Meet Steve Mangurten: Cinematographer

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

Hi Steve, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
As a cinematographer, risk plays an important part in my career as well as my life in general. Crew members on film sets are predominantly, if not entirely, freelance workers. In that respect, the choice to pursue cinematography as a career is, in and of itself, a risk. There are no steady paychecks and no guarantees as to when one might work next. The most successful get paid well and work frequently, but it is a long road to reach that point as a cinematographer. There are many paths to choose from and the process is different for everyone. The timeframe is different for everyone as well. As a freelancer, the choice of which projects to take and which to turn down can have a drastic affect on the trajectory of your career. There is inherent risk in each decision. Creatively, risk is an important part of cinematography. If everyone shot films in the same way, there would be no originality and movies would lose a certain amount of interest. Not every film needs to be wholly original in every aspect and the visual style should always be informed by the story, but there are many ways to visually express an idea or affect an audience. Choosing which techniques to use for any moment of a film comes with certain risk. Does flipping the camera upside down at this moment create the unsettling feeling I want to evoke or will it just disorient the audience and take them out of the movie? Any art form come with questions when creating it. Will this work or not? Taking risks artistically is the only way to grow as an artist.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have been interested in filmmaking since I was in middle school and by the time I was ready to apply for college, I knew I wanted that to be my career, so I moved to LA and attended Columbia College Hollywood. It was during my time in undergraduate film school that I discovered cinematography and my passion for lighting and camera work began to take hold. I further honed my craft by enrolling as a cinematography fellow at the American Film Institute Conservatory (AFI). The fantastic people I met in both undergrad and graduate film school have been instrumental in my success and continue inspiring me to always keep improving myself. Establishing a career in the film industry is rarely easy for anyone. It is an almost entirely freelance industry, so networking is the most important skill to have outside of the technical and artistic skills required of the craft. My work has slowed down substantially at various times in my career to the point that I occasionally thought I might not find work again, but I’ve been fortunate to know some great people who have mentored me throughout the years and recommended me to directors who were looking for a cinematographer. The job of a cinematographer is to be the director’s primary consultant for visual storytelling as well as to create and capture the director’s vision on camera by utilizing a deep understanding of both technical and artistic knowledge and experience. Everything that appears in the frame of a film is carefully chosen because it is what is best to visually tell a story. Lighting and camera work are the primary tools of the cinematographer in designing the visuals of a film. These choices are the result of collaboration between the director, cinematographer, production designer, costumer, and many other talented artists on the film set. The job combines art and science into one profession, and to excel in the field, one has to be passionate about both. The work I’m most proud of in my career so far are my feature films, Ring Ring and Paint It Red, a feature documentary called A Fatherless Generation, and a couple of award-winning short films, Dress Rehearsal and The Itinerary. I have two more movies in post production at the moment, For The Hits and Bits, which I’m very excited about and they should both be released soon.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I feel like I’m not qualified to answer this because most of my time is spent working and when I’m not doing that, I’m either at home, seeing movies, or eating. The beach is always fun too, but I don’t make it out there often enough. I also want to go check out more of the art museums. I suppose having friends in town would be good motivation to do those things. Mostly I think we would just eat way too much. I’d love to try every place at Grand Central Market. I have a new goal of trying all the bagel places in LA. Apparently there are more than I thought. Most of my meals end up being Thai or Indian food. Sanamluang Cafe and Crispy Pork Gang are my most frequent Thai restaurants. Bollywood Cafe and Anar are my most frequent Indian Restaurants. I love Sushi but there are too many places to list them all. The udon at Monzo is a favorite too. Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The most important shoutout for any successes that I might have is to my parents. They have always been supportive of my career and my passion for filmmaking. They supported my choice to move across the country in pursuit of a risky career and always encouraged me to try harder when things got tough. They never tried to talk me out of my dreams or make me take a safe job that I would hate. They always wanted me to be happy no matter what that would mean. I would also attribute a fair amount of success to the friends and coworkers I’ve known throughout my career who have been good to me. In the entertainment industry, a close network of people is important for both encouragement and for helping each other find work. We recommend and pass jobs to each other when unavailable as well as simply hiring each other whenever possible. Pushing each other to keep getting better at what we do is a great benefit as well.

Website: sjmdp.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/dirt_mangurt/

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3391686/

Image Credits
Dirty Water Pictures, Reel Fire Entertainment, Nathan Cheney