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 completely transparent with the elderly couple who owns the property what kind of movie they're making. Then the bloodbath begins.

Interestingly, Eliot is actually not a big horror fan- he dislikes feeling anxious and tense. But after shooting so many films in this genre, he genuinely appreciates how important the cinematographer is to making a horror movie. In horror, the camera is the instrument that takes the audience through the experience. The camera setups, angles, and lighting choices are incredibly important to setting the tone- more than any other genre. The characters and dialog are usually secondary, unlike dramas or romantic comedies. Eliot first learned some tips about how to shoot a horror film on the movie Crocodile with director Toby Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Hooper explained some of the finer points to creating “seat jumper” moments, based on keeping the camera static and not cutting away.

Eliot and director Ti West also worked together on The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers. West is known for creating a suspenseful slow burn, starting off at a normal pace, then progressively building into a manic frenzy of blood and guts to the end. Eliot has always been involved in the filmmaking process early on, and the two share similar ideas about aesthetics and cinema. They discuss far in advance how the drama is going to unfold and figure out how to achieve those goals. Once shooting begins, Eliot and West work smoothly together because the movie is well understood.

Eliot shot Pearl, the prequel to X, directly after they wrapped X. The production was based in New Zealand in early 2021, still during the height of the COVID pandemic, and it made sense to roll right into pre-production on Pearl and stay longer to shoot the movie, using production crews in New Zealand for both films. Pearl is a completely different sort of horror movie and is almost a musical, with dance numbers and lots of color saturation. Eliot calls it “the best feel bad movie you'll ever see.”

Eliot Rockett is currently shooting Season 2 of Perry Mason for HBO.

Find Eliot Rockett: https://www.eliotrockett.com/

Instagram: @elrockett and @eliotrockett

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep166/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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 weeks before the shoot, so she had to hit the ground running with a very short amount of prep time. O'Rourke had made a look book, so Jendra used what he created to get herself up to speed. The days were full of casting and scouts, but the evenings were spent as sacred one-on-one time to discuss the film and create the DP/director collaborative bond.

O'Rourke was concerned about the fact that he is a white man telling a story with women of color and their experience with sexual assault. He was open to handling the material with sensitivity and listened to Jendra and the female cast and crew members about how to shoot certain scenes. They gave careful consideration to what the film wanted to say and how to portray the feeling of emotional overwhelm visually.

Jendra also discusses her recent work on a 2020 commercial featuring former First Lady Michelle Obama. It was shot soon after production started returning after COVID lockdowns, and the directors had to work remotely. One of Jendra's skills is understanding how to light women, and she is very proud of her work on this commercial. She had limited time with Mrs. Obama and knew she would not be able to tweak the lighting again once they were rolling.

Find Jendra Jarnagin: https://www.jendrajarnagin.com/

Instagram: @jendradp

See Asking For It in select theaters and VOD.

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep165/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by DZOFilm: https://www.dzofilm.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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 NAB show in Las Vegas. With this new lens, ZEISS' Supreme Prime line is now a 14 lens set. ZEISS also offers the Radiance line of lenses that have different optical coatings to create more flare.

Looking to the future, Snehal sees even more choices available for lenses. The best cinematographers are constantly learning, so it's important to excite them with something new and different, and to continue to innovate and develop new technology.

The new 15 mm Supreme Prime is available to pre-order from Hot Rod Cameras.

If you'd like to schedule a demo at the ZEISS Cinema Lens Demo Center, email Snehal Patel: [email protected]

ZEISS representatives and lenses will be available to see and demo in North America at:

-NAB Apr 23-Apr 27, 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

-2022 Pacific Northwest Lens Summit May 13-May 14, 2022 at Koerner Camera

-Cine Gear Expo June 9-12, 2022 at the LA Convention Center

Sponsored by ZEISS: https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/us/cinematography.html

ZEISS Cinema Lens Demo Center: https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/us/home/local/cinematography/cine-lens-demo-center.html

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/zeissspecial/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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.

Cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagné grew up in Quebec City, Canada, surrounded by movies from her father's video stores which sparked her love of film. She took photography in school, then enrolled in a film program in Montreal. Jessica first began working with director Ben Stiller on the Showtime series, Escape at Dannemora. The two enjoyed working together, and while shooting Escape at Dannemora, Stiller was already talking about directing Severance. Jessica didn't particularly like the idea of shooting an office show with absolutely no windows, with the same lighting setups over and over. However, during the preproduction process, she was able to find references that allowed her to find ways to shoot the Lumon offices in a cinematic way. The production design team also created a very strange and surreal world within the gigantic building, whose brutalist exterior is a real location at the former Bell Works in Holmdel, New Jersey.

Jessica crafted a unique camera style for Severance. Most of the scenes that take place in the Lumon offices are done with tracking dollies on remote heads, rather than with Steadicam. She enjoyed playing with camera height, often showing the ceiling and choosing wide, surveillance-like angles from corners or above. The office workers are often physically “severed” in shots- by cubicle walls, computers or doorways. In the elevator up or down from the office, the office workers transition from their “innies” to their “outies,” with a dolly in and zoom out on their faces to create a morphing effect.

Find Jessica Lee Gagné: https://www.jessicaleegagne.com

Instagram: @jessicaleegagne

See Severance on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance/umc.cmc.1srk2goyh2q2zdxcx605w8vtx

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep164/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Arri: https://www.arri.com/en

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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:

Fernando Argüelles: https://www.fernandoarguelles.net/

Instagram: @fernandoarguellesasc

Twitter: @fernanradikal

Tom Magill: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1083844/

Greg Middleton: http://www.middletondp.com/

Instagram: @middlecam

Twitter: @middlecam

Impact24 PR https://www.impact24pr.com/

Instagram: @impact24pr

Twitter: @impact24pr

Facebook: @impact24pr

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/panel2/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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 year!

Annette

The Sparks Brothers

The Power of the Dog, Ari Wegner

Jane Campion

Zola

Dune, Greig Fraser

Denis Villeneuve

Nightmare Alley, Dan Laustsen

The Tragedy of Macbeth, Bruno Delbonnel

Westside Story, Janusz Kominski

Steven Spielberg

King Richard, Robert Elswit

Cyrano, Seamus McGarvey

Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson

Belfast, Haris Zambarloukos

Find Jenelle Riley on Instagram and Twitter: @jenelleriley and Variety: https://variety.com/

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/oscars2022/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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/mentors were called Master. As an African American, Mariama later found it bizarre and perverse to have referred to someone in this way. She knew she wanted to make a film called Master, and examine the scary realities of what that word means. Once she began to write, Mariama found that accessing her memories of being a Black woman at an elite university felt painful and horrifying, so she knew this was where the script needed to go. She started imagining how to picture the school- orderly, controlled, static and a looming presence. When the malevolent spirit appears, it is a jarring, violent rupture to the polite presentation of the school.

Mariama and cinematographer Charlotte Hornsby worked together on her short film Hair Wolf, and they knew they shared the same ideas and influences. As they got into preproduction on Master, they watched movies, had long discussions about the look of the film, and shotlisted the film together. Prior to becoming a DP, Charlotte was an art director, so she has a deep understanding of using color in her work. Charlotte was definitely influenced by the color palette in Suspira and chose to use shades of red and experimented with using shadows for a haunted feel. Charlotte also liked the use of zoom lenses in movies such as Rosemary's Baby, and used a long slow zoom in Master to key into the pace of the scene. She chose to represent the POV of the supernatural forces watching from a distance with a zoom lens, while putting the camera on a dolly to act as the character's perspective.

Find Mariama Diallo: Instagram: @diallogiallo

Find Charlotte Hornsby: https://charlottehornsby.com/

Instagram: @charlottehornsby_

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep163/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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 our emotions.

Haris' current film, Belfast, is his eighth collaboration with director Kenneth Branagh. It's a deeply personal story about Branagh's childhood experience growing up in Northern Ireland during the civil war between the Catholics and Protestants known as The Troubles. Haris and Branagh chose to shoot the movie almost entirely in black-and-white. The two both love the format, and Haris felt using black and white provided less distraction from the character's emotions than using color would. They also decided to use extremely limited additional lighting in the movie, relying heavily on natural light in most scenes. Every scene was thought out with depth of field and depth of action, and not just shot for coverage.

For the 2013 film Locke starring Tom Hardy, Haris' friend, cinematographer Chris Menges, had tested the new Alexa Mini and found that it was possible to shoot with just available light in small spaces. This gave director/writer Steven Knight the idea to write a script that takes place entirely in a car, with only one character, and he asked Haris to be his director of photography. Haris had just wrapped Jack Ryan:Shadow Recruit and was about to shoot Cinderella, so Locke seemed like an interesting challenge to take on. Knight had planned for only a 9 day shoot, with the entire script shot beginning to end each night for three nights. The additional actors, never seen on camera, all phoned in their vocal performances live during the shoot. Capturing the intimate and emotional performances in Locke gave Haris a deep satisfaction about his decision to become a filmmaker.

Find Haris Zambarloukos: https://www.zambarloukos.com/

Instagram: @zambagram

WIN an autographed copy of Directing Actors, 25th Anniversary Edition! Follow us on Instagram (if you don’t already!) @thecinepod and comment on our Judith Weston post!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep162/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Arri: https://www.arrirental.com/en

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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, communicate and collaborate with the actor on the ideas they are trying to convey. A key chapter in Directing Actors discusses how a director must find the “emotional event” or the key dynamics in each scene. This is something both the cinematographer and the editor must understand as well to make a good movie great. Finding the essential emotional event in a scene is what changes someone from simply wanting to be a director into actually thinking like a director.

Find Judith Weston: https://judithweston.com/

Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television, 25th Anniversary Edition is available on Amazon

WIN an autographed copy of Directing Actors, 25th Anniversary Edition! Follow us on Instagram (if you don’t already!) @thecinepod and comment on our post for this episode!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep161/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by DZOFilm: https://www.dzofilm.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz

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 American, the Hulu series Catch-22 and The Midnight Sky. For The Tender Bar, Clooney wanted to direct a warmly nostalgic movie. Together, they worked with the production designer and costume designer to create a look reminiscent of 1970's films. The production team wanted to show a thoroughly lived-in house and bar that don't change much over time as J.R. grows up. It was shot digitally, but Martin wanted the film to have a Kodachrome quality. The family home was a real location, and Martin kept the lighting simple- mainly placing lights outside the windows so that the actors could move freely inside.

As the lead DP for the series Counterpart, Martin spent eight months establishing the look and shooting several episodes of the first 10 episode season, and setting up the show for his fellow cinematographers. It was a new experience for him to work on a complex 10 hour show, but he loved the writing and craft of creating the series.

Find Martin Ruhe: https://ruhe.net/

Instagram: @martinruhedp

The Tender Bar is on Amazon Prime Video.

Martin's next project is The Boys in the Boat directed by George Clooney.

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com//ep160/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Twitter: @ShortEndz