The Cinematography Podcast

Cinematographer Lyle Vincent on shooting the Netflix series The Beast in Me with Panavision lenses and hard lighting that allow deep shadows to fall into black. Vincent's work is a continuation of his collaboration with director Antonio Campos after the HBO Max drama, The Staircase. The eight-episode limited series, shot entirely by Vincent, was approached less like television and more like one ve...

Christian Sprenger, ASC on balancing horror and comedy in Widow's Bay with lighting, practical effects, and years of trust built with producer Hiro Murai. Podcast highlights include: -How Christian's 11-year creative partnership with executive producer and director Hiro Murai has built a shared shorthand, allowing him to pitch unconventional ideas with total trust. -Why the team resisted moody, sh...

Peter Konczal, ASC on Black Rabbit's deliberately low-tech-analog toolkit, customized blue bounce light, and the gradual unraveling of its visual style episode by episode. Podcast highlights include: -The deliberately low-tech-analog toolkit Pete assembled with co-cinematographer Igor Martinović became the show's defining look. It included one of a kind soot filters and scratched-up glass rulers w...

DP James Whitaker, ASC breaks down the look of HBO's DTF St. Louis: street photographs, a brutalist style police station, and inobtrusively lighting intimacy. Podcast highlights include: -How street photography, not cinema, was the right reference point for shooting ordinary suburbs. -What led to the unusual set design and lighting of one of the key locations, featuring a brutalist interior that f...

The Audacity DP Richard Rutkowski, ASC made Vancouver look like Palo Alto, used lens filters instead of special effects to create wildfires, and dramatized the themes of the show with spotlights and framing. Podcast highlights include: -How Richard and his crew made Vancouver look convincingly like Silicon Valley and why establishing a sense of place was a creative priority from day one. -Why glas...

Peter Deming, ASC on shooting Evil Dead 2 with director Sam Raimi and working with director David Lynch on Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks. Find Peter Deming: Instagram @peter_deming Spider Noir is now streaming on MGM Plus and Amazon Prime. The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Blue Sky: @the...

Cinematographers Darren Tiernan, ISC and Peter Deming, ASC are the DPs of Spider Noir, the new MGM Plus and Amazon Prime series starring Nicolas Cage as the hard-boiled 1930s New York detective version of Spider-Man. The character is based on Marvel Comics featuring Spiderman Noir, and first introduced in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Tiernan and Deming created a series that looks like a clas...

James Laxton, ASC is the Academy Award nominated cinematographer of Moonlight. His latest project is Season 2 of Beef, the acclaimed Netflix series created by Lee Sung Jin. This season explores themes of love, class, and generational cycles. Key Podcast Highlights: -How James and Lee built a color palette of spring, summer, autumn, and winter that stays continuous through lighting, costume, and pr...

Krzysztof Trojnar is the cinematographer of the Netflix series, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. It’s a genuinely unsettling horror show about a woman whose anxiety about an upcoming family wedding spirals into something far darker, with Krzysztof's camera work enhancing the feeling of dread. Key Podcast Highlights: -How the visual language of the show deliberately evolves across episodes, m...

Lawrence Sher, ASC, is the cinematographer of Apex, the action thriller currently sitting at number one on Netflix. Apex stars Charlize Theron as a woman hunted through the Australian wilderness by a relentless pursuer, and it's one of the most visceral and visually grounded survival thrillers in recent memory. The entire film was shot on location in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Key Podcast Hi...

Margo's Got Money Troubles DP Tari Segal, ASC approached the show with spontaneity, intimacy, and a creative way to bring static backdrops to life. Margo's Got Money Troubles follows a young woman navigating an unexpected pregnancy, a complicated family, and some very creative ways to pay the bills. It’s one of the most visually inventive comedies currently streaming. Tari shot four of the show's...

DP Greta Zozula remakes the world of Gilead in The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. She chose a very specific color palette and brighter look to show the optimism for the young women at the school for future wives. Flashbacks to the world of Toronto are sharper, grittier and more realistic. Key Podcast Highlights: -How Greta kept the same camera and lenses consistent from The Handmaid’...

Hunting Matthew Nichols is an indie horror film that’s shot as a mockumentary/found-footage movie about a documentary filmmaker investigating her brother's disappearance 20 years earlier on Vancouver Island. Writer/producer Sean Harris Oliver and DP Justin Sebastian shot the horror film in 12 days, then independently released it into theaters. Key Podcast Highlights: -How cinematographer Justin Se...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 353: Isaac Bauman Cinematographer Isaac Bauman captured the visual identities of two different horror movies in They Will Kill You and Faces of Death. Both films are currently in theaters. Bauman discusses the intricate technical gymnastics required to give each film a distinct, cinematic feel. Key Podcast Highlights: -Carefully developing the look of They Will K...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 352: Ted Hope Producer Ted Hope has worked in the film business for over 40 years, producing dozens of features with several Academy Awards nominations and wins. After leaving Amazon Studios in 2020, Hope went back to his roots as an independent producer and began writing his Substack blog, Hope For Film. He argues that the independent film ecosystem as we know i...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 351: Marshall Adams, ASC and Paul Donachie Pluribus DPs Marshall Adams and Paul Donachie share a visual shorthand, love of wide shots, and creative freedom to craft inventive techniques using LED panels. Key Podcast Highlights: -Marshall and Paul’s collaboration as DPs, and how their shared aesthetic vision strengthens the show. -Getting absolute top-down permiss...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 350: Lawrence Sher, ASC DP Lawrence Sher felt creatively challenged on The Bride! The "everything burger" movie combines many film techniques and influences, 1930's and contemporary lighting, contemporary actors dropped into archival movie footage, and practical makeup effects. Key Podcast Highlights: -Creating a stylized movie with director Maggie Gyllenhaal usi...

The Cinematography Podcast 2026 Oscar Special Jenelle Riley, three-time Emmy-winning entertainment journalist and host, chats with Ben and Illya for our SEVENTH annual Oscar nominations special. With a focus on cinematography, they discuss what they liked, what will win, what should win, and their favorite movies of the year that may not have been recognized. They discuss this year’s nominations,...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 349: James Whitaker, ASC Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die DP James Whitaker, ASC played with different genres, with over 70 setups a day in the Norm's diner set. He used LED walls and projectors to cast real, interactive light on the characters in the film’s climax, and swapped to a different camera system for certain scenes to play up the glow of cell phones. Key...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 348: Danny Cohen, BSC DP Danny Cohen, BSC, reveals how he crafted the "dirty London" look of Slow Horses through motivated lighting, high ASA grain, and the grit of Slough House. Key Podcast Highlights: -How Slow Horses ditches the typical block shooting system, with one DP and one director to create the entire season’s visual look. -Using camera settings to bake...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 347: director Natasha Kermani and DP Julia Swain In the medieval horror film The Dreadful, director Natasha Kermani and cinematographer Julia Swain transport audiences to the brutal landscapes of the Dark Ages. The independent film shot in Cornwall, England over 17 winter days. Key Podcast Highlights: -Development: Kermani spent years crafting the folkloric tale,...

The Cinematography Podcast Special: Frederick Wiseman With the passing of documentarian Frederick Wiseman, here is a re-release of our 2020 interview. He discusses City Hall, Titticut Follies, High School and more. Wiseman was a prolific filmmaker, making 45 films over 50 years.  Wiseman's family and Zipporah Films kindly request that you support your local PBS affiliate or independent bookstore i...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 346: Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP The film Train Dreams tells a story that feels less like a narrative and more like a memory. It began as an independent project that premiered at Sundance to critical acclaim before getting acquired by Netflix. Director Clint Bentley and cinematographer Adolpho Veloso, ABC, AIP, chose to shoot in the rugged landscapes of the Pacific...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 345: Sean Bobbitt In the landscape of post-apocalyptic cinema, few franchises carry as much visual baggage as the 28 Days Later franchise. Known for pioneering the "fast zombie" and the gritty, digital lo-fi aesthetic of the early 2000s, the series has always found a novel visual approach for every entry. For the latest installment, 28 Years Later: The Bone Templ...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 344: Russell Carpenter When cinematographer Russell Carpenter began working on Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash concurrently, he knew stepping into the world of Pandora would be a much different production environment. Carpenter and director Jim Cameron had previously collaborated on True Lies and Titanic, which won him the Academy Award for Best...