During “The Long Night” episode of Game of Thrones’ final season, the Twitterverse erupted when the sprawling Battle of Winterfell was deemed “too dark” by some viewers. People who had previously given little thought to the job of television cinematographer were suddenly offering very vocal opinions on the profession. The uproar highlighted the challenges DPs face in this new Golden Age of Television. They must create stories that retain their visual appeal across a myriad of devices, resolutions, color spaces, and screen settings. A show must work on a 60-inch OLED television and on an iPhone, on a finely tuned […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Jun 19, 2019In Guava Island, a musician (Donald Glover) incurs the wrath of a tropical despot when his plans for a celebratory music festival threaten to shutter the fictional isle’s silk factory for a day. The film, which runs 55 minutes with musical interludes from Glover’s alter ego Childish Gambino, features many of the talents behind the FX show Atlanta. That includes Emmy winning cinematographer Christian Sprenger (The Last Man on Earth, GLOW), who spoke to Filmmaker about working on location in Cuba and his magic formula for making the Alexa LF look like 16mm film. Guava Island is currently streaming on […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Apr 30, 2019