Cinematography in Canada Since 1957

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

Sleep Talking, directed by @ethan.godel and produced by @ryanbobkin , was special to me for many reasons, one of them being how much time we spent during prep.

Ethan built an animatic for the seven scene short. The coverage was meant to be limited and intentional, so that became our blueprint.

The story follows David, a tired twenty-something who drifts into an office space that represents his mind while he struggles to fall asleep.

With the lighting, we wanted it to feel like we were inside his head without making it overly stylized. The goal was to blur the line between dream and reality. We kept things controlled but slightly off. Familiar, but not quite right.

We leaned into long takes on the dolly with subtle zooms, letting the scenes play out and allowing small shifts in framing and light to carry the mood.

The film was shot on 16mm 500T @kodak_shootfilm and was masterfully graded by @clintonhomuth

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

For the Love of Denim, directed by @paulsamjohnston , was a fashion film that brought me back to my early days shooting on 16mm.

We had a tiny crew and an even smaller lighting package, which ended up being a plus. Staying lean let us move quickly and get a lot of setups in a single day. The approach was simple. Minimal lighting, straightforward coverage, and letting the format do some of the work.

Prep was straightforward. It was mostly Paul and I spending time at the location, shot listing and planning around the space. We were also working with a limited amount of film, which forced us to be intentional with each take. That is one of the reasons I still enjoy shooting film.

We shot on an @arri 416 with Arri Ultra 16 lenses on Kodak VISION3 500T @kodak_shootfilm

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

I wanted to use this post to share some of the tools I find useful in prep and on set on almost every project I tackle, and I’d love to hear from you if there are any apps that im missing

PREP

I like to build visual decks using @milanoteapp (1). I use @shotdeck , FrameGrab and @frame.set to find references.

I use the @conceptsapp (2) on iPad to create all my lighting diagrams

SCOUTS / ON SET

@cadrageapp (3) - I use this app almost every day on set as a directors view finder
Sunseeker(4)- to look at the sun path
shademap.app - to know when we lose the sun
Kodak Cinema Tools - to tell me how much film we just burned on the last take
Kev WB - Color meter for iPhone

PHYSICAL TOOLS

Gaffer Glass - helps look at bright sources such as sun or light fixtures to direct beam direction
Seconic L858 Light meter - my most valued tool
Panavision Shoulder pad - I prefer to use this over easy rig

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

Standing in the middle of a civil war with an EasyRig, an Alexa Mini, and Hawk anamorphics was never on my bingo card.

Sitting Bull directed by @nataanii_cegielski @phillip__montgomery was a History Channel docu-drama limited series that let me bring a documentary approach into a more structured shoot. I got to shoot 2nd unit with @liammitchell helming the main unit. Shooting large scale battle scenes with a lot of extras was challenging in all the usual ways, but it was a thrilling one.

I approached it much like I would a doc, staying reactive and close, but with the added flexibility of actors, stunt teams, and multiple takes.

We shot mostly handheld on Alexa Minis with Hawk Anamorphic V-Lites. I don’t get to shoot anamorphic often, but it was especially rewarding for landscapes. Pairing them with split diopters helped when shooting vision and memory sequences.

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

Chasing ballerinas from school drop-offs to opening night at Swan Lake, and somehow renting every 512 GB Alexa Mini card in the city, shooting the documentary feature Swan Song was an experience that’s stuck with me.

A lot of my early work was in documentary. It taught me how to move fast, stay present, and rely on natural light.

Swan Song, directed by @chelsea.mcmullan and shot alongside @tessgirard, had us embedded for a few months with dancers from the National Ballet of Canada as they prepared for Swan Lake.

The vérité approach meant being switched on constantly. Operating while listening to character mics sharpened timing and framing in a way scripted work rarely does.

Partway through the shoot, I started picking up the choreography, which helped me move closer with the dancers during rehearsals. Trust built over time.

For the stage performances, we used a Spyder rig, which opened up angles that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

I didn’t jump straight into shooting as a DP. I worked on set whenever I could as PA, BTS photographer, 2nd AC, then 1st AC learning how sets actually function and saving money to shoot small projects on my own.

Around that time, I got curious about 16mm and wanted to understand the format properly. I joined @_liftfilm and started renting an Aaton XTR Prod whenever I could, using it on early projects like For the Love of Boxing, Feller and the Tree, and Decoherence.

Those shoots were stripped down; tiny crews, minimal gear, sometimes no lights or lights that could fit in my trunk. I made a lot of mistakes, but there was so shortage of learning.

Shooting 16mm with little experience meant a few sleepless nights waiting on film to come back from the lab, hoping focus and exposure was usable. That stretch shaped how I like to work and set the tone for what came next.

@shadyhanna #ShadyHanna, #AssociateMemberCSC

Photography did a lot of the heavy lifting for me before I ever stepped onto a real film set.

I started with a Canon T2i and the 18–55 kit lens, then picked up a 35mm film camera not long after. I mostly used stills to pay attention to light and get a feel for exposure through trial and error. There was no shortage of error.

Taking black & white 35mm photography classes in high school and university taught me a couple of things pretty quickly that the smell of fixer is hard to wash off your hands and clothes, and that I genuinely enjoyed working with film.

Film was frustrating at times, but it slowed things down in a good way. Spending that much time with stills forced me to actually study light and how small changes can completely shift an image.

Being exposed to strong photographic work early on pushed me to keep going. A lot of what I learned through years of taking photos ended up forming a solid foundation for how I approach composition and exposure today