Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Patti.
Hi Michael, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1991 and I think it was around 1996 and my parents took me to the Kennedy Center one night to see the Phantom of the Opera. They chose me over my sister and two brothers, little did they know it was possibly the most important evening of my life as a kid. That night during the show it was like a lighting bolt hit me and I was awestruck. The feeling I had that evening pushed me to pursue the arts. We moved to Orlando, Florida shortly after I started acting and playing music – I had a lot of motivation to express myself through those mediums. I made a lot of home movies with my brothers and friends with this Hi-8 camera and just always filmed things. I got into 35mm photography pretty young around 9 or 10, I took photos of everything. I think I became good at capturing people candidly – I never shot smiles to camera, always when someone wasn’t looking. Very much a fly on the wall – I developed something then that I never knew would benefit me now as a cinematographer.
One day round 10 years old I got the opportunity to be an extra on a Nickelodeon show on the Universal lot, some type of game review show for kids. The first day I just had to sit on a couch in the background, but all I did was watch the crew – especially a man with a stick aiming lights. Which today I now know it was a lighting technician with a gaff aiming units. But, the next day brought my fate that rerouted my career focus. As I was dropped off for day 2 of taping the show the producers asked if anyone knew how to rollerblade – of course I jumped at the opportunity, quite literally. I rollerbladed all the time, this was my chance! One detail was soon realized that they wanted us to rollerblade on ramps on the set during the shot. One detail they didn’t know because at this point I had the blades on – I have never dropped in on a ramp in my life. But I wasn’t going to lose the opportunity, a very fake it til you make it attitude with this kid. Before we started rolling, I climbed up onto the top on the ramp, took a breath, and dropped in – it didn’t go well. In an instant, my legs flew out from under me and I fell backwards…snap. I broke my wrist.
The producers did their thing swarming me, you can color that situation in I am sure – then the set medic walked up. I’ll never forget this guy, he had like a salt of the earth type of calm. He scooped me up and carried me behind the crew filming. As he checked out my wrist I just watched the production move in front of me, that same feeling hit me from when I was sitting in the Kennedy Center. From that day at age 10 , i’ve been behind the camera.
I auditioned for a television and film production magnet in High School…coincidentally directly across the street from Universal’s stages. I got in and pretty much never left my high school tv studio for 4 years. My tv and film teacher Elliot Schwartz gave us the sort of guidance you dream of as a young kid trying to make movies. He never throttled us on our expression, was brutally honest, and his niche anecdotes about the industry still ring in my ears. He motivated me and pushed me to be an artist first. He was a mentor and a good man, just a solid foundation for students to study and try out crazy ideas. The funny thing is, what he taught us in high school…I am still doing at 35 years old as a cinematographer. He was right.
I have no idea how I got a high school diploma – I passed with flying D’s. I never wanted to go to college and I moved to New York City only a few months after I graduated high school. I started working as a 1st AC for features, loaded a few movies, then eventually got an opportunity to operate B Cam for a feature in 2012 and made the ultimate decision to start my career as a director of photography. After many many…many reality shows for bravo, national geographic, where I lived in the woods for weeks on end filming, food network, and many others. I finally got my first feature film, then I began shooting music videos for Drake, French Montana, Swae Lee, Anuel AA, and Pitbull, eventually leading me to work with artists like Panic At The Disco and Fall Out Boy.
In 2018 I moved from New York City to Nashville – I knew no one and pretty much had to start from scratch. One day I met Nathan Thompson who is an incredible DP and who has since turned into a very close friend. I asked if he ever needed a gaffer and shortly after we started lighting together. After a while of working together, Nate started recommending me for DP work and my Nashville career officially started then. I really owe it to him, i’m blessed to know him and forever thankful for his kindness in so many ways.
I am coming up on my 18th year in the industry – 9 years as a cinematographer. The film industry is all I know. I have never had a real job, only this. Since that day I have traveled the world many time over for work, lensed films and documentaries that have screened at film festivals domestic and international. I recently shot my first nation campaign with Alison Brie for Macy’s that aired Thanksgiving Day for the parade and other events that day globally, that was amazing to see.
Narrative film has always been my home – I had a group in NYC that I would always create with, but that connection was gone since I left. I knew I was staring at an anthill and just had no idea how to climb in.
Slowly but surly I started to meet likeminded and extremely talented filmmakers in Nashville.
This past year I have shot my favorite films thus far, specifically – “Shed” a feature film directed by Mila Vilaplana, “Now Then Forward” a short film directed by Wes Langdon, and “Knuckles” a short film directed by Jay Curtis Miller. All have received an official selection in this years Nashville Film Festival. I am so honored to have worked on those films and to have collaborated with such talented people. I am talking talent across the board, the best crew you can work with is here.
Today, I am a father of two beautiful daughters who are everything to me, in pre-pro for a new feature film called “Marbles” written and directed by Robert Hamilton, and I still working my craft as a cinematographer. I am 35 now, but when the magic hits on set, a stellar performance or a shot that went just right – I become that kid again sitting in the Kennedy Center. Same feeling, same bolt of lightning, i’m in this for life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Incredible obstacles and challenges, gig work is tough work. Mental health is for sure overlooked in this industry, we pull long hours, overnights, set politics. You can get major burn out and not even know it.
This career path is so non-linear – never a steady climb up, just zigging and zagging, left, down, up, right. At least it was for me. One day you are shooting a feature film, the next day you are in some other country, then you are home and you hit what I call the “wall of silence” and you don’t shoot for a few weeks. All that momentum of work and grind, then it comes to a screeching halt for a bit. it plays games with your mind for sure. But as I have gotten older I have embraced the silence, I finally get to see my kids and stop being a facetime dad. Staying present is so important or you’ll get lost in the gig worker anxiety.
It is funny how the brain is sometimes your worst enemy, self-doubt creeps in from time to time “I am not good enough” or “That frame looks like shit” – My 1st AC Andy Burchett has become my on-set therapist many times over. But it is not all about the work, each one of us have lives outside of set. We all have problems big or small – family issues, kids, finances, name it. Most in the industry understand and I have had some of the most therapeutic talks about life and problems that were eating at me with crew members on set. We are in it together, it’s family.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a cinematographer – I use camera, lensing, and lighting to create an image that tells a story. I work closely with production designers to have a canvas on which to paint. On set of the most recent feature I shot, Production Designers Molly Stricker and Tabitha Camp and myself went to great lengths to chose the colors and patterns within the camera frames that affected the audience on a psychological level and supported the emotional element of the scene – in turn the audience feels something in their subconscious while watching the film.
I have an obsession with using my work to affect a viewer without them knowing, I like to think if my work becomes noticeable – then I have failed. Everything must support the story, my work should be an afterthought. For example, an audience member walks out of the theater and says, “That movie was great” then “It looked great too”. if I do my job right, you will never know I was there. I want to serve the story and I use my skills to do so.
I am proud of these last 3 films, Shed, Now Then Forward, and Knuckles. All 3 different types of films, and three different types of looks and feels. I dive head first with my directors, each of us challenging the other with deeper ideas, colors, painting, music, other films. I am most proud of how vastly different those three films are with how they look and feel.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
This is a hard one because I wear my heart on my sleeve to a high degree. If you know me you are pretty much getting all I got.
Contact Info:
- Email: michaelpattidp@gmail.com
- Instagram: michaelpattidp
