The Cinematography Podcast

James Laxton attended Florida State University film school, where he met fellow student Barry Jenkins. He worked steadily on several small and acclaimed movies before Laxton and Jenkins had breakout success with Moonlight, winning Best Picture in 2017. The two followed up that success with If Beale Street Could Talk, which also won several awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Regina King....

An extremely seasoned director of photography, Byron Werner began shooting anything and everything that came his way once he graduated film school. Byron faced several challenges on his upcoming film, The Last Full Measure. Shot on location in Thailand, the film has many practical effects shots and very little VFX. The camera crew shot from helicopters and with multiple cameras- sometimes as many...

The Farewell is based on Lulu Wang's own true story about her family conspiring to hide her grandmother's terminal cancer diagnosis from her. Producer Alana Kode sat down with Wang at the Sundance Film Festival last year to talk about how she developed real events in her own life into a film, selecting her cinematographer, and how she cast Awkwafina in the lead role. Awkwafina recently won a Golde...

Paula Huidoboro first became drawn to telling a story with images as a young teen while taking photography classes at the local museum of modern art. One of her early learning experiences was as a camera intern for well-known cinematographer "Chivo" Emmanuel Lubezki. Paula was thrilled to work with actor/creator Bill Hader on finding the balance between violence and comedy on the HBO hitman/dark c...

Walt Lloyd happened upon John Boorman's crew shooting Deliverance in Georgia and decided he wanted a job in the movie business. His first big break was as a camera assistant on the 1983 film Never Cry Wolf, directed by Carroll Ballard. One of Walt's earliest films as director of photography was on sex, lies and videotape for first-time feature filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. Host Ben Rock and Walt Ll...

Alik Sakharov shot many feature films and television series such as The Sopranos, Rome, and Game of Thrones before moving into the director's chair. Alik feels cinematography, directing and writing must work together to create a story, and it's difficult to separate one from the other. He is currently executive producer of the Netflix series The Witcher.

Phedon Papamichael and director James Mangold created an exciting, visceral experience of auto racing for Ford v. Ferrari, rather than the basic panning wide shots used in sports broadcasting or car commercials. Phedon had to shoot extremely close to the speeding cars in order to capture the effect of high velocity.

When setting out to make Joker, Lawrence Sher and director Todd Phillips decided to go for an intimate, 70's style of movie that's character-driven, rather than the large scale, elaborate looks typical of today's comic book superhero/villain films. Joaquin Phoenix had some leeway to improvise and play with the character. Larry and Todd Phillips' background of working with comedians on movies such...

David Mullen got his start making straight-to-video low-budget genre movies. He went on to shoot six films with Michael and Mark Polish, including Twin Falls Idaho and Northfork. David's cinematography on the Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel recently earned him an Emmy award. Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel begins December 6th on Amazon Prime.

Rodrigo Prieto has shot many different movies with numerous looks and feelings. The Irishman is Rodrigo's third collaboration with Martin Scorsese, who has always been a huge inspiration for him, and it was also an amazing experience working with such skilled actors on the film.

Cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr. discusses his experience of shooting three films with Francis Ford Coppola and working with Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master. For his most recent film, Jojo Rabbit, Mehai and director Taika Waititi developed a very vibrant and colorful look for the film to emphasize Jojo's fantasy world.

Writer/Director/Composer/Photographer and experimental filmmaker Mike Figgis has never restricted his art to just one medium. In our interview, he discusses his love of filmmaking and his transition to digital after Leaving Las Vegas with the film Timecode.

Sandwich's commercials and video spots are typically funny, bold, and colorful. Adam Lisagor started the company ten years ago, directing and acting in many of the ads to save money. The first professional DP Adam hired was his college friend, Rachel Morrison. Another frequent cinematographer for Sandwich commercials is Charles Papert, the DP behind Key and Peele.

Natasha Braier is known for her eye-popping, bold visuals and enjoys shooting in an experimental style. She seeks out directors with a strong voice who are willing to take artistic risks such as Nicolas Winding Refn on Neon Demon, Sebastian Lelio on Gloria Bell, and Alma Har'el on the upcoming Honey Boy.

We talk with Visual Effects Supervisor Jason Chen, Makeup and Hair Designer Dannelle Satherley, and Production Designer Ra Vincent who were all part of the production team for the film Jojo Rabbit. The entire group has worked with director Taika Waititi on many of his past films. They each explain their craft and some of the tricks and techniques they used on the film. Jojo Rabbit is currently pla...

Benoît Delhomme discusses his work on the Oscar-nominated The Scent of Green Papaya, The Theory of Everything, the 2014 biopic about Stephen Hawking, At Eternity's Gate, about artist Vincent Van Gogh, and his experience shooting The Proposition in the Australian outback.

Ruben Fleischer began his career directing music videos, commercials and comedy shorts. He landed his first big directing gig with Zombieland, followed by the films 30 Minutes or Less, Gangster Squad and Venom. He's also produced TV shows such as Superstore and Stumptown. Ruben Fleischer's latest movie Zombieland: Double Tap is out October 18th.

Sal Totino grew up in Brooklyn NY and began his career as a music video and commercial DP before landing his first feature on Oliver Stone's Any Given Sunday. He's worked with director Ron Howard on eight films such as The Missing, Cinderella Man, Frost/Nixon and The Da Vinci Code. Sal has two upcoming films out soon- The Postcard Killings and The Tax Collector.

Legendary cinematographer Don Morgan shot “Used Cars” and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” with Robert Zemeckis; Steven Spielberg's “1941,” and John Carpenter's “Starman” and “Christine.” Don also filmed the iconic aerial scenes in “Seven” for director David Fincher and talks about his long television career with director Joseph Sargent.

Checco Varese gives us the scoop on shooting IT Chapter Two with director Andrés Muschietti. Checco and his crew's commitment to their craft has paid off: at the time of this post, IT Chapter Two has grossed more than $320 million worldwide.

Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis is best known for shooting horror films “Glass," “Split,” and “Us.” He got a foothold in filmmaking with the cult indy film “John Dies at the End.” With “It Follows,” Mike and director David Mitchell created a retro, timeless look for the movie. He also discusses the meticulous storyboard sessions directors M. Night Shyamalan and Jordan Peele both have for their film...

Ellen Kuras believes that following your gut and listening to your inner voice makes you a great filmmaker. Ellen got her start shooting documentary and indy movies such as “Swoon,” “I Shot Andy Warhol” and “Personal Velocity,” plus several films with Spike Lee including “Bamboozled” and “Summer of Sam.” She discusses working with Michel Gondry, the unique challenges of shooting “Eternal Sunshine...

Bill Wages' motto: complicated is easy, simple is hard. He talks about his work on the film, "The Forgiven," the TV series "Burn Notice," "Sun Records," "Into the West," and working with poet Maya Angelou on her directorial project "Down in the Delta." Bill also invented a number of groundbreaking cinematography tools: Tiffen Glimmerglass diffusion filters and two flagging devices known as WagFlag...

Cinematographer Shana Hagan has decades of experience shooting documentaries, reality television and even scripted work on “Parks and Recreation” and “Arrested Development.” She discusses her verite approach to shooting, the DP/director relationship, and the huge style variations in documentary film. One of her earliest jobs was as an assistant editor on the documentary “Hearts of Darkness: A Film...

Vanja Černjul began his career in the U.S. filming small independent films like “Wrist Cutters, A Love Story” before breaking into television, shooting the pilot for “Ugly Betty” then going on to DP the first season of “30 Rock.” He developed the realistic, naturalistic lighting looks for “Nurse Jackie” and “Orange is the New Black,” and created the grainy, gritty 70's look for HBO's “The Deuce.”...