Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC on Snowfall, working with the late John Singleton, Spike Lee, Straight Outta Compton, Tales, Kalushi and more

Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC uses light and color to help emphasize the
drama and power of each scene on the FX series Snowfall. He enjoys
putting opposing colors in the scenes to subtly suggest any
underlying subtext and shifts in power between the characters.
Tommy knows that understanding light and knowing how to photograph
dark skin is important in a series revolving around primarily
African American and Latino characters. Snowfall, created by the
late John Singleton, is a period drama that takes place in 1980's
Los Angeles during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic. For
Tommy, Snowfall feels personal after growing up in the 1980's and
90's in the inner city neighborhood of Mattapan in Boston. Mattapan
got the nickname of “Murderpan,” and crack addiction personally
affected his own family. As the lead cinematographer on season four
of Snowfall, Tommy reads each script, meets with the showrunners,
and even goes into the writer's room to talk to them about the
subtext in certain scenes to devise a color schematic for each
storyline. He develops an idea of his approach and watching the
blocking on set allows him to try different things. Snowfall is
pretty collaborative- John Singleton helped develop an African
American cultural understanding on set, often taking suggestions
from people's lived experiences. Tommy says many cultural nuances
come from behind the lens, and Black actors, crew members, and
people from the neighborhood make the show. Tommy first got into
the business as a production assistant in New York, moving up to
grip/electric while going to college in Massachusetts. He started
working with Spike Lee on commercials as a gaffer and as an
operator on Lee's miniseries, When the Levees Broke. After
attending AFI (American Film Institute), Tommy met fellow
cinematographer and mentor Matty Libatique, who brought him on to
Iron Man 2 and Straight Outta Compton. Tommy went on to shoot
Kalushi: The Story of Solomon Mahlangu in South Africa, and
television series such as Tales, On My Block and Empire. Several
years ago, Spike Lee had introduced Tommy to John Singleton at
Singleton's birthday party. Singleton stayed in touch and later saw
Tommy's work on the BET anthology series Tales, and approached him
to shoot Snowfall. You can see Snowfall on FX on Hulu.
https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/snowfall Find Tommy Maddox-Upshaw:
http://www.maddoxdp.com/ Instagram: @themaddoxdp Find out even more
about this episode, with extensive show notes and links:
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