Cinematography

Garrett Brown invented the Steadicam, a technological innovation which earned him an Oscar. He tells Terry Gross about its effect on cinematography as well as his brief tenure in the folk band Brown and Dana, and his career in advertising.

Garrett Brown is a cinematographer and the inventor of the Steadicam. He won an Academy Award for his invention in 1978. He joins the show to discuss the films he's worked on.

Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown joins the show to share backstage Hollywood stories, discuss the use of the Steadicam, and his new invention Skycam.

Filmmaker Albert Maysles. He was a pioneer of the cinema verité style, where the camera acts as an eye and the film proceeds without narration or script. With his late brother David, Albert Maysles made the films "Gimme Shelter," and the recent "Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic," which won two Emmys.

Cinematographer Stephen Burum. His latest film is Brian De Palma's "Casualties of War." This is his third film for De Palma; his first was "Body Double." He also shot "The Untouchables," which was nominated for the American Society of Cinematographers Award. Burum got his start as an assistant to Francis Ford Coppola on "Apocalypse Now." His other films include "St. Elmo's Fire," "The Outsiders" and "Rumble Fish."

Cinematographer Ernest Dickerson. He's been director of photography for all of Spike Lee's films, starting when they were students together in New York University's graduate film program. Dickerson has also been cinematographer for John Sayles' "Brother From Another Planet" and "Raw: Eddy Murphy Live."

Elmes has been working with the director since Lynch's first film, Eraserhead. He joins Fresh Air to talk about their visual, technical and narrative approach to moviemaking.

While the Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes hasn't found much success, many agree that it's beautifully shot thanks to the work of Vilmos Zsigmond. He won an Academy Award for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which was celebrated for balancing special effects with conventional, domestic scenes. Zsigmond fled Hungary in 1956 during the revolution.

Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld. He was the cinematographer for the Coen Brothers' "Blood Simple," "Raising Arizona," "Miller's Crossing," and for "Misery." He's just made his directing debut with the new film, "The Addams Family."

Cinematographer and director Ed Lachman. He's shot films for many famous directors both in Europe and America, including Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci, Paul Schrader and David Byrne. He's also shot his own films and videos. He most recently worked on the new Hanif Kureishi film "London Kills Me."

DiCillo's new film is a strange comedy about a untalented musician and housepainter with a ridiculously high pompadour, and a love for Ricky Nelson. Docillo created the character for a one-man show he performed in New York. Before that, he was cinematographer for two of Jim Jarmusch's early films, "Stranger Than Paradise," and "Permanent Vacation."

Wexler won Academy Awards for his cinematography on "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" and "Bound for Glory." He's been nominated for work on several other movies, including "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Matewan." Weller is known for moving easily between marginal, political films and more mainstream fare. He's the subject of a retrospective at the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York throughout April.

Brown revolutionized cinematography with the the steadicam, skycam, and the mobicam. The steadicam is a camera-suspension system that eliminates the jiggle in hand-held shots. Brown's work with the steadicam can be seen in "Rocky," "The Shining," and "Return of the Jedi," among other films. The skycam is a suspended remote-controlled aerial camera, which gives the affect of putting the viewer in an airplane. The mobicam is for underwater shots, and has been used in the Olympics.

Actor, director & writer Simon Callow. He's written a new acclaimed biography of Orson Welles, Orson Welles: The Road to Xanadu (Viking). Callow has appeared on stage and in many films, including "Four Weddings and a Funeral." He's also written two books on acting and a biography of Charles Laughton.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker, who died Wednesday, directed The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, Married to the Mob and Stop Making Sense. We'll hear a clip of his 2009 conversation with Dave Davies.

"I wanted to make a completely honest, heart-on-sleeve, non-ironic melodrama," del Toro says. Set in 1962, his new film features a fairy tale romance between a creature and a mute woman.