The Cinematography Podcast Episode 241: Tim Ives The film Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret is an adaptation of the 1970 Judy Blume book about a pre-teen girl coming of age. Cinematographer Tim Ives, ASC was drawn to working on the film because with three kids, including two daughters, he was interested in opening up the conversation about girls going through puberty and getting their first period. Tim also admired screenwriter and director Kelly Fremon Craig's work on The Edge of...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 240: Robert Yeoman Cinematographer Robert Yeoman has been a consistent collaborator with director Wes Anderson since the 1990's. Together, Bob and Anderson have crafted a signature visual style that combines meticulous set design, vibrant color palettes, and symmetrical framing. Each frame feels like a carefully composed painting, with every detail thoughtfully arranged to enhance the overall narrative. Bob's latest collaboration with Anderson is the...

Special Episode: John Bailey, ASC With the passing of director and cinematographer John Bailey, ASC, we are re-releasing our 2021 interview with him. He discusses his work on the film, Groundhog Day, and briefly touched on his other work. The screenplay is the most important part of a film, John believes. It can be a leap of faith to work with a first time director, when they don't have a body of work, so a good script is always a solid starting point. As the DP of Ordinary People, John...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 239: Eigil Bryld The Holdovers is set in the early 1970's at a New England boarding school where a few students have to stay on campus over the winter holidays. Cranky ancient history teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) has to stay and supervise. Slowly, the curmudgeonly teacher, the school's head cook Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), and the one remaining student, Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), form a family-like bond. Eigil Bryld is an accomplished...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 238: Igor Martinović The Pigeon Tunnel is director Errol Morris' latest documentary about David Cornwell, otherwise known as the author John le Carré, who wrote several best-selling spy novels after serving as a spy himself. Cinematographer Igor Martinović explores the nature of deception visually in the film, using multiple mirrors and reflections of Cornwell as he's being interviewed. For The Pigeon Tunnel, Igor wanted to create a visual story that...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 237: Steve Cosens Cinematographer Steve Cosens, CSC first met actor and director Ethan Hawke on the movie Born to Be Blue, a biographical re-imagining of the life of Chet Baker. Ethan played Chet Baker, and he and Steve connected over their similar film tastes. A few years later, Hawke called Steve to shoot Blaze, a film he was directing. Blaze is a semi-biographical imagining of the life of Texas songwriting legend Blaze Foley. While Ethan Hawke is...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 236: Eric Steelberg Cinematographer Eric Steelberg, ASC has always loved movies, which is what led him to a career as a director of photography. He tries to find compelling film and television projects, putting his own stamp on the story's visuals. Back in 2006, Eric was at the beginning of his career as a DP when he shot the small independent film, Quinceañera which won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury prize at Sundance that year. It was...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 235: Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer Filmmaker Gareth Edwards and co-cinematographers Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer embraced the unconventional while making the new science fiction movie The Creator. From the camera used, to how it was shot, to the visual effects, the team brought together film techniques both new and old. It's rare to have two cinematographers working on the same film, but Greig Fraser had a set date to begin prepping for Dune and could...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 234: Mark Patten Cinematographer Mark Patten, BSC's most recent project, Silo, is a post-apocalyptic science fiction drama that's been a huge success for AppleTV+. The thousands of people who live in the silo don't know why the silo exists, who built it, or why the world outside is uninhabitable. Citizens who express a desire to go outside, or are convicted of a crime, are sent outside to “clean” the cameras and never survive. After being recruited as the...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 233: Ben Ketai Director and writer Ben Ketai's latest movie, River Wild, is a thriller inspired by the original 90's movie The River Wild, but with a reimagined plot. In River Wild, a group of friends take a white water rafting trip that becomes a desperate fight for survival as they get caught in serious rapids. Things only get worse once they realize that one of their friends has a dangerous and violent past. River Wild was shot in Eastern Europe in...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 232: Aaron McLisky Cinematographer Aaaron McLisky is thrilled that Talk to Me, a small Australian independent horror film, has found such a huge audience. It has become A24's highest grossing horror movie in North America. The movie is about a group of friends who discover how to become possessed by spirits with an embalmed hand, creating a thrilling party game. The main character, Mia, has recently lost her mother, and her grief makes the idea of finding...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 231: Todd Banhazl When cinematographer Todd Banhazl, ASC was hired by creator Adam McKay for Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, he knew he wanted to capture the look and feel of TV broadcasts from the 70's for season 1. As the timeline of the show moved into the mid-80's in season 2, Todd wanted to embrace the gloss and glamour of the era, with more dynamic camera moves on the court. Perhaps the most striking aspect of Winning Time is its...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 230: Judd Overton Killing It is a satiric comedy on Peacock starring Craig Robinson as Craig Foster, an aspiring entrepreneur struggling to start his business. The show pokes fun at the absurdities of American capitalism, class, race, health care, and how it's all stacked against the little guy. Cinematographer Judd Overton shot all episodes of Killing It for both season one and season two. His approach to shooting the comedy has always been to keep it...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 229: Alex Winter It's an "All Things YouTube and the Creator Economy" episode! We welcome returning guest, director Alex Winter whose latest documentary is The YouTube Effect. You may know Alex Winter for his role as Bill in the Bill & Ted movies, but these days he's an accomplished documentary filmmaker. Many of Alex's films explore the role of technology in our society, such as Downloaded, about the rise and fall of Napster, to Deep Web, about the...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 228: C. Kim Miles, Clair Popkin and Julia Liu Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie explores the life of actor Michael J. Fox in his own words. It's a moving and heartfelt documentary as he talks about his rise to fame in the 1980's with the TV show Family Ties, the Back to the Future movies, and what his life is like living with Parkinson's Disease. Fox's story is told with personal interviews, archival footage and reenactments. Cinematographers C. Kim Miles,...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 227: Natalie Kingston The Apple TV+ series Black Bird is cinematographer Natalie Kingston's first experience shooting a television show. As the sole DP for the 6-episode series, she enjoyed the ability to create the look of Black Bird from scratch and maintain it throughout the nearly 100 day shoot. Her hard work has paid off with an Outstanding Cinematography Emmy nomination for the episode, “Hand to Mouth.” Black Bird is based on a true story about...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 226: Anastas Michos Cinematographer Anastas Michos ASC, GSC humbly calls himself a journeyman cinematographer. However, after 25 years and multiple awards, Anastas possesses expert skill and versatility that can be seen across all genres. Most recently, Anastas was nominated for an Emmy for “The Autopsy,” an episode of Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities anthology TV series on Netflix. Del Toro selected the directors for each episode of Cabinet...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 225: Daniel Stilling With five different projects set to come out this year, Danish cinematographer Dan Stilling, DFF is finding fulfillment and pleasure in his career path. He's learned that even when working with a larger budget, you can figure out how to get the best out of very little with the right people and the right gear. As a teen, Dan played in a band and began to learn sound engineering. He got a job at a local TV station in Denmark as a...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 224: Katharine Coldiron Author Katharine Coldiron wrote her book, Junk Film: Why Bad Movies Matter around thirteen essays exploring movies from the 1940's to the 2010's. Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Staying Alive, and the musical television show Cop Rock are just some of the disastrous projects explored in the book. Katharine feels that bad movies can be unintentional teaching tools for film students and movie...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 222: Jon Joffin Jon Joffin, ASC has learned the importance of staying creative, committed and inspired during shoots. In his long career as a cinematographer, Jon has learned how to work on a team, manage people, and surround himself with those who really care about their craft. When he was first starting out, Jon was hired as a second unit camera operator on The X-Files. Prior to that, he had only worked on music videos and smaller films. The X-Files...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 222: Todd A. Dos Reis Cinematographer Todd A. Dos Reis, ASC went to USC Film School a few years ahead of The Blackening director Tim Story. There were so few Black filmmakers at school that they knew of each other. Once Todd graduated and was working professionally, he and Tim finally worked together on several different TV pilots. Todd started out as a camera assistant for Russell Carpenter and worked on a few scary movies with him such as Critters 2:...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 221: Scott Leberecht Director Scott Leberecht began his filmmaking career as a visual effects art director at Lucasfilm’s Industrial Light & Magic. His latest documentary film, Jurassic Punk, is about his fellow ILM effects artist Steve “Spaz” Williams. A talented artist, Steve pioneered computer animation VFX in movies, creating the alien effects for The Abyss and the morphing transitions for the “T-100” in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Steve's most...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 220: Larkin Seiple We welcome back cinematographer Larkin Seiple, who was the cinematographer for the Best Picture winner, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Larkin's most recent project was the Netflix series, Beef. Beef is about Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong) who clash in a parking lot, leading to a road rage chase. But it doesn't end there- both Danny and Amy continually escalate their anger and revenge towards each other,...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 219: Randall Einhorn Multihyphenate producer-director-cinematographer and all around talented guy Randall Einhorn is currently the executive producer and director of the award-winning ABC show, Abbott Elementary. Randall began his career in series television first as the DP of The Office, then became one of the most frequent directors of the series. He got to know the mockumentary style intimately, and carried it onto many other shows such as Parks and...

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 218: George Feucht We finally welcome George Feucht, friend of the Cinepod and frequent collaborator of Ben Rock's. George has shot many of Ben's directorial projects, such as the web series, 20 Seconds To Live and the short film, Future Boyfriend. Cinematographer George Feucht grew up in a small town in Wisconsin, where the closest movie theater was about 20 miles away. Working on high school and local theater productions gave George an education in...