The Cinematography Podcast Episode 130: Alice Brooks
Alice Brooks grew up on Broadway musical theater and movies as a kid, and loves shooting music and dance oriented films and TV shows. Alice has always been in awe of dancers, and though she isn’t a dancer herself, she is inspired by their work ethic and loves that she can capture dance with her camera.
Working on In The Heights has fulfilled a lifelong dream for Alice. She and director Jon M. Chu have known each other since college at USC. The two bonded over musicals- she shot his student short, a musical called When The Kids Are Away in 2002 and worked together again on the film Jem and the Holograms. Alice and Jon were shooting the Apple TV+ series Home Before Dark when he asked her to shoot In The Heights. Jon, choreographer Christopher Scott and Alice had also worked together on a Hulu series called The LXD: The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers for three seasons, and they got used to working together and working quickly, figuring out how tell a story and develop characters through dance. Jon, Alice and Chris Scott felt their whole careers came together to make a musical like In The Heights. The characters’ hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties can be played out not only through song and dance but in the environment around them, which sometimes shifts to where they are emotionally.
With just 49 shoot days, preproduction for In The Heights was essential. Alice and Jon Chu would location scout in the mornings and then spend afternoons in the dance rehearsal space with Chris Scott. They would share their input and make suggestions from each location scout on how to face and orient the dance. Alice and Jon thought at first many more locations would be done on a soundstage, but they found that shooting in real places on the streets looked and felt so true- even the theater and the subway station were real locations. During shooting, every Sunday they would meet and go through the coming week because the schedule was so tight and the camerawork so complex, looking at videos from dance rehearsal to discuss the shots and angles to use, deciding if a crane shot was needed, and how many cameras to use for each scene. Jon made animatics detailing each scene from storyboards and dance rehearsal footage. With 17 song and dance scenes in In The Heights, Jon had huge goals for the musical numbers, and Alice, the dancers and the entire film crew were able to pull it off.
Alice grew up in New York and got into acting at a young age. She and her family then moved to Los Angles, and she realized as a teen that she did not want to be an actor. Being on set around the camera crew made her realize that she wanted to shoot movies, and that being a DP was her true dream. After graduating from USC Film School, Alice asked many of the graduate students if she could shoot their projects, knowing that the key to honing her craft was practice, practice, practice. She shot about 20 shorts, including Jon M. Chu’s musical short, When The Kids Are Away. Alice thinks it’s important to find the right people to work with, since you’re spending so much time together, and forming that bond helps everyone. She wants to make movies that inspire her daughter. For anyone with a family, it’s important to pick the projects that are worth it, since filming can take so much time away from loved ones.
Find Alice Brooks
Instagram: @_alicebrooks_
You can see In The Heights in theaters- the best place to experience the film’s immersive sound design and amazing visuals. You can also find it streaming on HBO Max.
Alice’s new musical film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda is tick, tick…Boom! releasing in the fall.
Close Focus: The Tokyo Olympics are going forward, in spite of low vaccination rates in Japan and Japanese citizens largely against the Olympic Games being held in their country right now. NBC, the official broadcast network of the Olympics, is hoping the Games will drive more subscribers to the Peacock network. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a great segment on the whole controversy.
Ben’s short end: The Sparks Brothers documentary by Edgar Wright.
Illya’s short end: The Tilta Hydra Alien car mounting system with the DJI Ronin II gimble system. Capture smooth, dramatic action shots from a moving vehicle with the Hydra Alien Car Mounting System from Tilta. The car mounting system is designed to mount your camera rig onto a car or moving vehicle and provide support and stabilization to capture smooth action shots. You can buy one at Hot Rod Cameras.
Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras
Sponsored by Aputure: Aputure has two new accessories for the LS 60 light. The LS 60 Softbox is designed to work in tandem with the LS 60d and 60x, transforming the focusable point-source lights into the perfect compact soft lighting tool, and the Spotlight Mini Zoom, which is an adjustable beam angle projection lens designed for the LS 60d and LS 60x Focusing LEDs. Find Aputure products at Hot Rod Cameras.
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Podcast Credits:
Editor in Chief: Illya Friedman. Email: editor@camnoir.com
Instagram: @illyafriedman @hotrodcameras
@neptunesalad twitter
@bejamin_rock instagram
Producer: Alana Kode
Editor: Ben Katz
Composer: Kays Al-Atrakchi
Subscribe to the Podcast on Apple Podcasts or click on the link below to listen here
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:32 — 76.3MB)
