced an interesting 4K camera that sort of fits between the two models while at the same time offering new features not currently offered on either of them. First, the price. Canon is offering two models; a body only (B) model that will cost about $5,999 and a more complete version with handle, LCD mount and LCD monitor for $7,499. This is a notable departure from the C100/C300, which are currently only sold with […]

“Hey, it’s me,” said Sean Price Williams as he walked up to me at the after-party for Josh and Benny Safdie’s simply fantastic Good Time in Cannes last week. It did take me a second to recognize Williams — cleanly shaven, in a spiffy tux and strolling around a Dior-sponsored event for a film in the Main Competition of the Cannes Film Festival. If Williams seemed like a bit of a happy anomaly there, it’s because, like Good Time itself, the DP has ascended to cinema’s most revered platform with work that’s wholly of a piece with the raw, street-level […]

As my seventh annual camera round-up for Filmmaker goes to press and online, NAB 2017 has just wrapped, and one major take-away is clear: the march towards full-on realism — visual sensations so real that images appear palpable — is in its infancy. [Author’s note: this deep dive into camera tech was written for the Spring 2017 issue of Filmmaker. Despite arriving online at a later date, it remains timely and informative. Stay tuned for my Digital Motion Picture Cameras in 2018 in Filmmaker, coming soon!] Call it hyper, call it immersive, call it virtual, the fact is that display […]

Last week was the annual NAB show. Every year in April the film and television community comes together in Las Vegas to “ooh” and “ah” over the latest technology. With so much announced and demonstrated, here are the most interesting things I heard about: Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 14. Blackmagic announced several new products, but the most interesting — once again — was a major update to DaVinci Resolve. Version 14, which is available now in beta, claims a number of performance enhancements that make it up to 10 times faster than the previous version. Resolve also has an entirely new audio […]

In part two of this interview, DP of American Gothic Sherry McCracken discusses moving from photography to cinematography, what she’d do differently, and how lighter cameras make it possible for more women to work as cinematographers. You can read the first part of the interview here. Filmmaker: How did you find it going from photography to cinematography? McCracken: There are as many similar things as there are different things. I felt right at home with lens choice, ISO, aperture choice, sensor size, memory card speeds, etc. I was used to framing shots and lighting them for the best dynamic range and composition. But […]

Sherry McCracken, DP for the upcoming independent feature American Gothic, came to cinematography later in life. She grew up taking photographs, operated her own portrait business and worked in local television, but then she turned to IT because she felt she could make a better living. She remained an active still photographer and was asked by a friend to shoot location stills for a movie project. After working on that, and a second picture, she gained experience in film and ended up being asked to DP a project. In this interview she talks about how she made the switch to […]

“It’s a job.” –Arthur Martinez I had two features as a cinematographer under my belt by late June of 2015, both close and comfortable collaborations with a single director: Joel Potrykus (Buzzard, The Alchemist Cookbook). It seems fitting that he made the phone call I received only a week and a half before Actor Martinez began principal photography. Joel eagerly informed me that two directors, Nathan Silver (Stinking Heaven, Uncertain Terms) and Mike Ott (Lake Los Angeles, Littlerock), had contacted him asking about my nearly immediate availability. I didn’t know them personally, but I certainly had been aware of their […]

This is my third time rounding up the previous year’s US theatrical releases shot in 35mm, and this year’s number is substantively lower than 2014 (39) and 2015 (~64). This seems like an anomaly, not a permanent trend: following the high-profile push by J.J. Abrams et al. to force studios to pony up for a certain amount of Kodak celluloid for the forseeable future, the company seems solvent enough (and they’re bringing back Ektachrome!). Some celluloid regulars (Spielberg, Nolan, Abrams, Tarantino) sat the year out, while Woody Allen jumped to digital, and there are fewer straggler releases that were completed three […]