Meet Tatyana Chistikova | Cinematographer

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

Hi Tatyana, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I believe that the ability and readiness to take risks is essential for any creative profession, because the very soul of it is often finding and perceiving untrodden risky paths. And that means there’s always a high chance it might not work the way you wanted, or that in a way you might loose – which should not stop you from trying. Because really sometimes you learn more from “failures” than from success.
For me, risk has always been an integral part of life. About ten years ago I’ve decided to leave a well-paid and secure profession in a Russian media company in order to accept a Fulbright grant and go to New York to study at the News and Documentary program at NYU. It was a risky decision, but it changed my life forever, so that it has become much more interesting and rewarding, even though less stable. I graduated from NYU and started working as a freelance video journalist back in Russia, traveling all over the country, filming personal human stories and going to places I would never be able to go to before. I then started working full-time as a video journalist for NBC News in Moscow, but after a few years I’ve figured it’s time to move on and pursue my dream of diving deeper into cinematography. That’s why I came to LA and immersed into cinematography program at NYFA, which gave me invaluable hands on experience and allowed to then DP several short films of various genres: from comedies to a post-apocalyptic drama.
I feel like now I’m at a new stage of my life, doing what I’ve only been dreaming of before – and it is exactly the risks I’ve taken in life that has in a big part brought me here.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My way to finding myself as a cinematographer was neither straight, nor short – but now I see that it is also one of my strengths in profession, as I’ve learned to combine both the skill of seeing and capturing the magic of an unadorned life, and of creating new worlds in feature films.
I’ve started with documentary filmmaking and video journalism, graduating from NYU, filming two full-length documentaries and shooting a great number of short video pieces. And the main aspect of the documentary-style filmmaking is that you have very little control over the environment and characters – so that your main strength becomes the ability to see and capture the moment, its beauty and power.
At the same time, in a feature film, your team has control over almost everything: from lighting, precisely calculated camera movements and the set design, to the actors’ movements, with whom you can always do a second take if something goes wrong. So deep knowledge of all the technicalities and ability to recreate the visuals that you and the director have in mind becomes your main strength. But there’re some amazing cinematographers, such as Roger Deakins or Néstor Almendros, who came from documentary filmmaking — and in a big way it is that honed skill of seeing and capturing the details of reality what makes them stand out. And for me, the main goal is for my cinematography to be able to convey sensations, sounds and smells through visual. That’s why I’m grateful for all my experience, both documentary and fiction, because in the end it all complements each other in achieving this goal.

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’m someone who finds their strength in nature, and that’s what I really love about LA: it’s abundance of all kind of nature’s elements.
Fist of all, of course, it’s the ocean. Very few major cities in the world are so lucky to have such proximity to the ocean. That’s why, every chance I get, I try to get out to the ocean – even just to wander along the water for an hour at sunset, or sunbathe, or play beach volleyball with friends. When I decided to come to LA, I really wanted to start surfing. Unfortunately, I haven’t had enough time to do this yet. But I seriously plan to start this year.
Overall, no matter how I feel, the ocean for me is the place that always calms and recharges me with energy, so you understand that all your problems are temporary and they can be solved.

Another thing I love about LA is the hills. I live in the Hollywood Hills, and whenever possible I try to go for walks and hikes. It’s amazing how in the center of the city you can meet such an abundance of wild life: deer, coyotes, rabbits, all kinds of wild birds. Again, this not only allows me to keep fit (which is really important if you’re a cinematographer), but also allows me to reboot and take my mind off the problems.

And when I have more time, I love going to the Californian national parks with my friends. Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, Death Valley, Channel Islands – they’re all amazing and have their own charm.
Overall I feel like California is the place where you can travel around all your life – and still find new places to discover.

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?
Apart from my family, that has always been supporting me, I would want to give a huge shoutout to all my professors and teachers along the way. From my favorite school math teacher Olga Nikolaevna, who has always taught me to look for non-conventional ways and solutions, to my NYU professors Marcia Rock, who believed in me from the start and accepted me into the highly selective News&Doc program, and Kirsten Johnson, amazing documentary filmmaker, who taught me and my pals a truly humanistic approach to the heroes of our stories, to my NYFA cinematography instructors: Pascal Lebègue, Gil Shilton, David Armstrong, Mike Williamson, Rick Greenwood — and all the other amazing teachers I’ve been lucky to meet along my way! It is certainly thanks to all them I am where I am right now.

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