American Fiction cinematographer Cristina Dunlap

The film American Fiction has been nominated for over two dozen
awards, including five Academy Awards. Director Cord Jefferson is a
seasoned writer who worked on acclaimed series such as Watchmen,
Station Eleven, and The Good Place. He adapted the screenplay and
wrote the script for American Fiction himself. Jefferson knew that
he would also like to direct the film, although it would be his
first time ever directing. Cinematographer Cristina Dunlap knew
immediately after reading the script that she wanted to work on the
film. “I think there's always a concern every time you work with a
new director, just learning their style and how they work. But the
second I sat down with Cord, I could tell immediately that he was
going to be a wonderful person to work with because he is just very
joyous and positive and excited, collaborative and open to ideas.
And so when we started talking about the script, it was really more
excitement. And, you know, he was very honest. He said, 'I've never
even directed traffic before. So you're going to have to maybe hold
my hand through some things or answer questions.' And I was
completely willing to do that.” Fortunately, Cristina and Jefferson
had about eight weeks of prep time in Boston, with only about 25
actual shoot days. Cristina likes to break down each scene
psychologically, to explore visually what each character is going
through. They scouted locations with the rest of the crew, and
spent time figuring out the blocking so that they would have a
concrete plan when the actors were on set. Cristina relied on the
Artemis Pro app to map the location spaces which really helped
create photo storyboards, figure out the lighting setup and plan
Steadicam moves. She knew it would be challenging to be able to fit
everything in on each shoot day, especially when there would be six
or seven people in a scene. The beach house was an especially
challenging location for lighting- it had dark wood walls and low
ceilings. Cristina knew they wanted to able to see the ocean
through the windows, but they couldn't afford to light with a
Condor lighting rig every day from the outside. She had to pull out
a lot of lighting tricks and build off the practical sources in the
space. For one scene, an arborist helped the gaffer by climbing a
tree in order to rig several gem ball lights in the branches.
Cristina got her start in photography. She went on to shoot music
videos for artists such as Coldplay and Lizzo, and was the DP of
the 2022 Sundance Audience Award winning feature, Cha Cha Real
Smooth. American Fiction is in theaters now. Find Cristina Dunlap:
https://www.cristinadunlap.com/ Instagram: @cristina_dunlap
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