"Spring Cleaning," Layton Blaylock

Blaylock is from Austin, Texas, where he graduated with a degree in television-film from the School of Communication at the University of Texas in Austin. He produced and shot the feature-length documentary Art From the Streets about a program for homeless artists.
Jessiline Berry, a graduate student at Columbia University in New York, contacted Blaylock “out of the blue” about shooting a short film in his hometown. Spring Cleaning follows a young woman who is going through emotional turmoil while coping with her dying mother. Berry had a storyboard and photographs depicting the looks she envisioned and the feelings she wanted to evoke. Blaylock describes them as “realistically dramatic and natural looking.”
Almost half of the film was shot in a small house with the rest at exterior locations, including a barn where a confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist occurs. “We started shooting this long scene with daylight coming into the barn providing key light,” Blaylock says. “By the end it was completely dark outside. We had to constantly make adjustments to keep the light consistent as the natural light faded to dark.”

"The 17th Man," Josh Ellis

Ellis is from Seattle, Washington. He earned a bachelor’s degree in film and video studies at Central Washington University and a master’s degree in film production with a concentration on cinematography at Florida State University.
Ellis became a member of the Guild as an assistant cameraman in 2005. He has worked as first AC on various television series, including South of Nowhere and Noah’s Ark. Ellis also teaches cinematography at the Los Angeles Film School.
The 17th Man is the story of an author who is trying to complete the final book in his best-selling series centered on a sultry, femme fatale character. He begins having visions of her character coming to life and insisting that he continue writing so she can go on killing.
Ellis had previously collaborated with The 17th Man director Yimeng Jin on several short films. Based on Jin’s overall idea for the look of the film, Ellis created a style book from still photographs and paintings. They also referenced the films Dark City and The Cell, among others.
Ellis and Jin produced The 17th Man in 35 mm format in the 1.85 aspect ratio. “I prefer film because of its uniquely real feeling,” says Ellis. “When something is shot and projected on film, there is an indescribable sensation of experiencing the story with the characters in a way that digital and video fall short.”

"Jesus Cooks Me Breakfast," Rachael Levine

Levine grew up in Long Island, New York. She studied photography and communications while attending the University of Delaware. Levine began an internship with producer Dean Silvers in 1995, and subsequently decided to pursue a career in cinematography. On her second venture as a focus puller, she teamed up with cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay, and worked with him as an assistant and operator Roger Dodger, Thumbsucker, P.S, and We Own the Night. Levine was a camera operator for Michael Grady on Factory Girl, and for Tom Richmondon Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Her film Home was featured in the 2004 ICG Showcase.
Jesus Cooks Me Breakfast is a surrealistic comedy about an unmotivated New Yorker named Jules. He is visited by Jesus who tells him God is missing, and that it’s his job to find him. Will Jules take on this monumental task? You have to see the film to find the answer.
The film was produced in Super 16 mm format in and around New York and New Jersey. It was Levine’s first collaboration with director Jason Antoon and producer Sam Robards, who hope to make Jesus Cooks Me Breakfast into a feature-length film. “I went through a lot of photo magazines for inspiration,” Levine says. “That helped my gaffer and I create a lighting language based on my discussions with the director.”

"Singularity," Eduardo Mayen

Mayen was born in El Salvador and raised there during the Civil War that wracked the country during the 1980s. After graduating from art school in 1998, Mayen was working as a P.A. for a TV commercial company when a director brought Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, a young cinematographer from Mexico, to El Salvador to shoot an airline commercial. Prieto and his artful camerawork inspired Mayen to become a cinematographer.
Mayen enrolled in a two-year film studies program at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. After graduation in 2003, he interned with Prieto on 21 Grams and assisted him with a previewing system that was used on Alexander, directed by Oliver Stone. “That’s when I met Sean Stone,” Mayen says. “He is Oliver’s eldest son. Sean wrote and directed Singularity and asked me to shoot it. It’s a story about two guys and a gal who are friends until differences in what they believe in causes them to grow apart. There are a lot of flashbacks and flash forwards until you don’t know what is current and what is in the past. It’s open to interpretation … it’s very subjective cinematography.”
They produced Singularity in 35 mm anamorphic format using the widescreen aspect ratio to separate the friends as a visual metaphor as they are growing apart. Mayen also used fat stops at T4.0 and T5.6 when the friendship is intact. As it begins deteriorating, he used shallower depth of field at T2.8 and T2 along with a cooler color palette.
Mayen also counts Robbie Greenberg, ASC among his mentors. He recently worked as a second assistant with Greenberg on Crazy on the Outside. “I watched and discussed some of Robby’s films with him,” he says. “It was inspiring.”

"Para-Normal," Aaron Medick

Medick grew up in upstate New York and studied cinematography at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Medick had collaborated with director/producer Lauren Timmons previously on a short film.
Para-Normal is a thriller about supernatural research gone awry. It was produced over a series of nights in Fort Totten, a decommissioned U.S. Army base in Queens, New York.
“We wanted to keep the camera moving as much as possible, inspired by the camera movement in The Shining,” says Medick. “We wanted to give people that frantic feeling. For the lighting, we took inspiration from Rosemary’s Baby, In Cold Blood, and in a scene we shot in a basement closet, L.A. Confidential. Everything was lit by flashlights, moonlight or an attic lamp.”
Medick and Timmons chose to produce Para-Normal in Super 16 format using an ARRI SR3 camera and KODAK VISION2 500T 7218 film, which enabled them to move freely and shoot in minimal light. Color correction was done at DuArt in New York City.

"Demption," Gerry O'Malley

O’Malley grew up on Boston, attended Wesleyan University, and started as a loader on the crew of Gordon Willis, ASC. He is currently working with Ross Berryman on the television production Dollhouse. He photographed Demption for director-producer Jason Neudecker, with whom he had formed a relationship on the television series Numbers.
In Demption, a burned-out junkie returns the money he and his wife stole from their twisted dealer. A detective then tries to retrace their violent path and uncover the truth. “Jason wanted to use color to differentiate the past from the present,” says O’Malley. “We decided to shoot 35 mm because he was intent on having a print to show at festivals.”

"Noisemaker," Michael Svitak

Svitak is a native of Fort Collins, Colorado. He earned a degree in film production from the University of Colorado. His experience includes stints as a film loader on crews with Dan Mindel, Paul Cameron, ASC, Shane Hurlbut, ASC, Dion Beebe, ACS, ACS, and Bill Roe, ASC.
Noisemaker is a comedic, sci-fi/Western set in 1874. A mute farmer finds something futuristic lying in the dirt — a cell phone. When it begins to ring, his whole world is thrown off-kilter. The film was directed by Adam Picchietti. Svitak had previously worked with him on commercials and other short films.
“We watched a lot of work by Sergio Leone, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Terry Gilliam, but the film that most closely resembled the look we were going for was Unforgiven,” he says. “We agreed that 35 mm film would be the optimal way to make Noisemaker to capture the richness of the Western scenes.”
The film was produced in four days, mostly at Aqua Dulce Canyon in Southern California, using KODAK VISION2 films.

"Lola," Suad Kutlug

Kutlug was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He enrolled at an American college in Istanbul and transferred to a school in Anchorage, Alaska, where he studied hotel/restaurant management and tourism. Kutlug and his wife moved to Seattle and then to New York City about 10 years ago when a college friend got him started as a P.A. on commercials. Kutlug joined the Guild as an assistant cameraman two years ago.
“Betty Garcia is an actress whom I met on a commercial,” he says. “Betty asked me to shoot a short film that she wrote and was going to direct. A TV commercial company loaned us an HD camera with a broken handle. There was no way to control the zoom and no onboard mic. There were cracks on the surface that I taped to keep dust from getting inside.”
Lola is a 12-minute film about a Latino girl who comes to New York in pursuit of a dream. She answers an ad on the Internet and gets entangled with the wrong crowd. “We shot it in on the streets of uptown Manhattan in Betty’s mother’s apartment and in a bar where I shot day for night,” Kutlug says. “I spent about 10 hours with the editor helping to pace the story to capture the feelings ingrained in the images.

"Cruel Logic," James O'Keeffe

O'Keeffe was born and raised in Bluefield, West Virginia. He graduated from North Carolina State University and studied photography at Brooks Institute where he earned a bachelor’s in motion picture production. O’Keeffe worked on 16 mm educational film crews in all capacities before segueing into television news as a cameraman/editor. He has been a member of Local 600 since 1991. His credits during the past 20 years include feature and television films, PSAs, music videos and documentaries. O’Keeffe directed and shot Max which won a 2005 ICG Showcase award. He also teaches cinematography at USC School of Cinematic Arts.
Cruel Logic is Brian Godawa’s short film about a brilliant serial killer who videotapes college faculty victims while debating his moral right to kill them. O’Keeffe and Godawa shot Cruel Logic in one day at Bedlam Warehouse in downtown Los Angeles using a Viper camera and keying off of practical light, which enabled them to work quickly from a variety of camera angles.

"Love," Mark Williams

Williams was born and raised in Los Angeles. He had a penchant for still photography during his youth. Williams was working as a chef when he met his future wife, a producer/production manager, while she was exploring the possibility of getting into the restaurant business. He began his career as a P.A. for her.
Williams was an A.D. before becoming a camera loader and assistant cameraman on film crews with Steven H. Burum, ASC, Salvatore Totino, ASC, Robert Richardson, ASC and Lance Acord, ASC. “Their passion for cinematography was contagious,” he says. Williams has stepped up to cinematographer. His credits include TV spots for Chevron, Microsoft, Gillette and Coca Cola.