Ep 101: International Cinematographers Guild DOP, Robby Baumgartner

Robby Baumgartner began his film career 28 years ago in New York City. His interest in lighting inspired him to choose the unconventional route to DP via Gaffing.This career path allowed him to light films and learn from some of the most talented DP’s in the business: Rodrigo Prieto, Chris Menges, Robert Elswit, Dante Spinotti, Darius Khondji, Janusz Kaminski, and Emmanuel Lubezki. Some of the films include: “8 Mile”, “25th Hour”, “21 Grams”, “Babel”, “Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”, and “There Will be Blood”.In between Gaffing gigs he took every opportunity to DP or camera-operate on feature films, 2nd-unit photography, commercials, and shorts.Then in 2008 “There Will be Blood” shot by Robert Elswit, won the Oscar for Best Cinematography; the highest honor for any DP/Gaffing team. That event was the impetus for Robby to stop gaffing and DP exclusively.In 2009 Robby joined the International Cinematographers Guild as a DP. Since then he has gone on to shoot 2nd unit on both “Hunger Games” l and ll, “Water for Elephants”, and “Argo” amongst other films. For the last 5 years he has been concentrating on shooting main unit for films such as “The Guest”, “Blair Witch (2016)” and now “Blindspotting”, which has been selected for competition in the US Dramatic category at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.W: http://robbybaumgartner.com/about/Like to have a ASC cinematographer as a mentor?Have you thought of upgrading your cinematography game? Would you like to have an ASC Cinematographer mentor you for free? Join veteran cinematographer Suki Medencevic, A.S.C. (Disney, Pixar, FX Networks, Netflix, American Horror Story). He teaches you how to create beautiful images using three lighting techniques he has mastered on film sets over his 30+ years in the film industry. Each technique uses basic, low-cost lighting equipment so that anyone can achieve beautiful visuals no matter your projects's budget.Learn film lighting from an ASC cinematographer. If you want to take your cinematography to the next level, this free training will get you there. These videos are available for a limited time, so sign up for instant access. CLICK HERE TO REGISTERhttps://www.ifhacademy.com/a/28632/aLFBXkpNIf you liked this podcast, shoot me an e-mail at [email protected], you can check out my documentary The People of Brixton, on Kwelitv here: https://www.kweli.tv/programs/the-people-of-brixtonDamien Swaby Social Media Links:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/filmmaker_damien_swaby/Twitterhttps://twitter.com/DamienSwaby?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5EauthorWebsite http://filmmakingconversations.com/If you enjoy listening to Filmmaking Conversations with Damien Swaby, I would love a coffee. Podcasting is thirsty work https://ko-fi.com/damienswaby