Interview:Nate Goodman

This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

On January 8, 2008, Ryan Gibson Stewart conducted a phone interview with Heroes cinematographer Nate Goodman.

Ryan Stewart: I want to thank you for taking some time to talk about your role on Heroes. You're the director of photography, correct?

Nate Goodman: I'm one of the directors of photography. We have two and we alternate.

Who is the other director of photography?

This year it's Charlie Lieberman.

Could you tell everyone what the difference is between a director of photography and a cinematographer?

Nothing. [laughs] They're basically the same thing. I mean, sometimes we'll call ourselves cinematographers, other times we'll call ourselves directors of photography. For example, I'll be listed as the director of photography for Heroes in the credits, but I might refer to myself as a cinematographer. Basically, there are other people who call themselves cinematographers who might be camera operators or assistants. But in general, cinematographers and directors of photography are interchangeable.

So as one of the directors of photography, can you tell me what you do for Heroes? What does your job entail?

From a practical production point of view in terms of the overall look of the show, and the creative aspect of the show in terms of getting it to the screen, there are certain people on the set who are consistent on the set from episode to episode--primarily the directors of photography and the production designer. The directors of each of the episodes come and go; they're basically hired on an episode-by-episode basis. Television is primarily a writers' medium, so that the main creative force of the show would be Tim Kring. The other writer-producers would also be major creative forces of the show. Then the director-producers (of which there are two: Allan Arkush and Greg Beeman) are all working together from the macro-creative side to make sure that the show has an overall consistency.

With regard to actually executing that, that's where the director of photography would come in, to make sure that on a practice, day-by-day basis, the directors are directing the episodes maintaining the basic creative conceptions of the show. So from a more practical point of view, I do things like the lighting and help the directors block the action and shoot the action. But it's all bearing mind what the style of the show is and what we are basically trying to go for and what we look for. So with regard to what the directors of photography do, they're basically the on-set interfaces between the creators and creative producers of the show, and the directors of the show. So from an episode-by-episode basis, the show maintains an overall look.

So when a new director comes on board, your are the main person who helps him make sure that his episode has a similar look and feel from episode to episode?

Yes, exactly. I mean, Heroes is a little different from other television shows in the sense that there's no overarching specific dogmatic style to the show. The show has to look good, and there are certain things we do consistently with the show--low angles, push-ins, moving the camera, all of these kind of things. But with regard to the lighting and the design of the show, we can sort of treat the design of the different scenes as a feature in that regard, and just be able to interpret the scenes and the different stories that we're telling on a case-by-case basis. Bear in mind that there are certain minor kinds of things we will do on the show consistently.

So what I'll do is I'll work in prep usually (hopefully!) with the directors to analyze the script and go through location scouting--which there are a lot of locations on the show, as you know--and figure out strategies by which to shoot so we can actually prepare which equipment we need on the day. Also, we troubleshoot things in the script that might be complicated or overly complicated for production, based on what we can do in the schedule we're shooting for television. What I'll also do is help the directors, if necessary, with interfacing between them and Stargate, which is the company which does the visual effects. A lot of the directors who come on don't necessarily have the same amount of experience doing visual effects as they're going from television series to television series. Some of them have quite a bit of experience; others have none. So with that regard, I'll help guide them through the process so they don't actually have to get hung up on that sort of thing.

Okay, so tell me a little bit about shooting for visual effects.