Independent Filmmakers

Horror films have a certain style: cramped quarters, heat, now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t or did-you-really-see-it. Lighting for the suspense, and horror of the genre is always a particular challenge but one that cinematographer Steve Romano believes he handled nicely the indie feature The Girl, which was directed by Jennifer Blanc-Biehn.

For more than two years, Bertie Gregory, a nineteen-year-old wildlife videographer from England, shot the fauna on Vancouver Island, Canada.

The movie’s budget was ultra-low, the shooting schedule just 21 days, and the studio mostly the mean streets and cramped tenements of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Add a first-time director/screenwriter who is also portraying the film’s main character, and it was clear that making Straight Outta Tompkins presented multiple challenges.

“In the true tradition of independent film, Cold Turkey is a dialogue- and character-driven movie,” explained director of photography Lucas Lee Graham. “We wanted an intimate, personal look with a really shallow depth of field and nice portraiture so that the visual emphasis would be on the characters and what they were doing.”