Charlie Sarroff, cinematographer of the horror films Smile and Relic

Cinematographer Charlie Sarroff loves to shoot horror movies, and
he knew when he read the script for the horror film, Smile, that it
would be fun, gory and dark. This week (10/12/2022) Smile is still
the number one movie in America, with the biggest opening of
September and the highest box office take overall for its second
straight week. Charlie and Smile director Parker Finn first met at
a SXSW event, where each had movies showing at the festival. They
found they had similar tastes and sensibilities. Finn loved
Charlie's previous work on the horror film Relic and asked Charlie
to be Smile's cinematographer. Movies such as The Ring, It Follows
and Rosemary's Baby were big influences on their approach to Smile.
Charlie chose to build a sense of suspense with camera movement, so
the audience feels as though a lurking presence was there at all
times. They almost exclusively used wide lenses and no over the
shoulder shots so that the character of Rose would always feel
isolated. Every scene Rose is in, she is meant to feel disconnected
from other people. Smiles were also a big motif in the film, of
course, and served as a metaphor for the masks everyone wears. As a
kid, Charlie really loved skateboarding and video production became
a big part of it. He had a camcorder and recorded skate videos of
his friends. Charlie knew early on that he enjoyed shooting and
editing more than directing, and he decided to go to film school in
Melbourne. Friends in film school asked him to shoot their movies
and he worked his way up, filming music videos and commercials.
Charlie's biggest break came when director Natalie Erika James
asked him to shoot her short film Creswick which she expanded
into the feature film Relic and was picked up by IFC. At first, the
film's backers wanted to go with someone more experienced to shoot
Relic, but Charlie prevailed and the film ended up going to
Sundance and SXSW. Find Charlie Sarroff:
https://charliesarroff.com/ Instagram: @charlie_sarroff Find out
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