When cinematographer Scott Peck first learned that he was going to be shooting Stargirl, a new series on the DC Universe streaming service, he started doing a lot of research about the original DC Comics character Stargirl and its creator Geoff Johns.
Making lead actors and actresses look their very best has been a challenge for cinematographers since the earliest days of film. So it was business as usual when series creator and showrunner Liz Feldman wanted her main actresses to look their best on screen for season two of her hit Netflix show Dead to Me. She brought in cinematographer Toby Oliver, ACS to handle the job.
After its first successful season the creative team behind the hit HBO series Insecure decided they wanted the show to have a more cinematic look. For that they turned to cinematographer Ava Berkofsky whose efforts have already earned her a primetime Emmy nomination in the category outstanding cinematography for a single-camera series.
Short-form streaming-video platform Quibi provides premium content specifically designed for consumption on a mobile device. This presented the production of its first scripted show, Dummy, with a unique set of creative and workflow issues. In addition to the standard 16:9 aspect ratio, director of photography Catherine Goldschmidt had to create visuals for a vertically oriented 9:16 presentation.
Lindsey Optics has introduced the Large Format Viewfinder to provide optical through the lens viewing. With a sleek, modular design, it supports an unprecedented range of formats from Super 35 to Alexa 65. Company CEO Dwight Lindsey says, “We created our LF Viewfinder for filmmakers who prefer to test a ‘look’ by viewing directly through the actual lens instead of electronic means like monitors or digital tools. Our Large Format Viewfinder solves the viewing issue, while also meeting the need for format diversity.”
In a cinematic universe expanding with superheroes, the creative challenge for filmmakers is to set newcomers apart from the crowd. The task was doubly important for Bloodshot, the first installment of a new franchise that Sony Pictures plans for characters of comic-book publisher Valiant Entertainment. The studio assigned responsibility to Dave Wilson, an established video game cinematic and trailer director for Blur Studio but first-time feature director, who in turn worked alongside cinematographer Jacques Jouffret, whose credits as a camera operator include Deepwater Horizon and Transformers: The Last Knight, and as a DP include The Purge and Mile 22.
When it came time to return to the world of Thra and reimagine the Dark Crystal movie for a whole new generation on Netflix, cinematographer Erik Wilson’s goal was to transform the puppets and make them more majestic. “You get into the politics and you get into the characters and you forget that they’re puppets,” he says
DP Nicolaj Bruel and director Matteo Garrone, who first worked together on the award-winning 2018 feature film Dogman, recently repeated their collaboration on the live action Italian language feature film Pinocchio, starring Oscar winner Roberto Benigni. A live action adaptation of the classic fairy tale about a wooden puppet that is brought to life, the production had to be right on many levels.
The Netflix series GLOW, which launched its 10-episode third season in August 2019, brings the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling to Las Vegas and the fictitious Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino. The production captures the personal and professional lives of a group of women who perform for a wrestling organization that started in Los Angeles but now find themselves in glitzy Las Vegas during the 1980s. Cinematographer Chris Teague met with show creators, executive producers and episode writers Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch to pitch his ideas for the new look of GLOW for its new Las Vegas setting, which is where they realized that everyone was on the same page.
Star Trek: Picard, the highly anticipated streaming series from CBS All Access, relied on two complete sets of Cooke Optics Anamorphic/I Special Flair lenses to tell the story. The follow-up series to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and centers on Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Sir Patrick Stewart) in the next chapter of his life. Director of photography Philip Lanyon’s goal was to give this new series a big movie adventure epic saga feel — while keeping fans in a familiar visual world.
