The Cinematography Podcast Episode 74: Toby Oliver

Toby Oliver was an experienced cinematographer in his native Australia for a few decades before moving to the U.S. and establishing himself as a DP. He worked with fellow Aussie director Greg McLean on Wolf Creek 2 and other horror genre movies for Blumhouse Productions such as The Darkness. When shooting any genre or time period, Toby believes color palette is important and enjoys working with production designers to fine-tune the look. This was especially true for the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt, which takes place across the 1980's. Consistency and continuity of visuals have also played a big part in Toby's films, such as Happy Death Day and the sequel, Happy Death Day 2 U. Both films rely on the “Groundhog Day Trope”- as in, the main character must repeat the same day over and over again, so keeping continuity in sets, camera setups and lighting was important. Toby met director Jordan Peele through his connections at Blumhouse. Jordan Peele, as a first time director, needed an experienced DP and hired him for Get Out. They collaborated closely and created the look of “The Sunken Place” in the movie. For Season Two of Netflix's Dead to Me, Toby tried to keep the look of the show consistent with the first season, just tweaking lighting and camera angles to be more flattering to the actors. It took a little bit of adjustment getting used to shooting series television, but Toby also got to rely on his horror background for some of the creepier scenes.

Dead to Me Season Two is currently streaming on Netflix

Find Toby Oliver:

Instagram @tobyoliverdp

Twitter @tobyoliver67

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras

Aputure: The Aputure Lantern Softbox with a Bowens mount only costs $89, and is a versatile light for many uses. You can buy Aputure products at Hot Rod Cameras.

Close Focus: Ben's idea for a “coronavirus kit,” like a first aid kit, for use on sets for each individual person in the future, and how to mitigate the risk for COVID-19 on film sets if/when things go back in a few months.

Ben's short end: New products that are usually announced at NAB, such as Adobe's Productions, but overall it seems like a lot of companies are holding off on making new product announcements these days.

Illya's short end: On their tech blog, Netflix made files available for a short anime film, Sol Levante, a 4K HDR Immersive Audio anime short. In order to help the industry better understand 4K HDR and immersive audio in anime, they have released the raw materials used in Sol Levante for download and experimentation.

LIKE AND FOLLOW US, send fan mail or suggestions!

Facebook:@cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod