American Cinematographer - April 2022 - 10

Shot Craft By Jay Holben
A Look Back: New Media as Training Ground
The web series The Legion of
Extraordinary Dancers, aka LXD, was
shot by future ASC member Alice Brooks
and directed by Jon M. Chu.
Many cinematographers find that
early opportunities come from short
films, music videos and low-budget
features. In the 2000s, " new media "
offered additional opportunities,
primarily with online streaming of
short-form narratives.
Until Netflix started online exhibition
in 2007, and the motion-picture
world began to fully incorporate
streaming into their business
models, new media was essentially
classified as " experimental " content,
and allowed cinematographers a
venue to express their visual talents
in a less restrictive and more inclusive
environment.
This installment of Shot Craft
spotlights Tommy Maddox-Upshaw
and Alice Brooks, two of our esteemed
ASC members who cut their
visual teeth on web series early in
their careers.
Between Indie and Studio
Maddox-Upshaw received a nomination
for his work on the episodic
television series Snowfall at this
10 / APRIL 2022
year's ASC Awards - the winners of
which had not yet been announced
at press time - and is also known
for his work on Fox's Empire and the
new Showtime series The Man Who
Fell to Earth. One of Maddox-Upshaw's
first features was Polish Bar
in 2010 with producer Effie Brown.
Two years later, Brown called the
cinematographer for a collection of
web series with her and producer
Jon Avnet for the YouTube channel
WIGS. Maddox-Upshaw signed on
and shot one episode of the Maura
Tierney-driven Ruth & Erica and all
six episodes of Ro.
" These were a bit experimental
and a hybrid of independent
low-budget and studio productions, "
says Maddox-Upshaw. " We had
A-list talent and a little bit of money
to work with, but the [episodes]
were on tight schedules. It was
an interesting hybrid between the
run-and-gun that I was used to and
something with a bigger budget,
but it was just shy of enough money
to really execute things right. The
sets looked good, but they were a
lot smaller than we wanted. "
In terms of how this experience
informed his later career, Maddox-Upshaw
says, " Everything I've
done is a culmination of where I am
now. These shows were definitely
a help to me, but so was - and
maybe more so - my time in reality
TV. That was really a time of runand-gun
problem solving. I'd almost
rather have to create something
from nothing than have a little bit
and be hamstrung. When you're in
that middle ground, there's almost
more of a compromise where your
shot structure changes on the day
because the set execution isn't
what you planned for. That was
definitely a lesson on the web series
- how to make a tiny set look like
it had depth. It became a technique
of making sure light fell off before
it hit the walls and then just putting
little detail lights in the background
to create a sense of depth. These
shows also expanded my relationships
with producers Effie Brown
and Jon Avnet, who helped me out
later in my career.
" Everyone should want to be
challenged in the early part of
their career - so that when the
bigger things come, you have a lot
of ground to solve problems, " he
continues. " I used a lot of short- and
low-budget productions to develop
a better foundation for knowing
optics and light fixtures. Those
early no-budget gigs are why, to
this day, I shoot certain incandescent
sources and not others. Even
" Everyone should want to be challenged in the
early part of their career - so that when the
bigger things come, you have a lot of ground to
solve problems. "
SCREEN-PULL FROM HULU SERIES THE LEGION OF EXTRAORDINARY DANCERS.
American Cinematographer - April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2022
