Director and DP Brandon Trost: directing An American Pickle, shooting Crank: High Voltage, Halloween II, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, HBO pilot for Barry, comedy films MacGruber, The Interview and The Disaster Artist

Cinematographer and director Brandon Trost enjoys exploring
different genres and styles of filmmaking, trying different things
that push him outside of his comfort zone. Brandon grew up around
film- he is the fourth generation of his family working in the
movie industry. He attended LA Film School and soon began working
as a cinematographer. One of Brandon's early films, the action
movie Crank: High Voltage, was shot much like a skateboarding
video, with several small cameras strategically placed to capture
the frenetic pace so that it would feel electric. Brandon loved
working with director Rob Zombie on Halloween II, which was shot on
16 mm film for a very grainy and gritty look. Shooting the comedy
film MacGruber was Brandon's first experience working in the humor
genre. He and director Jorma Taccone wanted it to look like Die
Hard, taking all the action movie tropes to an extreme, which is
what made it funny rather than choosing to shoot it like a
conventional comedy movie. MacGruber helped launch Brandon's career
into shooting comedy movies This is the End, The Interview,
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, Neighbors and The Disaster
Artist with Seth Rogan, Andy Sandberg, and James Franco. When
shooting with comedians, Brandon found it's important to be
prepared for improvisation and to light the space so there's
flexibility for the actors to move within it, keeping shots fairly
wide. For the films Diary of a Teenage Girl and Can You Ever
Forgive Me? Brandon had the opportunity to switch gears again,
working with director Marielle Heller. They chose a camera and
lenses for Can You Ever Forgive Me? that gave the film a real,
naturalistic, even unflattering look to Melissa McCarthy's
character. Brandon got to explore dark comedy again in the pilot
for the HBO series, Barry. Creators Bill Hader and Alec Berg wanted
the violence to feel very real, dark and yet funny, so Brandon
chose to treat the pilot like a Coen brothers movie, using moody
lighting and shooting with a single camera. An American Pickle is
Brandon's first time directing a large feature film. Frequent
collaborators Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg asked Brandon to take a
look at the script with an eye to directing, and the story appealed
to him. Directing An American Pickle was challenging since Seth
Rogan plays both main characters. Much of the film had to be shot
twice- once with Seth Rogan as the character Herschel and then as
the character Ben. Brandon found that choosing a director of
photography when you're also a cinematographer can be difficult,
and he chose DP John Guleserian (Like Crazy, About Time, Love,
Simon, the upcoming Candyman) to shoot the movie because he has a
great sense of humor and is very collaborative. Find Brandon Trost:
https://www.brandontrost.com/ Twitter: @b_tro See An American
Pickle on HBO Max Our interview with DP John Guleserian will be
coming in October. Find out even more about this episode, with
extensive show notes and links: http://camnoir.com/ep87/ Sponsored
by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com Website: www.camnoir.com
Facebook: @cinepod Instagram: @thecinepod Twitter: @ShortEndz