The Cinematography Podcast

James Laxton, ASC is the Academy Award nominated cinematographer of Moonlight. His latest project is Season 2 of Beef, the acclaimed Netflix series created by Lee Sung Jin. This season explores themes of love, class, and generational cycles.

Key Podcast Highlights:
-How James and Lee built a color palette of spring, summer, autumn, and winter that stays continuous through lighting, costume, and production design to give each couple their own visual world.
-Why shooting on the large-format ARRI 265 was a thematic decision, presenting characters as larger than life symbols of forces far bigger than themselves.
-How light and framing portray the power dynamics, from a harsh, undiffused backlit golf course confrontation to wide symmetrical frames of opulence that trap characters inside the class structures surrounding them.
-How James and Lee established a shared visual language, honoring the DNA of Season 1 while pushing the show somewhere entirely new.

Find James Laxton: http://jameslaxton.com/
Instagram: @mrjameslaxton
See Beef s. 2 on Netflix
Hear our previous episode with James Laxton on Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk: https://www.camnoir.com/ep63/

SHOW RUNDOWN:

02:09 Close Focus
14:17-55:08 James Laxton interview
55:54 Short ends
01:07:09 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

Krzysztof Trojnar is the cinematographer of the Netflix series, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. It’s a genuinely unsettling horror show about a woman whose anxiety about an upcoming family wedding spirals into something far darker, with Krzysztof's camera work enhancing the feeling of dread.

Key Podcast Highlights:
-How the visual language of the show deliberately evolves across episodes, moving from Steadicam to gimbal to handheld to body rig, mirroring the protagonist's psychological deterioration in real time.
-Committing to a single lens for nearly the entire show. Krzysztof shot roughly 90% of the series on a 25mm, and he explains exactly why that choice creates presence without distortion.
-Fabricating a custom 360° body camera rig from scratch, because nothing like it existed as a rental. The rig used a Steadicam vest fitted with an industrial bearing to orbit the camera around the actress in the show's harrowing final episode.

Find Krzysztof Trojnar: https://krzysztoftrojnar.com/
Instagram @krzysztof_trojnar
See Something Very Bad is Going to Happen on Netflix
Hear our previous episode with Krzysztof Trojnar on the series Baby Reindeer: https://www.camnoir.com/ep269/

SHOW RUNDOWN:

02:17 Close Focus
13:35-58:31 Krzysztof Trojnar interview
59:14 Short ends
01:07:08 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

Lawrence Sher, ASC, is the cinematographer of Apex, the action thriller currently sitting at number one on Netflix. Apex stars Charlize Theron as a woman hunted through the Australian wilderness by a relentless pursuer, and it's one of the most visceral and visually grounded survival thrillers in recent memory. The entire film was shot on location in the Blue Mountains of Australia.

Key Podcast Highlights:

-How the extreme remoteness of the locations forced a documentary-inspired toolkit, including the Sony Venice bodies packed into backpacks, lightweight lenses, very few lights and a skilled drone pilot.
-Building a visual philosophy around what you can't control. Lawrence embraced shifting sunlight, unpredictable weather, and inaccessible terrain as creative assets rather than obstacles.
-Using a "documentary grammar" framework to justify camera angles and movement, drawing on the visual language of climbing films like Free Solo and The Alpinist.
-How streaming has changed a cinematographer's relationship to their work. Lawrence sees Netflix's democratizing reach as a genuine second chance for films that deserve a wider audience.

Find Lawrence Sher: Instagram @lawrencesherdp
See APEX on Netflix
Check out Shotdeck: https://shotdeck.com/
Hear our previous episodes with Lawrence Sher:
https://www.camnoir.com/ep350/
https://www.camnoir.com/ep293/
https://www.camnoir.com/ep56/

SHOW RUNDOWN:

02:32 Close Focus
13:01-56:48 Lawrence Sher interview
57:13 Short ends
01:07:44 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

Margo's Got Money Troubles DP Tari Segal, ASC approached the show with spontaneity, intimacy, and a creative way to bring static backdrops to life. Margo's Got Money Troubles follows a young woman navigating an unexpected pregnancy, a complicated family, and some very creative ways to pay the bills. It’s one of the most visually inventive comedies currently streaming. Tari shot four of the show's episodes.

Key Podcast Highlights:

-How Tari and the team built a shooting style rooted in spontaneity that allowed the actors freedom of movement on set.
-Using actual licensed music piped into the crew's headset and actors earpiece so the camera could keep tempo with the final cut.
-Developing the visual language of the show, sometimes shifting from handheld, Steadicam, and studio modes {X} in the same scene.
-Shooting the entire Vegas episode in just three days, and the practical tricks Tari used to make four-walled L.A. sets read convincingly as Las Vegas.

Find Tari Segal: https://www.tarisegal.com/
Instagram @tarissegal

SHOW RUNDOWN:

02:22 Close Focus
11:34-01:00:43 Tari Segal interview
01:01:17 Short ends
01:09:22 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

DP Greta Zozula remakes the world of Gilead in The Testaments, a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. She chose a very specific color palette and brighter look to show the optimism for the young women at the school for future wives. Flashbacks to the world of Toronto are sharper, grittier and more realistic.

Key Podcast Highlights:

-How Greta kept the same camera and lenses consistent from The Handmaid’s Tale into The Testaments, while brightening and widening the look for the optimistic young women of Gilead.
-Establishing the aesthetic of The Testaments with a color palette of plums, pinks and greens rather than higher contrast reds and blacks. Greta also used different lenses and framing to separate Agnes’s world and Daisy’s world in Toronto.
-Using miniatures and a probe lens for the opening sequence of the show as the camera takes us through Agnes’s dollhouse.

Find Greta Zozula: https://www.gretazozula.com/
Instagram: @gzoz

Show Rundown:
02:17 Close Focus
09:22-48:35 Greta Zozula interview
50:05 Short ends
53:53 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social