Cinematographer Alice Brooks on shooting In The Heights, Home Before Dark, working with director Jon M. Chu

Alice Brooks grew up on Broadway musical theater and movies as a
kid, and loves shooting music and dance oriented films and TV
shows. Alice has always been in awe of dancers, and though she
isn't a dancer herself, she is inspired by their work ethic and
loves that she can capture dance with her camera. Working on In The
Heights has fulfilled a lifelong dream for Alice. She and director
Jon M. Chu have known each other since college at USC. The two
bonded over musicals- she shot his she shot his student short, a
musical called When The Kids Are Away in 2002 and worked together
again on the film Jem and the Holograms. Alice and Jon were
shooting the Apple TV+ series Home Before Dark when he asked her to
shoot In The Heights. Jon, choreographer Christopher Scott and
Alice had also worked together on a Hulu series called The LXD: The
Legion of Extraordinary Dancers for three seasons, and they got
used to working together and working quickly, figuring out how tell
a story and develop characters through dance. Jon, Alice and Chris
Scott felt their whole careers came together to make a musical like
In The Heights. The characters' hopes, dreams, fears and anxieties
can be played out not only through song and dance but in the
environment around them, which sometimes shifts to where they are
emotionally. With just 49 shoot days, preproduction for In The
Heights was essential. Alice and Jon Chu would location scout in
the mornings and then spend afternoons in the dance rehearsal space
with Chris Scott. They would share their input and make suggestions
from each location scout on how to face and orient the dance. Alice
and Jon thought at first many more locations would be done on a
soundstage, but they found that shooting in real places on the
streets looked and felt so true- even the theater and the subway
station were real locations. During shooting, every Sunday they
would meet and go through the coming week because the schedule was
so tight and the camerawork so complex, looking at videos from
dance rehearsal to discuss the shots and angles to use, deciding if
a crane shot was needed, and how many cameras to use for each
scene. Jon made animatics detailing each scene from storyboards and
dance rehearsal footage. With 17 song and dance scenes in In The
Heights, Jon had huge goals for the musical numbers, and Alice, the
dancers and the entire film crew were able to pull it off. Alice
grew up in New York and got into acting at a young age. She and her
family then moved to Los Angles, and she realized as a teen that
she did not want to be an actor. Being on set around the camera
crew made her realize that she wanted to shoot movies, and that
being a DP was her true dream. After graduating from USC Film
School, Alice asked many of the graduate students if she could
shoot their projects, knowing that the key to honing her craft was
practice, practice, practice. She shot about 20 shorts, including
Jon M. Chu's musical short, When The Kids Are Away. Alice thinks
it's important to find the right people to work with, since you're
spending so much time together, and forming that bond helps
everyone. She wants to make movies that inspire her daughter. For
anyone with a family, it's important to pick the projects that are
worth it, since filming can take so much time away from loved ones.
Find Alice Brooks: https://www.alicebrooks.com/ Instagram:
@_alicebrooks_ You can see In The Heights in theaters, the best
place to experience the film's immersive sound design and visuals.
You can also find it streaming on HBO Max. Alice's new musical film
directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda is tick, tick...Boom! releasing in
the fall. Find out even more about this episode, with extensive
show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/ep130/ Sponsored by Hot
Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by Aputure:
https://www.aputure.com/ The Cinematography Podcast website:
www.camnoir.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.