John Guleserian (/ˌɡʊləˈsɛriən/;[1] born April 7, 1976) is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his collaboration with Drake Doremus on Like Crazy and Breathe In, and for the 2013 film About Time.
John Guleserian | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 7, 1976 |
| Occupation | Cinematographer |
| Spouse |
Theresa Avram Guleserian
(m. 2010) |
| Children | 1 |
Early life
editGuleserian aspired to be a filmmaker from a young age.[2] He worked as an ice cream truck driver before studying cinematography at college, first as an undergraduate at Columbia College Chicago and then graduate school at the AFI Conservatory.[3] While studying, he spent his spare time "shooting short films for any director that would let me" to gain experience.[2]
Career
editGuleserian began a longstanding collaboration with writer–director Drake Doremus at AFI, which both men attended at the same time. In 2006, Guleserian photographed Doremus's thesis project, and they paired up again to shoot numerous commercials and music videos in addition to the 2009 feature film Spooner.[4] They later collaborated on Like Crazy, a romantic drama film that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and won the festival's Grand Jury Prize, an achievement that Guleserian later said "opened up a lot of opportunities" for him.[5] One such opportunity was the 2013 romantic comedy About Time, which was the first big-budget studio film Guleserian worked on; previously, he had only shot independent films with smaller budgets.[5] The same year, he returned to work with Doremus as cinematographer on Breathe In, starring Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce.[4] Since Doremus's films are largely improvised, Guleserian filmed these projects unconventionally, with mostly handheld camerawork in takes that usually last over ten minutes.[2]
Guleserian's television credits include I Heart Vampires and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!,[3] and he was the director of photography on the 2014 films Parts per Billion, Song One and Before We Go.[2][6] He shot the 2015 film Equals, a science fiction romance directed by Doremus and starring Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult.[7] He also filmed the 2015 sex comedy The Overnight, a project he became involved in because of his wife, a production designer hired to work on the film, who introduced Guleserian to the director, Patrick Brice.[3]
In December 2014 he was named one of Complex magazine's "Underrated Cinematographers Poised to Make It Big in 2015".[7] He has expressed an interest in working as a visual consultant on animated films.[2]
Filmography
editShort film
edit| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | The King, the Lawyers, and the Cheese | Brigid Maher | Documentary short |
| 2006 | Name of the Game | Danny Buday | |
| The Shirt | Drake Doremus | ||
| 2008 | Whirlybird | Danielle Corches | |
| Plain and Simple | Merrin Marra | ||
| Buddy 'n' Andy | Shaun Peterson | ||
| 2012 | Here | Luca Guadagnino | |
| I Have No Hold on You | Tim Thaddeus Cahill | ||
| 2017 | Come Swim | Kristen Stewart |
Film
edit| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Spooner | Drake Doremus | |
| ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction | Kevin Hamedani | ||
| 2011 | Like Crazy | Drake Doremus | |
| 2013 | Breathe In | ||
| About Time | Richard Curtis | ||
| 2014 | Song One | Kate Barker-Froyland | |
| Kiss Me | Jeff Probst | ||
| Parts per Billion | Brian Horiuchi | ||
| Before We Go | Chris Evans | ||
| 2015 | The Overnight | Patrick Brice | |
| Equals | Drake Doremus | ||
| 2018 | Love, Simon | Greg Berlanti | |
| Zoe | Drake Doremus | ||
| Trial by Fire | Edward Zwick | ||
| 2020 | An American Pickle | Brandon Trost | |
| Happiest Season | Clea DuVall | ||
| 2021 | He's All That | Mark Waters | |
| Candyman | Nia DaCosta | ||
| 2023 | Cocaine Bear | Elizabeth Banks | |
| Genie | Sam Boyd | ||
| 2025 | You're Cordially Invited † | Nicholas Stoller | Post-production |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Orastories | Annie Mebane Lindsay Stidham |
TV short |
| 2007-2009 | Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! | Tim Heidecker Eric Wareheim Jonathan Krisel |
29 episodes |
| 2008 | My Alibi | Oren Kaplan | |
| The Juice Box | Shaun Peterson Oren Kaplan |
||
| 2009 | Electric Spoofaloo | Shaun Peterson Oren Kaplan Tim Thaddeus Cahill |
|
| I Heart Vampires | Shaun Peterson Oren Kaplan |
6 episodes | |
| 2015 | Transparent | Silas Howard Jim Frohna |
Episodes "Bulnerable" and "The Book of Life" |
| 2015-2016 | Casual | Jason Reitman Max Winkler Michael Weaver Tricia Brock Fred Savage Karyn Kusama Iain B. MacDonald Lynn Shelton |
23 episodes |
| 2017 | Friends from College | Nicholas Stoller Andrew Gurland Francesca Delbanco |
All 16 episodes |
| 2020 | Homemade | Kristen Stewart | Episode "Crickets" |
| 2023 | Platonic | Nicholas Stoller Francesca Delbanco |
10 episodes |
References
edit- ^ "Episode 141: John Guleserian on Candyman, working with director Nia DaCosta, Like Crazy, About Time". The Cinematography Podcast. September 25, 2021. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e "Behind the Scenes: Cinematographer, John Guleserian (Like Crazy / Breathe In)". Decorated Youth Magazine. July 17, 2014. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ a b c Perry, C. J. (January 27, 2015). "Sundance Interview: Filmmaker John Guleserian on 'The Overnight'". Film Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ a b Valentini, Valentina I. (April 2013). "Let's Get Personal". ICG Magazine. International Cinematographers Guild. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ a b Valentini, Valentina I. (January 2014). "Deep Focus". ICG Magazine. International Cinematographers Guild. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ Bernstein, Paula (January 23, 2015). "How I Shot That: DP John Guleserian Captures the Adult Playdate Gone Awry in 'The Overnight'". Indiewire. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
- ^ a b Formo, Brian (December 10, 2014). "Underrated Cinematographers Poised to Make It Big in 2015". Complex. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.