“The Tender Bar” Cinematographer Martin Ruhe on George Clooney’s Heartfelt Adaptation

Arriving during times that don’t feel particularly tender, The Tender Bar is George Clooney’s adaptation of J.R. Moehringer’s book about growing up in the 60’s and 70’s-era Long Island, without a father. Instead, he seeks out surrogate role models in the house of extended relatives where his mother retreats, and in the local bar where his uncle tends. And, Clooney, of course, stays behind the camera here, leaving the acting chores to Ben Affleck as Uncle Charlie,

Best of 2021: “No Time to Die” DP Linus Sandgren on Daniel Craig’s Epic Sendoff as James Bond

This interview is part of our highly subjective, decidedly non-comprehensive “Best of 2021” year-end list. It was originally published on October 7.

In No Time to Die, Daniel Craig gets two hours and 43 minutes to show James Bond fans what they’ll be missing once he exits his five-movie run as the world’s most enduring British spy. Following Craig’s every step, car chase, and explosion along the way is Swedish DP Linus Sandgren.

“Being the Ricardos” Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth on Blending Period & Modern Techniques

Having photographed The Social Network, cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth knows the writing style of Aaron Sorkin all too well. So when the writer/director said, “You’d make my wish come true if you say yes to this’ during an initial meeting,” it was easy for Cronenweth to jump on board. “This script is classic Sorkin dialogue, packed from one end to the other,” says the Oscar-nominated cinematographer. “It’s extremely clever. It’s emotional.

“Nightmare Alley” Cinematographer & VFX Supervisor on Creating Guillermo del Toro’s Carnival Noir

Most of the films coming out now – whether award contenders, tent poles, or any combination thereof – share similar stories apart from whatever genre the movie itself belongs to: namely, the story of the Covid delay, and how it affected production.

So it was for Guillermo del Toro’s version of Nightmare Alley, another rendering of the novel by the ill-fated William Lindsay Graham, whose work originally inspired Tyrone Power’s memorable,

“The Power of the Dog” Cinematographer Ari Wegner on Finding the Light in Jane Campion’s Mythic Western

Auteur writer/director Jane Campion is known for being one of the few female filmmakers to garner a Best Director Oscar nomination, for 1993’s The Piano, which won her an Oscar for Best Screenplay. Fans have been anxiously awaiting her first feature film release since 2009’s Bright Star, and she’ll do them proud with The Power of the Dog, an intense period drama starring Benedict Cumberbatch as bullying 1920s rancher Phil Burbank.

Cinematographer Alice Brooks Makes “tick, tick…BOOM!” Sing With Personal Memories

tick, tick…Boom! may not have the name recognition of Jonathan Larson’s most famous production, Rent, but it is a theater kid’s dream for Broadway royalty to bring this story to the screen. The film interpretation of his unfinished work captures the heart and hustle of 1990s New York through Larson’s eyes. Although Larson passed away in 1996, the project was lovingly researched and reconstructed by director Lin-Manuel Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levenson.

DP Edu Grau on Using Light & Shadow to Play With Skin Tone in “Passing”

Set in 1920s Harlem and based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel of the same name, Passing, actress Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut tracks the relationship of two light-skinned Black women, Irene and Clare, who’ve taken opposite paths toward safety and recognition. Former childhood acquaintances, a chance run-in reveals the women’s abiding interest in one another, and as they reinsert themselves into each other’s lives, the differences between Irene and Clare take their toll on the stability each woman had achieved.

“The Harder They Fall” Cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. on Reimagining the Wild West

In The Harder They Fall, now streaming on Netflix, director Jeymes Samuel (who also co-wrote and scored the film) revisits the deserts, saloons, and lonely train cars of the Old West. Taking names if not the exact stories of real people from the region’s history, the film follows Nat Love (Jonathan Majors) as he searches for Rufus Buck (Idris Elba), a villain’s villain who opens the film by murdering Nat’s parents and carving a cross into the young Nat’s (Anthony Naylor Jr.) forehead.

Halloween Treat: How Cinematographers James Kniest & Toby Oliver Capture Horror

It’s that time of year where people gather around screens to watch stories that convey the vivid glow of the season, and the unforgettable gatherings they bring.

Yuletide lights? Hanukkah latke feeds? A Secret Santa party? No, think more along the lines of glinting blood, the glow from a flaming church with vampires huddled inside, or a town’s lynch mob futilely pursuing a supernaturally charged serial killer.

Welcome to the sights and sounds of Halloween.

“No Time to Die” DP Linus Sandgren on Daniel Craig’s Epic Sendoff as James Bond

In No Time to Die, Daniel Craig gets two hours and 43 minutes to show James Bond fans what they’ll be missing once he exits his five-movie run as the world’s most enduring British spy. Following Craig’s every step, car chase, and explosion along the way is Swedish DP Linus Sandgren. “It was important in this film to make sure that we bookend Daniel Craig’s chapter of Bond in an exciting way,” says Sandgren.

Cinematographer Kira Kelly on The Dark & Desperate World of “Y: The Last Man”

Y: The Last Man kicked off the fall TV season with a dramatic debut. Based on the DC Comics series, the show chronicles families in mourning, supply chains upended, and a democracy dominated by men dismantled when every person born with a Y chromosome suddenly dies. It’s a shocking and abrupt event that leaves a mystery behind when Yorick Brown (Ben Schnetzer) realizes he is the only one left of his kind.

How Underwater Cinematographer Ian Seabrook Got The Shots in “Jungle Cruise”

Disney’s latest blockbuster based on a ride, director Jaume Collet-Serra’s Jungle Cruise, is a banter-filled romp down the Amazon. Blue-blooded adventurer Lily (Emily Blunt) drags her fusspot brother, MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), to South America in pursuit of the petals of an all-powerful healing tree. Their guiding trinket is an arrowhead, pilfered with great difficulty from a retrograde London men’s scientific society. Upon landing on the other side of the world, the pair wind up in the hands of riverboat captain Frank (Dwayne Johnson),

Cinematographer Alice Brooks on Lighting the Real Heights of “In the Heights”

In the Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s pre-Hamilton musical transformed into a film by screenwriter Quiara Alegría Hudes and director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) is set over a handful of days at the height of summer in Washington Heights. The action is centered on two would-be couples, Usnavi (Anthony Ramos) and Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), and Benny (Corey Hawkins) and Nina (Leslie Grace). Usnavi, an orphan and bodega owner who dreams of life in the Dominican Republic,

Cinematographer Alicia Robbins on Filming the “Grey’s Anatomy” Covid Season—During Covid

While there’s little in the way of “good luck” that can be attributed to an ongoing pandemic, there is perhaps a little good timing, in the speedy arrival of a vaccination. For cinematographer Alicia Robbins, she chalks up her arrival as one of the two people chronicling the struggles in Seattle’s fictive-yet-storied Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, from behind a pretty active lens, to both “a stroke of good luck, and good timing.”

“I was working on For The People,

Cinematographer Stephen McNutt on Lighting the Moon in “For All Mankind”

For All Mankind, the Apple TV prestige drama that presents an alternate history of NASA and mid-century American space exploration takes a darker turn in its second season. Previously, having been beaten by the Soviets to the moon, the Americans handily caught up, establishing a tiny lunar base called Jamestown and even achieving gender parity in the astronaut ranks. At the start of Season 2, a decade has passed and both nations’ space programs have grown by leaps and bounds,

Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. It was originally published on March 31. For part II of this interview, click here.

Actors Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried go for their characters’ leisurely evening stroll outside San Marino’s Huntington Library, which is subbing in for William Randolph Hearst’s Hearst Castle at San Simeon.  The only thing is, it’s not night – and the actors are wearing custom-tinted contact lenses to help them avoid squinting,

Oscar-Nominated DP Sean Bobbitt on Framing a Historic Power Struggle in “Judas and the Black Messiah”

This interview is part of our ongoing Oscar series. Our conversation with Sean Bobbitt was first published on February 11, before he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematography.

The late Fred Hampton, former chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers, was renowned for his skill as an orator and his work in his community, though the American government chose to mainly view the young activist as a threat.

Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank” – Part II

As mentioned in part I of our interview, director David Fincher and cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt didn’t want to spend the entirety of Mank trying to make it appear as if Citizen Kane DP Gregg Toland had shot it, “But there were things that we wanted to embrace holistically – like deep focus – where it made sense to do so,” the Messerschmidt explains. “It was never an ‘Oh, great,

Oscar-Nominated Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt on “Mank” – Part I

Actors Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried go for their characters’ leisurely evening stroll outside San Marino’s Huntington Library, which is subbing in for William Randolph Hearst’s Hearst Castle at San Simeon.  The only thing is, it’s not night – and the actors are wearing custom-tinted contact lenses to help them avoid squinting, due to the additional bright lights director of photography Erik Messerschmidt has added to make his day-for-night photography appear correct in the final image.

Cinematographer Fabian Wagner on “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”

A lot of people are professing surprise at the success of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max, not only in terms of the critical praise it’s getting, being called “operatic” or as richly imagined as Lord of the Rings, but even in the calls to continue the film’s teased sequels, and pursue a #Snyderverse on HBO Max.

As this was being written, no less than the Washington Post’s opinion pages ran a column from its culture &