Matthew Libatique is an Oscar-nominated cinematographer best known for his work with director Darren Aronofsky on Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and other films. He received his second Academy Award nomination for Bradley Cooper's directorial debut A Star Is Born, and has worked with Spike Lee, Joel Schumacher, and Jon Favreau. Known for bringing an edgy elegance and psychological tension to films, his unique visual style can also be seen in Tigerland, Phone Booth, Iron Man 1 & 2, and Venom.

MATTHEW LIBATIQUE

I think that early on in my training when I went to graduate school at the American Film Institute it was sort of a mandate not to impose a style on something as a cinematographer. As a cinematographer what you're trying to do is portray the story in the proper way. Of course, there is going to be an aesthetic that you place based on your own taste and what you believe in, maybe some of the things you're attracted to, inspired by, but ultimately everything, all the decisions are made with the narrative in mind. So, I'd like to think that I don't have one distinctive style. What I'd love to do in my career, generally, is to do different work so that it forces me not to repeat myself. I think that the one base layer or foundation for me is to dissect and deconstruct a screenplay so that I could figure out technically what I would apply and eventually form an aesthetic and a visual language for based on the screenplay. And then after that entails doing deep dives into research with photographs and art and music and things that you see in life and things that you remember from your past that sort of inform the things that you choose to do. What time of day, if something in a film has to be the morning, what looks like a morning to me might look different than a morning to somebody else, but as long as I convey morning, I'm doing the film justice.

This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Yu Young Lee.