How Motherland: Fort Salem Cinematographer Jon Joffin Casts a Spell

It may not be an infinite playlist, at least not yet, but if quarantine lasts much longer, who knows? In any case, cinematographer Jon Joffin, ASC, was waxing virtually about some of the shows he’s been watching in lockup:

Among them were Amazon’s ZeroZeroZero, the Gabriel Byrne-starring series which follows a shipment of cocaine from Mexico to its cartel purchasers in Italy, which Joffin describes as shot “in a beautiful,

Run DP Melds Drama and Rom-Com Elements in HBO’s New Series

Merritt Wever won a comedy Emmy for Nurse Jackie, picked up a drama Emmy as the rifle-wrangling pioneer in Godless and last year wowed critics for her empathetic turn as a sex crimes detective in Unbelievable. Now she’s mixing it up in HBO’s black-humored thriller Run (it premiered this past Sunday night, April 12). Job one for cinematographer Matthew Clark: capture the chemistry between Wever’s bored housewife Ruby and Domhnall Gleeson,

Little Fires Everywhere Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron on Crafting Chaos Beneath the Surface

One of the many, many odd things about life mid-pandemic is how suddenly bizarre it is to watch shows and films that depict people touching, hugging, kissing, and gathering in large numbers. Even the folks who just filmed these series agree. There’s a kind of pre-coronavirus surreality to it, and if the show or movie doesn’t hold your attention, you can, at least for this viewer, find yourself more invested in how weird it is to see people cavalierly not keeping their distance than you are in the actual story.

DP Kira Kelly on Lensing Netflix’s Self Made Followed by a Sudden COVID-19 Furlough

Self Made, Netflix’s four-episode biopic on Madam C.J. Walker (Octavia Spencer), the businesswoman, philanthropist, and first female American self-made millionaire, traces Madam C.J.’s late 19th-century rise from washerwoman to the successful founder of a haircare empire staffed by and made for African-American women. The production contrasts vibrant, colorful historic sets and costumes with a contemporary soundtrack, for an immersively satisfying period series that feels completely modern.

“Even before I got the job,

Westworld Cinematographer & Director Paul Cameron on Season 3’s Big Time Ambitions

“As a DP,” says director of photography Paul Cameron, ASC, “you tend to walk into a location and visualize it and pitch it to a director.” But what happens if you are the director? Well, he allows, “I may have been a little stronger in pitching my ideas” back to the cinematographer.

Cameron had a chance to pitch in both directions, in quick succession, on HBO’s currently unfurling third season of Westworld.

Future Man’s Cinematographer Sylvaine Dufaux on Hulu’s Hilarious Time Tripper

In Hulu‘s Future Man, a gent by the unimprovable name of Josh Futturman (The Hunger Games‘ Josh Hutcherson) finds himself in a fairly extreme circumstance. Josh is a janitor by day and a bigtime gamer by night, and his life is reasonable and normal until it’s suddenly very unreasonable and abnormal. He’s recruited by a pair of time travelers (played by Derek Wilson and Eliza Coupe) and tasked with traveling through time himself to save humanity.

The Lighthouse’s Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke on Capturing Madness

We’re looking back at some of our interviews with this year’s Oscar nominees in the lead-up to this Sunday’s telecast. This story was originally published on October 18, 2019.

When I caught Robert Eggers The Lighthouse at the Toronto International Film Festival, I was, to put it mildly, enthused. Relentlessly original, hypnotic, and gleefully insane, it was the work of an artist and a long list of collaborators going full tilt.

Honey Boy Cinematographer Natasha Braier on Earning an ASC Spotlight Nomination

“It is, of course, an honor to be selected for this by the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers), but it’s also a responsibility.” That particular responsibility belongs to Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF, the cinematographer for Shia LaBeouf’s stark memory-play Honey Boy.

Upon learning she’d been nominated for one of ASC’s Spotlight Awards this year, she called it “a huge honor to be recognized by my colleagues with (this) nomination.

Best of 2019: Deconstructing Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s With his Cinematographer Robert Richardson

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!

When you dig past the humorous and unnerving storylines of Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, you’ll find a serious tale about friendship.

Set in 1969, Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a fading Western star trying to stay relevant in Tinseltown has one sure thing—his stunt double Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt).

Best of 2019: Fleabag‘s Emmy-Nominated Cinematographer on Crafting a Nearly Flawless Second Season

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019. Happy Holidays!

There’s no such thing as flawless art. Flaws are baked right into anything a human being creates, and often they are hard to disassociate from the strengths that make any art worthwhile. Yet I’ve heard several people call Fleabag‘s second season flawless, and I’ve been hard-pressed to argue the point. Few shows on television are as personal,

Best of 2019: How Us Cinematographer Michael Gioulakis Captured Doppelgangers in the Dark

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019.

“I have an aversion to moonlight, at least in movies.” So says cinematographer Michael Gioulakis, who had ample opportunity to capture dark spaces in Jordan Peele‘s critically acclaimed horror film Us. Peele’s follow-up to Oscar-nominated thriller Get Out casts Lupita Nyog’o as a high-strung mother who’s being stalked, along with her husband (Winston Duke) and kids (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex),

Best of 2019: The Irishman Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto on Crafting Scorsese’s Masterpiece

*We’re reposting some of our favorite interviews of 2019 from some of our favorite films and shows of the year.

Beloved auteur Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman has brought Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci together onscreen for the first time in 24 years and added Al Pacino, whom he’d never worked with before, building a cast that sounds truly compelling to lovers of great acting and great film.

How Cinematographer Roger Deakins & Team Pulled off the One-Shot Masterpiece 1917

For Sam Mendes, the multi-hyphenate who produced, directed and co-wrote the script with Krysty Wilson-Cairns, 1917 was a personal story. It follows two British soldiers – Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) – tasked with delivering a message across enemy lines in order to stop a battle that could save hundreds of soldiers’ lives. The idea came to Mendes after his grandfather shared with him World War I stories where he himself had been a runner.

How Watchmen Cinematographer Gregory Middleton Captured Hooded Justice’s Harrowing Origin

Vancouver-based DP Gregory Middleton has lensed his share of prestigious series before Watchmen, having scored Emmy and ASC nominations for his work on different Game of Thrones episodes, and finding himself behind the viewfinder for shows like The Killing, cult hit movies like James Gunn’s Slither and many more.

But it was working with director Nicole Kassell on episodes of The Killing—rather than his earlier toe-dip into the DC Universe,

How Jay-Z Connected the Oscar Hopefuls of Uncut Gems

The song “Marcy Me,” a poetically rhythmic Jay-Z track where the billionaire mogul reminisces about his time living in the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn raps, “Streets is my artery, the vein of my existence.” It’s an apt line to describe Howard Ranter (Adam Sandler), a fast-talking jewelry store owner in New York’s Diamond District who has to hustle the streets to crawl out of a life crashing around him.

But it’s more than lyrics that link Jay-Z to the movie Uncut Gems,

Ford v Ferrari Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael on the Need for Real Speed

Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael grew up seeing the value of a great artistic collaboration. His father, also Phedon Papamichael, was an art director and production designer who worked on several landmark films by indie pioneer John Cassavetes including Faces (1968) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).

The younger Papamichael, who was born in Athens, Greece and studied filmmaking in Germany, is best known for his work with directors  Alexander Payne—Papamichael earned an Oscar nomination for Nebraska (2011)—and with James Mangold.

The Irishman Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto on Crafting Scorsese’s Masterpiece

Beloved auteur Martin Scorsese’s new film The Irishman has brought Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci together onscreen for the first time in 24 years and added Al Pacino, whom he’d never worked with before, building a cast that sounds truly compelling to lovers of great acting and great film. Based on “I Heard You Paint Houses,” the narrative nonfiction book by homicide detective Charles Brandt, the story centers on Frank Sheeran (De Niro) who,

How Us Cinematographer Michael Gioulakis Captured Doppelgangers in the Dark

“I have an aversion to moonlight, at least in movies.” So says cinematographer Michael Gioulakis, who had ample opportunity to capture dark spaces in Jordan Peele‘s critically acclaimed horror film Us. Peele’s follow-up to Oscar-nominated thriller Get Out casts Lupita Nyog’o as a high-strung mother who’s being stalked, along with her husband (Winston Duke) and kids (Shahadi Wright Joseph and Evan Alex), by homicidal doppelgangers.

The Lighthouse Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke on Capturing Madness

When I caught Robert Eggers The Lighthouse at the Toronto International Film Festival, I was, to put it mildly, enthused. Relentlessly original, hypnotic, and gleefully insane, it was the work of an artist and a long list of collaborators going full tilt. The performances from the two leads, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, the score from Mark Korven, the production design from Craig Lathrop—everyone listed in the credits helped turn Eggers and his brother Max’s script into the fever dream depicted on screen.

What We Do In the Shadows Cinematographer DJ Stipsen on the Art of Vampire Stupidity

What We Do in the Shadows, based on the feature film of the same name from Taikia Waititi and Jemaine Clement, is unlike any vampire show on TV. Like the film, the show is staged as a documentary of four vampires who have been living together for centuries. In the series, which airs on FX, our vampires live on Staten Island (in the film they were based in Wellington,