GIRLS ON FILM Cinematographer Suzie Lavelle BSC ISC divulges insights into her craft for the film adaptation of Megan Hunter’s book, The End We Start From, meticulously tailored for the screen. Within her process, she elaborates on sculpting the visually…
OLD FLAME Unfazed by the challenge of limited resources, cinematographer Eleanor Bowman ISC used natural light and candlelit compositions to her advantage to lend an eerie suspense to Irish period piece Lies We Tell.  J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s 1864 Gothic…
WOMEN OF THE HOUR Taylor Swift’s ‘Anti Hero’ video, written and directed by the multi-hyphenate singer, was a big hit with MTV Video Music Awards voters. Best Cinematography winner Rina Yang BSC reflects on her work on the fun shoot. …
Beatrice da Gama on reflecting the grit of 1700s Cornwall in the visual language of her NFTS graduate film, Bal Maiden. In the rugged landscape of 1700s Cornwall, Bal Maiden unfolds as an intense, unpaved road movie centred around two…
Essi Hyrkki leant into a naturalistic, documentary-style visual storytelling when crafting her NFTS graduate film Latcho Drom. Latcho Drom is a subtle, poetic film about three Romani brothers and their struggle to move on after the death of their father.…
Cinematographer Sunshine Hsien Yu Niu opted for a handheld approach for her NFTS graduate film, Rock, Paper, Scissors, based on a true story. Rock, Paper, Scissors follows a father and son who run a makeshift hospital on the front line.…
COVID caper The COVID-19 pandemic stands as one of the most transformative periods in recent human history, reshaping societies, economies, and individual lives on a global scale. Cinematographer Arlene Müller explains how she brought this lamentable period back to the…
Finding magic in monochrome First-time filmmaker D. Smith’s unflinching lens contrasts the strength and struggles of America’s Black trans sex workers. One of the most striking things about Kokomo City – a documentary that’s hardly shrinking in its tone or…
The boys of summer Twins Rémi and Raphaël are growing up – and growing apart. A summer in the mountains reignites their childhood bond, captured through Myriam Payette’s intimate lens. Justine Martin’s documentary short Oasis is a honey-hued love letter…
Dark and stormy Ari Wegner ASC ACS takes on the psycho drama of Eileen and the wintry conditions of a New Jersey shoot. Reuniting for the first time since Lady Macbeth in 2016, director William Oldroyd and cinematographer Ari Wegner…
Night of fancy Boston’s oldest – and most notorious – queer bar rises from the ashes for one final night of fun in Georden West’s interdisciplinary spectacle, reuniting a striking cast of characters who worked and played there over the…
Lensing a love letter Cathy Ye’s experience shooting narrative projects brought a new creative dimension to experimental documentary Bone Black: Midwives vs. The South. Shifting into the documentary space also taught the cinematographer the importance of being reactive and adaptable.…
Female gaze Adura Onashile’s personal portrayal of a fraying maternal bond in Girl gave cinematographer Tasha Back plenty of opportunity to paint with light and colour in Glasgow’s concrete jungle. When Ama hits puberty, her impending womanhood proves an unwanted…
Asking the big questions Lensing filmmaker Ella Glendining’s intensely personal journey of discovery brought the issue of ableism into sharp focus for cinematographer Annemarie Lean-Vercoe. “This film is not about the body; it is about the soul. It is about…
PLAYING BY THE BOOK Faced with a tight timeframe to shoot Heartstopper’s second season, cinematographer Simona Susnea reveals the creative and technical processes that helped her beat the clock when capturing Charlie and Nick’s cross-Channel adventure, while paying homage to…
The morning after Cinematographer Carmen Pellon Brussosa on striking the perfect balance of comedy and drama in her lensing of gender-flipping short film Does Your Condom Make You Fat? After a boozy night with his date, Owen wakes up to…
MORAL DILEMMA A right-to-die evangelist is forced to confront his faith and morality after meeting his latest client in a quietly powerful two-hander from filmmaking brothers Paul and Simon Wade, lensed by Donna Wade.  Despite a runtime of just 18…
WILD CHILD Queen of genre filmmaking Jennifer Reeder’s new horror about a supernaturally transformed teenager, lensed by Sevdije Kastrati, oozes with feist and feminism. The ‘troubled teen’, one of the most riffed-on coming-of-age stories, is captured in a bloody new…
The power of the pen Class divides and family dynamics are tested in Alice Troughton’s psychological thriller, as a young author becomes a tutor for a writing maestro’s son. Anna Patarakina FSF tells us how she translated Troughton’s vision into…
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED It’s been over 160 years since Charles Dickens published his penultimate novel, but his oeuvre is an endless source of inspiration for contemporary creatives. Cinematographers Dan Atherton and Kate Reid BSC reveal how they crafted the visual…
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS Fusing film and digital capture, cinematographer Greta Zozula portrays the nuances of shifting father-daughter dynamics in the shadow of the AIDS epidemic in Fairyland. The halcyon days of a ‘70s San Franciscan childhood are juxtaposed with…
LOVE AND WAR Tasked with shooting the second block of Dangerous Liaisons, Ashley Barron ACS was able to add her own creative stamp in her lensing.   When Ashley Barron ACS started on Dangerous Liaisons as the second block DP, the…
FUTURE PAST Against the bomb-strewn backdrop of the Second World War, a clever pair of sisters, Thom and Mars, are hard at work creating something extraordinary: LOLA. But despite its name, the titular star of Andrew Legge’s found-footage feature is…
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