Girl Picture is a Finnish film about the friendship between three young women as they experience the emotional ups and downs of life as they transition from teenagers to women. Director Alli Haapasalo felt the English title perfectly described the finite time of girls who are trying to figure out their own life's picture and who are developing an identity as women through their friendship. The film follows the girls as they chat and hang out over a few nights together during the dark winter in F...
Aug 18, 2022•50 min
When cinematographer Larkin Seiple first saw the script for Everything Everywhere All At Once he thought: This is very long and how in the world are we going to shoot this? But having worked with directing team Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as Daniels) for ten years, he knew the film would be unique, creative and fun. Larkin loves telling stories through the medium of film, and Everything Everywhere explores the multiverse concept as the most ridiculous, messy, scary, poig...
Aug 11, 2022•1 hr 32 min
Australian cinematographer Jules O'Loughlin's path to movie making was a long journey. After graduating from the prestigious AFTRS- Australian Film Television and Radio School- he worked steadily and shot a wide range of films and TV shows including the action movie The Hitman's Bodyguard, the series Black Sails, the horror movie Krampus and the children's film Come Away. His recent work on two series, The Old Man and Ms. Marvel, show off his ability to visually transport audiences to other worl...
Aug 03, 2022•50 min
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On began in 2010 as a series of stop-motion shorts written and directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp and actor Jenny Slate, who also does the voice of Marcel. It's a “documentary” about Marcel, who's a hermit crab shell with one googly eye and doll shoes. What makes both the shorts and the film so charming is hearing Marcel's funny, optimistic witticisms and seeing how he uses real full-sized human objects in his miniature life, such as a piece of lint on a thread as a pet,...
Jul 27, 2022•46 min
Our returning guest is Paula Huidobro, who has been very busy the past few years shooting the 2022 Best Picture winning film CODA, the Hulu series Pam & Tommy, and the AppleTV+ series Physical, just to name a few. Paula and CODA director Siân Heder knew each other as grad students at AFI, and have worked together on four other projects including the film Tallulah and the show Little America. For Paula, shooting CODA was definitely a different process. There were interpreters for each of the ...
Jul 20, 2022•41 min
Cinematographer Chris Teague has shot many acclaimed television series and films such as Obvious Child, GLOW, Russian Doll and Mrs. America. His latest work is on the Hulu series, Only Murders in the Building, both Season One and Season Two, and he also directed episodes seven and eight of Season Two. Only Murders in the Building has many different tones, ranging from funny to dark, dramatic and even scary. The show manages to strike a balance to keep the darkness from undermining the comedy. As...
Jul 13, 2022•56 min
Brian and Charles is about an awkward and lonely inventor, Brian, who lives in rural Wales. He rarely makes contraptions that are useful or work right, but one day, he finally creates a robot. Charles Petrescu, built out of an old washing machine and a mannequin, becomes Brian's friend. But as Charles becomes more and more curious and self-aware, he decides he wants to explore the world on his own. Actor David Earl is a comedian and came up with the eccentric character of Brian as a bit on the s...
Jun 22, 2022•39 min
Watcher is a psychological thriller about a young actress, Julia, who has just moved to Romania from the U.S. with her boyfriend. A serial killer is on the loose in the city, and Julia begins to feel like she is being followed and watched from the apartment across the street. She has trouble convincing her boyfriend and the police that she's being stalked, and the film builds on her increasing sense of dread. Director Chloe Okuno and DP Benjamin Kirk Nielsen first met at American Film Institute,...
Jun 15, 2022•39 min
Emergency is a comedy about three men of color- college roommates Kunle, Sean, and Carlos, who are about to go out for an epic night of spring break partying when they find a white girl has accidentally stumbled in and passed out on their apartment floor. Concerned about what might happen if they call the police, they decide to take the semi-conscious girl in their van and drive around town for hours, trying to find a safe place to leave her and not get in trouble. Meanwhile, the girl's friends ...
Jun 08, 2022•36 min
Cinematographer Michael FitzMaurice is known for his aerial and second unit cinematography on huge films such as The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Godzilla: King of the Monsters and now Top Gun Maverick. In the film business, second unit and aerial cinematography are involved in all of the action shots, and as a more technically-oriented DP, Michael has been able to combine his two loves- flying and shooting movies. Michael started out learning about photography in seventh grade, and then got a job out...
Jun 01, 2022•1 hr 5 min
James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte are Emmy-nominated documentary directors and producers for the HBO documentary series, McMillion$. Brian and James return to Cinepod to talk about their latest documentary, The Big Conn, now airing on Apple TV+. The Big Conn is a four-part documentary series that tells the unbelievable true story of larger-than-life attorney, Eric C. Conn. Conn stole over half a billion dollars from the government and taxpayers in the largest Social Security fraud case in Un...
May 25, 2022•59 min
Cinematographer Eric Koretz and our host Illya Friedman have known each other a long time, going back to when Eric blogged about the latest camera gear. Since then, Eric has become a very successful DP. His current work can be seen on the last and final season of the Netflix series, Ozark. Eric shot 4 episodes of the last half of the final season, including the show finale, “A Hard Way to Go” directed by Jason Bateman. Eric loved the look of Ozark, and knew he would have to adapt to the establis...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Cinematographer Greg Middleton's intention in his work is never to make viewers think, “Oh wow, cool shot!” He wants them to be able to experience the movies or television series he shoots without drawing attention to the cinematography or lighting. For him, the art of cinematography is about making illusions, and convincing audiences that they are actually somewhere else. Greg was excited to work on episodes 1, 3, 5, and 6 of the series Moon Knight on Disney+ because it's more of a personal and...
May 11, 2022•1 hr 5 min
It's been a busy few months and we finally bring you our interviews with four directors of documentaries and shorts from Sundance 2022. To The End is director and cinematographer Rachel Lears' follow up to her 2019 documentary, Knock Down the House. It once again follows representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and three women environmental activists pushing hard for climate change legislation- first with the Green New Deal, then with President Biden's Build Back Better plan. Rachel wants people ...
May 04, 2022•53 min
Cinematographer Eliot Rockett is a frequent collaborator with Ti West, who is a well known director/writer/editor for horror fans. West and Eliot's latest film, X, is a classic slasher/horror movie set in 1979, at the time when the popularity of porn movies and slasher films were at their height. With X, West decided to write an erotic horror film that combines elements of both genres. The film is about a group of aspiring filmmakers who head to a remote farm to shoot a porno, but aren't complet...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Jendra Jarnagin returns to The Cinematography Podcast after 7 years to talk about her latest movie, Asking For It, a female vigilante revenge thriller, about women who exact revenge on men who have abused women. First-time director Eamon O'Rourke wanted it to be a female exploitation-style movie without the exploitation, and he and Jendra were influenced by films such as Switchblade Sisters, Belly, True Romance, and Natural Born Killers. Jendra was hired to work on the low-budget film only three...
Apr 20, 2022•1 hr
Snehal Patel manages sales for the entire line of ZEISS cinema lenses in North and South America. He works with many cinematographers such as Reed Morano, Jon Joffin, Alicia Robbins and several of our Cinematography Podcast guests like Quyen Tran, Robert McLachlan and Checco Varese. ZEISS has their own Cinema Lens Demo Center in Sherman Oaks, CA for DPs to come and try out lenses by appointment. The brand-new 15 mm Supreme Prime wide angle lens from ZEISS will be available to try at this year's ...
Apr 13, 2022•40 min
Severance, a trippy, mind-bending thriller on Apple TV+, takes the idea of work/life balance to an extreme. Certain employees working for the mysterious corporation, Lumon, undergo a surgical procedure called severance that plants a chip in their brain. Severed employees can't remember anything from their personal lives while at work, and outside of work, they can't access their memories of their office life. This creates two separate people, known as “innies” at work and “outies” at home. Cinem...
Apr 06, 2022•54 min
In our second panel series, Ben and Illya speak to cinematographers Fernando Argüelles, ASC, AEC (Fear the Walking Dead, Swamp Thing, Hemlock Grove), Tom Magill (Atypical, Saved by the Bell, Parks and Recreation) and Gregory Middleton, ASC, CSC (Moon Knight, Watchmen, Slither) as they discuss their current work, career journeys, creative processes, challenges and career goals. Be sure to check out the video panel on YouTube! Produced in partnership with Impact24 Public Relations. Find our guests...
Mar 30, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Long-time friend and colleague Jenelle Riley of Variety magazine chats with Ben and Illya for our third annual Oscar nominations special. They discuss what they liked, what will win, what should win, and their favorite movies of the year that may not have been recognized. Here's a rundown of some of the nominations discussed in this episode, as well as great films that were not nominated this awards season. Listen to our interviews with some of the nominated DPs and other noteable films of the y...
Mar 23, 2022•44 min
The horror film Master explores the idea of institutional and historic racism at an elite, mostly white college campus, as two Black women are stalked by evil spirits. Director and screenwriter Mariama Diallo is a lifelong horror fan, and sees the horror genre as an expression of anxiety. She feels that horror frees you to talk about ideas that are disturbing and unsettling at their core. Master incorporates some of Mariama's personal experiences as an undergrad at Yale, where the advisors/mento...
Mar 16, 2022•1 hr 4 min
Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos enjoys using filmmaking to study the human condition. As a Greek who grew up in Cyprus, Haris was immersed in the history of Greek tragedy from a young age. He went to art school and studied painting, but found he was more interested in the visual storytelling that filmmaking can do. Haris' background in portraiture painting carries over into his cinematography today- he favors using closeups in his work, because he finds that the human face is the landscape of...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr 2 min
Judith Weston has coached and taught directing classes to several now renowned directors, such as David Chase, Ava DuVernay and Taika Waititi. She has updated her book, Directing Actors for its 25th anniversary edition, revising nearly every chapter and adding two new ones. Judith teaches that a director must have a vision. It's the director's job to be the shepherd of the story and have it mean something. The director must also go deeper to figure out what matters to the story, and listen, comm...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 1 min
Cinematographer Martin Ruhe's latest film is The Tender Bar, a coming-of-age movie about J.R., a boy growing up in 1970's Long Island, N.Y. He and his mother move in to his grandparent's house, filled with noisy extended family, including his uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck) who runs the local bar. Charlie acts as a father figure to him, sharing books and knowledge, influencing J.R. to become a writer. Martin and George Clooney have worked together on several films and TV shows, including The America...
Feb 23, 2022•47 min
The Cinematography Podcast Sundance 2022 Special: Sirens Sirens is an intimate coming of age documentary focused on Lilas Mayassi and Shery Bechara, guitarists and co-founders of Slave to Sirens, the Middle East's first all-female thrash metal band. The documentary follows the band as they rehearse and play concerts, rebelling against the country's criticisms and stereotypes about women and heavy metal music. The relationships between bandmates is complicated, but they find an outlet in their mu...
Feb 20, 2022•20 min
Catch the Fair One is about Kaylee “K.O.” Uppashaw, a mixed Indigenous boxer who is searching for her sister, Weeta, who has been missing for two years. K.O. sets off on a dark and dangerous journey as she willingly allows herself to be exploited by a sex trafficking ring to find out what happened to her sister. Catch the Fair One is the second feature for Josef Kubota Wladyka, who has also directed episodes of Narcos, Fear the Walking Dead and The Terror. It's the acting debut for Kali Reis, wh...
Feb 16, 2022•47 min
Acclaimed cinematographer Linus Sandgren just happens to have two Oscar nominated films out right now- the new James Bond movie, No Time to Die and the Adam McKay satire, Don't Look Up. Both films are extremely different from each other, and Linus was excited to work on both. Linus says that working on a Bond film is about creating a heightened reality, escapist adventure that romanticizes action and espionage. Don't Look Up is also about creating a type of heightened reality, but in an absurd, ...
Feb 09, 2022•55 min
The film Blood is about Chloe, a woman who travels to Japan for her work as a photographer, just a couple of years after the death of her husband. She meets up with her Japanese friend Toshi who is interested in turning their friendship into a relationship, and she needs to decide if she is ready to welcome romantic love back into her life. Blood is a quiet and contemplative movie about human relationships, and unfolds slowly through Chloe's conversations, interactions and dreams. Director Bradl...
Feb 09, 2022•23 min
Gentle tells the story of Edina, a Hungarian woman bodybuilder pushing her body to the limit. Her relentless trainer is also her boyfriend, determined to make her a world champion, and he controls her entire life. Edina secretly turns to a specialty escort service to earn enough money for all her supplements and special drugs, where she finds comfort and begins falling for one client in particular. Real-life bodybuilder Eszter Csonka does an excellent job of expressing the emotional state of Edi...
Feb 08, 2022•13 min
Station Eleven is an HBOMax series based on the book by Emily St. John Mandel. The story focuses on several characters who are survivors of a devastating flu pandemic that wipes out most of the human population, completely collapsing modern civilization. The series mixes together the storylines of characters whose past and present timelines interconnect, weaving together the time during the pandemic, the days and months afterward, and then how the characters have adapted twenty years into the fu...
Feb 02, 2022•49 min
