Born: 17 February 1953, Montréal, Canada. He is from Estonian descent.

Education: York University, Toronto [Film program].

Career: Moved to the USA in 1997.

Ph commercials dir by Martin Granger [for Budweiser], Dan Levinson, Rupert Wainwright, a.o. Ph music videos.

Awards: 'Gemini' Award nom [1995] for 'Heads'; ASC TV Award nom [1995] for 'The Invaders'; 'Gemini' Award nom [1996] & CableACE Award nom [1996] for 'Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story'; CableACE Award [1997], ASC TV Award nom [1997] & 'Emmy' Award nom [1997] for 'Gotti'; ASC TV Award [2009] for 'Taking Chance'.

About 'A Simple Plan': 'Having read the screenplay, I was surprised Sam Raimi was directing, because it was a very dark and subdued tale,' confesses director of photography Alar Kivilo. 'It wasn't Sam's usual over-the-top fare; it was very much an actors' piece. So it was a big departure for him, and more familiar territory for me. The images I saw immediately were very stark and simple. As usual with films, you start with the outside, with the physical realities. The setting was Minnesota in the wintertime, so already that calls for a landscape of white skies and snow and bare trees. But that also seemed appropriate for the psychological underpinnings of the story - the fight between right and wrong, the moral dilemma. It was the right kind of texture for that. I work very instinctually, and I'm influenced by external things, but ultimately they're all there to support the story, and you grab at things that make sense for the telling.' But the cinematographer was at a disadvantage on 'A Simple Plan' due to time constraints. The production came together so quickly that Kivilo's initial meeting with Raimi occurred only three weeks before shooting started. Locations in Delano, MN, just outside Minneapolis, had already been chosen when the DP arrived. 'For me, pre-production is the most important part of a film. Three weeks is not enough time to get into the director's head, to go through the script scene by scene and develop a visual subtext for what he's trying to say. There was also no time for hair, makeup, and wardrobe tests, which can be very useful in getting to know the actors and getting a sense of the best lighting for their characters.' No anamorphic lenses were available on such short notice, forcing the DP to abandon his initial idea of shooting the film wide screen. Other issues were more pressing. 'Because we only had three weeks of prep it became all about seeing the locations. Also, since it was shot out of town, a lot of time was spent putting a crew together.'

An unforeseen problem facing the company also ate up pre-production time. 'When I got to Minneapolis in mid-December, there wasn't a speck of snow.' Since the script for 'A Simple Plan' requires snow, and plenty of it, further scouting was needed. Eventually, a suitably frosty location was found in the Lake Superior town of Ashland, WI. The temperatures were brutal, yet helped give the filmmakers the ambiance they wanted. 'I was hoping we'd be blessed with overcast skies, which would reduce the contrast and give us that gray, somber, stark look. Except for a couple of days, we did get that. And I made the decision right from the start not to do any lighting outside. Basically, I used large solids to create negative fill, and then I'd use small silver cards to get a bit of light into the eyes. I just thought the look should be as naturalistic as possible. Also, logistically, when you're up to your waist in snow, you don't want to be mucking around with tons of lights.' [From article by John Calhoun on the 'Lighting Dimensions' website, 1999.]

1974        The Estonians: For the Record [Tiina Soomet] b&w-c; doc/29m; cph: Paul Mitchnick

1982        The Olden Days Coat [Bruce Pittman] 16mm/c; short/30m

1983        Copper Mountain [: A Club Med Experience]/Club Med [David Mitchell] c; 2uc: Barry Stone & Ludek Bogner

1987        Canada: Today/Canada: d'aujourd'hui [Seaton McLean] c; doc/28m

1988        Da [Matt Clark] c; 2uc: Sean Corcoran

199?        Dead Easy [Stephen Surjik] ?; short/?m

1994        [The Passion of John] Ruskin [Alex Chapple] c; short/14m

1995        Hide & Seek [Jane Waterous] c; short/20m

1998        A Simple Plan [Sam Raimi] c; 2uc: Paul Ryan

1999        Frequency [Gregory Hoblit] s35/c

2000        The Glass House [Daniel Sackheim] s35/c; 2uc: Josh Bleibtreu & Monty Rowan

2001        Hart's War [Gregory Hoblit] s35/c; 2uc: Milan Chadima

2002        Normal [Jane Anderson] c; 2uc: Michael Kohnhorst

2003        Aurora Borealis [James Burke] c; 2uc: Monty Rowan

2004        The Ice Harvest [Harold Ramis] c; 2uc: Michael Kohnhorst

2005        The Lake House [Alejandro Agresti] s35/c

2006        The Lookout [Scott Frank] HD-to-35mm/c

2008        Year One [Harold Ramis] c; 2uc: Charles Libin

2009        Mary Mother of Christ [Alejandro Agresti] c

1978        984: Prisoner of the Future/The Tomorrow Man [Tibor Takács] tvm/16mm

1982        David [Bruce Pittman] tvm/25m

1982        Boys and Girls [Don McBrearty] tvm/22m/16mm; ep CBC-series 'Sons and Daughters'

1992        Mary Silliman's War/The Way of Duty [Stephen Surjik] tvm

1993        Heads [Paul Shapiro] tvm

1994        Avalanche [Paul Shapiro] tvm

1994        Young at Heart [Allan Arkush] tvm

1994        Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story [Paul Shapiro] tvm

1994        Friends at Last [John David Coles] tvm

1995        The Invaders [Paul Shapiro] 2-part tvm

1995        Gotti [Robert Harmon] tvm; addph: Jonathan Freeman

1996        Rebound [: The Legend of Earl 'The Goat' Manigault]/Angel of Harlem [Eriq La Salle] tvm; addph: Jonathan

                    Freeman

1996        Weapons of Mass Distraction [Stephen Surjik] tvm; 2uc: Robert Brinkmann; addph NYC: Eric Grove; aph: Dylan M.

                    Gross

1998        Deep in My Heart [Anita W. Addison] tvm

1999        Black and Blue [Paul Shapiro] tvm

2003        NYPD 2069 [Gregory Hoblit] pilot

2006        Windfall [pilot dir by David Semel] 13-part series

2007        Taking Chance [Ross Katz] tvm; 2uc: Charles Libin

1970        Ruberg [doc/28m] ph: ?