Florian Hoffmeister · Emmy & BAFTA Award-winning Director of Photography
Pachinko · Great Expectations · Official Secrets
Every time I ask, ‘What do you need? What do I want? What does the director want? How do we collaborate? What is generated during the collaboration? What ideas, questions come across? And then I can start constructing something like a look.
Florian Hoffmeister · Emmy & BAFTA Award-winning Director of Photography
Pachinko · Great Expectations · Official Secrets
Every time I ask, ‘What do you need? What do I want? What does the director want? How do we collaborate? What is generated during the collaboration? What ideas, questions come across? And then I can start constructing something like a look.
Director of Photography of Old Henry
Best Cinematographer Award-Winner · LA Asian Pacific Film Festival
What frame, what scene, ultimately what story is going to capture the most emotion to make you feel something? Because those are the films that have always resonated the most with me. Those films that actually make you feel. They stop you and they make you feel and make you think. They really jar you.
Director of Photography of Old Henry
Best Cinematographer Award-Winner · LA Asian Pacific Film Festival
What frame, what scene, ultimately what story is going to capture the most emotion to make you feel something? Because those are the films that have always resonated the most with me. Those films that actually make you feel. They stop you and they make you feel and make you think. They really jar you.
Award-Winning Underwater Director of Photography
It’s about leaving the planet in a better condition than it is currently. What you’re witnessing is years of neglect. It’s the humans who have screwed it all up, and the warming of the earth is no different. The oceans are changing. The topography is changing. Mussels are being fried when the tides recede. This is all unnatural. Or maybe it’s natural. I think it’s Mother Nature just being pissed off and saying, “This is what you get.” And so it’s up to everyone to change their ways. Their shopping habits, their eating habits, how much gas they use. All that stuff which people think “that can’t affect anything.” Well, you’re seeing the result of it now
Award-Winning Underwater Director of Photography
It’s about leaving the planet in a better condition than it is currently. What you’re witnessing is years of neglect. It’s the humans who have screwed it all up, and the warming of the earth is no different. The oceans are changing. The topography is changing. Mussels are being fried when the tides recede. This is all unnatural. Or maybe it’s natural. I think it’s Mother Nature just being pissed off and saying, “This is what you get.” And so it’s up to everyone to change their ways. Their shopping habits, their eating habits, how much gas they use. All that stuff which people think “that can’t affect anything.” Well, you’re seeing the result of it now
Award-winning Cinematographer
In The Heights, Tick, Tick…Boom!
There’s this children’s book called Miss Rumphius, and I’ve carried it around with me my entire life. It’s about a woman who grandfather tells her three things, and the last one is the most difficult thing of all and that’s to fill the world with beauty. And I give this book to every one of my friends who are having babies, I have a copy with me almost at all times, and I’m reminded of that feeling that Jonathan Larson had in Tick, Tick…Boom! Of how much time do we have to do something great.
Award-winning Cinematographer
In The Heights, Tick, Tick…Boom!
There’s this children’s book called Miss Rumphius, and I’ve carried it around with me my entire life. It’s about a woman who grandfather tells her three things, and the last one is the most difficult thing of all and that’s to fill the world with beauty. And I give this book to every one of my friends who are having babies, I have a copy with me almost at all times, and I’m reminded of that feeling that Jonathan Larson had in Tick, Tick…Boom! Of how much time do we have to do something great.
Australian Cinematographer of the Year (ACS), Denson Baker’s credits include the feature film Ophelia starring Daisy Ridley & Naomi Watts, Measure of a Man with Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer and Luke Wilson, The Luminaries with Eva Green and Eve Hewson, and Domina with Kasia Smutniak and Isabella Rossellini, and the opening and final scenes of Jordan Peele's Academy Award winning Get Out.
Behind the Scenes at The Luminaries courtesy of Denson Baker
DENSON BAKER
One of the first things that we did when we did when we arrived in New Zealand to start pre-production was to travel to some of the actual locations where the story is set. One of them is Hokitika on the West Coast of the south island of New Zealand. And we discovered there’s an absolutely fantastic very small but a little museum that was full of so much incredible archival photography that you could not find searching the internet and the imagery just inspired so many thoughts and ideas and design. What was really interesting is it’s so unique to New Zealand.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Anja Westhues. Digital Media Coordinator is Hannah Story Brown.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.
Australian Cinematographer of the Year (ACS), Denson Baker’s credits include the feature film Ophelia starring Daisy Ridley & Naomi Watts, Measure of a Man with Donald Sutherland, Judy Greer and Luke Wilson, The Luminaries with Eva Green and Eve Hewson, and Domina with Kasia Smutniak and Isabella Rossellini, and the opening and final scenes of Jordan Peele's Academy Award winning Get Out.
Behind the Scenes at The Luminaries courtesy of Denson Baker
DENSON BAKER
One of the first things that we did when we did when we arrived in New Zealand to start pre-production was to travel to some of the actual locations where the story is set. One of them is Hokitika on the West Coast of the south island of New Zealand. And we discovered there’s an absolutely fantastic very small but a little museum that was full of so much incredible archival photography that you could not find searching the internet and the imagery just inspired so many thoughts and ideas and design. What was really interesting is it’s so unique to New Zealand.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Anja Westhues. Digital Media Coordinator is Hannah Story Brown.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.
Martin Ruhe is the internationally-acclaimed German cinematographer behind the Netflix film The Midnight Sky directed by and starring George Clooney. Previously, Ruhe worked on Catch-22, also directed by Clooney, as well as the critically acclaimed Counterpart, Run All Night with Liam Neeson, and the British Independent film award winner Control. Ruhe photographed the dark spy thriller Page Eight for BBC Films, directed by David Hare. The film earned him an American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture/Miniseries Television Award for his work on the film.
Working closely with director Anton Corbijn, Ruhe photographed The American. Starring Clooney as an aging assassin on an assignment to create a specialized weapon, Ruhe’s meticulously arranged shots helped to build the tone of The American, while reviews applauded the film’s beauty. Ruhe lensed Harry Brown, a Michael Caine-starring vigilante thriller which premiered at 2009’s Toronto International Film Festival. His photography on Harry Brown received critical acclaim; Joe Leydon of Variety saying, “The moody lensing by Martin Ruhe vividly conveys the no-hope squalor of a contemporary urban wasteland.” Combining the best cultural influences from the U.S. and Europe, Ruhe is fluent in English, German and Spanish. He loves stills photography and travel.
MARTIN RUHE
Early on in my career, I met a cameraman called Mike Southon. When I was working as a runner in London, on weekends I would try to go to shoots and see as many shoots as I could. Mike once told me our job would be. 10% is craft, 10% is talent, and 80% would be diplomacy. It’s actually interesting because quite often we caught in-between producers telling you, “Oh, you can’t have this.” Or, you have to do this. Or this is the framework. And then directors telling you, “I want to see the whole world at night.” And you go, “That’s a lot of money...” So, I think that’s one interesting thing I learned early on.
There are many people you meet along the way and you pick up things from them. I loved when I started working with Anton Corbijn. His photography is so…he mainly uses one lens. One camera. It’s not complicated, but he gets intimate with people in the way he is with them. That’s why his portrait photography is so stunning. Over the years, it’s relevant because he’s curious, he’s open, and he just allows things to happen. I love that. I love creative things.
Early on, I did some workshops with some of the great DPs like Robby Müller. And then you watch films, you read, you listen to what people have to say about them.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Bret Young. Digital Media Coordinator is Yu Young Lee.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Breaker, Castbox, TuneIn, Overcast, RadioPublic, Podtail, and Listen Notes, among others.
Martin Ruhe is the internationally-acclaimed German cinematographer behind the Netflix film The Midnight Sky directed by and starring George Clooney. Previously, Ruhe worked on Catch-22, also directed by Clooney, as well as the critically acclaimed Counterpart, Run All Night with Liam Neeson, and the British Independent film award winner Control. Ruhe photographed the dark spy thriller Page Eight for BBC Films, directed by David Hare. The film earned him an American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture/Miniseries Television Award for his work on the film.
Working closely with director Anton Corbijn, Ruhe photographed The American. Starring Clooney as an aging assassin on an assignment to create a specialized weapon, Ruhe’s meticulously arranged shots helped to build the tone of The American, while reviews applauded the film’s beauty. Ruhe lensed Harry Brown, a Michael Caine-starring vigilante thriller which premiered at 2009’s Toronto International Film Festival. His photography on Harry Brown received critical acclaim; Joe Leydon of Variety saying, “The moody lensing by Martin Ruhe vividly conveys the no-hope squalor of a contemporary urban wasteland.” Combining the best cultural influences from the U.S. and Europe, Ruhe is fluent in English, German and Spanish. He loves stills photography and travel.
MARTIN RUHE
Early on in my career, I met a cameraman called Mike Southon. When I was working as a runner in London, on weekends I would try to go to shoots and see as many shoots as I could. Mike once told me our job would be. 10% is craft, 10% is talent, and 80% would be diplomacy. It’s actually interesting because quite often we caught in-between producers telling you, “Oh, you can’t have this.” Or, you have to do this. Or this is the framework. And then directors telling you, “I want to see the whole world at night.” And you go, “That’s a lot of money...” So, I think that’s one interesting thing I learned early on.
There are many people you meet along the way and you pick up things from them. I loved when I started working with Anton Corbijn. His photography is so…he mainly uses one lens. One camera. It’s not complicated, but he gets intimate with people in the way he is with them. That’s why his portrait photography is so stunning. Over the years, it’s relevant because he’s curious, he’s open, and he just allows things to happen. I love that. I love creative things.
Early on, I did some workshops with some of the great DPs like Robby Müller. And then you watch films, you read, you listen to what people have to say about them.
This interview was conducted by Mia Funk with the participation of collaborating universities and students. Associate Interviews Producer on this podcast was Bret Young. Digital Media Coordinator is Yu Young Lee.
Mia Funk is an artist, interviewer and founder of The Creative Process.
Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Breaker, Castbox, TuneIn, Overcast, RadioPublic, Podtail, and Listen Notes, among others.
Twice Academy Award Nominated 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. And 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.
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. And 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.
Award-Winning Screenwriter & Novelist
Edward Scissorhands · The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tim Burton had just Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He was at some point in the making of Beetlejuice. Our agency didn’t know what to do with either of us with our off-kilter sensibility, so they introduced us, and we immediately felt a kinship and became friends. It was pretty clear from pretty early on that we wanted to work together. We threw out ideas. Among the ideas we talked about Tim mentioned to me a drawing he had made in high school of a character who had scissors instead of hands. And I said, ‘Stop right there!; First of all, this may surprise you, it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard in my life, so I knew it was brilliant. It was so simple and so stupid and such an obvious metaphor, I knew that it had power beyond belief. I said, ‘Stop, I know exactly what to do with that!’
Award-Winning Screenwriter & Novelist
Tim Burton had just Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He was at some point in the making of Beetlejuice. Our agency didn’t know what to do with either of us with our off-kilter sensibility, so they introduced us, and we immediately felt a kinship and became friends. It was pretty clear from pretty early on that we wanted to work together. We threw out ideas. Among the ideas we talked about Tim mentioned to me a drawing he had made in high school of a character who had scissors instead of hands. And I said, ‘Stop right there!; First of all, this may surprise you, it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard in my life, so I knew it was brilliant. It was so simple and so stupid and such an obvious metaphor, I knew that it had power beyond belief. I said, ‘Stop, I know exactly what to do with that!’
