PERSPECTIVE AND INTUITION

Cinematographer Ari Wegner is a chameleon of storytelling. Whether shooting a film about a 19th-century Englishwoman bristling against the confines of a loveless marriage (William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth) or two strippers road-tripping to Florida for a twisted weekend of scheming (Janicza Bravo’s Zola), Wegner synthesizes the unique vision of each director with her own meticulous artistry of framing and light to guide audiences across landscapes and time. For her depiction of a steely rancher’s psychological torture of a woman and her son in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, Wegner became the second woman in history to be nominated for Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards. 

In this discussion Wegner broke down her distinctive storytelling principles, delving into collaboration and the importance of prep, and anatomizing scenes from her work, including The Power of the Dog and Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder.