Emmy-nominated cinematographer Donald A. Morgan, ASC on The Upshaws, The Conners, Last Man Standing, shooting multi-camera television shows

Cinematographer Donald A. Morgan, ASC has won 10 Emmys and is
nominated this year for three more for his work on Netflix's The
Upshaws, Fox's Last Man Standing, and ABC's The Conners. Like a few
cinematographers, Donald had some experience studying architecture
in college, which enabled him to take two dimensional drawings and
visualize them in three dimensions. He also thought he'd be a
professional baseball player or a musician- his father was a
musician who played in Cab Calloway's band, so Donald grew up
around musicians and stages. By his mid-20's he had a job working
at KTTV in Los Angeles in the mailroom while trying to make it with
his own band in the 1970's, and was soon offered a position in the
lighting department. He found his experience reading architectural
plans made it easy to understand electrical schematics. Donald
worked on the lighting crews for several different shows produced
by the legendary Norman Lear, such as Good Times, The Jeffersons,
and Diff'rent Strokes, plus many other shows. Donald knew working
on shows produced by Lear were progressive and groundbreaking for
the time, telling stories about people of color like himself, and
Lear made it a point to hire a diverse workforce for his shows.
Soon, Donald was offered a union job as a DP on two shows on the
Universal lot- Silver Spoons and Gloria. Donald was able to learn
more about cinematography while working on the Universal lot by
visiting several different film stages and making notes on how
different DPs worked. Working on three camera shows, the whole set
can be lit before there's any blocking, because typically, comedies
use very high-key lighting. Donald notes where the walls and doors
are, and then most sets can be lit with standard three point
lighting.  For The Conners, as the show becomes a bit darker,
Donald subtly shades the room for more drama, and brightens the
room as the mood lightens. Most multi-camera shows use three to
four fixed cameras, and dolly in for shots rather than just
panning. Donald also uses a jib arm camera on the show Last Man
Standing, a technique he began using back on Home Improvement. The
jib arm came into use on Home Improvement because the character Mr.
Wilson, Tim Allen's neighbor, was never seen over the fence, and
the camera crew had to get creative with how to shoot those scenes.
Donald enjoys working on multi-camera studio shows because it keeps
him local, and he's been able to spend more time with his family
with three weeks on and one week off, with the longest days about
10-12 hours. He tries to keep the work as creative as possible,
always watching and learning about new techniques he can bring to
the shows he shoots. Though Donald is very experienced with
shooting multi-camera shows, he will often shoot single-camera
short films to keep his skills fresh. You can see Donald A.
Morgan's work: https://vimeo.com/12993063 You can watch The Upshaws
on Netflix and find episodes of The Conners and Last Man Standing
on Hulu. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show
notes and links: http://camnoir.com/ep139/ Sponsored by Hot Rod
Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com The Cinematography Podcast website:
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