The Cinematography Podcast

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 76: Suzie Lavelle Irish cinematographer Suzie Lavelle loves to be very hands on and involved in visual storytelling. From a young age, Suzie had an interest in photography, went to art school and was accepted into the renowned National Film and Television School in London. She began working on short films and features, one of which, The Other Side of Sleep, was s...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 75: Trevor Forrest A note: We were sorry to hear of director Lynn Shelton's passing. Her most recent directing and executive producing project was the Hulu series, Little Fires Everywhere. Her death is also a huge loss to the independent film community. Trevor Forrest leads off the episode with a tribute to Lynn. Trevor Forrest grew up in England and the Bahamas,...

The Cinematography Podcast Bonus Episode: Xiaoding Zhao Illya sat down with cinematographer Xiaoding Zhao and Shadow producer and translator Ellen Eliasoph at Cameraimage 2019 to discuss the film Shadow. Director Zhang Yimou and Zhao worked together to create a very distinctive color palette, wanting it to appear to be like a Chinese ink brush painting. The costumes are also all in gray or black f...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 74: Toby Oliver Toby Oliver was an experienced cinematographer in his native Australia for a few decades before moving to the U.S. and establishing himself as a DP. He worked with fellow Aussie director Greg McLean on Wolf Creek 2 and other horror genre movies for Blumhouse Productions such as The Darkness. When shooting any genre or time period, Toby believes co...

Special: The Cinematography Podcast War Stories Vol. 2 It's our second War Stories Special! Each of our featured guests shares an insightful, interesting, humorous or crazy story of an experience they had while on set. Walt Lloyd, ASC still remembers a crazy nightmare he had during a shoot, Shana Hagan on getting locked inside a prison while shooting the documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars, Byron...

Illya sat down with producer Natasha Gregson Wagner and director/producer Laurent Bouzereau at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to talk about their documentary, Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind. As the daughter of famous actress Natalie Wood, Natasha Gregson Wagner wanted to tell the story of her mother's life, while working through her grief and loss over her mother's tragic death at the age of 4...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 73: Carlos González Venezuelan-born cinematographer Carlos González graduated with a degree in architecture before attending film school at AFI in Los Angeles. While attending architecture school, he designed some film sets, and still enjoys collaborating closely with production designers. Carlos says that the experience of discovery when walking into a room as a...

Special: The Cinematography Podcast War Stories Vol. 1 It's our first War Stories Special! Each of our featured guests shares an insightful, interesting, humorous or crazy story of an experience they had while on set. Russell Carpenter talks about shooting the iconic “I'm flying” scene from Titanic, Jakob Ihre tells the sobering story about working in Lithuania while shooting HBO's “Chernobyl,” El...

Jeff Cronenweth comes from three generations in the film business and followed his father, cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth (Blade Runner) into a career as a director of photography. Growing up on film sets and working alongside his father enabled Jeff to take a hands-on role in the camera department. He started as a loader and camera assistant, getting into the union while attending USC. He met...

The Cinematography Podcast BONUS Episode: The Sound of Silence director Michael Tyburski It's a very special Shelter In Place episode as we dig into our archives to bring you some past podcasts you might have missed. Illya sat down with director Michael Tyburski during 2019's Sundance Film Festival to talk about his film, The Sound of Silence (in a rather noisy setting!) The movie is about a “hous...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 71: Brendan Davis Producer Brendan Davis tells his story about fleeing China before it was shut down for coronavirus Brendan Davis has been producing film and television for the Chinese and U.S. market in Beijing for the past few years. He was in the midst of developing the feature film My Favorite Season and was planning a trip back to the U.S. when he got word...

BONUS EPISODE: Jeff Sengpiehl, chief technologist at Key Code Media, gives tips for remote editing and other post production options from home Finding the right technologies and new ways to work from home is becoming a necessity right now. Jeff Sengpiehl discusses ways to remotely access your work edit bay from your computer, edit from the cloud, consolidating the project onto hard drives and phys...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 70: Michael Dallatorre As an immigrant kid growing up in South Central L.A., Mike Dallatorre joined his high school's performing arts group called Colors United. He was a featured performer in the Oscar-nominated documentary Colors Straight Up. Seeing a documentary crew in action made Mike realize that being behind the camera could be a legitimate career choice,...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 69: Laura Merians Gonçalves As a kid, Laura Merians Gonçalves would play around with a Super 8 camera and make visual collages. But it was only for fun, and she had a degree in philosophy and was planning on traveling and studying martial arts in Japan when she got a summer job in Florida working as best boy electric on Bully,  directed by Larry Clark and shot by...

The Cinematography Podcast Bonus Episode: Director J.D. Dillard It’s another very special Shelter In Place episode as we stay home and dig into our archives to bring you some past podcasts you might have missed. Enjoy our show and these films from the comfort of your safe space. One of Illya’s favorite movies at Sundance in 2019 was J.D. Dillard’s midnight movie, Sweetheart. The horror/thriller mo...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 68: Stefan Ciupek Stefan Ciupek became interested in film while growing up in East Germany, but his options were limited in what was then a Communist country. His family managed to escape to Poland, and movies became a refuge from difficult times. In fact, Stefan and his mother were able to pirate Western films and re-sell them as bootlegs. His family managed to...

It's a very special Shelter In Place episode as we stay home and dig into our archives to bring you some past podcasts you might have missed. Enjoy our show and these films from the comfort of your safe space. Illya sat down with director Jason Orley and DP Andrew Huebscher during 2019's Sundance Film Festival to talk about their movie about arrested development, "Big Time Adolescence." Starring S...

Cinematographer Kira Kelly had years of experience before director Ava DuVernay approached her to shoot her documentary, 13th. For 13th, DuVernay was interested in creating artful, composed shots rather than the typical “talking heads” of most documentaries, and pushed Kira and the team to get creative about how it was framed. The film examines the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery, yet the m...

Jakob Ihre believes that making movies is very personal, and it's important to create a connection to the material that the audience can feel. He graduated from the National Film and Television School in London knowing that he wanted to do smaller, quality projects that told personal stories. Jakob collaborated with fellow NFTS graduate Joachim Trier on several films, including Reprise, Louder Tha...

Sundance 2020 Special Part 3: Coming of Age Beast Beast explores the lives of three different teens who cross paths with tragic results. Director Danny Madden handles each character with sympathy and nuance. He and cinematographer Kristian Zuniga used different camera looks for each character, staying wide and documentary-style for some sequences and tight and controlled for others. The film came...

Sundance 2020 Special Part 2: Location, Location, Location These two very different movies both had striking locations that set the tone for the films. The Night House director David Bruckner and writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski enjoy working in the horror genre, and wanted to explore making a film that doesn't make you “feel safe” with many dense layers. The film deals with the horror of g...

The Cinematography Podcast interviews the filmmakers for three documentaries at Sundance 2020. First up- Ron Howard, who talked about shooting his first documentary, Rebuilding Paradise. We present some selected soundbites of the conversation. Next, filmmakers Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw ventured deep in the forests near Alba, Italy for their documentary, The Truffle Hunters. The filmmakers...

Dinner in America is a surreal punk-rock comedy filled with gleeful anarchy directed by Adam Rehmeier and shot by cinematographer Jean-Phillipe Bernier. It took awhile to cast the characters Simon and Patty, played by actors Kyle Gallner and Emily Skeggs, who are two oddball loners looking to take down all the a**holes in their “normal” Midwestern town. Dinner in America premiered at this year's S...

McDonald's Monopoly Game ran from 1989-2001, netting $24 million in cash and prizes for the winners. But the biggest prize “winners” were actually all part of a crime ring recruited by a mysterious figure called “Uncle Jerry” to cheat the game. Filmmakers James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte got the FBI on board along with a cast of quirky real characters to tell a fun, engaging and fascinating s...

Long-time friend and colleague Jenelle Riley of Variety magazine chats with Ben and Illya about this year's Oscar nominations- what will win, what should win, and their favorite movies of the year that may not have been recognized. Jenelle Riley on Twitter, Instagram: @jenelleriley LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod...