July 2023 Issue of American Cinematographer

The July 2023 issue presents a special focus on television/streaming production, which includes reporting on the series Dead Ringers, Poker Face and Schmigadoon!, and a discussion of aspect ratios for home exhibition. Also featured is a spotlight on visual effects, with a piece on the evolving collaboration between cinematographers and VFX artists, and a profile of John Dykstra, ASC. Alongside this coverage are a tribute to the late Wilmer “Bill” Butler, ASC and an expanded New Products & Services department.

• Cinematographers Jody Lee Lipes, ASC and Laura M. Gonçalves share their approach to a “heightened reality” for the dramatic series Dead Ringers.  

• Director of photography Jon Joffin, ASC, showrunner/co-creator Cinco Paul and Company 3 colorist/ASC associate member Jill Bogdanowicz discuss creating a three-strip Technicolor look for Season 2 of the musical-comedy series Schmigadoon!

• Cinematographers Steve Yedlin, ASC; Jaron Presant, ASC; and Christine Ng explain how they each found unique angles for Rian Johnson’s series Poker Face, an affectionate homage to 1970s detective shows.

• ASC members Dariusz Wolski, Robert Legato, Greig Fraser and Magdalena Górka, as well as VFX supervisor Paul Lambert, offer their perspectives on the evolving art of visual effects, a topic AC will explore further in a new periodic column, The VFX Perspective.   

• Trailblazing cinematographer and visual-effects expert John Dykstra, ASC looks back on his storied career.

• Shot Craft: A look at the wider world of aspect ratios for home exhibition.

• In Memoriam: AC remembers Wilmer “Bill” Butler, ASC.

• Clubhouse News: The latest bulletins from the Society feature the election of ASC President Shelly Johnson, 1st Vice President Charlie Lieberman, 2nd Vice President John Simmons, 3rd Vice President Patti Lee, Treasurer Charles Minsky, Secretary Dejan Georgevich and Sergeant-at-Arms Christopher Chomyn, and new Board of Governors members John Bailey, Patrick Cady, Minsky, Eric Steelberg and Mandy Walker, as well as alternate Board members Karl Walter Lindenlaub, Georgevich, Denis Lenoir, Steven Poster and Mark Irwin. Also included in Clubhouse News is Walker’s double victory at the 2023 Fujinon Fujifilm Australian Cinematographers Society National Awards, in addition to East Coast Lens Day and Education & Outreach with the University of North Carolina.

• Wrap Shot: David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers (1988), shot by Peter Suschitzky, ASC.