- Born
- Mihai Malaimare Jr. was born in 1975 in Bucharest, Romania. He is a cinematographer and director, known for The Master (2012), Jojo Rabbit (2019) and The Harder They Fall (2021).
- Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since 2018.
- Studied Cinematography at the National University of Theatre and Film "I.L.Caragiale" (UNATC) in Bucharest, Romania. Established in 1954, the public university offers today programs in Directing, Acting, Editing, Sound, Audiovisual Communication, Multimedia and Cinematography. Other graduates include Cãlin Peter Netzer, Cristian Mungiu, Adina Pintilie, Corneliu Porumboiu, Oleg Mutu and Marius Panduru.
- Son of actor Mihai Mãlaimare.
- Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 2023.
- [on new film technologies] I am half engineer and I like all these technical challenges. With our craft, you can have great Ideas but you have to know how to achieve them from a technical point of view. I like to push things as much as possible. I like to try new things that weren't tried before. On Francis' [Francis Ford Coppola] films, we were pioneers on so many different levels. (...) To me, all the new tools are great, the more the better. There are so many things you weren't able to do before and what's most important is doing something new and different, something never done before - to do a sequel or something in the same way using the same tools would be a nightmare. (...) You know the old saying : "Don't study to be a doctor - you'll have to keep learning your whole life." Well, that's the same for cinematographers. We have to keep learning something new every day, continually, your whole life because every day there is a new toy, a new piece of equipment coming out - we just have to learn how to use it. [2013]
- [on the emotional effects of visuals] I try to think of everything. There's an amazing book called "Art and Visual Perception," written by Rudolf Arnheim. Arnheim talks about the history of art and images, and the things you can do to manipulate or channel the audience's feelings or reactions with the meaning of a certain color or contrast, or a certain diagonal. I might not be consciously thinking of these things, but it's somewhere inside me. You're also working with a certain set and a certain scene, so it's finding a balance. [2012]
- [on still photography] I have 12 still cameras, and I'm shooting still photos everywhere, especially when I'm starting a new project. One reason I don't have a really competitive digital still camera is the lack of format. I can shoot any format, including panoramic with Hasselblad two-frame 35mm. There are so many things you can do, and history has developed so many formats. [2012]
- [on studying cinematography] The program is now 3 years, but when I did it, it was 4. It's an interesting system, the same as most other Eastern European countries. It's a combination of the French system and the Russian system, where there are a limited number of places, but everything is pretty much paid for. You need to pass exams in the history of art, and you must be able to analyze a painting. We shot a lot of black and white in the first two years, and processing at the school. We were shooting, and then running to the basement and waiting for the negatives to come out. All these things helped our education a lot, I think. We did six or seven short films in 16mm and 35mm. There is emphasis on composition, color and the history of painting, which is definitely very helpful. [2012]
- [shooting The Master (2012) on 65mm] There was a long prep and testing period to figure out the format and the aspect ratio. I'm in love with still photographs. In the story, Freddie works in a portrait studio, so there are still photography elements in the story. We looked at what kind of format was used in that period, after World War II. Paul [Paul Thomas Anderson] had the idea to try a larger format, and it blended pretty well, because if you think of the most iconic still photography from that period, you think of really shallow depth of field. For example, the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima was photographed on a Speed Graphic 4X5. So all your memories and references for that time are related to a large format negative. I loved that idea of trying a larger format than 35mm. I've done a lot of still photography on medium formats. We actually tested VistaVision, and it was interesting, but we had to struggle with it. We knew that Panavision had a bunch of the 65mm cameras, so that was the next test. And then, we went even further with the 65mm 8-perf, but for a variety of reason that wasn't feasible. At first the plan was to use 65mm for the portraits, maybe about 20% of the movie. But every shot that came from the 65mm negative was so amazing. After a week or two of shooting, we switched and ended up shooting 85% of the movie on 65mm, and the rest on 35mm. [2012]
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