Director of Photography Matthew Williams, was born and raised in Los Angeles where he graduated from the Academy of Photographic Arts in North Hollywood, specializing in still photography. After developing an interest in film and motion picture work, he attended UCLA's film school to study cinematography. Matt currently shoots projects ranging from feature films, TV movies & TV series, to 70mm IMAX films, commercials, and is versed in a wide variety of production formats from 16mm, 35mm, 65mm, to the latest 24p High Definition and Digital Formats.
Matt met director Elliot Caplan and dance choreographer Merce Cunningham at the Sundance Institute, where he began a film collaboration that started with "Changing Steps," a dance performance piece narrated by Robert Redford; "Cage/Cunningham" a celebrated 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. After that, Matt served as Director of Photography at the Sundance Institute's Director's Lab for one season, while continuing to shoot commercials, features and two TV series: "Hollywood Detective" for A&E and the TV series "Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective" for HBO. Other TV series have included, all three seasons (68 episodes) as Director of Photography for CBS, "Promised Land"(1999), "Touched by an Angel" (2001), as well as Lifetime's "State of Mind" (2007).
In the expanding digital realm, Matt was one of seven cinematographers chosen to shoot "Bud Greenspan's Stories of Olympic Glory," the Official Film of the 2002 Winter Olympics shot in 24p HD. Also in 24p HD, "Saving Sarah Cain" (2007) for Fox, and "Lock and Roll Forever" (2008) for Sony Entertainment, filmed in the USA and Japan.
In the theatrical film world, Matt recently completed the Japanese-American WWII feature film, "American Pastime" (2007), as well as a musical for MTV, "The American Mall" (2008), both finished with the Digital Intermediate process for theatrical release.
Regarding television commercials, Matt has photographed numerous projects ranging from promos for Spike TV, Oxygen, TBS, NBC and Fox's fX cable channel, to theatrical film trailers for the Sundance Film Festival and award winning PSA spots for Children's Miracle Network, the American Heart Association, Salvation Army, United Way, Foundation For A Better Life, and various Anti-Smoking campaigns, along with commercial spots for Subway, Iomega, Cadillac, Earthlink, McDonald's and Q-Lube. Matt also been chosen, (for the the 3rd year in a row) to shoot promos for Germany's RTL II TV Network in Munich. The (2006) television and theatrical campaign for Children's Miracle Network, brought 3 Telly's (1 for cinematography) and a host of other awards.
In the IMAX format, Matt has lensed several 70mm films; "Hearst Castle: Building the Dream" (1996), followed by "NSYNC: Bigger Than Live" (2001), "India: Kingdom of the Tiger" (2002), and the dramatic segments for the Tour de France film, "Wired to Win" (2006). He also photographed the IMAX films "Stephen Hawking's: Beyond the Horizon" (2008) in England and recently finished "Journey To Mecca" (2009) in Morocco.