Cinematographers
Interviews - Cinematographers
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DP Philippe Bellaiche on Israel/Palestine Doc The Settlers
Documentary DP Philippe Bellaiche has worked steadily on more than 30 documentary features and shorts over the past 16 years. On The Settlers, the Israel/Palestine documentary from Shimon Dotan, he had his first encounter with physical violence. Below, Bellaiche speaks about the film’s evolving structure, the region’s landscapes and getting assaulted by a group of young men while on a shoot. Dotan and Bellaiche’s previous film together, Hot House, won the Special Jury Prize in the World Documentary program at Sundance 2007. 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 […]
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“Inside a Minivan with a Huge Hog”: DP Damian Garcia on Diego Luna’s Mr. Pig
Actor Deigo Luna visits the Sundance Film Festival for the first time as a director with Mr. Pig, a rural road movie starring Danny Glover and Maya Rudolph. The film was shot by Damian Garcia, a DP with more than a dozen Spanish-language shorts and features to his name. Filmmaker spoke with Garcia about the film’s location shooting and unobtrusive visual style. Mr. Pig played in the Premieres program at Sundance 2016. 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? Garcia: […]
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Co-Director/DP Michael Palmieri on the Arkansas-Set Sundance Short Peace in the Valley
Filmmakers Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher have collaborated on four documentaries since 2009: October Country, Off Label, Rougarouing and, their latest, Peace in the Valley. Presented in the Shorts program at Sundance 2016, their new film concerns issues of religion and LGBT rights in a small Arkansas town. Below, co-director and DP Palmieri discusses his visual approach for the film. 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? Palmieri: One of the reasons I gravitated towards documentary film had to do […]
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“What it’s Like to Lose One’s Sight”: DP Gerry Floyd on Notes on Blindness
An entry in the New Frontier program at Sundance 2016, Notes on Blindness began in 2013 as a four-minute short from writer/directors Pete Middleton and James Spinney. The film attempted to capture the sensory experience of blindness through the audio diary of John Hull, a writer and theologian who had lost his sight. The following year, Middleton and Spinney adapted Notes on Blindness into a longer New York Times Op-Doc. Now, they have adapted this story to a feature length. Below, Notes on Blindness DP Gerry Floyd speaks to how he and the directors sought to offer a “sensory insight” into blindness. Filmmaker: How and […]
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Sundance Veteran DP Patrice Cochet on the Male-Bonding Comedy Joshy
Sundance regular Patrice Cochet has served as DP on four films at the festival since 2002: Better Luck Tomorrow, The End of Love, The Good Life and, as of this year, Joshy. Cochet speaks below about the perils of lighting improv, DPing on little prep and shooting on the Alexa. In addition to Joshy, the prolific Cochet has at least six other films set for release in 2016. 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? Cochet: Joshy was a film that Producers […]
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Cinematographer Matthew Irving on the ’70s Stylings of Sundance Premiere Outlaws and Angels
For Outlaws and Angels, seasoned DP Matthew Irving and first-time writer/director JT Moliner wanted a film that looked as though it were “excavated straight out of a vault from the 1970s.” Irving shot the film on 35mm and used Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller as a chief reference point. Below, Irving talks about shooting on 35, the film’s elaborate 11-minute long take and the “grit and grain” of ’70s cinema. Outlaws and Angels made its world premiere at Sundance 2016. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led […]
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Cinematographer Fraser Rice on Finding Poetry in the Shipyards for Sundance Short Mining Poems or Odes
Appearing in the Shorts Program #5 at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Mining Poems or Odes tells the Scotland-set story of an ex-shipyard welder turned writer. The short was shot by Fraser Rice, a cinematographer on a number of UK TV series. Rice is also the brother of the film’s director, Callum. Below, Rice discusses the origins and creative goals of Mining Poems or Odes. 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? Rice: I am a director of […]
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Shane Bruce Johnston and Charles J. Gibson on the Everyday Naturalism of The 4th
Shane Bruce Johnston and Charles J. Gibson are two first time feature film cinematographers on The 4th, the debut feature from director/actor Andre Hyland. Both DPs have worked with Hyland before. Johnston shot Hyland’s 2014 Sundance short Funnel, while Gibson has worked with Hyland in addition to his work such bigger-budget films as Her and Cake. In this interview with Filmmaker, the two DPs discuss shooting without full script, using only natural light, and the “16mm film grittiness” of the Blackmagic Film Camera. The 4th debuted as part of the NEXT program at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you […]
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DP and Co-Director Lou Pepe on Direct Cinema and the High School Doc The Bad Kids
Lou Pepe has worked with long-time collaborator Keith Fulton ever since the two directed a feature length documentary about the making of 12 Monkeys in 1996. Their latest film, The Bad Kids, is a documentary in the American direct cinema tradition of Frederick Wiseman. In this interview with Filmmaker, DP and co-director Pepe discusses the difficulties of shooting direct cinema with a single camera, working in natural light, and scheduling around teenagers. The film premiered in the U.S. Documentary section of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the […]
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“We Got Attacked by the Taliban”: Pieter-Jan De Pue on Sundance Doc The Land of the Enlightened
Belgian filmmaker and photographer Pieter-Jan De Pue makes his feature film and Sundance debut with The Land of the Enlightened. Shot over five years in Afghanistan, the documentary tracks a group of Kuchi children who unearth old Soviet land mines and sell them to child workers at a nearby mine. De Pue shot, edited and directed the film. Below, he shares stories of a dramatic, at times violent production that placed him and his crew in the Taliban’s crosshairs. The Land of the Enlightened had its world premiere at Sundance 2016 in the World Cinema Documentary Competition. Filmmaker: How and why […]
