Alexander Hill | Director of Photography

Phone: +49 (0)176 9678 3123

Education:

2003-2005 MA Film & Television (Cinematography), National Film & Television School, England, under Brian Tufano, BSC.

1998-2002 BA (Hons) Photography, Film & Imaging, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland

Born in Durham, England. Lives in Berlin, Germany. Available for work nationally and internationally. Languages: English (mother tongue), German (very good).

My approach to narrative-based work is essentially simple in that I stay away from doing beauty for beauty's sake and instead focus on what is right for that particular project. I think it's important that the visual style of any piece supports what is happening rather than being a series of overtly flashy images; in any case, though, the cinematography should be of as high a quality as possible. I have shot a wide variety of work, including dramas and docs, art installation pieces, stop-frame animation, music videos and corporate films; I've used many different cameras and formats from HDV, HD and Red through to S16mm and 35mm and have worked with various lighting techniques from the home-made kind to larger professional units.

Certain films I have worked on have been shown in festivals and exhibitions around the world, e.g. Cannes, London, Tehran, L.A., Lisbon, Edinburgh, Berlin and in Greece.

One film won the award for Best Short Animation at the Short Ends World Film Festival and was subsequently shown at the British Society of Cinematographers' New Cinematographers Night. In 2008 I was invited to take part in the Berlinale Talent Campus.

The DoPs who inspire me are people like Gordon Willis, Harris Savides, Michael Chapman, Lance Acord, Ellen Kuras, Conrad Hall, Nestor Almendros, Roger Deakins, Robert Elswit, Brian Tufano, Robert Yeoman, Phedon Papamichael and Raoul Coutard. Photographers would include Robert Frank, Josef Kudelka, Stephen Shore. The wide range of directors I admire include Paul Thomas Anderson, Bela Tarr, David Cronenberg, Woody Allen, Alan J. Pakula, Gus Van Sant, the Dardenne brothers, the Coen brothers, Curtis Hanson, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden, Deborah Gronick, Eric Rohmer, Sam Peckinpah, Preston Sturges, David Lynch, Bob Rafelson, Werner Herzog, Wes Anderson, David Fincher..... too many to list!

I also find a great deal of inspiration in the the works of authors such as Thomas Pynchon, Michael Chabon, Kurt Vonnegut, Umberto Eco and Paul Auster.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY