Life is unpredictable, and I feel, to some extent, lighting and cinematography should be a reflection of that.
Success doesn't come overnight, especially for women.
Photography was a way for me to freeze time and to capture the moments that were happy and healthy. I saw a photo as a way to go back to a memory if I ever needed to.
The cinematographer's basically translating the director's vision into imagery.
Cinematography speaks to everything that women do inherently well: It's multitasking, it's empathy, and it's channeling visuals into human emotion.
Usually, if you notice good cinematography, then the cinematographer's failing. I try to make light feel like it's always motivated and natural in some way and hope that the lighting goes unnoticed.
Sometimes it just takes a little longer to get to your destination, but if you make sure to enjoy the journey, eventually you will get there.
Cinematography is so much about instinct and intuition - you want the same range of experience going into behind the camera as what you see in front of it. Your life experience will come through the lens.
I love faces that have freckles. I love faces that have wrinkles. For me, beauty is naturalism, I guess.
The theatrical experience is also a communal one. When people saw 'Fruitvale' in the theater, there was not a dry eye at the end of the movie, and you would look to your neighbor and have this shared moment together that had a real weight behind it.
You just sort of get used to being one of the only women on set, so it's really refreshing to start to enter a time when that's not the case anymore.
I think 'Sound of My Voice' was the first film where suddenly I could point to something I had done that I was proud of and say, 'Look at this piece of work.' And that's probably what led to 'Fruitvale Station,' which was the real break.
I believe in naturalistic lighting, which isn't to say natural light.
When shooting in real spaces, the work of a cinematographer begins where location meets production design meets time of day. No movie light will ever look as real as the sun, so scheduling becomes truly paramount to naturalistic lighting.
I lived within walking distance of Harvard Square, and that's where I discovered my love of cinema. I saw a lot of foreign and independent films there.
I was probably five when I first picked up a camera. My mom had an Olympus OM-10 that she carried around to document our family photos. And I just always loved it.
I find beauty in imperfection.
'Fruitvale' set the bar for what I wanted to do with my career, which was to make films that had consciousness and messaging in an entertaining package. Once I hit that mark, I never wanted to go back.
As artists, we can't help but infuse our art with our own experience, so your experience becomes informative.
For me, it's just always about trying to tell stories that I care about.
