Meet Katie LeCluyse: a recent graduate from Savannah College of Art and Design and a budding young cinematographer.

Katie’s work is undeniably incredible, but even more incredible was her speed to learn the craft of filmmaking. She entered SCAD with no experience with filmmaking and left shooting professional-grade shorts.

Today, We Dig Into

• 🎥 Katie’s path to shooting a western epic

• 🤐 SCAD’s secret to taking students from no experience to professionals in 4 years

• 💵 What Katie’s story teaches us about becoming a professional cinematographer

PRIVATE WORLD

Notice how Katie oscillated between a shallow depth of field and fish-eye shots to create a frenetic and tense feeling in the room.

Katie learned the value of pre-production on this project. As their time on set was quickly waning, Katie had to move quickly to get sufficient coverage. Luckily, she had a shortlist that she could pass to her assistant director, so the crew understood the speed between shots they would have to move.

A FLAME’S REACH

While Private World is a terrific early project, A Flame’s Reach shows how Katie’s mastery of cinematography grew dramatically through her time at SCAD.

Pay attention to:

• Color & Skintones

• Lighting & Shadows

• Film Grain

A Flame’s Reach is a western epic working its way through the film festival circuit.

WHAT’S THE SECRET?

Katie recently graduated from SCAD with a BFA in Film and Television. Her peer group, scrappiness, and SCAD’s secret weapon are the 3 biggest factors in her success.

From Student to Student

In Stuudeo’s hundreds of interviews with film school students across the country, there is a common throughline at the best schools.

Students teach each other more about the craft of filmmaking than their classes.

Scrappiness

Scrappiness is speed. The faster you can produce projects, the faster you will grow.

SCAD’s Secret Weapon

After multiple interviews with SCAD students, Stuudeo found a common pattern: the most talented SCAD students spend most of their weekends on sets.

SCAD has a crew culture. They expose students to what set life may be like as they move into the industry.

While writers and directors can get away with only going on 5-10 sets per year, young members of the camera department live can expect to crew on 15+ projects annually.

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