ZEISS Talking Cine - Mayanne Bouhnik

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]If I go to the end of the world to an island in Tasmania and I I sit there in the end of a cliff, do I really want to be a cinematographer?

[00:00:11]>> [music] >> Okay, I'm I'm Nicoletta my director of photography.

[00:00:18]>> [music] >> I am based in Berlin and I move around a lot. I went to this art school as a teenager and I got into the film department. Most of them want to be directors. [music] I remember that I started to be the one who shoot all the films, but I was really >> [music] >> fascinated by this this work and I think along the years I was also testing myself. I went to travel all over the world, spent all my money on the traveling and [music] I was trying to test if I go to the end of the world to an island in Tasmania and I I sit there in the end of a cliff, do I really [music] want to be a cinematographer?

[00:00:55]And this test brought the result. I am still doing it.

[00:01:00]There is so much to see and to discover and unique places and unique people and I was all the time I was really a photographing a [music] lot and I was really fascinated with faces. I have a lot of portraits of people and was more like capturing life. [music] I always try to find a different view on on a situation. I would never go for okay, I see I read the situation in a script and then I will just say okay, we do a shot over a shot over the shoulder wide shot and that's it. I will try to climb on all the walls in this room and try to find a different way to tell this story and what it is it actually about and what there is in this dialogue and you think of editing and the last result would be to go for this solution after I really analyzed all the other options. So I think this is also a result in my work that I I always try to find this unusual look, try to stretch [music] the line and find the the boundaries of it. I would go to a location, I would 3D map it, I would take a lot of pictures with the >> [music] >> director. We will try to do all the the scenes ourselves. I would try to really feel the actors and then I would go home and I would put it in a 3D program and I would go and put the camera in unusual positions and I would try to really squeeze the lemon and understand those spaces and the limitation and so on and then I will always start over even if it's just taking pictures of me and the director or [music] if it's really to 3D it or to draw it by hand and I would know everything and then I would come to set and I would be ready to throw it because I think when you do all this work and then you really understand the essence of it, then you can be okay with throwing this plan and react to the situation and this is where I love to be with the camera in my hand because then okay, I know the attention and I know why I was thinking to be here with the camera and then okay, if we need to move, I can have this look with the director and we move.

[00:02:59]I go back usually to my colorist Umberto Paletti that I work with often and with him we would look at the scopes, we would try to grade it, we would try to stretch the material and then slowly I started to also understand okay, where is my limitation? Where can I expand? [music] Can I do it more contrasty? Can I do it more soft? And it was really to learn a voice anyway.

[00:03:19]Remind me of Aristotle. He he has this book about when [music] you try to be something, you will always aim for the extreme and then you would land back in your in the middle ground. This is also about life in general. This is what's interesting about life to stretch yourself to I mean we are only guests here for we have I don't know maximum 100 years to experience this universe and life. So you better try things and so this is a little bit I think from the traveling this the philosophy I understood that okay, that >> [music] >> the end is the same, better enjoy it.

[00:03:53]I think something fascinating about cinematography that I discovered is that it's a lot about management. Of course it's about creativity and choosing your lenses and choosing your lighting and being to come up with creative idea, but it's also about really managing a team, managing a financial stuff, equipment, so many logistics that we are busy with and I think this is an aspect that I actually love that you are working with a team, you are working with people, you are working together.

[00:04:22]It's not an art that can be happen alone. And for me it's very important to keep those people very close and very um involved. So I feel like my mission is to make sure that everyone knows what we're doing and why we're doing it and that they can bring their input. Then we have a better result when we we embrace this and understand that it's a collaborative process.

[00:04:45]I would always look for people who are solution oriented and not just bring you the problem and say this is impossible, but rather saying okay, this is impossible, but this is possible. I have this idea. And because this is also what I try to do. A lot of time you just need to be creative in a very technical pragmatic way of where do you rig the camera, how do you hold it, how do you put it in this corner of the room up there and you you need to find those solutions. This is another aspect of creativity that you you don't see, but it's much more present in the day-to-day [music] rhythm on set. When everyone bring this approach even if it's producers or directors or crew members when they bring this unusual ideas of how do we do things that we thought are impossible, those directors that I have this collaborative relationship where they try to push me for new ideas and yeah, for those challenges that I didn't even think about this, I love because this is where I'm also shining and I'm like okay, bring on this challenge, I can do it.