Bio
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Matt grew up making photographs from the time he was 8 years old after being given a Kodak Instamatic still camera. After high school and various college still photography classes, Matt attended and graduated from the Academy of Photographic Arts in North Hollywood, where he learned the art and skill of commercial studio still photography, (both product and portraiture lighting). After school he found a job processing film in a commercial film lab for Disneyland, where he worked for 2 years. At the same time he became more and more influenced by film and motion picture work and decided to attend to UCLA's film school, where he also became a teaching assistant in the visual/production design and editing classes. Matt was the t.a. for 3 semesters in Bruce Block's visual design class so that he could continue to be exposed to the ideas of production design in relation to cinematography; the very ideas that changed his direction to that of cinematography instead of still photography. He then worked for 2 years as an on-line editor, 3 years as a cameraman for various news magazine shows and documentaries, 2 years as a film camera assistant (8 TV movies and series) and has worked exclusively as a Director of Photography since 1987. Matt currently shoots projects ranging from feature films, TV movies & TV series, to 70mm large format films, documentaries, commercials, and is versed in a wide variety of production formats from 16mm, 35mm, 65mm (5-70, 8-70 iWERKS and IMAX 15-70 formats), & Photosonics high speed 35mm cameras, to the latest 24p high definition format.
In 1987 Matt was 2nd unit Director of Photography on a feature film for the Oxford Film Company/London, titled "Promised Land" starring Meg Ryan and Kieffer Sutherland, and worked closely with Swiss Cinematographer Ueli steiger, (who recently photographed "Bowfinger," "The Visitors" and "The Day After Tomorrow"). Ueli's work as well as the work and design ideas of Eugenio Zanetti, Production Designer (Academy Award in 1997 for Oxford Film's "Restoration") had a major influence on Matt's visual process.
In 1989 at the Sundance Institute Matt met Director Elliot Caplan and Dance Choreographer Merce Cunningham and began a film collaboration that still continues. Starting with "Changing Steps," a dance performance piece narrated by Robert Redford; the 2nd project "Cage/Cunningham" is a celebrated 90 minute documentary exploring the career-long collaboration of Merce Cunningham and Music Composer John Cage and "Beach Birds for Camera" a 35mm b&w/color theatrical dance performance film. All three films have won numerous international awards. (In 2000 Matt finished working with Elliot on a holocaust documentary titled, "Children of the Holocaust" which was photographed in the United States, Israel, Poland, Prague, and former concentration camps in the Czech Republic.)
In 1993 Matt served as Director of Photography on the staff at the Sundance Institute's Director's Lab, where the projects there included two dramatic film projects, "Memoirs of a Midget" by Julie Hickson (Producer / Tim Burt on's "Frankenweenie") and Akosua Busia's "Seasons". During this time period Matt continued to shoot commercials, features and (2) TV series; "Hollywood Detective" which was Art & Entertainment's first in-house dramatic project, and the television series, "Encyclopedia Brown:Boy Detective" for HBO.
In 1995 Matt shot a film titled, "Friendship's Field," starring Kate Maberly ("The Secret Garden") which went on to win 1st place at the 1997 Chicago International Children's Film Festival as well as the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize. A unique opportunity arose shortly after this project when the same Director offered Matt a chance to shoot a 70mm "Large Format" IMAX film. The project, "Hearst Castle: Building the Dream" is a docu-drama chronicling the life of William Randolph Hearst and the building of the world famous Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA. The film follows Hearst as a 10 year old boy with his mother on the "Grand Tour" of Europe. The project was photographed in England, Scotland, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sicily and Switzerland... all of which provided him with the inspiration to build his own castle, 50 years later.
In the television commercial world Matt has photographed numerous projects ranging from promos for Oxygen, TBS, NBC and Fox's fX Cable Channel, to theatrical film trailers for the Sundance Film Festival and Children's Miracle Network, as well as award winning PSA spots for The Foundation For A Better Life, The American Heart Association, The Salvation Army, United Way, Child Care Aware, and various anti-smoking campaigns, along with commercial spots for iomega, Cadillac, Earthlink, Mc Donald's and Q-Lube. Recent commercial spots have included (2) campaigns for TBS Superstation, the world premiere of "Austin Powers" and the world premiere of the TV series "Friends." This past spring, Matt finished shooting (for the the 3rd year in a row) commercial promos for Germany's RTL II TV Network. Also, a recent campaign for Children's Miracle Network, was shot on 24p HD, edited in 1080 / 24p HD and scanned to 35mm film, where the resulting 2200 prints were screened theatrically all across the nation.
In May of 1999 Matt completed all 3 seasons (68 episodes) as Director of Photography on the CBS Network show, "Promised Land," a dramatic TV series which was a spin-off of the top rated "Touched by An Angel," of which he also photographed 3 episodes. Recent work has included, Japanese-American WWII film, "American Pastime" (2007), a 70mm IMAX concert film, "NSYNC: Bigger Than Live" (2001), a docu-drama IMAX project, "India: Kingdom of The Tiger" (2002), "Stephen Hawking's: Beyond the Horizon" (2008) IMAX project in England, and in 2005, Matt was in France finishing the dramatic segments for the IMAX "Tour de France" themed film, "Wired to Win" (2006),
On the 24p HD production front, Matt was one of 7 cinematographers chosen to shoot, "Bud Greenspan's Stories of Olympic Glory" the Official Film of the 2002 Winter Olympics. Also on 24p, Matt photographed the award winning,"Hiding in Walls" (2003), a short film for the directing debut of writers, Bob Hilgenberg & Rob Muir, known as "Bob & Rob". The comedy short stars Johnny Sneed, Chris Moynihan ("A Mighty Wind"), Jane Lynch ("Best in Show" & "A Mighty Wind") and Danny Trejo ("Dusk to Dawn"). "Hiding in Walls" had its World Premiere in the spring of 2003, screening at the HDFEST 2003 World Tour and HD Film Festival in Los Angeles, where it won Best HD short film, and Best HD comedy short film. The growing list of projects on 24p HD includes commercials for Spike TV, Panasonic, iwireless, Earthlink Mail Station, "Truth" Anti-Smoking spots, and USDTV, as well as the feature films,"Boxboarders" (2006) and "Saving Sarah Cain" (2007), "Animals" (2007) and "Lock and Roll Forever" (2008) filmed in the USA and Japan.
