First-Person Shooter
REED MORANO MADE HER MARK AS A FEATURE CINEMATOGRAPHER WITH Frozen River (2008). She followed that success with Kill Your Darlings and The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete, both released in 2013, the same year that she was invited into the American Society of Cinematographers. In 2015, she directed and photographed Meadowland. Her second feature as a director, I Think We’re Alone Now, opens in September, and she’s currently in postproduction for The Rhythm Section, her first big-budget studio movie, an action-thriller starring Blake Lively and Jude Law.
You were a cinematographer for 15 years before you directed Meadowland. Did you always want to direct?
When I started NYU film school, I assumed that I would direct because I was into writing and photography. But the first time I worked on a film, I kept looks like the coolest job. There were no monitors then—it was just him shooting film and taking light readings. He seemed to know all the secrets, and that looked like so much fun. And I think I knew subconsciously that I wasn’t ready to direct. I didn’t have the life experience yet that compelled me to tell my own stories. Instead, I took on a very technical job. Then, as I went out into the real world, and eventually started DPing indie features, I’d sometimes think if that was me [directing], I wouldn’t do it that way. And I started to have strong feelings about performances. I really wanted the movie to be as good as possible, but the DP is never gonna be the answer to making a movie good. But right up to doing , I still didn’t feel confident enough to direct. I thought maybe I should just keep my day job.
