Katie Milwright, ACS participated in a live, interactive interview as part of RED’s Behind the Look Virtual Cinematography Series in June 2020. This Q&A is an excerpt from that conversation with Naida Albright, Filmmaker Liaison for RED.
Katie Milwright, ACS is an award-winning cinematographer with an impressive body of work in television, feature films, documentaries, commercials, and music videos. She went to film school at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne and worked her way up through the camera department, collaborating with such venerable cinematographers as Mandy Walker, ACS, ASC; Andrew Lesnie, ACS, ASC; David Eggby, ACS; Oliver Stapleton, BSC; and James Glennon, ASC. Her credits include Upright, Tidelands, Celeste, Guilty, Looking for Grace, and Gurrumul, among many others. She sat down with RED to talk about her career, her collaborations, and her projects.
Two of your award-winning projects – the drama Guilty and the documentary Gurrumul – are about artists. Is there something about your own background that attracted you to these endeavors?
I'm attracted to a project based on how interested and connected I am in the subject matter. I think artists inherently have beautiful stories about their histories and backgrounds, and both characters in each of those films were extremely compelling.
You came up shooting a lot of shorts and continue to shoot them in-between your television and features projects. What do you like about shooting short films?
Shorts are a good way to introduce yourself to a director, and if I get a compelling script, it's hard to pass up. Also, a short film that may not hook the interests of financiers can be quite a fresh idea that you wouldn't necessarily get to work on otherwise. Those can be great experiences.
How often do you start working on a project and get the chance to go off script with some ideas that you might see while you're filming?
It does happen reasonably regularly because most of the time you haven't seen the actors in their space until the day of the shoot. It is really good to be open to going off from what you might have planned specifically because there might be something really amazing that’s available to you. … Sometimes an actor’s performance might end up a little bit further from what everybody thought it would be. There are always those sorts of moments where you just have to be quick about it. You can't dwell on it too much. You have to just trust your gut and go.
What influenced you to pursue cinematography?
What advice would you give emerging cinematographers coming up in their career?
Sometimes you'll get into a pickle one set where it's not as planned, and you haven't quite got the first idea of how to work it out. Sometimes somebody who's very experienced will come up and give you a little clue on a different way to go. It could be your key grip or first AC. Be open to it because they've done so many films themselves, they've been on set a lot, and there's a wealth of knowledge there. Those little things can come in at just the right time, and I think you need to be open to the experiences of others around you.
Also, while you're doing prep, trust their experience to help you make decisions early on. If you don't know the solution to something, don't try and make it up. Talk to your key group, gaffer and first AC. They've probably done something like it before, and they might have a great solution. It might not be the solution you go with in the end, but it's good to get their feedback.
Katie Milwright, ACS participated in a live, interactive interview as part of RED’s Behind the Look Virtual Cinematography Series in June 2020. The above Q&A is an excerpt from that conversation.
Writer/Director: Naida Albright
Filmmaker: Katie Milwright, ACS
Producers: Loren Simons, Felipe Mozqueda
Associate Producer: Jessi Laday