{"id":8535,"date":"2020-04-03T18:30:09","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T18:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nyglamour.net\/?p=8535"},"modified":"2026-02-03T04:07:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:07:03","slug":"i-think-my-strength-is-in-crafting-the-imagery-for-films-andrew-denatale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/?p=8535","title":{"rendered":"“I think my strength is in crafting the imagery for films” -Andrew DeNatale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Exclusive interview with Andrew DeNatale<\/strong> -Cinematographer<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> How did you get started\nin your career?  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nfirst started cinematography in college working on projects for friends. Since\nthen I got to meet alumni and grow my role in the camera department. My network\nhas expanded from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What is your experience\nshooting with different tools? What are you to go to gadgets? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\nalways have a Leatherman on my belt. It usually takes care of 99% of the issues\nthat come up on set. I also carry a multi tool made by Red Camera called the\nsidewinder that includes a set of hex and driver bits that fit most of the\nscrews used in digital cameras these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Which specific\nrequirements did you have to take care of when choosing your equipment?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking equipment for a project is a mix of\nchoosing what we can afford to rent vs what kind of equipment works for the\nscenes we have to film. Since we made Jack turbo in college we used the schools\nequipment free of charge. That year the school had just acquired two Alexa\nClassic cameras and a set of lenses for them. The Alexa has been used in almost\nevery Hollywood movie since digital cinema cameras were introduced and there\u2019s\na reason for it. The images it can produce have rich and deep skin tones and a\nfilm-like quality to the highlights and shadows. I was blown away after seeing\nthe quality of the files for the first time. When it comes to picking lighting\nequipment LEDs have become the bread and butter of indie filmmakers. They are\ncheap and can offer a high output and color quality now that the technology has\ngotten better. In addition they have lots of compact form factors that make\nusing them in small spaces ideal. But for Jack Turbo, we stuck mainly with HMI\nand Tungsten lighting since that was what was available to us. I like the way\ntungsten lights can bring a lot of warmth in skin tones, it\u2019s something that\nLEDs haven\u2019t quite caught up to yet. Darcy and I felt like the script didn\u2019t\ncall for any flashy camera moves so we didn\u2019t worry about finding any jibs or\ncranes to put the camera on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What are you currently\nworking on? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m\nmidway through production on a short film about a young woman coming to terms\nwith her troubled sibling relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Did you like the\nscript?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nattracted me to the script was a strong focus on characters and I felt it would\nbe a fun challenge to recreate the style and tone of 80s TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Did you have a\nparticular shooting approach when making this film?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shooting Jack Turbo meant shooting two films.\nOne was John and the kid\u2019s storyline. The other were the original Turbo\nepisodes that they connect over. Developing a visual style for both was\nimportant. The former was more grounded and naturalistic. The latter was more\nstylized and cartoonish to match the aesthetics of 80s television. Given\nthe time and budget limitations we had, our focus was on lighting for an entire\nsetup and modulating small key elements scene to scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Was there a scene in\nthe film that was particularly challenging from conception to actual execution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncloset reveal scene was a challenge given the physical constraints of the\nlocation. Not only did we light it day for night, but we also had to capture\nthe excitement and moment of discovery that the kid has within a small set.\nChoosing to simplify the lighting setup and stick to wider lenses helped make\nthe set feel larger and more mysterious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What was the atmosphere\nlike on the set?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone got along very well on set. Since our school\u2019s film department was very small, we were used to replying on each other to do fill multiple roles at once. I knew that in a pinch I could ask someone from the camera team to help with lighting if we were behind schedule. Darcy and our producer Gen established a professional attitude on set that helped keep everyone focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> How do you define the role of cinematographer?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I usually think of my role as\nthe person in charge of executing visual style and elements of the script. For\nJack Turbo this meant developing a distinct visual language for the TV episodes\nand the main film. Darcy wanted this film to feel warm and honest while\nremaining down to earth. We spent a lot of time looking at classic 80\u2019s TV\nshows to understand how they approached lighting, camera angles, and shot\nchoices. For the main part of the film many of our visual references came from\nmovies like Children of Men, Memento, and A Serious Man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What have been some of your recent\/other projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things I\u2019ve worked recently\ninclude a web series for Adult Swim, a couple correspondent shorts for The\nDaily Show with Trevor Noah, and a spoof documentary called The Real Super\nMario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> How do you choose your movies that you want to shoot?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I first get an offer, I\nlike to read through the script and have a discussion with the director about\ntheir piece and see if we are on the same page about how the story might look.\nI look for stories that have well written characters and strong visual\nelements. I like to mark up the script with notes about how I might shoot a\nscene, how the camera might be motivated, or different lighting elements I\nimagine coming into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What are your preferred shooting locations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve spent most of my career so\nfar filming on location rather than in studios. Being in New York means you end\nup filming in a lot of small apartments. It\u2019s always a creative challenge to be\nable to light a space so it feels natural and also dynamic when your options\nare so limited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Is there a film or film maker that inspired you to pick up a camera?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until coming to\ncollege that I first dipped my toes into filmmaking and I\u2019m not sure if there\nwas one film or filmmaker who first inspired me. Once I started watching more\nfilms, I was fascinated with the effect cinematography had on a movie. I\u2019ve\nalways found cinematography to be a highly technical and<\/em> creative\nexercise. I think it uses both sides of the brain that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Describe your biggest accomplishment to date?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer my cinematography\nprofessor from college called me about a film he was going to be shooting. I originally\nwas going to be his 1st<\/sup> Ac but shortly after he said he wasn\u2019t able\nto work on it anymore and recommended I take over his position as DP. While I\u2019m\nproud of all the project\u2019s I\u2019ve been able to work on so far, it was a nice\nfeeling to know he had that much confidence in my abilities as a filmmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> Do you ever think about directing someday?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent a short amount of time\ndirecting early in college and found that it wasn\u2019t for me. I think my strength\nis in crafting the imagery for films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NY\nGlam:<\/strong> What are some of the projects that you are working next? Who are you\nworking with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darcy and I just finished the\nfirst season of a web series called A Tall Order which stars him and my\ngirlfriend Carson. Every episode they make a new classic cocktail in pursuit of\na drink that Carson can truly enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exclusive interview with Andrew DeNatale -Cinematographer NY Glam: How did you get started in your career?  I first started cinematography in college working on projects for friends. Since then I got to meet alumni and grow my role in the camera department. My network has expanded from there. NY Glam: What is your experience shooting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19271,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8535\/revisions\/19271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}