Cinematographers
Interviews - Cinematographers
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“The Biggest Goal is to Keep the Story Visually Interesting”: DP Tarin Anderson on Corporate Animals
Corporate Animals gives Demi Moore a rare chance to show her comic skills. As Lucy, the awful CEO of a new company, Incredible Edibles, Moore orders her employees on a team-building exercise/retreat via a New Mexico cave. When the workers are trapped, it’s only a matter of time before they becomes the Incredible Edibles. Via email, DP Tarin Anderson addressed the challenges of making a film tracking eight characters in a closed setting. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? […]
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DP Jomo Fray on Selah and the Spades and Drawing Inspiration From Rihanna’s ANTI
Tayarisha Poe is a former 25 New Face of Film; her feature debut, Selah and the Spades, teams her with another New Face, cinematographer Jomo Fray. The titular Selah (Lovie Simone) attends a prep school where, with ferocious discipline, she manages her gang, the Spades. Via email, Fray discussed his long-in-the-making collaboration with Poe. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Fray: The director, Tayarisha Poe, and I met a few years ago about the project and pretty quickly became totally […]
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“The Very Opening is Always the Hardest to Cut “: Editors Elisa Bonora and Veronica Pinkham on David Crosby: Remember My Name
Legendary musician (and salty Twitter presence) David Crosby hits the tour road again in David Crosby: Remember My Name, an intimate biographical portrait by A.J. Eaton. The film, which premiered at Sundance, had two editors. Via email, both Elisa Bonora and Veronica Pinkham shared their perspectives on working on this film. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Bonora: In 2013 I edited, and was nominated for an ACE for, a documentary film called Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me. The director, […]
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“Using Negative Fill to Create Unease”: DP Tom Comerford on The Hole in the Ground
The feature directorial debut from Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin, The Hole in the Ground follows the ominous goings-on after a couple and their young child move to a new cottage in rural Ireland (where their neighbors include Aki Kaurismäki regular Kati Outinen). Next to the cottage is the titular hole in the ground, and that causes all kinds of problems as their child is possibly possessed. Via email, DP Tom Comerford discussed the challenges of creating a visual atmosphere of unease on a budget. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and […]
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“One of the Most Harrowing Scene Headings to Read in a Script For a Low-Budget Film is ‘EXT. WOODS – NIGHT'”: DP Brett Jutkiewicz on Them That Follow
The first feature from Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage, Them That Follow is a gothic drama set in rural Appalachia, grounded in the unusual context of a Pentecostal church with a heavy emphasis on snake handling. Following its premiere, the film—which stars Olivia Colman and Walton Goggins—has been acquired for worldwide distribution by Sony. Via email, DP Brett Jutkiewicz (Daddy Longlegs, Men Go to War) spoke to his work crafting the film’s visual language. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this […]
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“I’m Often Filming in Dusty, Dirty or Wet Places, and Changing Lenses Would be Difficult and Risky”: Director/DP Kim Longinotto on Shooting the Mafia
One of the UK’s most acclaimed documentarians, Kim Longinotto has been working steadily since 1976, serving as her own DP the whole time. Unusually for Longinotto, who favors a direct cinema, observational approach, her latest is an archival-based film, examining the life and work of Italian photographer Letizia Battaglia, famed for her work documenting (at great risk) the Sicilian mafia. Via email, Longinotto discussed why she only uses one lens, what her all-time favorite lens is and the challenges of making an archival documentary look like an observational doc. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your […]
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“The Film is 99% Handheld”: DP Bryan Koss on Mope
Lucas Heyne’s feature debut Mope is based on the lurid case of aspirant porn star Stephen Hill (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) and his best friend, whose porn name was Tom Dong (Kelly Sry). In 2010, Hill went on a rampage with a machete, a story is told in this LA Weekly story from 2011, forming the basis for this porn-milieu drama. Via email, DP Bryan Koss discussed taking visual inspiration from The Wrestler, shooting 99% of the film handheld and working with a complete set of all 12 Cooke Speed Panchro primes. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were […]
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“We Mostly Didn’t Shoot Traditional Coverage Because We Knew the Edit Points”: DP Drew Daniels on Quarter Life Poetry
Samantha Jayne’s Quarter Life Poetry began life as a Tumblr and Instagram, transforming her millennial 20something experiences into doodles and poems. Now it’s an ambitious series set to premiere on FX Networks later this year, brought to life with director Arturo Perez Jr. helming all ten episodes. Via email, cinematographer Drew Daniels addressed the challenges of crafting their own visual language and using a jib for a shot it wasn’t intended for. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Daniels: I’ve […]
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“Make This Conversation in a Small Room with White Walls Work”: DP Anna Franquesa Solano on The Farewell
Acquired by A24, Lulu Wang’s sophomore feature The Farewell is one of the breakout films of this year’s Sundance. Adapting a story from her own family (previously told as an episode of NPR’s This American Life), The Farewell takes off when Billi (Awkwafina), a Chinese immigrant who’s lived in America since she was a child, returns home when her grandmother Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhou) gets a fatal lung cancer diagnosis. That’s the unlikely starting point for what’s been described as one of the festival’s funniest film, in a story that gets stranger and stranger as it goes along. Via email, Wang’s DP Anna […]
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“I Stayed in the Water for 10 Minutes, Risking Getting Frozen”: Director/DP Beniamino Barrese on The Disappearance of My Mother
Beniamino Barrese’s mother, Benedetta Barzini, was a famous Italian model from her discovery in 1963 to her retirement a decade later. Her photographers included Richard Avedon, and her career led her to spend time as part of Warhol’s Factory scene. Barrese’s The Disappearance of My Mother begins as Barzini tells her son she intends to disappear from the material world. Alarmed, Barrese’s response was to use the camera to both capture his mother and try to reconcile her tangled relationship with the power of imagery, acting as his own DP. Barrese answered questions via email about integrating 16 and 35mm and throwing […]
