Interviews
Interviews
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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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Five Questions for Life, Animated Director Roger Ross Williams
Chances are you’ve experienced one or two-dozen animated films from Walt Disney Studios. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King: the studio famous for introducing the world to Mickey Mouse has produced some of the most identifiable films (and, subsequently, images) of the twentieth century. One of the studio’s most ardent fans is Owen Suskind, a young man diagnosed as autistic at the age of three and the subject of a memoir, Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes, and Autism, written by his father Ron Suskind. Using Disney films as a guide to communicate and express himself to […]
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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 […]
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DP Tom Bergmann on Filming Autism Up Close in Sundance Doc Life, Animated
An autistic young man finds speech with the help of Disney animated movies in Life, Animated, a documentary based on the best-selling book by Ron Suskind about his son Will. The film was shot by Tom Bergmann, a cinematographer with more than 20 documentary shorts and features to his credit. Below, Bergmann discusses how he and the filmmakers worked to become “like a silent extended family” to Will and his family. Life, Animated premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]
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Five Questions for Southside with You Writer/Director Richard Tanne
Intriguing for its logline alone, Southside with You raised considerable interest when it was announced as a Sundance selection. Telling the true story of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Robinson’s first date in Chicago in 1989, the film features the leader of the free world at a moment in time where things were perhaps not as high-stakes for him as they are now. Bonding over ice-cream and shared interests, that fateful date would prove to be a more important outing than the lovers could have initially realized. As the film prepared to make its world premiere, director Richard Tanne discussed the […]
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“The Camera Lens Was Almost Touching the Puppet’s Face”: DP Joe Passarelli on Anomalisa
Joe Passarelli has spent the last decade serving as a cinematographer and electrician on more than 30 shorts, features and TV series. In 2015, he had his breakout film with Anomalisa, the long-awaited stop-motion feature written and co-directed by Charlie Kaufman. Below, Passarelli speaks with Filmmaker about the film’s singular visual design, which seeks to capture the mood of its troubled protagonist Michael Stone. This interview was conducted in conjunction with “Behind the Scenes of Anomalisa,” a panel at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to […]
