STEVEN POSTER ASC/CSC

Born: 1 March 1944, Chicago, Illinois, USA, as Steven Barry Poster.

Education: Southern Illinois University [1962-64], Los Angeles Art Center College of Design [Still Photography; 1964-66]; Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago [BS in 1967].

Career: Was hired as a c.asst by 'The Film Group', a commercial film prod company in Chicago. He was noticed immediately because he knew how to light and was promoted to doph. He met dir Herschell Gordon Lewis and worked with him as c.asst, soundman and/or actor on 3 films ['We made feature films. They weren't porno's. They were horror or gore films. It was so low end that one of us was assigned every morning to go to the butcher shop and get liver and entrails that we used as gore props.']. He stayed in Chicago for almost 10 years and ph industrial films, doc's, commercials ['I got to work with people like Michael Mann, who started his career doing commercials. He had a company in Chicago, and I shot a number of commercials for his company and for him.'], educational and medical films. After joining the union he began getting work on various feature films shooting in the area. He worked as 2nd c.op, c.op and addph. Moved to Los Angeles in 1974 and primarily shot commercials at first.

Ph music videos: 'Like a Prayer' [1989; a: Madonna; d: Mary Lambert], a.o. Ph commercials dir by Patrice Leconte, Ridley Scott, Lol Creme, Kinka Usher, Jake Scott, Chris Carballo, Marty Weiss, Don Allen, a.o.

Also active as still ph with one person exhibitions in Albany, Atlanta, New York, etc.

Member of the ASC since 1987. Was also president of the ASC [2002-03]. Is president of the International Cinematographers Guild [IATSE Local 600] [2006-].

Appeared in the doc's 'Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography' [1991], 'Donnie Darko: Production Diary' [2004; ph: Mike Hoy] & 'Cinematographer Style' [2005, Jon Fauer; ph: J. Fauer, Jeff Laszlo, Brian Heller & David Morgan].

Awards: As doph: ASC Award nom [1988] for 'Someone to Watch Over Me'; 'Emmy' Award nom [2006] for 'Mrs. Harris'.

As dir: Cannes FF 'Golden Palm' nom 'Best Short Film' [1974; shared] for 'Another Saturday Night'.

Website: Steven Poster

FILMS

1974	Another Saturday Night [Mik Derks & Steven Poster] c; short/14m
1976	Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1979	Blood Beach [Jeffrey Bloom] c
1980	Dead & Buried [Gary A. Sherman] c
1981	Blade Runner [Ridley Scott] p/c; co-addph; ph: Jordan Cronenweth
1981	The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas 1982	Spring Break [Sean S. Cunningham] c
1982	Strange Brew [Dave Thomas & Rick Moranis] c; uwph: J. Barry Herron
1983	The River [Mark Rydell] c; co-2uc; ph: Vilmos Zsigmond
1984	The New Kids/Striking Back 1984	Starman [John Carpenter] p/c; 2uc; ph: Donald M. Morgan; sfx ph: Michael McAlister
1984	Aloha Summer [Tommy Lee Wallace] c; addph: Johnny Jensen & Michael Hofstein; uwph: Tom Boyle, Bob Condon & Ron Condon; released 1988 mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> normal; mso-tab-count: 1; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"> italic"> idi-font-weight:
1985	The Heavenly Kid [Cary Medoway] c
1985	The Boy Who Could Fly [Nick Castle] c; S. Poster was brought in about 6 weeks into filming; cph: Adam Holender & Neil Krepela (efx ph); vfx ph: Peter Romano; optical ph: Charles Cowles, Alan Harding & Mark Vargo (superv)
1985	American Anthem/Take It Easy [Albert Magnoli] c; addph; ph: Donald E. Thorin
1985	Blue City [Michelle Manning] c; addph: Ric Waite; 2uc: Donald M. Morgan & Egon Stephan
1985	Big Trouble in Little China [John Carpenter] p/c; 2uc; ph: Dean Cundey
1986	Someone to Watch Over Me [Ridley Scott] c; filmed 1986-87
1988	Big Top Pee-wee [Randal Kleiser] c
1988	Next of Kin [John Irvin] c
1989	Opportunity Knocks [Donald Petrie] c
1990	Rocky V [John G. Avildsen] c; addph: Victor Hammer
1990	Life Stinks/Life Sucks [Mel Brooks] c
1991	Pacific Coast Highway [?] HD/c; short/15m; a test-film for NHK-tv, Sony and Panavision
1992	The Cemetery Club/Looking for a Live One [Bill Duke] c
1995	The Crow: City of Angels/The Crow II [Tim Pope] c; addph; ph: Jean-Yves Escoffier
1996	Nunzio's Second Cousin [Tom DeCerchio] c; short/18m; seg of 'Boys Life 2' (4 seg; other ph: Steve Adcock, Marc Reshovsky & Jamie Silverstein)
1996	RocketMan [Stuart Gillard] c; miniature ph: Eric Swenson
1997	1 chance sur 2/Half a Chance [Patrice Leconte] p/c; 2uc: Jean-Claude Thibaut
1998	BASEketball [David Zucker] c; addph; ph: Steve Mason
1998	The Rage: Carrie 2 [Katt Shea & Robert Mandel (uncred)] b&w-c; 2uc; ph: Donald M. Morgan
1998	Fight Club [David Fincher] s35/c; 2uc; ph: Jeff Cronenweth
1999	Mission to Mars [Brian De Palma] p/c; ph Jordan unit; ph: Stephen Burum
2000	Unbreakable [M. Night Shyamalan] p/c; 2uc; ph: Eduardo Serra
2000	Donnie Darko [Richard Kelly] p/c; uncred 2uc: Steve Gainer
2001	Stuart Little 2 [Rob Minkoff] c; 2uc New York: Tom Houghton
2001	The Oscar Legacy [David Haugland] ?; doc/?m
2002	Looney Tunes: Back in Action [Joe Dante] s35/c; addph; ph: Dean Cundey
2002	Daddy Day Care [Steve Carr] c
2004	Tap Heat [Dean Hargrove] s35-to-35mm/c; mus short/14m
2005	Southland Tales [Richard Kelly] s35/c; 2uc: David Stump
2006	Bill/Meet Bill [Melisa Wallack & Bernie Goldmann] HD-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph; ph: Peter Collister
2007	The Box [Richard Kelly] HD (Genesis)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Terrence Hayes
2008	Spread [David Mackenzie] s35/c; addph: Paolo Cascio

[Right] with dir Brad Peyton - "Cats & Dogs"

Photo by Kimberly French

2008	Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore [Brad Peyton] 35mm (+ D-Cinema [3-D])/c; 2uc: Roger Vernon
2010	Flypaper [Rob Minkoff] HD/c; 2uc: Yaron Levy

TELEVISION

1976	Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II [Lou Antonio, a.o.] 22-part series, 1976-77
1977	What Really Happened to the Class of '65? [ep #12 'Mr. Potential' dir by James Sheldon] 14-part series, 1977-78; other ph: Bernie Abramson, Fred Goodich, a.o.
1978	The Night Rider [Hy Averback] pilot
1978	The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank [Robert Day] tvm
1978	The Duke [Lawrence Doheny] pilot
1979	Mysterious Two [Gary Sherman] pilot
1979	Beggerman, Thief [Lawrence Doheny] 2-part tvm
1981	Coward of the County [Dick Lowry] tvm
1982	The Cradle Will Fall [John L. Moxey] tvm
1983	Testament [Lynne Littman] tvm for PBS-tv series 'American Playhouse'; addph: Charles Minsky; also released theatrically
1986	Courage [Jeremy Paul Kagan] tvm
1986	I'll Take Manhattan [Douglas Hickox & Richard Michaels] 4-part miniseries; other ph: Larry Pizer
1987	Engineering Design: CAD 2 - Product Modelling Systems [John Simmons] doc/60m; cph: Graham Banks & Laurie Rush; for BBC-tv/Open University
1990	Shangri-La Plaza [Nick Castle] pilot/30m
1990	Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Special [John Landis] special/?m
1992	The Bat, the Cat and the Penguin [John Pattyson & Mike Meadows] doc special (the making of 'Batman Returns')/22m
1993	Roswell [: The U.F.O. Cover-Up]/Incident at Roswell [Jeremy Paul Kagan] tvm; aph: John M. Stephens
1995	Present Tense, Past Perfect [Richard Dreyfuss] tvm/30m; also seg of comp 'Anything for Love' (Showtime-tv)
1995	A Midwife's Tale [Richard P. Rogers] docudrama/89m/16mm; cph: Peter Stein; addph: Tony Cucchiari & Robert Zimmerman; ep PBS-tv series 'American Experience'
1996	Once You Meet a Stranger [Tommy Lee Wallace] tvm
1997	Color of Justice [Jeremy Paul Kagan] tvm; aph: Donald Sweeney
2004	Mrs. Harris [Phyllis Nagy] tvm; uncred add c.op: Nancy Schreiber
2005	The Loop [pilot dir by Betty Thomas] 17-part series, 2006-07; 1st season, 2006; other ph: Michael A. Price & Jonathan West
2005	Briar & Graves [Michael Katleman] pilot
2006	The Danny Comden Project [Robert Duncan McNeill] tvm/30m
2008	Raising the Bar [pilot dir by Jesse Bocho] 25-part series, 2008-09; other ph: Rick Bota & Frank Perl
2008	The Miles Davis Documentary [Christopher Wilkinson] doc/90m/HD; addph: Paolo Cascio; for HBO-tv
2009	Tap Dreams [Dean Hargrove] pilot/HD for intended doc dance series

MISCELLANEOUS

1963	Blood Feast/Feast of Flesh [Herschell Gordon Lewis] ?; ph: H.G. Lewis
1965	Monster a Go-Go/Terror at Halfday [Herschell Gordon Lewis & Bill Rebane] ?; ph: Frank Pfeiffer
1966	An Eye for an Eye [Herschell Gordon Lewis] ?; ph: ?; unreleased
1967	The Girl, the Body, and the Pill/The Pill [Herschell Gordon Lewis] c.op; ph: Roy Collodi
1977	A Wedding [Robert Altman] co-c.op; ph: Charles Rosher Jr.