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How a phenomenon was produced on a shoestring budget.
Lessons from the production and portrayals of race, gender, and politics in Paul Thomas Anderson’s film about revolutionaries and supremacists, parents and children.
From basic idea, to technical demos, to masterclass: how the DP of Knives Out (2019), Glass Onion (2022), Wake Up Dead Man (2025), and The Last Jedi (2017) makes digital look like film.
The craft and impact of the four single-take episodes.
Why the obvious response to low light – to raise the ISO – isn’t the best for clean digital image capture.
A roundup of techniques for in-camera visual effects, and where and how they might be used.
A scrapbook of influential music videos which use lighting, costume, editing, and art direction to create striking images – in-camera.
A fun, hands-on way to learn the craft – and illusion – of film-making.
Or: How sustainable practices can make a $14.3 million film look like a blockbuster.
Placing light sources within shots – and how it can improve them.
Beginner’s guides to light, from warm to cool – and how the camera captures it.
Techniques for creating more engaging visual storytelling, with better staging and composition.
A roundup of breakdowns of the DP’s distinctive look across the films of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
A scrapbook of the stunning visuals in the first season of the Marvel series.
A study of the ways the director uses his most powerful storytelling tool.
Get creative by using gobos for more theatrical lighting.
Balancing light and dark in your image – the cinematic way.
An intro to incorporating holograms into your film.
A collection of guides to working with only natural or available light.
A roundup of ways to work on and improve you lighting in isolation.
Colour and flexibility in The Neon Demon and Honey Boy.
Potentially eliminate the need for (not to mention the cost of) additional lighting equipment such as flags, screens and gags?
Explainers and tutorials about the film-making secret to controlled, “natural” light.
“Sometimes, in order to get to the deepest emotional depths of a character, capturing a feeling, rather than reality, is more important.”
How Paul Thomas Anderson made a film without a director of photography.
Where does the director’s job end and the DP’s begin?
Daytime Horror Sci-Fi, and how they made it happen.
Tips for creating product videos which look CGI-slick, but are mostly made with in-camera techniques and careful pre-planning.
A classic in-camera special effect, used in countless films, as old as cinema itself.
A masterclass in the director of photography’s low key ambient lighting visual style.