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In 2015, I started production on my first feature film, ANONYMOUS KILLERS. Shooting on 35mm was very important to me because the quality of film makes for a more natural, grainy look than filters applied to digital. I found that this choice also made me a much more disciplined filmmaker. During each stage of filming, a filmmaker must make difficult decisions. Shooting on 35mm added to these challenges, but the end effect was worth it!

The emotional Sundance film, Mass, follows two sets of parents (Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton, Reed Birney and Ann Dowd) years an unspeakable tragedy tore their lives apart. This film is a masterclass in straightforward storytelling, with the film largely taking place in one small room. The nature of this film created a unique challenge for Darren as the composer, as he did not want to add a score that distracted the viewer from the already powerful performances.

In our latest interview, we spoke with cinematographer Justin Derry on the TIFF 2022 selected film Bruiser. Bruiser follows a 14-year-old boy who finds a new father figure and learns to defend himself after being beaten up one day at school. Originally a short that debuted at Sundance before becoming a full feature-length project, the film is a dramatic coming-of-age story that tackles family struggles and the effects of fighting. The film stars Trevente Rhodes, Shamier Anderson, Jalyn Hall, and Shinelle Azoroh, and will premiere at TIFF on September 11th.

Damien Chazelle’s feature, First Man, about the United States’ effort to land a man on the moon, took home the Oscar last night for the Outstanding Visual Effects category. Paul Lambert, part of the team who took home the Oscar in the category for Blade Runner: 2049 shared insights into the multitude of VFX techniques to create the film's realism.

Ask a Filmmaker of any stature, and they will tell you that they never have enough resources (time, budget, equipment), to devote to any project. It’s certainly true for me shooting indie (read: low budget) features. However, for better or worse, it is an area of the business I’ve come to be known for, movies with budgets between half a million and five million dollars. Over a 40+ year cinematography career, I’ve learned a lot of tricks to squeeze maximum production value and good looking images out of meager budgets, making dimes look like dollars on the screen.

I was asked by 4KHUB to do a Sony PXW-FS7 review for their site. I have contributed content to 4KHUB.com since it’s launch (and also to ProductionHUB over the years).