Cinematography
My Philosophy
Cinematography is one of my favorite filmmaking skills. Film is a visual medium, and great cinematography can elevate the experience from mere entertainment to art. My philosophy is that I should adjust my cinematography to the story, not the other way around. I want audiences to be pulled deeper into the movie, not be taken out of it because of a bad shot choice. The films with the best cinematography often go unnoticed because the shots feel so natural.
"Drawn To You"
This film was a lot of fun to work on because it was live action with animation mixed in. This meant we had to plan out shots that looked good on their own but could also accommodate the animated character. To do this, we made a paper cutout of the animated character and framed shots with them inside it; we got this idea from watching the behind the scenes of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Since we shot on campus, I went to the locations so that I could draw better storyboards.
"Hard Pills to Swallow"
"Hard Pills to Swallow" was a very challenging shoot for me. We had an accelerated schedule due to crew cancelations and troubles with renting equipment. My biggest issue as a cinematographer was that I would create storyboards for a given scene only to realize on set that it was not possible with what I had, so I had to create new storyboards on the fly. This taught me a lot about reconciling the image in my head with the reality I am presented with.