Meet Anton Usikov | Director of photography

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anton Usikov and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anton, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I come from a city called Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. I don’t know if it was the same for everyone, but I spent most of my days daydreaming about living abroad and working on exciting things. There was nobody and nothing around me that would even suggest that a creative career is something I could do. Looking back now, my unwillingness to accept reality as it was fueled my motivation to learn English, and leave.

When I finally had an opportunity to leave, I moved to China. Some people might say it’s scary to move to a foreign place, but honestly, it was scarier to stay. From then on, life became full of excitement and every day felt like a brand new adventure. Meeting the right people at the right time, I ended up starting a video production business in China, which later led to working as a cinematographer and director on commercial projects.

Taking risks in life and a creative career is the only way to grow. In many of our video production projects in China, we would deliberately overdeliver—pitching more daring concepts, using better lenses and cameras, rigging cars, or traveling to exotic locations. Sometimes, we even added personal money to the budget to make the final product look better than it should have, and add it to our portfolio. If you do the same thing every time, sure, you’ll make money, but you’ll also stay stuck doing that same thing forever.

Having just emerged from life under COVID19 restrictions in China, the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, which opened new opportunities, so I moved to London, where I tried to continue working in the film industry while adjusting to a new culture yet again. After spending a year there, I realized that London wasn’t it. I had a long-time friend from my English learning days living in San Francisco so I took another risk and moved yet again. The US film industry has been so much friendlier right from the start: Thanks to a local San Francisco DP, Michael Epple, I had a chance to be a camera operator on a project for NFL and google academy. I was craving more creative projects so I threw everything I owned in a car and drove down to Los Angeles.

Somehow, I’ve been incredibly lucky. There have always been people and circumstances that helped me along the way, for which I’m really grateful. The journey continues, and it’s still a challenge—starting over in a new place again and again. We often don’t realize how much the film industry relies on personal connections rather than just your portfolio.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It’s this elusive essence of cinema that I’ve been chasing my entire career—that magical feeling when you watch something, and it feels like a film rather than just a video. What I figured was that language of cinema works the same way any language works: the more movies, commercials and music videos you watch, the more ways of visual interpretations and techniques you learn, its so incredibly important. Nobody is a pro, until they are.

Shooting in studios over time really helped me grasp how lighting works. Once you understand the patterns and types of lighting in controlled environments, you start noticing them naturally when shooting outside. I believe that when you truly love something, the difficulty of doing it becomes irrelevant. I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunities I had in China: it was easy to get video projects, and equipment rentals were affordable, allowing me to experiment freely.

The biggest challenge I’ve faced is the business side of video production. There are so many talented and creative people out there, but only those who are business-savvy get to shine. It’s crucial to know how to sell and pitch your ideas in a way that excites clients. It’s a delicate balance between showcasing creativity and explaining how your work will help clients achieve their financial goals—whether through sales, engagement, or other metrics. I’m still learning and improving in this area.

Working as a cinematographer, however, requires a different skill set. It’s more about building relationships with directors, aligning with them stylistically and personally, and, of course, being good at your craft.

I want people from disadvantaged places, like where I come from, to know that it’s possible to break out and pursue what you love. It just takes a bit of delusion, blind faith, and risk.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One of my favorite places in LA is mount Wilson, north of Pasadena. It’s so serene. You can see all of LA up there, and on a clear day you can see as far as St Catalina island.

In&out is an absolute must for anyone visiting California. Ok, it’s not the greatest in the world, but it’s decent and very iconic.

There’s so much to see in LA, Santa Monica pier, Griffith observatory (if you dont mind walking as parking is almost always impossible). I would take my friend to see all of our favorite movie shooting locations such as Back to the Future, Terminator and VGHS (video game highschool).

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to thank Anastasia Delmark for bringing me into the film industry back in 2015. We started out producing small Kickstarter and Indiegogo videos for tech clients in Shenzhen. I’m incredibly grateful to her for seeing something in my silly videos I made with my friends back in school and offering to work together. She’s now a well established music video director in LA, and I’m really happy to see her succeed.

I would also like to thank Gert Kombate, a Togo-born director based in Shanghai, for involving me in the biggest projects I’ve had the chance to work on so far. We collaborated on commercials for JP Morgan and Asics.

Above all, I’m most thankful for my producer, Gaily Zeng, who is also based in Shenzhen. A true professional and dedicated artist, she stood by me through the worst times, unwavering in her support through thick and thin.

Website: https://www.antonusikov.com/

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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@antonusikov