I AM A CINEMATOGRAPHER

How does one write a mission statement /PR campaign to declare their AVAILABILITY without a lot of ‘I’s” & ‘Me’s', whilst doing their best to stay humble?? ? ?

Here goes…

?? ? I am a cinematographer, that is how I ‘usually’ make a living and have for the past 20 of my 35 year filmmaking career. My aspirations in my chosen profession are balanced with a well rounded, solid foundation of knowledge, skill, artistry and experience. I made some very serious and calculated moves to build that solid foundation over the years.? Learning from others as I went along, listening to mentors and working with some amazing people on a very wide variety of projects. With a combination of luck, serendipity, hard work, dedication and tenacity opportunities presented themselves. To this day I continue to push myself and push against any type cast or pigeon hole I’m expected to accept.? While also being very present and grateful for every tiny, small, medium and big job I get.? I love working with my usual suspects, but I also relish in the opportunity to work with and learn from new ones.? They both have their perks, but to be honest, keeping the folks I came up with working is the most emotionally rewarding. ?

?? ? That said, due to changes in commercial work as well as feeding my desires, I found myself working more in narrative in recent years both as a cinematographer and camera operator. No doubt all my years in so many styles of filmmaking allowed for the opportunity to support those professionals who saw my experience as an asset.?

?? ? My commercial work continues to flourish mostly with a wide variety of sports related spots, working with some of the biggest names. Then there is the wonderful live action and spokesperson work.? All this different work constantly feeds my creativity and welcomed aesthetic challenges. Not every spot is lit or handled the same way, I am always up for anything new so I can pull from my resources and experience to make a spot that much better.

?? ? My commercial cinematography career began in tabletop, one warning that still lingers to this day, ‘you will spend your entire career trying to get out of it.’ Have I been pigeon holed? Yep. A few years back, I was leapfrogging between spots for Nike, The USMC and Kraft.? None of the agencies knew me for anything other than what I was shooting for them.? With that I will share my anecdotal story:? On a Kraft job, there was a specific ‘holy spoon’ that was cleared for use. The issue: They only had one. On this particular shoot, we were on location, our set up was a few doors down from the live action set.? We were lit, products in place, hand model at the ready, but we didn’t have the ‘holy spoon.’ I kid you not, we waited a minimum of 30 minutes for first unit to surrender the 'holy spoon’ to us. (no, it’s not on my reel). CUT TO: One week later, I am lensing a spot for the USMC, we were shooting a loading sequence with the giant Osprey helicopters, one was on the ground two were in the air. I needed to position the one in the air just over the tail of the one on the ground. I coordinated with our trusty Marines to navigate its placement. We were moving this billion dollar behemoth in incremental steps, inches from our perspective, to place it just right. It took about 5 minutes for the perfect placement. Kudos to Steadicam Op Scott Dropkin, for capturing that moment on his phone, so surreal.?

?? ? The flip side to this was working with director Brad Tucker and producer Winston Smith, who saw the opportunity in my skillset, hiring me for both tabletop and live action, there was also plenty of green screen, camera moves and VFX.? It is in those moments when I am running on all twelve cylinders, accessing years of experience and truly in the Zone that I crave.? It is truly exhilarating! (yes, I was probably flying - see previous post for reference). ?

?? ? This brings me back to my roots, those early days in VFX, where I got my start, the foundation that made me the cinematographer I am today. With the award winning ‘Oedipus’ a stop motion film (captured with a DSLR and projected in film for the first time ever)and the first ever student IMAX film (yes in film) ‘The Princess & The Pea.’ Both films were made at roughly the same time.?Then there is my work in High Speed, the other side of the spectrum from stop motion, this is another medium I am known for. (for you kids out there, stop motion can be filmed as slow as 1 frame per hour, where as high speed films at, the highest for me was 50,000 frames per second, but more common is around 360 frames per second)? For some time I was the go-to guy for High Speed, in fact landing a job in Colombia, where two agency’s were apparently using my reel in their pitch. Additionally I was tapped by the Visual Effects Society to write the chapter on the subject of High Speed Cinematography, now going into its 4th edition.

?? ? It is an amazing journey, from my roots as a dopey kid in NJ, with dreams of working in music - pivoting to the visual arts somewhere in college - migrating 3000 miles - landing that first PA gig - working my first Disney movie at 26 - traveling the world as a camera tech and AC - moving up to commercial DP - traveling the world as a DP - expanding that career to directing commercials - striving and expanding my horizons with different genres, inviting new challenges and artistic endeavors. ?

If you haven’t guessed, this is a sales pitch: Call me, Put me on hold, Hire me ;-) ? But this is also my way of sharing this incredible journey, my skillset and perhaps sparking recognition as to what an asset I could be to any production. There is so much more I would love to share… To my knowledge there is no replacement for experience, a collaborative spirit and the chill factor all that brings.

?? ? In closing, yes I do and have directed, some may see this as an asset, I guess some see it as competition. Truth is I need/love to work, if I am offered an opportunity and I can do it, I do it.? It is really challenging sitting on the shelf like Woody and Buzz waiting to be played with. Additionally I created camera operating opportunities by operating on my own projects. Oddly landing operating gigs had more challenges than becoming a DP, so after many years and creating a reel from my own work, I am finally accepted as an operator as well.? Another fun anecdote: I jokingly say "I can follow a gnat in the dark with a remote head on wheels.” I did come close to that once on a bud slim commercial, the AD blurted something to that effect out, hence where the idea came from.? I am also a published journalist for a handful of trade magazines, as well as a screenwriter.? And lo and behold, I am developing my first feature, budgeting it out as we live and breathe. But I still need to work, turns out development doesn’t pay when you are doing it yourself. I share this to be transparent and to hopefully quell competitive anxiety, I do believe rising tides raise all ships.

?Let’s Work Together!

I AM A FILMMAKER.

www.jimmymatlosz.com