Director of photography Daryn Okada, ASC was elected president of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in June.
Okada was born and raised in Los Angeles. He got his first camera and started taking black-and-white still photographs at an early age, and he later began making Super 8 movies when he was nine years old. He was also an avid movie fan. After Okada graduated from high school, he found work as a projectionist at East Los Angeles City College. In its auditorium, the school frequently screened motion picture programs for the community sponsored by the National Foundation for the Arts. The featured attractions included classic archive films from Mexico and Japan.
He investigated the possibility of attending the film school at the University of Southern California but its enrollment was at capacity and the tuition was not affordable. Instead, Okada volunteered to work on student films.
By the late ’70s, Okada was working as a gaffer, grip and occasionally as a camera operator on ultra-low budget films while photographing small commercials. He earned his first credit for Nomad Riders in 1981. Okada has subsequently compiled more than 40 credits, including Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken, My Father the Hero, Anna Karenina, Lake Placid, Dr. Dolittle 2, Joe Somebody, Cradle 2 The Grave, Mean Girls, Paparazzi, Just Like Heaven and Stick It. His work on the miniseries In A Child’s Name (1991) earned him an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award nomination. Okada recently wrapped the Daniel Waters-directed independent feature Sex and Death 101, which is in postproduction and is slated for release in ’07.
Okada also serves as a member of the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
SHOOT:
What is the biggest challenge or change you see taking place in cinematography?OKADA:
Definitely new technology and being confident that all the new technology will not deter from what we had before–being film. [A potential danger is to] rush into a new piece of imaging technology that hasn’t been put through enough testing in a production environment. [Manufacturers have been] taking prototypes available to the ASC and getting feedback; it can definitely improve their path to offering a real piece of production equipment–equipment that will last.SHOOT:
Last year you lensed a project–dubbed “The Other Project”–for The Walt Disney Studios during which you tested four digital cinematography cameras: the Arri D-20, Dalsa Origin, Sony Cine Alta F950 and Grass Valley Viper. What did you take away from the experience?OKADA: Having those cameras in one place opened my eyes and the manufacturers’ eyes. It was very open of them to participate. It showed their confidence in the products they are developing. Each [camera] had positive and negative aspects; that doesn’t mean those are inferior. It was a good testing ground. I think we are going to see products from those manufacturers vastly improved–slingshot as far as development goes. The products are good. [Through the test] the manufacturers were able to see the next step. That was exciting. It was exciting to see that willingness to be better.
SHOOT:
What is at the top of your agenda as ASC president?OKADA: Top of the agenda is to engage and raise the level of understanding that the general world has about new technology and the really important part the cinematographer plays in that. I look at [new technology] as a whole box of new crayons. You can buy all these colors, but if you don’t have someone to shape the orchestration of the colors, you can’t get the story across.
Reaching out to the community is important–to new filmmakers and to moviegoers, increasing the awareness of what cinematographers contribute to the movie-going experience.
Also, harnessing the new technology for the good of the entertainment industry, finding ways to make the process of moviemaking more efficient, and offering better quality for the audience is a priority.
SHOOT:
What new technologies have caught your eye?OKADA: I’m very enthusiastic about Technicolor’s Digital Printer Lights. It’s a first step in ‘un-videoing’ the digital imaging process and turning it into a true filmmaking process. Not that I have anything against video. But being about to work with a calibrated system of adjusting the image and having it be repeatable–I’ve never seen that before [in digital]. But also the fact that the system showed us a way to work with digital systems that has a link to film and film printing is phenomenal. I used Digital Printer Lights on Sex and Death 101. I was so confident in the Digital Printer Lights, I didn’t feel the need to first print dailies.
I think some camera systems are ready, but only after they’ve gone through extensive testing by a cinematographer. That isn’t a negative. It’s a new technology and the only way to illuminate the new technology darkness is to test, and by test I mean the way you shoot film and duplicate an IP release print. That’s how we would see what an audience is going to see.
[Also on the subject of digital intermediates], DI is not a standardized process nor do I think it will be that….It needs some kind of quality assurance and that might happen with some of the work the ASC [Technology Committee] and the [Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences] SciTech Council are doing.
SHOOT:
Are commercial cinematographers eligible for ASC membership?OKADA: The ASC does recognize there are those who make cinematography their life’s work in areas other than features and TV–like commercials. We feel it necessary to keep our eyes open for those accomplishing work in commercials–and dedicated to that as their life’s work. For those special people, we are happy to bring them in as members.
SHOOT:
How are you enjoying your new ASC role?OKADA: It’s a total honor; I never expected it. I respect this organization so much, I couldn’t say no [to becoming its president]. I’m hoping that I can bring something to it, especially in this time of rapidly changing technology.
SHOOT
: And what is the future of the historic ASC clubhouse?OKADA: What makes the ASC the ASC is new ideas, and ways of forming them come out of conversations. One thing on my agenda is to continue to create this social environment that enables these great artists to have these conversations to lead us to the next incarnation of filmmaking.
One is taking the clubhouse from the early 1900s and extending it and making it a place where a cinematographer can feel like it is a second home, where they can come in anytime and strike up a conversation with follow cinematographers. So this clubhouse needs to expand and be modernized.
