“3 Body Problem” Cinematographer Martin Ahlgren on Creating the Series’ Most Shocking Set Piece

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. Prior to the aliens’ arrival, a team of beleaguered scientists and a clandestine agency led by Thomas Wade (Liam Cunningham) engage in both intellectual and physical warfare as they try to find ways to cope with the mind-melting reality of their situation,

“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” Cinematographer Ben Seresin Unleashes Cinema’s Most Iconic Titans

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a vision as large and in charge as its two titular characters. In this MonsterVerse sequel, director Adam Wingard and cinematographer Ben Seresin (Pain & Gain) not only doubled down but quadrupled down on the robust vibrancy of Godzilla v Kong. It’s a pure crowd-pleasing aesthetic, which, for Seresin, is about far more than presenting the cleanest or prettiest sights or the most bombastic Titan takedown.

How “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” Cinematographer Eric Steelberg Brought Slimer & the Firehouse Back to Life

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has a visual style reminiscent of the iconic 1984 film, a palette cinematographer Eric Steelberg (Ahsoka, Hawkeye) intentionally crafted for this story that sees characters new and old strap on a proton pack to bust a chilling demon terrorizing their city. “We wanted to capture the texture, color, and grit of the original movie so nothing seemed too new,” Steelberg tells The Credits about creating the look that artfully blends rich hues and deep blacks for a heightened,

“Dune: Part Two” Cinematographer Greig Fraser on Finding Clarity in Chaos

In part one of our interview with Dune: Part Two cinematographer Greig Fraser, the Oscar-winner took us on a trip to the planet of Giedi Prime, home to the vampiric Harkonnen clan, to reveal how he captured that bloodless light during Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler)’s gladiator scene, those inky blacks during Feyd’s fateful meeting with Lady Margot, and how the surprising inspiration for those “anti-fireworks” after Feyd’s victory.

Now we turn to Fraser’s method for filming action sequences,

“Dune: Part Two” Cinematographer Greig Fraser on Poisoning the Light of Giedi Prime

If you polled all the people who have now seen Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two in theaters about what was the most visually striking moment, my guess is it would be the Sandworm Express in a runaway. We’re talking, of course, about Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) riding the universe’s most dangerous mode of transport—a colossal sandworm—across the dunes of Arrakis. And while that sequence is staggering in its audacity and surprising in its alchemical verisimilitude (it feels as if that’s precisely what it would be like to try and surf on a skyscraper-sized alien terrestrial annelid),

Air, Water, Earth, Fire: DP Michael Balfry Brings “Avatar: The Last Airbender” to Life

Netflix took on producing the live-action remake of the long-running, beloved Nickelodeon animation Avatar: The Last Airbender, about four elemental kingdoms (fire, air, water, and earth) who live in harmony until the Fire Nation starts a war to take over the world. The series, which premiered late last month, is true to the original story. Twelve-year-old Aang (Gordon Cormier) is the sole remaining airbender after a Fire Nation attack, and he survives after being frozen in an iceberg for a century before waking up in an icy part of the world of the Southern Water Tribe.

“Maestro” Cinematographer Matthew Libatique Makes Music With the Camera

Spanning four decades of love, art, and loss, the tortured yet deeply moving marriage of American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) and Costa Rican actress Felicia Montealegre Bernstein (Carey Mulligan), serves as the crux of Cooper’s sophomore directorial offering. Rather than a pure biopic, Maestro — the visually (and sonically) absorbing musical drama from Netflix — anchors its narrative verve on the couple’s tumultuous marriage and the sacrifices that art demands.  

Best of 2023: “Ahsoka” Cinematographer Eric Steelberg on Lensing a Rebel Jedi’s Journey Through Time & Space

*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year. 

For Ahsoka cinematographer Eric Steelberg, lensing the latest live-action Star Wars series was a dream come true. Growing up in thrall to George Lucas’s original trilogy, Steelberg would find himself on set while filming the new series, surrounded by massive spaceships both practical and virtual (the latter thanks to Industrial Light &

Best of 2023: How “The Color Purple” DP Dan Laustsen Made Visual Music

*It’s our annual “Best of the Year” look back at some of our favorite interviews from the year. This interview with “The Color Purple” cinematographer Dan Laustsen more than qualifies, and, with the film opening wide in theaters today, it feels like a fitting Christmas Day post. Happy Holidays!

Danish cinematographer Dan Laustsen has been shooting movies for forty years, earning two Oscar nominations along the way for his contributions to Guillermo del Toro’s films The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley.

“All of Us Strangers” Cinematographer Jamie Ramsay on Lighting a Lonely Life

Based on Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel Strangers, writer and director Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers takes place between a barren tower block in London, where Adam (Andrew Scott) leads a solitary existence, and his childhood home in the suburbs, where he frequently visits his parents, who died thirty years earlier. In London, Adam spends his days alone, until his neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal) appears outside his door, proffering whiskey.

How “The Color Purple” DP Dan Laustsen Made Visual Music

Danish cinematographer Dan Laustsen has been shooting movies for forty years, earning two Oscar nominations along the way for his contributions to Guillermo del Toro’s films The Shape of Water and Nightmare Alley. Director Blitz Bazawule, on the other hand, had never made a major Hollywood motion picture before helming The Color Purple (opening Dec. 25). But together, director and cinematographer melded their talents to resounding effect to create a sumptuous-looking movie musical based on Alice Walker’s 1971 novel.

“Saltburn” Cinematographer Linus Sandgren on Creating a Fluid Painting for Emerald Fennell

The comic drama Saltburn from director Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) is as beautiful as it is macabre. It’s 2006, and Oliver (Barry Keoghan), an awkward, lonely student at Oxford, finds his place within the scenic confines of his university by becoming friends with Felix (Jacob Elordi), who is everything Oliver is not — handsome, charming, and rich. Felix invites Oliver to spend the summer at Saltburn,

“Radical” Cinematographer Mateo Londono Takes us to School in Christopher Zalla’s Moving New Film

A maverick teacher challenges the norms at an elementary school in the border town of Matamoros in northern Mexico. Such is the fact-based story that unfolds in Radical (in theaters now), led by Mexican star Eugenio Derbez (Coda, Instructions Not Included) in a film directed by Chris Zalla (Blood of My Blood).

The teacher, Sergio Juarez Correa (Derbez), aims to teach his students lessons that will help them navigate the difficult world outside the classroom,

“The Killer” Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on Re-Teaming With David Fincher

David Fincher’s lean, mean The Killer is a film stripped down to its bare essentials, much like the work of its titular assassin. Based on a French graphic novel and adapted by Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en), Fincher’s adaptation tells the story of an unnamed killer (Michael Fassbender) and the strict, self-imposed protocols of his trade. It’s the rules of the process that concern the titular character, not moral dilemmas,

Cinematographer Oliver Curtis on Bringing Intimacy and Opulence to “The Buccaneers”

With director Susanna White’s The Buccaneers, an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel set in the 1870s, Apple TV+ adds a period drama with a modern spin to its lineup. If any 19th-century chronicler of the era’s mannerisms can withstand a contemporary update, it’s Wharton, whose insight into upper-class idiosyncrasies on both sides of the pond ring true, even set to a modern soundtrack and present-day dialogue as is the case here.

How “Lessons in Chemistry” DP Zachary Galler Created a Show-Within-a-Show

In writer Susannah Grant’s adaption of the novel Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus, currently airing on Apple TV+, Brie Larson plays a budding chemist, Elizabeth Zott, thwarted in her work by her male colleagues who put politics and patriarchy above credible scientific achievement. Shut out of any hope of a chemistry career despite her brilliance, Elizabeth falls into a television career. It’s the early 1950s, and cooking shows are still relatively new,

“Killers of the Flower Moon” Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto Illuminates Martin Scorsese’s Twisted Tale

When I connected with Rodrigo Prieto for our video interview, as one might imagine a cinematographer to do, he was perfectly lit in a warm amber glow, perhaps a nod to a fire motif visually laced in Martin Scorese’s Killers of the Flower Moon – a love story between Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone) and Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio) wrapped in the travesty the Osage Nation faced during the 1920s.

Having spoken previously with the Mexican native as far back as Argo (2012),

How “Quantum Leap” DP Ana M. Amortegui Keeps the Show Dynamic Across the Centuries

The past is prologue, but on Quantum Leap, the past is also the present and the future as Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) and his team embark on dangerous lifesaving excursions through history. The time travel epic is back with more mysteries that continue to escalate and may even threaten the project itself.

Director of photography Ana M. Amortegui kicked off the style of the series last season working on the pilot and several other episodes.

“Special Ops: Lioness” Cinematographer & Director Paul Cameron on Taylor Sheridan’s International Thriller – Part Two

As noted in part one of our interview with Paul Cameron, he took his first turns at directing for series helming two episodes of Westworld, and he drew on his experience as a cinematographer and from his work for some pretty important mentors. “I learned so much from working with Tony Scott,” Cameron said, referring to collaborating with Scott on films like Man on Fire and Déjà Vu.

“Special Ops: Lioness” Cinematographer & Director Paul Cameron on Taylor Sheridan’s International Thriller

As director of photography, Paul Cameron has shot such disparate films and series as Man On Fire, Collateral, Déjà Vu, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and Westworld.  He has worked with a slew of top-tier directors, including Michael Mann, Tony Scott, and Jonathan Nolan. Now, for Paramount+’s acclaimed limited series, Special Ops: Lioness, Paul Cameron – as he did with Westworld – worked both as a cinematographer and director.