Yo, I don’t think we should talk about this
(Come on, why not?)
People might misunderstand what we’re tryin’ to say, you know?
(No, but that’s a part of life)

Talking about money is one of the last things people openly discuss. I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this topic as a long time filmmaker in Los Angeles. Perhaps you can relate? The viral post from the Art Director of Obsession propelled me to share some thoughts here (at the great risk of being misunderstood) on the topic.

Rates as currency for self-worth

The main problem I find is that it’s hard to separate compensation from calculating my self worth. If a producer offers what I feel is a low rate, then I question if they appreciate my artistry and/or don’t see the value of my contributions. Beyond paying the bills, a higher rate feels like validation. I’ll never forget the first time I got paid to work on set, which honestly came after far too many volunteer days as a camera assistant. Similarly, I’ll never forget the joy that first time I made 4-figures for a single day’s work. It took almost exactly 5 years to go from my first paycheck as an AC to a 4-figure DP rate, which is an accomplishment. I’ve also had some really difficult and frustrating negotiations over my 20+ year career. When I see others calling attention to the subject it piques my interest. 

A conversation a few weeks ago with a Producer friend of mine keeps looping in my head. They have a really exciting low-budget indie film in pre-production. It’s the kind of job that most of us would kill for: promising young writer/director, compelling script, and noteworthy cast. Yet they had an incident with their young cinematographer over money. This person has never shot a feature, but had some demands that production couldn’t fulfil when it came to their deal memo. The DP asked that the producers “ethically allocate budget” to satisfy their wishes.

I promise to use that phrase whenever possible. 

Looking back at my own negotiation missteps when I was in my 20s helps me empathize with how this DP felt disproportionately secure in their demands. I infamously asked for backend participation on a short film, but that’s because I worked for free. That being said, it’s a different world now. Large swaths of the ASC clubhouse are unemployed because production is scarce, yet this person with a limited resume attempted to strong arm producers. 

The elusive first feature

When I came up in the industry, there was a well known anonymous quote, “you pay them for your first feature.” This made perfect sense to me, as I found it surprisingly difficult to find someone willing to “take a chance on me.” I didn’t understand what made a feature so different from shorts (which I had solid experience shooting). Nevertheless, that divide exists.

When I eventually booked that first feature in 2007, I didn’t care about the rate as I knew it would unlock this elusive gate. While I got paid a measly $100/day, I was absolutely thrilled. At 25 and less than 3 years out of film school, I cared most about fulfilling my goal of shooting features! Three years later, my day rate on my fourth feature only grew to $200/day ($305.57 when adjusted for inflation).

I wasn’t expecting this coincidence, but $300/day is the rate that Sally Choi received on Obsession. I’m having trouble finding a lot of information about her, but she currently has 5 credits on iMDb Pro and no representation. It seems like she got a decent career opportunity when booking Obsession and is extremely lucky to have worked on a generational box office breakout.

That DP I mentioned earlier wasn’t willing to compromise on their demands and left the project as a result. Rising tides lift all ships and having your work seen is what matters most when moving up the ranks. I fear that that DP will wake up one day and realize that they missed the opportunity of a lifetime because of a few extra dollars. Having recognizable films on your resume will catapult your career. It all takes patience. I similarly fear that Sally sabotaged her future earnings by complaining that she isn’t getting a piece of that gigantic box office.

The holy grail: profit participation

Ask yourself this question: would you rather make an extra $200/day or work on a film that breaks box office records even if you don’t see a dime of that backend? The unfortunate truth is that the craftspeople who sweat to make films rarely reap the rewards of their success. Wilson Pickett’s brilliant 1969 cover of “Hey Jude” is boosted by young Duane Allman’s unforgettable guitar, but it’s a footnote in rock trivia. Those studio musicians on your favorite albums are bought out and rarely recognized for their indelible contributions. 

Should this be different? Yes! Will it change? Probably not. 

As long as we live in a world with CEO pay disparity, stock buybacks, and giant corporations running studios, then we won’t have broad meaningful profit participation. There’s a dubious history of “Hollywood accounting tricks” to prevent profit sharing. How much of the gigantic upside is the film’s director and mastermind, Curry Barker, likely getting on the film’s success? 

Backend profit participation is something for which I’ve always fought. It confounds me that cinematographers are often excluded even though our contributions are so critical to the film’s architecture. Oddly enough, the only time I’ve ever received residuals they weren’t in my contract! One day out of the blue, I received a check for $1200. I still don’t understand why as the film didn’t appear to make much money. Nevertheless, it was a very pleasant surprise from production. Sally’s story will have a storybook ending if all the crew—particularly the unpaid volunteers she mentioned—get significant checks thanks to the film’s success. 

The fallout

I admire Sally for using her platform to spark this much needed conversation about the exploitative nature of low-budget filmmaking. I just hope there isn’t retaliation and she doesn’t regret doing so. Perhaps she’ll be remembered for leading a meaningful change in how crew get compensated like Curt Flood revolutionized salaries for athletes.

While his cinematography on Clerks (1994) wasn’t particularly inspiring, David Klien ASC parlayed a gigantic career in the business with that early victory. Oftentimes relationships and exposure matter more than craft. Kevin Smith continued hiring David and their stocks rose in tandem with Mallrats and Chasing Amy. Strengthen and build relationships with your crew if you want to truly thrive in this industry. I genuinely wonder if Curry brings Sally back on his next film after speaking out. Let’s hope so because I have a feeling he can offer more than $300/day.

The post Let’s talk about equity, baby! appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

I was shocked.

As someone who thinks about earthquakes more than most, the concept immediately captured my imagination.

Kat Foster found inspiration for Earthquake Note when drafting said letter for her eldest child, August, when she started preschool several years ago. In the meantime, she wrote a wonderful script that examines the terrifying nature of being away from your loved ones during a major catastrophe—and the anguish of confronting that possibility.

Kat and I first collaborated back in August of 2011 on the comedic web series, The Newlymovedins. She wrote and starred in it with her then partner, Scott Rogers. While we had a great time making those, it’s been many years since we shared a set together.

When she reached out last summer about a short film, I jumped at the opportunity. I loved Kat’s directorial debut, Daughtering (the movie poster even sneaks into a few frames of our film). Like many people, I was unaware of the premise behind this new short.

We wanted the film to feel authentic and verité, so we eschewed traditional movie lighting. I leaned heavily on my documentary instincts, staying out of the way as much as possible to capture genuine moments with Kat and her second daughter, Magnolia. Our goal was simple: don’t interrupt what’s real.

As much as I wanted to use my ARRI Alexa 35, my documentary package—a Sony FX9 with Laowa Ranger zooms—was the better tool for the job. The smaller footprint and ability to move quickly helped the camera to disappear and the performances to take priority.

We kept the crew intentionally lean so Kat and family wouldn’t be too disturbed/disrupted by filmmakers occupying their home.

The first production day was primarily unscripted. We wanted to allow the day to unfold naturally, with Kat carefully adjusting her performance to create the range of reactions and emotions needed to tell the story. Our wonderful producer, Emily Maya Mills, who is also an accomplished director, kept a sharp eye on things from a distance on a wireless monitor.

Kat and her gifted editor, Jing Han, later sifted through hours of footage to find the right moments and shape Magnolia’s “performance.” The second night was more straightforward thanks to Kat’s succinct script and the absence of another performer.

That second night tempted me to supplement the lighting in the house with a few additional units, but I resisted. My main concern was the harsh overhead PAR cans built into the ceilings. We cut small pieces of diffusion to soften the contrast and widen their spread across the large living room. They were already on dimmers, so we didn’t need much effort to set the final look.

There were moments where I wished I could’ve nudged Kat forward or backward to optimize her position relative to the light, but we committed to long takes—and interrupting that flow would have worked against what we were trying to achieve.

To contrast the film’s handheld verite aesthetic, we opted to end it with a very composed/intentional oner to punctuate her journey. We shot 7 takes at dawn with the Sony FX3 on an RS3 Pro to wrap things up before I jumped on a plane with my gear to Reno for another shoot. The first 5 were on the Zeiss Batis 40mm/F2 and just in case we wanted to introduce edits later, we did a final pass on the 85mm/F1.8. That final 40mm take is in the movie.

Considering we exclusively used available light, I’m really proud of how it turned out and how it looks.

I have a feeling this is the start of a long and prosperous festival run for Kat’s film. We hope you get a chance to see it soon.

Earthquake Note premieres at the Dallas International Film Festival on April 24th and 25th. You can find tickets here.

What would you write to your child in case of an earthquake? It’s an interesting exercise—even if you don’t live in a seismic area.

The post Kat Foster’s Earthquake Note premieres at the Dallas International Film Festival appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

Thankfully the year made a major shift in the positive direction pretty early on with my engagement and marriage to Melissa! I also shot several very personal narrative films that I’m excited to share soon both directed by wonderful female writer/directors.

I hate starting the recap with such a haunting image, but it feels inauthentic not to acknowledge how the Palisades and Eaton Fires impacted my adopted city of 21 years. I snapped this at 6:54am on my way to the gym. I hope I never see clouds of smoke moving above Sunset Blvd like that again.

The National Football League’s 32 teams have made a recent tradition of creating highly anticipated schedule release videos. I had the pleasure of shooting the New York Giants’ entry. As a Bostonian, this raised some moral questions, but I made the best of the situation. You can watch our video and read more about it here.

All good things come to an end. After years creating countless hours of content for Disney’s Princess YouTube channel, they rebranded and reorganized, and our services became obsolete. I had never had a recurring gig like this — they’re pretty rare — and shooting quarterly since May of 2023 felt comforting. It’s sad knowing we won’t get the gang back together every few months.

In an effort to keep things fun on set, I bought fake mustaches for the crew after seeing how big a hit they were with my family when my niece and nephew visited days before the shoot.

On April 3rd at the historic TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, our short film, Gracie Turns 15, premiered at the 25th Annual Beverly Hills Film Festival. I wrote a detailed account of the film’s origin story, which features Ging Chen’s wonderful BTS photography. After our packed premiere, Ari Somerfield and I decided to make it available online for free. Enjoy!

Building on the success of last year’s Create Your World web series, Disney ordered a follow-up, Care For Your World. We reunited almost the entire team to shoot this spiritual second season.

Of the five production days across town, shooting at The Gentle Barn had the greatest impact. As a vegan, I loved how they banned all animal products from set. I also got to know the founder, Ellie Laks-Weiner, and hope to collaborate with her and her team again.

Our stills photographer, Jiro Schneider, perfectly captured my camera operator, Max Schmige enjoying the company of an emu while gathering b-roll.

After this fun shoot with Rob Lowe for American Greetings and their Smash Ups e-card campaign, I finally refreshed the photography galleries on my website and added a new section for this type of work: “On Set.”

While we didn’t get to talk, he holds a special place in my heart from Tommy Boy. This classic scene came true in my life thanks to Melissa sharing her two wonderful brothers with me.

Back in February of 2013, I shot a promo for Jamie T. Moore, who made a rare appearance in the director’s chair. In most of our collaborations, he’s the EP or Producer. I’m thrilled he brought me back over twelve years later when he returned to direct the Subaru Loves Learning campaign featuring Max Greenfield.

Here’s a brain twister: my cinematographer friend Josh Allen recommended me for a job shooting the football star who shares his name. What are the odds he’d be unavailable to meet his “twin”?

This is extra funny to me because after the quarterback won MVP in 2024, I added that to my Josh’s contact info: Josh Allen CSC MVP. Sadly, Pepsi never released the content, so I can’t share anything.

Thanks to back-to-back handheld vertical gigs, my rig is now fully dialed for 9×16 work.

Natalie Avital and I had been scheming to shoot her short film Chili Cheese Fires for nearly three years, and it finally became an anamorphic reality in July. It’s a very special script, and we paired it with some beautiful visuals. I’m really excited for this one.

Collaborating with Aubrey Smyth is always a joy. Thanks to this multi-city pharma job, I crossed something very California off my bucket list: Lake Tahoe. The timing, however, was intense. After shooting all night on a short film, I took an Uber straight to Burbank Airport, met Aubrey in Reno, and we drove to the lake.You can see the excitement as I ran into the water for the first time. After shooting the next day, we returned to Tahoe, and I ended up with 26 hours surrounded by incredible scenery. Who needs sleep?

In a full circle moment, my final job of the year brought me to Altadena, documenting the Habitat for Humanity rebuilding efforts. Huge thanks to Mark Edwards for the great photo.

I also learned something I’ll carry with me: it’s tradition for volunteers to sign the studs inside the homes they help build. I’m inspired to find an event nearby — and if you are too, you can learn more here.

It’s impossible to recap the year without including a few personal moments, so please excuse me for stretching beyond the usual 10.

On March 22nd, I brought Melissa back to the bar where we met and proposed, under the pretense of casually documenting the day. I promise I don’t usually walk around with an Insta360 and a selfie stick on a Saturday afternoon.

I’m so grateful that my talented friends captured the moment with two still cameras, and a video camera (Sara Jackson, Dalton Gaudin, and Josh Allen CSC MVP). I used the abundance of great material to cut this little video.

The year ended in the best possible way. On 12/13/25 (notice a theme: 3/22/25 — if you don’t see it, it involves addition), I married the love of my life, Melissa Thompson.

Our incredible photographer, Jorden Alexander, captured so many perfect moments, but this one outside our downtown venue is our favorite.

Moving forward, I’ll include 10 work images and 3 personal ones in honor of my new job title: husband. Why 13? This is my 13th recap, I shared 3 personal images here, and our anniversary falls on the 13th.

Feeling nostalgic? Continue down memory lane with these links to the twelve previous yearly recaps: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. What’s your favorite shot of the bunch?

The post 2025 in 10 Photographs appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

Hopefully you have a moment to peruse the full galleries. First up: PEOPLE.

I sniped this shot in the Coyoacán neighborhood of Mexico City on 12/31/23. You can capture great candid moments on the Canon 70-200mm/2.8L IS II. After all, it’s a top choice of paparazzi worldwide for a reason.

In this latest round of updates, I added a section featuring the most interesting BTS moments I’ve gathered over the years working “on set.” I restricted that gallery to photos clearly taken on a film shoot (generally, you’ll see gear in the shot). Along with wide shots that show how the sausage is made, I often grab stills that can be used for publicity or poster art. I love this portrait of Bruce Nakashima (taken on 11/17/18), the star of the documentary The Volunteer.

Shooting ANIMALS is a passion of mine. As a vegan, I strive to capture the depth of character non-primate species possess in order to encourage proper treatment and conservation. To celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, they invited the family on a cruise to the Galápagos Islands. Naturally, it inspired me to make some upgrades to my stills package. Using the Fujifilm GFX-50SII with the GF 20-35mm F4 R WR lens (at 35mm), I got quite close to these blue-footed boobies on Isla Española (6/22/25).

While driving through rural Scotland on 1/3/16, we spotted this group of Highland cows and had to stop. This picture just makes me think, “friend, not food.” What do you think?

Landscapes, aka PLACES, make up the third album. My friend, Cody William Smith, is a wonderful DP/photographer, and he introduced me to the Hasselblad XPAN system. As someone who loves the widescreen format, I fell in love with the camera instantly. After almost a 20-year hiatus, I missed shooting 35mm film enough to purchase an old Canon A-1 on a whim in November 2024. After viewing the lackluster results, I craved more resolution. I returned the camera to B&H and sprung for medium format. The delicious 65:24 aspect ratio from the XPAN lends itself to triptychs on Instagram. I shot this trio of images from the iconic Hummingbird Highway in Belize (near Billy Barquedier National Park) on Kodak Portra 400 (12/30/24). The camera achieves its high resolution by exposing two frames of standard 35mm film.

Who says you have to travel far to take a great photo? Griffith Observatory is one of my favorite places on earth, and I feel like this image captures it in a unique way. I always recommend people visit about an hour before sunset to soak in the sights and maybe grab a couple of pictures. This was taken on 3/31/11.

For the newly minted ON SET gallery, here’s a shot I took for American Greetings of Rob Lowe and their hilarious e-card product, Smash Ups. Sadly, we didn’t have a conversation, but he holds a dear place in my heart for his role in one of my favorite films growing up, Tommy Boy. I also like this standing pose. We filmed these at AG headquarters in May 2025.

I love this shot of Mel Brooks in his office taken during production of Peter Bogdanovich’s final film, The Great Buster. I couldn’t have asked for a more pleasant interaction with him. He showed a genuine interest in me and the origins of my name. I told him the embarrassing truth that I was named after a character from the TV show Dallas. I also love this still of Peter “in the zone” from another day.

As a proud dog dad, I have to end this post with my best girl, Iris. On her 11th day living with me (4/3/20), she stood in the most perfect light. Most 10-week-old dogs don’t stand still for long, but I thankfully had enough time to sprint downstairs and grab my camera. Photography is all about noticing these moments and having a camera nearby, right?

The post Dustin’s Photography Galleries Updated — Now Featuring Rob Lowe appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

Ten years later, executive producer Danny Harris called me about recreating something similar to educate young people in partnership with The Singleton Foundation for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship and their digital storytelling arm, Million Stories. For the pilot episode of The Finance Couch, we spent a full day on a beautiful Los Angeles-area campus last spring with our two hosts, Andini Makosinski and Ross Mac.

In addition to sharing invaluable financial lessons, we won a Bronze Telly Award for Series Entertainment. Huge congratulations to this incredible team. Hopefully this is just the beginning, and we’ll take the show on the road to campuses across the country to continue spreading financial knowledge. While the target audience is college-age students, there’s plenty here for all ages.

Similar to my experience on The Help Desk, I had to take a more hands-off approach to lighting than I’d normally prefer. Given the scale of the set and limitations on where we could place gear, we relied heavily on a 12×12 ultrabounce for our key. We oriented the couches to maximize both the sun path and our backgrounds. That said, we had a very unusual bogie crash our set in the middle of the day.

There’s always a certain level of chaos when shooting on location, but this campus was particularly wild. Aside from our root vegetable friend, there was a large concert happening down the quad. We rolled with it and stayed on schedule—that’s what happens when you have a great team.

CREW

Executive Producers
Tim Carr · Jan Ross · Jared Hoffman · Danny Harris · Shelley Miles

Producers
Victor Kong · Mary Liu · Vicki Syal

Camera
Director of Photography / A Camera Operator — Dustin Pearlman
B Camera Operator — Joshua Allen CSC
C Camera Operator — Chloe Smolkin
D Camera Operator — Bongani Mlambo
Camera Assistant — Morgan Miller

Grip & Electric
Gaffer — Team Bashet
Key Grip — Gyasi Howard
Swing — Caleb Phillips

Sound
Sound Mixer — Erik Clabeaux

Production
Production Designer — Dylan Jones
Makeup Artist — Ailen Diaz
Casting — Victoria Martzloff

Post & Social
Editor / Graphics — Andy Mogren
Social Media Producers — Nikki Noborikawa & Lea Reed

Talent
Talent Coordinators — Sarah Adolphson & Molly Stone

Sponsored by Experian
In Association with Pollution Studios, Asher Brown

The post The Finance Couch Earns Bronze Telly Award appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

We poured our hearts into this short film and want as many people as possible to see it. Please watch and share—maybe we’ll earn a Vimeo Staff Pick?

If you’d like more context, I shared a deeper look at the creative process and behind-the-scenes photos by Ging Chen in this earlier post.

Shots like these…

Do you remember your 15th birthday? I’d be lying if I said I did, but this photo proves it happened (and that I had braces):

If you have one, share a photo of your 15th birthday below. Did your mom also make a homemade cake like mine did?

The post Watch Gracie Turns 15 — Now Streaming Free appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

Andrew Baxter and I have now teamed up on three car shoots in collaboration with his company Baxter Cameraworks. For this one, we wanted a pursuit vehicle solution that didn’t require police escorts so we could move freely through Los Angeles. Andrew believed we could capture great footage without a crane like we used on the Tesla job in July 2023, and he was right. Rigging the Flowcine Black Arm and DJI Ronin 2 to speedrail on his 450HP Porsche Cayenne gave us the flexibility to quickly adjust camera height. While we still had to pull over for tweaks, the smaller crew and footprint proved incredibly effective.

We started with the camera mounted low off the rear of the Porsche to emphasize the FORDTRUSS’s design. Once we had that coverage, we raised the height to feature Scott more prominently. We eventually moved to the front and cycled through a range of angles before wrapping around 8:15 as traffic picked up and the light lost its magic. I operated the remote head on NODO Inertia Wheels, Andrew drove, and Nicolas Danoviz pulled focus.

We used Andrew’s DZOFilm Catta Ace FF 35–80mm T2.9 cine zoom paired with my Sony FX9. Shooting at sunrise around Culver City helped us avoid traffic and gave us that soft, cinematic light. The craziest moment came when a fleet of driverless Waymo cars overtook us. You can spot the first pass at 1:14, and Reza revisits the moment at 4:02.

Reza and I had filmed with Scott two months earlier on a white cyc at McNulty Nielson Studios as part of the Vizcom tutorial series. After seeing how he interacted with the platform, we knew we needed a deeper dive into his creative process. For those interviews, I used my Schneider Xenon FF primes wide open at T2.1 for maximum falloff. I love how seamlessly the footage blends together.

For the first three episodes of Design Decoded, Reza flipped convention by framing the wide shot in profile and placing the close-up closer to eyeline. We initially followed that approach for Scott’s interview at Electric Pony Studios, but ultimately pivoted when it didn’t suit the background. If you’re curious, you can see that earlier framing style in episode 2, which we shot in San Diego.

If you’re curious how AI and Vizcom can influence your iteration process, I highly recommend this tutorial we shot with Scott—it’s remarkable what the platform can do.

If you’d prefer to just watch the driving footage, you’ll enjoy this montage that Melissa Kent assembled with a Moby track.

How do you feel about the future of creativity and AI? I’m hopeful there will always be a place for fully human, “organic” filmmaking, but it’s clear AI will continue to flood our feeds. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend this episode of Last Week Tonight on the subject.

The post Scott Robertson’s FORDTRUSS in Motion appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

After more than 20 years in Los Angeles, my hatred for the Lakers has cooled—but New York still holds its grip on Boston transplants like myself. As images from 2008 of the helmet catch flashed before my eyes (my dad and I had the misfortune of watching our Patriots’ perfect season end in Glendale, Arizona), I accepted the assignment.

NFL Schedule Release videos have become a highly anticipated event. To stand out, our director, Dylan Landon, envisioned a frame-accurate parody of the Love Island USA Season 5 trailer. His team meticulously recreated the set and tone, casting a playful actor to represent each New York Giants opponent for the 2025 season.

Our production designer, Dragon Ridic, tested numerous materials before landing on the final build. Getting the opacity right, dialing in the color, and shaping the layout for camera required close collaboration across departments. My gaffer, Team Bashet, spent a large chunk of time the day before the shoot programming Astera AX1 tubes for the background.

In our line of work, there’s never enough time. Ideally, we would’ve had a full day to build and rig, but our team pushed hard—we shot 15 actors, built the set, and wrapped the location in 12 hours. I have to credit our incredible crew for working so efficiently. I didn’t think it was possible to pull this off in that window.

Thankfully, the internet appreciated our efforts—we earned the #1 ranking from FootballGuys.com. I’ve pulled together a few highlights from around the web below.

The Los Angeles Times didn’t hold back either:

Sports Business Journal placed us at #4.

CBS Sports concluded:

The Athletic / New York Times wrote:

Sports Illustrated included us in their top 10.

Apologies for the delayed post—things have been busy. Thankfully, the 2025 season hasn’t started yet. Which team’s schedule release video did you enjoy most? You can watch all 32 here. I also liked how short and sweet the Bills one is—though full disclosure, I worked with Buffalo’s Josh Allen a few weeks ago, so maybe that influenced my opinion.

Crew

Director
Dylan Landon

Production
Trent Park — Producer
Eric Georgeson — Production Manager
Curtis Case — Assistant Director

Camera
Dustin Pearlman — Director of Photography
Joshua Allen — B Camera Operator
Morgan Miller — Camera Assistant

Grip & Electric
Team Bashet — Gaffer
Gyasi Howard — Key Grip
Harris Smith — G&E Swing

Sound
Blake Christian — Sound Mixer

Production Design
Dragon Ridic — Production Designer
Nigel Mogg — Art Assistant

Wardrobe & Makeup
Mika Garcia & Erin Blinn — HMU
Orlando Mabry — Costume Consultant

Post
Michael Alperowitz — Editor
Joel Ides — Colorist

CAST

49ERS — Brian Rich
BEARS — Tim De LA Motte
BRONCOS — Grant Johnson
CHARGERS — Liam Shi
COMMANDERS — Johnny Ramey
COWBOYS — Kelly Vohnn
CHIEFS — Makhyli Simpson
EAGLES — Channing Apodaca
LIONS — Nicholas Rene Rodriguez
PACKERS — Camille James Harman
PATRIOTS — John Swanswiger
RAIDERS — James Troup
RAMS — Sandie Cameron
SAINTS — Alyse Hamilton
VIKINGS — Ian Steven Peterson

The post New York Giants 2025 Schedule Release Video Scores Big appeared first on Dustin Pearlman.

How It Started

That first phone call was several hours long without any mention of the short film. It’s rare to meet a fellow vegan Jewish filmmaker who knows the Chase 5/24 rule. In July 2022, we shot a different script at a coffee shop called Richard’s Roast. That experience established a great working relationship and officially started our friendship. Only a few people have seen that first collaboration, but our second film, Gracie Turns 15, already has a different fate.

Tickets for our World premiere screening on Thursday, April 3rd at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood are currently on sale. Choose BLOCK 11 at 5:30 PM.

Finding the Story

Just months after we met, Ari got accepted to the MFA program at USC’s prestigious School of Cinematic Arts for directing. With school starting in January 2023, the soonest opportunity to make something again would be that summer. Unfortunately, his massive workload prevented us from considering what the next project would be until he sent me this text on June 20: “I have free access to an insane restaurant on Mondays.”

I replied, “That’s a start. Everything begins with a great location.” I then suggested, “We should do a vegan allegory.” Ari shot back, “A kid is at a family lunch or something and he orders a fish. that could be a good vegan allegory setting in a restaurant.”

I loved this path as I immediately recalled the countless times my parents insisted my sister and I order meat with every meal in order for it to be “complete.” Two days later, we found inspiration at the Keith Haring exhibit at the Broad and over a delicious vegan dinner at Âu Lạc brainstormed possible paths forward. It quickly became evident that he would have to sacrifice his upcoming vacation with his sister to Thailand to make this a reality.

My fascination centered around that moment where one decides to go plant based, while Ari wanted to make a story about a kid’s parents who are getting divorced. I admittedly felt less connection to that idea, but liked the concept of keeping the pro-vegan elements subtle. We thought it would be funny if the kid accidentally takes a parent’s edible, which would cause a trippy sequence where we could visually scare him into not wanting meat.

Production

While Ari did the actual scriptwriting, another vegan friend of his, Dylan Levine, joined us in developing the story. As we all grew happier with the direction of the film, the logistics of the shoot became more complicated. We all preferred a young kid, but it took a lot of convincing and a large search to find an 18-year-old who had the acting chops and didn’t look too mature to play the lead. Our vegan Producer, Kylie Kozar, sifted through over 5,000 submissions on Actors Access to assemble our great cast. We had over 2,000 options just for the role of Gracie.

We had access to AKASHA on their full day closures on Mondays, which was an incredible opportunity—but it came with real constraints. Because we were shooting in Culver City, permitting and insurance limitations made it difficult to move freely or adjust our schedule. While we streamlined the script as much as possible, we still needed three days worth of production. Spreading that across multiple Mondays would have been inefficient, so we looked for ways to consolidate.

An insurance and permit delay ultimately forced the decision I likely would’ve preferred anyway: shoot 11 7/8 pages over one very long day. By eliminating one of our days, we could cover everyone’s overtime and rent a second ARRI Alexa 35 to maximize our coverage. Our amazing Steadicam operator, Remi Tournois, agreed to work the full day on B camera, which gave us the flexibility we needed to move quickly without sacrificing performance.

Once we committed to that approach, everything became about efficiency. Shooting so much dialogue with four characters—primarily seated—at a dinner table required a very specific plan. Ari, Bretta Lichtenwalner (our incredible 1st AD), and I spent many hours designing coverage that would feel dynamic without slowing us down. By making Gracie’s out-of-body kitchen sequence a night scene and moving it to our second day, we drastically helped our schedule and gained wonderful visual contrast.

A lot of our crew from Richard’s Roast returned for Gracie, including my gaffer Valentine Salembier. We rigged overhead units above each of our two primary tables using menace arms. The main table was lit with an Aputure 1200D through a skirted Lantern 90, while the secondary table used an Aputure 600C. On day two, we swapped in the 600C over the main table to create a warmer, more stylized look for the night work.

The large bank of windows along the entire side of the restaurant created our biggest challenge. In the early morning, we boosted their ambient light. For the bulk of the day, we flagged and netted their direct light. In the evening, we boosted them once again. With a small crew and lighting package, I think we balanced the environmental changes from 5am to 10pm very well! Thankfully Ale Amato at Primary did a killer job in color correction and further refined those edges.

Day 2 with our smaller crew had a chill vibe. Facing a call sheet with only a 1 4/8 page account seemed too good to be true. We needed a light load after our previous 16.5 hour workday. While my lighting took longer than expected, the extra time also allowed the makeup SFX team more opportunities to perfect the fish people.

Old Fast Glass hooked us up with a couple Zeiss Standard Speed lenses to supplement my 5-lens Super Speed set. We rented the 10mm, 14mm, & 135mm. The kitchen nightmare benefited from the distortion and otherworldly feel of the ultra wide lenses drawing upon inspiration from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s classic Delicatessen (lusciously lensed by Darius Khondji). 

Post & Reflection

It had been a while since I took a narrative project all the way through post production. The experience of spending so many hours with one’s footage in the edit bay is invaluable. I encourage all cinematographers of every level to regularly edit something they shoot.

One of the final and most satisfying moments came when I visited Eric Huang and his large symphony as they recorded his beautiful score at EastWest Recording Studios (Studio 1) in Hollywood on October 22. For some reason the embed isn’t working, so here is a link. He also did a killer job on Richard’s Roast!

The abbreviated timeline of this project is pretty remarkable: principal photography began on August 14, just 55 days after Ari’s first text. We color corrected on October 5 and had final deliverables shortly after.

I can’t wait for you to see the film. And if you need any advice with your credit card points strategy, shoot me an email and we can discuss…

Crew

Ari Somerfield — Writer / Director / Editor

Production
Kylie Kozar — Producer
Dustin Pearlman — Producer
Ben Wasserstrom — Associate Producer
Nasr Abuljadayel — Creative Consultant
Justin Winick — Creative Consultant

Camera
Dustin Pearlman — Cinematographer / A-Camera Operator
Remi Tournois — Steadicam / B-Camera Operator
Matias Wajner — 1st AC (A-Cam)
Trevor Taylor — 1st AC (B-Cam)
Yang Liu — 2nd AC
Ethan Gomez-Zahnley — Media Manager
Ging Chen — BTS Photographer

Grip & Electric
Valentin Salembier — Gaffer
Dushene “Eezy” Foster — Key Grip
Ben Holland — Grip
Juan Manzo — Grip
Lucas Frazier — Grip

Production Design
Steffanie Klepper — Production Designer
Jeremy Baker — Art Director
Dylan Levine — Graphic Art / Poster Design

Wardrobe & Makeup
Brianna Ames — Makeup / SFX Artist
Alexa Cantarini — Makeup / SFX Artist
Layla Damian — Makeup / SFX Artist

Sound
Jon Peter Lewis — Production Sound Mixer / Re-Recording Mixer
Alejandro Flores — Boom Operator

Post
Ryan Vaughan — Sound Designer
Color by Primary
Ale Amato — Colorist
Christina Roldan — Executive Producer (Color)
Alex Zhao — Color Producer
David Oh & Matthew Stepanek — Color Assist

Visual Effects
Lou Cannizzo — VFX Artist

Music
Eric Huang — Composer
Jeremy Miller — Lead Engineer
Logan Taylor & Sam Gazarian — Assistant Engineers
Christian Amonson — Score Producer
Yi-Hsuan Liu, Dannian Shu, Ziyuan Yue, & Bruno Olivera — Booth Readers
Martinius Solum & Joseph Mohan — Music Editors
Christian Amonson — Music Producer
Vikrant Muthusamy — Score Proofreader
Christian Amonson & Eric Huang — Score Mixers

Cast

Natalie Gustafson — Gracie
Regan Floria — Debby
Scott Kuza — Mike
Steven Hemminger — Max
Francesca Xuereb — Cameron
Savannah Grace — Perfect Daughter
Dan Wicksman — Fish Chef #1 / Normal Human Chef
Ray Buffer — Fish Chef #2
Lemor Warzman — Perfect Mom
Garvin Funches — Perfect Dad
Max — Steven Hemminger
Cameron — Francesca Xuereb
Perfect Daughter — Savannah Grace
Fish Chef #1 / Normal Human Chef — Dan Wicksman
Fish Chef #2 — Ray Buffer
Perfect Mom — Lemor Warzman
Perfect Dad — Garvin Funches

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Fellow Northwestern alum April Wright has a gift for documenting essential elements of American entertainment. From drive-in theaters to movie palaces (those elegant venues replaced by multiplexes in the 1970s), she lovingly captures subjects from a bygone era. In January, we filmed Dominic Cangelosi, the legendary owner of Glendale’s Moonlight Rollerway, for her new film about roller skating. It’s always a joy collaborating with April—we first connected through the Northwestern Entertainment Alliance (NUEA) in 2007 and made our first short together fourteen years ago.

While searching for a workaround to share an image from a classified motion capture shoot in March, I discovered this tutorial. I lack the patience (and frankly the interest) to dive deep into AI tools, but the results were too wild not to share: FISH MAN and ARMY CADET. The director wanted the handheld camera movement to feel authentic despite everything being digitally rendered. The VFX team meticulously tracked every movement of my ARRI Alexa 35 and matched focal length changes in real time on the Angénieux EZ1 zoom.

In the most pivotal scene, the cameraperson jumps out of a plane with the actor. To better bridge digital and physical worlds, I suggested rigging me into the stunt harness to capture something truly authentic. After a few hours in that suspension suit, I have even more respect for stunt performers.

Whenever Paul B. Cummings and Matt Marenyi call, I know we’re going to have a great time. While we only worked together once in 2024, it was for promo on one of the year’s biggest films: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. I’m really proud of how it turned out.

Thanks to Jordi Matsumoto and his production company, Marching Penguin, I spent three days on stage shooting two campaigns for Metro by T-Mobile. I wrote about both experiences in detail—the first directed by Jordi, and the second helmed by Tom Morris, one of the busiest directors in advertising. If they look familiar, it’s because they were everywhere this fall.

I once wished for a recurring job—something consistent but not overwhelming, with a great team. I might be jinxing it, but for the past two and a half years, we’ve gathered regularly at Disney’s Grand Central Creative Campus to do just that. After countless hours together, we’ve learned to keep things fun. At one point, while looking for notes from my longtime collaborator Mark Rinehart, I noticed someone had “replaced” our affable writer/producer Nathan Redfern with a stuffed animal.

Shooting at the Happiest Place on Earth came with a cost—sleep. The climax of the Disney docuseries Create Your World took place in front of Cinderella’s Castle, which meant a 2AM wake-up to clear security by 3:10AM. The exhaustion fades, but the result lives on YouTube. I captured the image on the left of my C-camera operator Max Schmige and host Riley Van Cleve, while our stills photographer Jiro Schneider grabbed the one on the right of me.

To showcase Vizcom’s AI tools, filmmaker Reza Bird created a commercial illustrating how designers can bring ideas into the real world. The teal chair you see here was designed using Vizcom itself. They’ve become a fantastic collaborator this year, and hopefully beyond. I especially love the launch video we created.

When Gordon Garreau asked if I was available on Halloween, I told him I’d likely show up in costume. Did it matter that it was a one-day shoot with a mostly new crew? Not at all. To my surprise, only the sound mixer and I fully committed. If you’re not enjoying the job, what’s the point? Hopefully the team had as much fun as I did. I’m looking forward to more opportunities on the volume in 2025.

Given the trajectory of AI, this felt like an appropriate inclusion. Steve Talkowski used a photo of me as a reference to generate DP-inspired robots using Vizcom. It’s both surreal and fascinating to see how artists integrate real-world references into AI workflows.

It’s hard to see the evolution from the original source image, so I highlighted two favorites alongside it. I’m not sure why my knees are bent like that—it looks like I’m about to do deadlifts.

I love photography, and if we’ve worked together, you know I’m always grabbing stills. I recently picked up a Fuji GFX 50S II with a few new lenses. This portrait from our final Vizcom shoot of the year with designer Scott Robertson pairs beautifully with a hazed environment and the Mamiya 645 80mm T1.9. I’m excited to share that episode of Design Decoded soon.

Beyond a great professional year, I wanted to include one personal highlight: witnessing my second total solar eclipse. Iris and I joined family in Dallas to experience it together—an unforgettable moment. The next major opportunity is projected for August 2, 2027 in Luxor, Egypt. I’ll meet you there.

Before signing off, one more update: I released a new lineup of genre-specific cinematography reels, including documentary and music video cuts for the first time.

To continue down memory lane, here are links to the eleven previous yearly recaps: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. What’s your favorite shot of the bunch?

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Life is all about contrast, right?

Similar to our last Vizcom commercial, we employed my ARRI Alexa 35 camera. This time, we shot with my Zeiss Super Speeds and kept them almost exclusively wide open (T1.3). The softness and dream-like quality that imbues added a little extra character to our lineup of mostly stationary objects.

I couldn’t risk having the slow-motion shots of Omar drift out of focus for long stretches, so I stopped down to a 2.8/4 split for those two setups. I didn’t want a camera issue to render his skateboard stunt or quick breakdancing movements unusable. This also marked my first time cranking the Alexa 35 all the way up to 120 FPS. I love that the recording resolution remains high even at that extreme frame rate: UHD (3840×2160) in ProRes.

I’m grateful we had enough time to give each object in the commercial its moment to shine. Lighting inanimate objects isn’t easy, and doing it against a black void made it even trickier. My gaffer, Valentin Selembier, employed a number of lighting tactics for separation. The Aputure Amaran 300C through a 36 degree spotlight attachment gave us precisely shaped lines of contrast without spilling everywhere.

Can you guess which shot before the :31 mark wasn’t shot practically? We did shoot the iPhone you see just after that moment—everything else before it is computer generated.

Congratulations to those who guessed the incandescent light bulb. Even though it’s stock footage, I love it. The sound of it turning on gets me every time. What’s your favorite shot? I really like the metronome.

Crew

Script: Emil Lukas
Voice: Nicolas de Peyer
Director of Photography: Dustin Pearlman
Gaffer: Valentin Selembier
Photographer: Ebrahim Safi

Motion Design: Black Canvas, Drew Lewis Guerra
Colorist: Francisco Lorite
Sound Design: Travis Devin

Model: Tomas Flores
Dancer: Omar Gonzalez

Director: Reza Bird
Editor: Sara Bird
Creative Studio: NXT Animal

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Vizcom’s initial pitch started simple: show people how the platform works through screen capture. Thankfully, Reza saw the opportunity to make something unique and sold them on the concept that we have today. Hopefully this is one of many instances where AI and its proliferation creates jobs and opportunities instead of the opposite. This all strikes at the core of Vizcom: they are human and artist-focused. The platform aims to help artists—not replace them—and grants them full ownership of their creations.

The video highlights their 3D feature, which is revolutionary for designers because it transforms concepts from 2D to 3D right away, saving them valuable time. It enables them to see different iterations from the earliest stages of their work and illustrate ideas quickly. Similar technology will surely enter the filmmaking world.

While our previous gigs over the last two years have been doc-style, consisting of interviews and b-roll, this marked our first commercial collaboration. To set it apart visually and raise the bar, Reza insisted that we upgrade to my ARRI Alexa 35 package.

Manufacturing a bespoke chair posed unique challenges for our abbreviated timeline. There were snags: it had to be 3D printed a second time with design changes. Vizcom needed this content for their product launch event on September 18th. Working with an optimist like Reza has its benefits—few people have the fortitude to take such a big swing with a looming deadline. Great news finally landed mid-day on Friday, September 13th: the chair would arrive the next day so we could shoot on Sunday.

Reza and our motion designer, Drew Lewis, did an amazing job on such a tight deadline. They only had 48 hours to finish before the YouTube launch. Unfortunately, because of the initial time crunch, we had no time for color correction. While the changes are subtle, I’m grateful they both re-opened their project files to update the archival version for Vimeo. Considering the ad’s slogan is “Make it real,” having accurate skin tones and taking advantage of ARRI’s new REVEAL Color Science is essential. For comparison, here’s that first video.

We stayed pretty close to Reza’s original storyboards, which meant we didn’t have many setups for our production day at FD Photo Studios (Art 1) downtown. I feared our hours would be extended by the cat not cooperating, but Reza’s wife and producing partner, Sara, kept the feline calm on set along with their son, Daniel. While it took numerous takes, Lilly gave a great performance.

We spent a good chunk of the morning finding the perfect frame for the money shot: the push-in on the chair. After lots of tweaking, we left the slider in position, marked the chair, and waited for the perfect light. While the sun moved into place, we captured the rest of our shot list—the overheads of the notepad and tablet, along with close-ups of the cat, balloon, and scrap of wood.

I encourage you to try Vizcom for free right here.

Model: Delaney Santos
Cat: Lilly

Production Studio: NXT ANIMAL
Creative Director: Reza Bird
Executive Producer: Emil Lukas
Producer: Sara Bird
Script: Emil Lukas, Reza Bird, Nicolas de Peyer
Cinematographer: Dustin Pearlman
Gaffer: Chad Harrell
Editing: Reza Bird
Motion Design: Drew Lewis, Black Canvas Production
Sound Design: Travis Devin
Colorist: Diego Petrusky

Chair Design: Emil Lukas, Nicolas de Peyer
Chair Production: Haddy Life

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