New Voices in the Magazine

“With the wide range of TV shows we have these days, that separation doesn't necessarily hold up anymore.”

Uta Briesewitz, ASC, on television and features

Uta Briesewitz, ASC, was the exclusive interview in the Holiday 2016 issue, talking about the differences between shooting episodic television and features. She was born in Leverkusen, Germany, in 1967 and trained at the film academy in Berlin and the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles. She was the director of photography on the early seasons of The Wire, and has since become a sought-after television director, including on The Wheel of Time.

“The most exciting part of my work, also very challenging, is to capture our real emotion and express them visually.”

Hiro Narita, ASC

Hiro Narita, ASC, was on the cover of Volume 13, Number 4 in 2018 and went on to write a series of reflective columns for us. Narita was born in 1941 in what is now Seoul, to Japanese parents, and grew up in Nara and Tokyo before his family moved to Honolulu in 1957. He graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1964 and was drafted into the Army, where he worked as a designer and photographer at the Pentagon.

Back in San Francisco, he chose film over graphic design. He was a still photographer on Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point and, as he told us, took every project that came his way when he started as a cameraman, horror and exploitation films included. Carroll Ballard’s Never Cry Wolf made his name, and he went on to shoot Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Star Trek VI.

“Even though you are talking to people who speak a different language and come from a different culture, we have the movies in common.”

James Chressanthis, ASC, GSC

James Chressanthis, ASC, GSC, was on the cover of Volume 14, Number 1 in 2019, talking about storyboards, camera operators and shooting in China and Thailand. He also directed No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos, the documentary about László Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond, two cinematographers who appear throughout this story.

“Good dramatic lighting will always be good lighting.”

Tom Houghton, ASC

In the same 2019 issue, Tom Houghton, ASC, took us onto the set of CBS’s Elementary. Houghton was nominated for an Emmy for Rescue Me and shot American Horror Story: Coven, 30 Rock and features including They Came Together.

“I was an electrician and Gaffer, and before that I learned filmmaking at Ithaca College.”

Patrick Cady, ASC

No ASC member has done more with StudentFilmmakers than Patrick Cady, ASC. He was on the cover of Volume 15, Number 1 in 2020, talking about moving from director of photography to director. In 2025 he taught a whole season of live webinars for us on director’s prep, location scouting, casting, working with actors, managing the set, the edit room and virtual shadowing in television, and those sessions are now on-demand courses.

He told us he learned filmmaking at Ithaca College and worked as an electrician and gaffer, then went to NYU’s Tisch School, where meeting students who had run theater companies showed him what directing really meant. Cady got hooked on film as the camera intern on John Sayles’ Passion Fish, which was shot by a then up-and-coming cinematographer named Roger Deakins. He went on to shoot Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight and the series Rectify, and to direct episodes of Bosch, including its series finale. He cites Owen Roizman as a major influence.

“I saw the cinematographer working, and I was like, that's it, I want to do that.”

Peter Levy, ASC

Peter Levy, ASC, shared the 2020 issue with Patrick Cady, and his answer to “Did you go to film school?” is one every student should read. He dropped out of high school at 17 and tried to make a living as a photographer. At 19 he shot stills on an independent film in Australia, watched the cinematographer at work, and knew immediately that was what he wanted to do. He worked his way up as a documentary assistant and started shooting after six or seven years, which he said was considered a bit audacious then. His credits include Predator 2, and he has mentored two winners of the Sun Cinematography Award, which encourages women studying cinematography.

“Put your ego aside, accommodate the story, the performances and the director, and know you'll only achieve this as a team, never as an individual.”

Stijn Van der Veken, ASC, SBC

Stijn Van der Veken, ASC, SBC, wrote for us in 2020 about leading your audience’s eye. He was born and raised in Belgium, graduated from the IAD film school, and began his career as a camera assistant. His work includes Rogue Heroes.

“Sometimes I feel lighting faces gets lost, yet it can be such a huge factor in storytelling.”

David Moxness, ASC, CSC

David Moxness, ASC, CSC, talked with us in 2020 about lighting the narrative. He began studying film and theatre at Brock University in Ontario while working as a production assistant at Alliance Atlantis, and his career led to series including Fringe.

“Everything you see cinematically is there only to support the narrative.”

John Simmons, ASC

John Simmons, ASC, may be the purest example of the theme of this honor roll. He was born in Chicago and was introduced to photography by Robert Sengstacke in 1965. He won a scholarship to the University of Southern California to study cinematography, then worked as a camera technician and shot documentaries, commercials, features and music videos. He taught at UCLA for twenty-five years and received the American Society of Cinematographers’ Cinematography Mentor Award for his commitment to young cinematographers. He talked with us in 2020.

“We wanted our world to be real yet magical.”

Jon Joffin, ASC, on Motherland: Fort Salem

In 2020 Jon Joffin, ASC, explained how he built the look of Motherland: Fort Salem, a world run by witches where technology never moved past analog. He lit with tungsten only, colored the light with warm sepias and yellows, and shot only on prime lenses, never zooms, to give the show a classic, painterly feel.

“It was a life-changing experience and I feel very fortunate to be a part of telling this movie's story.”

Tobias Schliessler, ASC, on Refugee

Tobias Schliessler, ASC, wrote for us in 2020 about Refugee, a short film that came out of the time he spent with its director teaching filmmaking to children at a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. He called it a life-changing experience. His feature work includes Dreamgirls and Beauty and the Beast.

“It wasn't important that the person talking always be in frame.”

Kenneth Zunder, ASC, on thirtysomething

Kenneth Zunder, ASC, told us in 2021 how he worked his way up through the camera ranks on Wonder Woman, Lou Grant, Rocky and Rain Man before earning his first cinematographer credit on thirtysomething. He credits his studies in art history and his documentary work with shaping his style. He went on to shoot Brooklyn Bridge, Judging Amy and Major Crimes, received six American Society of Cinematographers Award and Emmy nominations, and served two terms as cinematography governor of the Television Academy.

“The most important job of the 1st AC is to make the DP look good.”

David E. Elkins, SOC

David E. Elkins, SOC is a camera operator whose favorite job came before he ever operated: as first assistant camera on the award-winning series The Wonder Years, he pulled focus on 26 episodes, a show set in the years of his own youth.

In our magazine he explained what the camera department really does for a cinematographer. The 1st AC keeps every shot in focus, watches rehearsals closely, maintains the camera, runs the department and anticipates what the director of photography will need before they ask. A great assistant, he said, is invisible. It is essential reading for anyone starting out on a camera crew.

Paige Thomas, SOC is a camera operator working in episodic television and features, including the series finale of Masters of Sex, lit by cinematographer Joe Gallagher, and the feature Dear Zoe, shot in Braddock, Pennsylvania, with cinematographer Joel Schwartz.

In her our magazine Q&A she compared the two worlds: television moves faster, under constant pressure to deliver, while features allow more time to develop each shot. She also showed how a camera operator supports the cinematographer’s vision shot by shot, from a wedding scene to a room full of German Shepherd puppies.

“I look how best to serve the story and the director of the particular project.”

Jose A. Cardenas, SOC

Jose A. Cardenas, SOC shoots everything from corporate videos and documentaries to commercials and narrative features, including Closed for the Season with director Jay Woelfel, his first feature on a RED camera, and Season of Darkness.

In our Community Spotlight he talked honestly about the cinematographer’s everyday challenges, never enough time, resources or budget, and about bringing students onto his sets so they learn by doing. For Jose, every project starts the same way: find the best way to serve the story and the director.

“I guess when the phone stops ringing.”

Peter Warren, CSC, on when he will retire

Peter Warren, CSC has had his eye to a viewfinder professionally for almost 40 years. He started as a news cameraman at CITY TV in 1983, after graduating from Ryerson’s Radio and Television program, and built a career as a freelance cinematographer shooting corporate films, documentaries, news, commercials and lifestyle series, as director of photography on several and camera operator on many more.

In “Getting His Start” for StudentFilmmakers he wrote about working with the smallest possible crew, often just a sound person or no one at all, and why a full-frame camera on a gimbal suits his style of cinematography. It is a generous, practical look at a long working life behind the camera.

Meagan Stockemer, SOC has wanted to be a storyteller since she built her own toy camera out of wood at the age of six. For ten years she has worked her way through the camera department in unscripted, documentary and scripted programming, from chasing politics on Showtime’s The Circus to following Jazz Jennings on I Am Jazz.

Her credits also include Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, Nailed It!, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Botched. In our magazine she explained the run-and-gun camerawork of reality television and how a camera operator captures the shot when nothing can be staged twice.

“We made 49 episodes of Angry Planet, each of them completely unique and different from the others.”

Peter Rowe, CSC

Peter Rowe, CSC has produced and directed more than 200 films and television shows, including eight features and Angry Planet, broadcast around the world. For that series he and his crew filmed hurricanes, tornadoes, deep caves, great white sharks, mountain gorillas, volcanoes, the Arctic, the Sahara, Antarctica and the monsoon in India and Bangladesh.

He has won two Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards and been nominated for Gemini, Genie and Directors Guild of Canada Awards. In our magazine he described how to shoot and light safely in the most dangerous places on Earth, and shared his top three wilderness filmmaking tips for students.

“It is virtually impossible to overprepare for a production.”

Gustavo Mercado

Gustavo Mercado is a director and cinematographer who shared camera operating tips with StudentFilmmakers readers. His most important lesson from every shoot: no matter the budget or crew size, something will always try to derail the day, so plan ahead as much as possible, for the role you play as director or cinematographer and for your own physical and mental readiness.

Knowing how to operate a camera expertly, he said, will not matter if you are too tired to function or too stressed at the first sign of trouble. It is advice every young director of photography should keep in the camera case.