Ahsoka cinematographer Eric Steelberg, ASC

Cinematographer Eric Steelberg, ASC has always loved movies, which
is what led him to a career as a director of photography. He tries
to find compelling film and television projects, putting his own
stamp on the story's visuals. Back in 2006, Eric was at the
beginning of his career as a DP when he shot the small independent
film, Quinceañera which won both the Audience Award and the Grand
Jury prize at Sundance that year. It was shot in HD, which was very
new technology at the time, especially for smaller films. After
Quinceañera, Eric's career began to take off. He'd been a frequent
collaborator with director Jason Reitman, whom he met shooting
commercials and smaller projects, but not films. Working on
Quinceañera gave Eric more credibility as a DP, so Reitman asked
him to shoot his next film, Juno. At first it was an uphill battle
to get Juno's financiers, Fox Searchlight, to sign off on Eric,
because they didn't see him as experienced enough for the job. But
Reitman fought for him, and it led to a long relationship with Eric
as Reitman's director of photography for Juno, Up in the Air, Young
Adult, Labor Day, Men, Women & Children, Tully, and
Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Eric never dreamed he'd start at Juno and
end up working on the Disney + Star Wars series, Ahsoka. Eric and
director of photography Quyen Tran, ASC split cinematography
duties. He began prepping the show with executive
producer/showrunner Dave Filoni, frequently touching base with Q
since she wasn't able to come on set until later. Both Eric and Q
have similar approaches to lighting and composition, and Eric feels
it was the best version of a two DP collaboration that there could
be. One of the biggest successes of their working relationship was
doing their camera testing together and knowing they were aligned
with the cameras, lenses and lighting for the show. As a Star Wars
fan, Eric was familiar with the source material and he felt so much
joy working on a piece of the saga. He had never done a show shot
on volume and blue screen stages, and Eric saw it as an opportunity
to learn something new. As a DP, he feels his biggest job is
listening, looking and paying attention to what the director and
the rest of the team wants to see on the screen. Developing the
look of Ahsoka began with the art department's concept art for the
show, but there was lots of room for creativity as the characters
travel to different planets. Eric found Ahsoka to be by far the
HARDEST show he has ever worked on, but he also feels extremely
proud of his work. Ahsoka is currently on Disney+. Find Eric
Steelberg: http://www.ericsteelberg.com/ Instagram: @ericsteelberg
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