The Cinematography Podcast

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 Than Bombs, Oslo, August 31 and Thelma. The 2015 film, The End of the Tour, about writer David Foster Wallace, marked the Swedish cinematographer's first English language movie. The HBO TV series Chernobyl came to Jakob through the series' director, Johan Renck. The two were friends but had not had the chance to work together. Writer and creator Craig Mazin had a completed 600-page script, and once Jakob read it, he knew he had to work on the project. The story was so gripping and mesmerizing, everyone involved felt a calling to tell the story in a way that was solemn about the material and accurate about what it looked like. Chernobyl shot for eight months in Lithuania and Ukraine and has won multiple awards. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/ep66/ LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz Brought to you by Hot Rod Cameras: Find your next camera, lens, light or accessory at https://hotrodcameras.com/ Hot Rod Cameras is giving away TWO professional, cinema quality Aputure MC lights! One for you AND a friend you tag! Go to http://hotrodcameras.com/giveaway to enter. Contest ends March 30, 2020.

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 to the attention of Alec Baldwin who came on board as an an executive producer who helped fund its development into a feature. Blast Beat is about two teen metalhead brothers from Colombia, uprooted from their lives in Bogota and struggling to find their place in suburban America. Director Esteban Arango and writer Erick Castrillon cast real life brothers Moises and Matéo Arias, who brought an added layer of authenticity to their characters' relationship. It was also important to Arango and Castrillon to make a personal movie about their own culture, and they cast Colombian actors who spoke Spanish with authentic accents in the movie. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/sundance2020comingofage/ ‎ LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz Brought to you by Hot Rod Cameras: Find your next camera, lens, light or accessory at https://hotrodcameras.com/ Hot Rod Cameras is giving away TWO professional, cinema quality Aputure MC lights! One for you AND a friend you tag! Go to http://hotrodcameras.com/giveaway to enter. Contest ends March 30, 2020.

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 grief, loss and loneliness faced by the main character, Beth, played by Rebecca Hall. The Night House was shot mostly at night in a lake house in upstate New York. The Night House was one of the first deals to close out of Sundance this year. It sold for $12 million to Disney-owned Searchlight. Black Bear takes place in a large lake house estate, and director/writer Lawrence Michael Levine wrote the script with a specific location in mind. Unfortunately, the original location fell through, and Levine had to find another spot, which turned out to be quite remote but amazingly striking on film. The movie stars Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott and Sarah Gadon, whose characters and performances script-flip midway through the film, but we are never meant to know what the characters actually think. The movie wittily explores issues of gender and feminism, and later, has a funny take on indie filmmaking. Black Bear has yet to find distribution. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/sundance2020location/ ‎ LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz Brought to you by Hot Rod Cameras: Find your next camera, lens, light or accessory at https://hotrodcameras.com/ Hot Rod Cameras is giving away TWO professional, cinema quality Aputure MC lights! One for you AND a friend you tag! Go to http://hotrodcameras.com/giveaway to enter. Contest ends March 30, 2020.

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 chose to keep the camera on a tripod and to observe the subjects at a distance, except for special leather harness rigs for POV doggy-cams that Dweck and Kershaw had specially made. Finally, Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story is both a story that will please fans of the beloved cartoon Ren & Stimpy, but it's also a critical look at the cartoon's volatile creator, John Kricfalusi. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/sundance2020docs/ LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz Brought to you by Hot Rod Cameras: Find your next camera, lens, light or accessory at https://hotrodcameras.com/ Hot Rod Cameras is giving away TWO professional, cinema quality Aputure MC lights! One for you AND a friend you tag! Go to http://hotrodcameras.com/giveaway to enter. Contest ends March 30, 2020.

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 Sundance Film Festival, and has yet to receive a release date. http://camnoir.com/ep65/ Adam Rehmeier: Twitter @AdamRehmeier Jean-Phillipe Bernier: Instagram @jpbernierdop LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz Brought to you by Hot Rod Cameras: Find your next camera, lens, light or accessory at https://hotrodcameras.com/

McDonald's Monopoly Game ran from 1989-2001, netting $24 million in cash and prizes for the winners. But the biggest prize “winners” were actually all part of a crime ring recruited by a mysterious figure called “Uncle Jerry” to cheat the game. Filmmakers James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte got the FBI on board along with a cast of quirky real characters to tell a fun, engaging and fascinating story about the fraud. McMillion$ is a six-part documentary series currently airing on HBO. You can also listen to The McMillion$ Podcast each week. James Lee Hernandez: @iamthejlh Brian Lazarte: @blazarte LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions! Website: www.camnoir.com Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz

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 Twitter: @ShortEndz

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. James Laxton is currently shooting The Underground Railroad, a limited television series for Amazon directed by Barry Jenkins, which is an adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel.

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 as 5 or 6. The Last Full Measure starring Sebastian Stan, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Plummer, and Bradley Whitford opens wide Friday, January 24.

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 Golden Globe for Best Actress for her role in The Farewell- the first Asian American to win in this category.