MAKE Welcomes Steve Buckwalter as Director of Photography
Lisbet Byler
MAKE’S MOVIN’ ON UP
Making his way to the ring…all the way from Lititz, PA…with the heavyweight title of Director of Photography…STEVE ‘THE SVEN’ BUCKWALTER!
GETTING TO KNOW YOU,
GETTING TO KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU
To help paint a picture of the man behind the lens, I asked(forced) Steve to do his least favorite thing in the world…talk about himself.
Lisbet: Welcome to MAKE films, Steve! Share with me a little bit about your career path leading up to MAKE?
Steve: Well I had a long career assembling clamps for cattle pens, but after a few years I decided that getting a penny per bolt wasn’t enough for me. And I also started 7th grade and got my first camera. After some time spent working for a production company in high school and a theater company I finally realized that working in film and video was something that energized me. In the fifteen years of working for myself I was fortunate to travel the world and work for productions large and small. And I always remembered putting together cow clamps.
Lisbet: Well we’re thrilled your path led you to our studio. Could you share a few fun facts about yourself?
Steve: My superpower is finding broken sinks at public restrooms (I suppose it’s possible that there are just a lot of broken sinks). I read lots of books, like a lot a lot. I love to travel, but I especially love road trips and driving, and best of all, traveling somewhere, then going on a road trip.
Lisbet: Why do you get up in the morning?
Steve: I get a lot of energy out of my work. I know it’s cliche to say that if you love what you do it doesn’t feel like work, but I usually find it more difficult to stop working than to begin.
Lisbet: What is your favorite movie or tv show and why?
Steve: When I start attempting to rank movies in my head, they are like having a large family who start looking at you with teary eyes if you ever declare a favorite. I suppose that if someone started playing russian roulette with me and demanded that I pick one I would probably have to say “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”. Mainly because it is peak Spielberg, and peak Ford, and peak Connery, and might be the most perfect movie ever made. The only obvious flaw being the miniature tank falling into the ravine. But the action is exciting, the dialogue is zippy when it needs to be, and subtle when it needs to be. So much happens, and you’re having so much fun, that when it ends you’re immediately ready to get on a horse and follow them into the sunset.
Lisbet: How did you first hear about MAKE films?
Steve: I’ve known Derek and Aaron for a few years, and worked with them occasionally as they built a great team that became MAKE. So when Derek asked if I was interested in joining I jumped at the chance.
Lisbet: What do you think is the biggest opportunity in film?
Steve: I think that people like smart, authentic stories. There a lot of people doing great beautiful work out there, but if there isn’t intelligence or heart behind it, it won’t resonate.
WELCOME TO MAKE, STEVE!
If you can’t tell by his responses above, Steve is truly one-of-a-kind, and we are over the moon excited to welcome him to the MAKE films’ team.