3D AND LIVE ACTION CINEMATOGRAPHER
CSC ASSOCIATE MEMBER, INTERNATIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHER'S GUILD LOCAL 669
"Days of Heaven meets Boardwalk Empire cinematography" - The Georgia Straight
Communicating EMOTIONS THROUGH IMAGES
What does it take to make iconic motion pictures?
Composing a stylish, polished image with a sophisticated sense of story is where my skill and passion collide - both in 3d software and in live action.
I connect each team member to a vision that everyone can understand and get excited about. I translate creative into technical for technicians, and technical to creatives in visual terms.
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My well honed skill is to understand the genre and story needs, the goals of the director and the team, then translate that into camera placement, lighting, lensing, composition and movement.
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REELS
DEFINING THE VISUAL LANGUAGE
Working with talented teams to create stylish motion pictures has been my full-time passion for 19 years.
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Choosing the most potent composition, the most impactful camera move with the right lens to create a visceral response in the audience is my favourite thing to do!
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Does the POV of the camera represent a specific character? What focal lengths and camera movements communicate the power dynamics of the characters? With all that in mind, which colours should we use? When? And why?
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Steadicam vs handheld, spherical vs anamorphic lenses, low angles vs high. Nothing is arbitrary.
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Connect everything to the story and the subtext, and we will have defined our visual language.
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It's possible that we'll have to compromise for time and budget, but since we defined and communicated our goals, our results stay located within the vision no matter what gets in the way.
SHOT SELECTION AND COMPOSITION
I "see" in 35mm. Intuitively understanding the field of view of each lens and what it means to the audience within the context of the medium, the genre, and the story.
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Creating an image that resonates with an audience and feels right requires understanding of dozens of tiny image quality characteristics. My deep understanding of optics and lensing is as useful in filmmaking as it is in video games and animation. Each medium has its own vocabulary, but the perception of the audience is steered by the same evolutionary biology cues, no matter which medium.
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I marry that understanding with the overall vision of the team to design, light and compose shots.
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I love working with tools like Unreal Engine or Maya. With my keen sense of the realities of filmmaking in the physical world, I appreciate the ease of these digital tools.
COMMUNICATING WITH THE TEAM
I'm highly skilled at communicating both upstream and downstream to teams.
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Over 10 years as a part-time cinematography instructor, I have sharpened my ability to communicate nuanced image quality characteristics to folks with every kind of skill level, cultural, language and neurological background.
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Knowing what to emphasize for a person to do their job makes me an effective communicator and team leader.
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Some colleagues need to know in a single sentence what shot will grab audiences in a trailer, and others need to know detailed minutia about the edge softness, chromatic aberration and barrel distortion of a particular 1980s anamorphic lens.
ENSURING VISUAL CONSISTENCY
On a horror anthology series like "Two Sentence Horror Stories" (Warner Brothers/The CW Network/Netflix), every episode has a different subgenre, cast, and director.
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Creating a high level vision for the entire show was critical for consistency. Creator and showrunner Vera Maio told me each episode should feel like "a different nightmare from the same mind."
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I translated that vision so studio executives, department heads, downstream artists and technicians could understand, get excited about it, and execute on it.
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Clarity and specificity is key to motivating the artists and technicians who execute the vision. Executives want to be assured that there is an overall vision and plan, and that it is being executed efficiently.
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Warner Brothers was happy to sign off on the "Visual Bible" for the show, and we used the document to explain the visual parameters of the world we had built together throughout prep.
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My work on earned me a nomination at the 2022 Leo Awards, and a "For Your Consideration" campaign for an Emmy nomination for Best Cinematography.
ABOUT ME
Get in Touch!
Let's collaborate on your next project. Reach out via email at naim@naimsutherland.com
I am a "story first" filmmaker. I work to find a point of view from which to base visual decisions. The story and the emotional subtext of scenes guides my thinking on camera placement, lighting, lens and colour choices.
I like to create a visual journey for the audience, taking them on a ride. I think cinematography is best when it is bold and evocative, but grounded firmly in story. In this way I am able to explore stylistic elements for projects to give them a striking, unforgettable look, while avoiding style for its own sake.
I've never really had very large budgets, so my approach is to focus on prep so that complex elements can be thoroughly worked out. My love of 3d was born out of a desire to try things out in pre production prior to being on set.
I'm a pro technology filmmaker. I'm not scared of AI, Unreal, or any tool. I've been fortunate to work with a lot of cutting-edge technology. Understanding the benefits, drawbacks, expensive pitfalls and opportunities of each tool makes me an efficient collaborator.
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The projects I have worked on have won over 20 Leo Awards, and awards of distinction from festivals all over the world. They have screened at TIFF, Tribeca, SXSW, Fantasia, Busan, Clermont-Ferrand, Telefilm Not Short on Talent, Air Canada, during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and as part of the Cineplex Odeon pre-show. And ads you can't skip on YouTube... sorry!