Michael Slovis, ASC, DGA started taking pictures as a teenager and was a winner of the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival with a photograph that earned him admission to Rochester Institute of Technology's renowned photography program. There, one of his teachers said his pictures told stories like movies and advised him to look into filmmaking. Slovis studied cinematography at New York University and began working professionally as a gaffer on motion pictures, commercials and television. He started his career as a director of photography in independent films in New York. In 1995 Michael photographed the Sundance Film Festival favorite Party Girl, which opened the door to independent films, television films, theatrical films and pilots.Returning from Europe, following the traumatic events of 2001, Michael wanted to stay closer to family and was fortunate to transition to episodic television with the series, "ED" for Paramount/NBC. In 2007 Michael completed two and a half years as director of photography on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for which he won the 2006 Emmy award for outstanding cinematography and was nominated again in 2007. Since 2008, Michael has made AMC his part-time home shooting four seasons of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad, for which he has earned three Emmy nominations.In recent years Michael has photographed the pilot for ABC's Castle, the episodic shows Fringe (Fox), Royal Pains (USA), Rubicon (AMC), Running Wilde (Fox) and 30 Rock (NBC). In 2010 Michael was honored to join the American Society of Cinematographers.
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Michael Slovis, ASC, DGA started taking pictures as a teenager and was a winner of the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival with a photograph that earned him admission to Rochester Institute of Technology's renowned photography program. There, one of his teachers said his pictures told stories like movies and advised him to look into filmmaking. Slovis studied cinematography at New York University and began working professionally as a gaffer on motion pictures, commercials and television. He started his career as a director of photography in independent films in New York. In 1995 Michael photographed the Sundance Film Festival favorite Party Girl, which opened the door to independent films, television films, theatrical films and pilots.Returning from Europe, following the traumatic events of 2001, Michael wanted to stay closer to family and was fortunate to transition to episodic television with the series, "ED" for Paramount/NBC. In 2007 Michael completed two and a half years as director of photography on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for which he won the 2006 Emmy award for outstanding cinematography and was nominated again in 2007. Since 2008, Michael has made AMC his part-time home shooting four seasons of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad, for which he has earned three Emmy nominations.In recent years Michael has photographed the pilot for ABC's Castle, the episodic shows Fringe (Fox), Royal Pains (USA), Rubicon (AMC), Running Wilde (Fox) and 30 Rock (NBC). In 2010 Michael was honored to join the American Society of Cinematographers.
Robby Baumgartner began his film career 28 years ago in New York City. His interest in lighting inspired him to choose the unconventional route to DP via Gaffing.
This career path allowed him to light films and learn from some of the most talented DP’s in the business: Rodrigo Prieto, Chris Menges, Robert Elswit, Dante Spinotti, Darius Khondji, Janusz Kaminski, and Emmanuel Lubezki. Some of the films include: “8 Mile”, “25th Hour”, “21 Grams”, “Babel”, “Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada”, and “There Will be Blood”.
In between Gaffing gigs he took every opportunity to DP or camera-operate on feature films, 2nd-unit photography, commercials, and shorts.
Then in 2008 “There Will be Blood” shot by Robert Elswit, won the Oscar for Best Cinematography; the highest honor for any DP/Gaffing team. That event was the impetus for Robby to stop gaffing and DP exclusively.
In 2009 Robby joined the International Cinematographers Guild as a DP. Since then he has gone on to shoot 2nd unit on both “Hunger Games” l and ll, “Water for Elephants”, and “Argo” amongst other films. For the last 5 years he has been concentrating on shooting main unit for films such as “The Guest”, “Blair Witch (2016)” and now “Blindspotting”, which has been selected for competition in the US Dramatic category at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
Art vs. Commerce
Michael Slovis, ASC, DGA started taking pictures as a teenager and was a winner of the New Jersey State Teen Arts Festival with a photograph that earned him admission to Rochester Institute of Technology's renowned photography program. There, one of his teachers said his pictures told stories like movies and advised him to look into filmmaking. Slovis studied cinematography at New York University and began working professionally as a gaffer on motion pictures, commercials and television. He started his career as a director of photography in independent films in New York. In 1995 Michael photographed the Sundance Film Festival favorite Party Girl, which opened the door to independent films, television films, theatrical films and pilots.Returning from Europe, following the traumatic events of 2001, Michael wanted to stay closer to family and was fortunate to transition to episodic television with the series, "ED" for Paramount/NBC. In 2007 Michael completed two and a half years as director of photography on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation for which he won the 2006 Emmy award for outstanding cinematography and was nominated again in 2007. Since 2008, Michael has made AMC his part-time home shooting four seasons of the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad, for which he has earned three Emmy nominations.In recent years Michael has photographed the pilot for ABC's Castle, the episodic shows Fringe (Fox), Royal Pains (USA), Rubicon (AMC), Running Wilde (Fox) and 30 Rock (NBC). In 2010 Michael was honored to join the American Society of Cinematographers.
