RODRIGO PRIETO AMC/ASC

Born: ? November 1965, Mexico City, Mexico. Moved to the USA in 2000.

Education: Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica [CCC], Mexico City.

Career: 'I first became interested in filmmaking as a 10-year-old kid, when my brother and I made a three-minute 8mm monster movie for a Halloween party. Each year we used to throw Halloween parties with a haunted house, in which we had floating objects, background music and miniature horror landscapes with clay monsters. A friend's father suggested using stop motion animation to make our clay monsters come to life. My father lent us his Bell & Howell 8mm camera. We took turns with the camera, acted, directed, edited, etc. It wasn't until I worked as an assistant in a still photography studio with ph Nadine Markova, that I became more aware of the use of lighting and composition. I worked as an apprentice in the camera department on a movie that Nadine shot called 'Welcome Maria'. Right after that movie, I enrolled in a film school in Mexico City. I started my career as a doph on commercials in Mexico when I was 22 years old. I shot my first feature while still in film school. It was a low, low budget murder thriller.' [From interview with Jennifer M. Wood in 'MovieMaker', Vol. 2, Issue #10.]

Ph music videos dir by Esteban Reyes [a: Fobia], a.o. Ph commercials.

Awards: 'Ariel' Silver Award [1996] for 'Sobrenatural'; Cartagena FF, Colombia, Best Photography Award [?] for 'Edipo alcalde'; San Sebastián FF Prize of the Jury for Best Photography [1998] & 'Ariel' Silver Award [1999] for 'Un embrujo'; New York Latin American Festival Best Photography Award [?] & 'Ariel' Silver Award nom [1999] for 'Fibra óptica'; Camerimage 'Golden Frog' Award [2000] & 'Ariel' Silver Award [2001] for 'Amores perros'; ASC Award nom [2002] for 'Frida'; Camerimage 'Silver Frog' Award [2004] for 'Alexander'; Bangkok IFF 'Crystal Lens' Award [2005; see photo above]; 'Oscar' AA nom [2005], BAFTA Film Award nom [2005], ASC Film Award nom [2005] & CFCA Award [2005] for 'Brokeback Mountain'; BAFTA Film Award nom [2006] & CFCA Award nom [2006] for 'Babel'; Manaki Brothers 'Golden Camera 300' Award [2008] for 'Se, jie/Lust, Caution'.

FILMS AT THE CCC

1988	Aviso oportuno/Classified Ad [Daniel Gruener] 16mm/c; short/7m
1988	Llueve otra vez/It Rains Again [Bruno Bichir] 16mm/c; short/7m
1988	El sótano/The Basement [Patricia Martinez de Velasco] 16mm/c; short/7m
1989	La venganza/The Revenge [Eva López Sánchez] 16mm/c; short/7m
1990	Acopilco [Patricia Martinez de Velasco] 16mm/c; doc/16m
1990	Nadie es inocente/Nobody's Innocent [Silvana Zuanetti] c; short/11m
1990	El Yapo Galeana [Eva López Sánchez] 16mm/c; doc/17m
1990	Luna de miel al cuarto menguante/Honeymoon at the Moon's Decrease [Daniel Gruener] c; short/27m; + co-ed
1991	Amazona/Amazon [Daniel Gruener] c; short/27m
1991	No quiero discutir/I Don't Want to Argue [Jorge Ramírez Suárez] c; short/25m
1991	Objetos perdidos/Lost and Found [Eva López Sánchez] c; short/27m; + co-ed
1992	Giovanni è morto [Silvana Zuanetti] c; short/25m

FILMS

1988	Hoy estoy triste [Daniel Gruener] c; short/7m
1991	Ratas nocturnas [Jon Michael Bishof (or Joan Michael Bishop) c; 65m
1991	Sólo con tu pareja/Love in the Time of Hysteria [Alfonso Cuarón] c; 2uc (+ 2ud); ph: Emmanuel Lubezki
1991	Paty chula/Beautiful Paty [Francisco Murguía] c; short/30m
1991	El jugador/Juegos de seducción [Joaquín Bissner] c
1992	Anatomia de una violación [Rodolfo Lopezreal] c
1992	Un instante para morir/El asesino del zodíaco/An Instant to Die [Christian González] c
1992	Dama de noche/Lady of the Night [Eva López Sánchez] c
1993	Perfume, efecto inmediato [Alejandro Gamboa] c
1994	Fuera de este mundo [Esteban Reyes] c; short/12m
1995	Sobrenatural/All of Them Witches [Daniel Gruener] c
1995	Edipo alcalde/Oedipus Mayor [Jorge Alí Triana] c
1995	Un beso a esta tierra/A Kiss to This Land [Daniel Goldberg Lerner] b&w-c; doc/93m; cph: Oren Rudavsky, D. Goldberg Lerner, Jack Lach, a.o.
1996	Fibra óptica/Optic Fiber [Francisco Athié] c
1997	Un embrujo/Under a Spell [Carlos Carrera] c; 2uc: Serguei Saldívar Tanaka
1998	Don Juan [Adrian Rudomin] scheduled to start filming in January; status unknown
1998	Ricky 6/Say You Love Satan [Peter Filardi] c; 2uc: Todd Elyzen
1999	Amores perros/Amor y rabia/Love's a Bitch [Alejandro González Iñárritu] c
2000	Original Sin/Dancing in the Dark [Michael Cristofer] s35/c
2000	Angel Eyes [Luis Mandoki] c; ?; ph: Piotr Sobocinski
2000	Beyond Borders [Oliver Stone] unfinished docudrama shot in Africa and Europe
2000	Ten Tiny Love Stories/Women Remember Men [Rodrigo García] HD-to-35mm scope/c
2001	Frida [Julie Taymor] b&w-c; 2uc: Serguei Saldívar Tanaka & Antonio Riestra
2001	8 Mile [Curtis Hanson] s35/c
2002	Comandante [Oliver Stone] dv/c; doc/99m; cph: Carlos Marcovich
2002	25th Hour [Spike Lee] s35/c; 2uc: Ellen Kuras (was not available for 1st unit ph)
2002	21 Grams [Alejandro González Iñárritu] c; 2uc: Xavier Pérez Grobet

[Left] with dir Oliver Stone - "Alexander"

2003

Alexander [Oliver Stone] s35/c; 2uc: Jonathan Taylor; aph: John Marzano; vfx ph: Stefan Lange

2004

Viva Frankenstein [Daniel Gruener] c

2004

Brokeback Mountain [Ang Lee (replaced Gus Van Sant)] c; 2uc: Peter Wunstorf; + small part

2005

Babel [Alejandro González Iñárritu] s16+35mm+s35+p-to-35mm/c; addph Mexico: Xavier Pérez Grobet; 2uc Mexico: Eduardo Flores Torres; 2uc Morocco (+ 'b' cam op): Berto (= Gilbert Lecluyse); 2uc Japan (+ 'b' cam op): Masanobu Takayanagi; aph Morocco: Jörg Widmer

[Left] with dir Ang Lee - "Se, jie"

2006

Se, jie/Lust, Caution [Ang Lee] c

2008

State of Play [Kevin Macdonald] HD+p-to-35mm scope/c; addph (reshoots): Dante Spinotti; 2uc: Masanobu Takayanagi; aph: Dwayne McClintock

2008

Los abrazos rotos/Broken Embraces [Pedro Almodóvar] p+s16+35mm-to-35mm scope/c

2008

Biutiful [Alejandro González Iñarritu] p+35mm-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Daniel Aranyó; filmed 2008-09

2009

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps [Oliver Stone] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Patrick Capone; aph: Phil Pastuhov

2010

Water for Elephants [Francis Lawrence] p+s35-to-35mm scope/c; 2uc: Robert Baumgartner

2011

We Bought a Zoo [Cameron Crowe] s35-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Brad Shield, Patrick Murguia & Eduardo Mayen

2011

Argo [Ben Affleck] 35mm (Hawk Scope)+HD (ARRI ALEXA)-to-35mm scope/c; 2uc: Robert Baumgartner

TELEVISION

2002	Persona non grata [Oliver Stone] doc/b&w-c/67m/dv; cph: Serguei Saldívar Tanaka; ep HBO-tv series 'America Undercover'
2003	Looking for Fidel [Oliver Stone] doc/82m/HD; cph: Carlos Marcovich; ep HBO-tv series 'America Undercover'