Kees Van Oostrum, ASC got an interesting call recently from producer Richard Middleton, whose credits include The Artist and Hitchcock. “Richard and I go way back, and he often calls me when he has something unusual or challenging,” says Van Oostrum. The EMMY®-nominated cinematographer has compiled more than 70 narrative credits, including Gods and Generals, Return to Lonesome Dove, and the forthcoming Civil War-set feature Copperhead.

Middleton told Van Oostrum about an interview project for Serious Jibber-Jabber with Conan O’Brien, a non-comedic chat show on O’Brien’s website. The interview subject was to be the GRAMMY-winning musician/producer Jack White.

The New Zealand film Two Little Boys is an irreverent comedy that follows the riotous adventures of Nige (Bret McKenzie, Flight of the Conchords) and Deano (Hamish Blake, Hamish and Andy) as they struggle with their imploding long-term friendship. The relationship has been put under pressure by an unfortunate incident involving a hot meat pie, a ginger cat, and the untimely death of a Scandinavian soccer star.

Cinematographer Jac Fitzgerald (After the Waterfall) shot Two Little Boys using the new AATON PENELOPE camera in 2-perf mode. It was shot in Invercargill and the Catlins coast at the southernmost tip of New Zealand’s South Island in January and February 2011.

As far as Jared Moshé is concerned, the western is at the core of American storytelling. “I think the western is the myth of America — we need more of them.

So for his directorial debut, Dead Man’s Burden, the award-winning producer created a story that depicts the harsh realities of Western life, both in his self-penned story, as well as in the spectacular beauty of the landscapes, as filmed by cinematographer Robert Hauer. “I wanted to capture the dichotomy inherent in the land,” Moshé explains. “The land represented a blank canvas where you could re-create your life. But it’s also a giant moat that isolated people. It needed to be so beautiful that someone loved it so much they would be willing to die for it, but desolate and isolating enough that somebody would be willing to kill to leave it.

Director Hyung-Suk Lee and director of cinematography Sung-Kuk Lee shot the short film Two Boys and a Sheep with funds from the Korean Film Council’s Production Support Program for Independent Films. For several reasons, the filmmakers chose to use 2-perf KODAK VISION3 500T Color Negative Film 5219, making it the first Korean production in that format.

“The film is about two diametrically-opposed lifestyles, homosexuality and heterosexuality,” explains Sung-Kuk. “We wanted to portray these lifestyles with the dramatic space they deserve, and this would be almost impossible in a digital format. Only 35mm film accurately conveys the emotions of the characters, and allows audiences not merely to see or hear the movie, but also to experience it.

When director Elgin James, a participant in both the Directors and Screenwriters Labs at the Sundance Institute, was looking for a talented and experienced cinematographer to shoot his feature film Little Birds, he found what he was looking for in Reed Morano. She is an award-winning graduate of New York University who had photographed two 35mm indie features in the previous year. Over the past decade she has also photographed documentaries, television series, commercials and music videos.

Little Birds is the story of a teenage girl who yearns to escape her staid, stagnant life in the remote and barren Salton Sea region of Southern California. She convinces her friend to venture into the exciting world beckoning from Los Angeles. Along the way they learn some hard lessons and test their friendship.