“Nickel Boys” Cinematographer Jomo Fray Takes a New Angle on a Difficult Past
“Every aspect of the visual language that we built always came from being rooted in the script,” cinematographer Jomo Fray tells The Credits about director RaMell Ross’s moving film Nickel Boys.
Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel of the same name, the screenplay, co-written by Ross and Joslyn Barnes, follows the blooming friendship between two black teenagers – Elwood and Turner – as they’re forced to attend a reform school in the Jim Crow South during the Civil Rights Movement.
Feral Frame: How “Nightbitch” Cinematographer Brandon Trost Helped Amy Adams Unleash Her Inner Beast
In Nightbitch, six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams hurls herself into dog mode, slurping meat from a bowl, pawing through the dirt in her backyard, and running with a pack of neighborhood canines in feral protest against the stultifying bonds of motherhood. Cinematographer Brandon Trost, teaming for the third time with writer-director Marielle Heller after Diary of a Teenage Girl and Can You Ever Forgive Me?,
“Maria” Cinematographer Ed Lachman on Painting Angelina Jolie’s Mythic Opera Legend With Light
Passionate Greek-American soprano Maria Callas was the world’s premier opera star when she was struck with various ailments that limited her capacity to sing. She led a life rivaling any opera drama, including a tumultuous relationship with Aristotle Onassis and explosive interactions with collaborators and fans that made her increasingly controversial. She said, “I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best.”
Director Pablo Larraín chose to highlight Callas in his new film Maria.
“Gladiator II” Cinematographer John Mathieson on Capturing Robotic Rhinos & Colossal Carnage
If you’re in the mood for a visually stunning film with gladiators battling to the death in a flooded Colosseum and a very ripped Paul Mescal going head-to-head with a rhinoceros and a baboon, Ridley Scott’s pulse-pounding period actioner is the movie you’ve been waiting for. Twenty-three years after his first Oscar nomination for the original Gladiator, British cinematographer John Mathieson (Logan, Mary Queen of Scots) is back with the long-anticipated sequel,
“Wicked” Cinematographer Alice Brooks on Casting a Magical Light Over This Dazzling Adaptation
Embracing Old Hollywood and a plethora of source material, cinematographer Alice Brooks knew her Wicked vision for Oz would be rich and luxurious.
Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of Oz, inspired by the long-running stage show based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel. It stars Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, a misunderstood green-skinned woman. She finds an unusual kinship with Ariana Grande’s popular girl, Glinda. When their paths lead them to the Wonderful Wizard of Oz,
“The Day of the Jackal” Cinematographer Christopher Ross Lenses Fatal Game of Spy vs Assassin
Eddie Redmayne stars as an unrivaled, anonymous assassin in The Day of the Jackal, a new Peacock series inspired by Frederick Forsyth’s 1971 novel. Reimagined in a contemporary setting, the Jackal is an English hitman pursued across Europe by Bianca (Lashana Lynch), a British intelligence officer determined to apprehend her target before he gets to his next hit.
Written by Top Boy’s Ronan Bennett and lensed for the first three of ten episodes by cinematographer Christopher Ross,
“Forrest Gump” DP Don Burgess Re-Teams with Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Director Bob Zemeckis on “Here”
Cinematographer Don Burgess earned an Oscar nomination and helped make an American classic when she shot Forrest Gump in 1994. He’s since re-teamed with star Tom Hanks and director Bob Zemeckis on The Polar Express, Cast Away, and Disney’s live-action remake of Pinocchio. Now, he’s the man behind the camera in Here (in theaters) which pairs Hanks and his Gump co-star Robin Wright in a story that mainly unfolds across ten decades within one New Jersey living room.
“Smile 2” DP Charlie Sarroff on Lighting a Curse-Afflicted Pop Star in the Big City
Life as a pop star isn’t as great as it looks, if the smiles surrounding global sensation Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) are any indicator. Smile 2, director Parker Finn’s sequel to 2022’s surprise hit Smile, demonstrates the horror of having a public psychological breakdown triggered by the triple threat of hidden trauma, the immense pressures of fame, and a deadly curse.
After an addiction-induced meltdown and a car accident that killed her boyfriend,
“Joker: Folie À Deux” Cinematographer Lawrence Sher Dissects 3 Essential Scenes
“The movie is an extension and a further exploration of this idea of our shadow selves as human beings,” Joker: Folie À Deux cinematographer Lawrence Sher tells The Credits. “We all have sides of ourselves that we hide from people. There are also sides we show to people that aren’t really authentic, and that’s what this movie explores.”
Sher, who was nominated with an Academy Award for Todd Phillips’ Joker,
“On Swift Horses” Director Daniel Minahan & DP Luc Montpellier on Love in the Shadows in the 1950s
On Swift Horses director Daniel Minahan has long admired the work of cinematographer Luc Montpellier. “He shot Tales From the Loop, which is one of the best series I’ve ever seen. And [the 2022 film] Women Talking is just a feat of design and performance. So I said to him, ‘Your work is so beautiful and so controlled; I really want to mess it up.’”
Minahan was determined that from the music to the set design to the photography,
Eye on the Emmys: “3 Body Problem” Cinematographer Martin Ahlgren on Lensing Series’ Wildest Set Piece
*Ahead of the 2024 Emmy Awards on September 15, we’re looking back at our interviews with some of this year’s nominees. Martin Ahlgren is nominated for Outstanding Cinematograph for a One Hour Series for episode 5, “Judgement Day.”
The scope of 3 Body Problem is planetary. Adapted by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, alongside Alexander Woo, Netflix’s ambitious sci-fi series presents a grand depiction of a war between humanity and aliens.
“Women in Blue” Cinematographer Sarasvati Herrera on Lensing Apple TV+’s Gripping New Thriller
The Apple TV+ series Women in Blue (Las Azules) is torn from the history books of Mexico during a time when the first female police officers joined the ranks. Created by Pablo Aramendi and Fernando Rovzar, the ten-episode crime thriller follows four women – María (Bárbara Mori), Gabina (Amorita Rasgado), Ángeles (Ximena Sariñana), and Valentina (Natalia Téllez) – on a psychological whodunit as they to catch a serial killer terrorizing the neighborhood.
“King Ivory” Cinematographer Will Stone Illuminates John Swab’s Fentanyl Crime Drama
“This was a very important script for him,” says cinematographer Will Stone about writer-director John Swab and his latest project, King Ivory, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Swab is a recovering drug addict, and with his feature film Body Brokers (2021), he took first-hand accounts of time he spent in drug rehabilitation centers to deliver a visually gritty narrative about scammers profiting off keeping people in recovery.
“The Perfect Couple” Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut on Framing Netflix’s Sun-Soaked Nantucket Noir
“It was one of the most stress-free jobs I’d ever done,” cinematographer Shane Hurlbut tells The Credits during a video call about the Netflix murder mystery The Perfect Couple. Based on a book of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, the mini-series is created by Jenna Lamia and stars Nicole Kidman and Liv Schreiber as husband and wife living in a breathtaking beachfront property on the tiny island of Nantucket.
Giovanni Ribisi on Shooting JT Mollner’s Must-See Horror “Strange Darling”
About 15 years ago, I was editing a magazine out of this small audio shop off Cahuenga Blvd. in Los Angeles, and in walked Giovanni Ribisi. At the time, the actor was already ten years removed from one of movie history’s most harrowing death scenes in Saving Private Ryan and was coming off the recent billion-dollar success of Avatar. But Ribisi wasn’t there for anything acting-related. He was looking for an audio cable for a recent camera purchase.
“Sing Sing” Cinematographer Pat Scola on Capturing a Raw, Moving Portrait of Humanity
“It was really about getting out of your own way and allowing these men’s story to come to the forefront,” cinematographer Pat Scola tells The Credits about the emotionally stirring film Sing Sing from director Greg Kwedar, which shines a delicate light on the arts rehabilitation program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. “Greg was the one who led from the front on this, and we were there to help tell the story without putting our hands all over it,” Scola says.
“Presumed Innocent” DPs Daniel Voldheim & Doug Emmett on Capturing Jake Gyllenhaal’s Raw Emotions & Moral Ambiguity
An intoxicating amalgam of courtroom thriller, relationship drama, and a whodunit, David E. Kelley’s latest entry into long-form prestige drama arrives with Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent, a cerebral puzzle steeped in betrayal, obsession, love, and ambition. Fresh off his quietly menacing turn in Amazon MGM’s wildly entertaining Road House remake, Jake Gyllenhaal (who also serves as Executive Producer) plays Rusty Sabich, Chicago’s chief deputy prosecutor and devoted family man,
Cinematographer Sam Levy on the Absurdist Fun That is Julio Torres’ “Fantasmas”
Julio Torres wrote, directed, and stars in his new HBO series, Fantasmas, a delightfully absurdist comic fantasy loosely predicated on a search for a lost earring. Fantasmas, which means “ghosts” in Spanish, questions reality — Torres and his costars, including Emma Stone and Bernardo Velasco, with cameos by actors like Tilda Swinton, exist in a world that seems to be both multi-dimensional and missing dimensions at the same time,
Chasing Precision and Perfection with Aerial DPs on “The Blue Angels” – Part 2
In part one of our interview, former Blue Angels pilot LCDR Lance “Bubb” Benson, aerial DP Michael FitzMaurice, and aerial coordinator Kevin LaRosa II shared how the painstaking planning process really paid off and the use of Benson’s “chase” jet to capture unique vantage points. Now, we delve into the camera configurations and what it took to film some of the most popular maneuvers from the air.
The sizeable discrepancy between the airspeeds of the helicopter and the F-18s was crucial in intensifying the visceral rush on-screen.
Chasing Precision and Perfection with Aerial DPs on “The Blue Angels” – Part 1
Every year since the Blue Angels were established in 1946, crowds of all ages have oohed and aahed at airshows from Brunswick, Maine to Huntington Beach, California, as the United States Navy’s precision flight demonstration team performs intoxicatingly vertiginous aerial maneuvers in the skies. With six F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets flying a mere 12-18 inches apart at 400-600mph, the only way to capture every hypersonic swoop and stomach-churning roll on camera up close—and safely—for the Amazon MGM feature documentary was to have a former Blue Angel in the aerial cinematography team.
