Today we’d like to introduce you to John Beatty.
Hi John, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is John Beatty and I am a Director of Photography/cinematographer based in Glendale, CA.
Growing up in Kearney, Nebraska, I was given my first camera at the age of six by my parents. It was a cute little Crayola branded 110 film camera that I used to point at our pets, my brother, and my parents, and snap their photos with. My father at a young age was an amateur photographer, taking slide photos and developing them himself in his parents’ basement. Wanting to be like my dad, I diligently snapped away with my camera, which created a love for capturing images of the things and people around me.
Once I graduated with my film degree, I immediately started working in the industry in Kansas City. There, I was able to eventually build up relationships with other filmmakers, working on music videos, short films, commercials, and other projects that would begin to inform my personal taste and interests as a cinematographer. It was extremely creatively fulfilling becoming friends with like-minded filmmakers who were interested in experimenting and creating work that was intriguing to us. I was even fortunate enough to be able to shoot nationally broadcast television commercials during my time there and get a glimpse into overseeing large crews and lighting and camera set ups.
After about a decade of living and working in Kansas City, I made the decision to more seriously pursue my career aspirations in Los Angeles. Like many others before me, including my mentors and other friends, I packed up everything I owned and made the move out west. Having filmed in and visited LA previously, I knew the city was a special place and I immediately fell in love after I made the move. I hit the ground running, making friends with other filmmakers and connecting with new colleagues that would quickly become frequent collaborators. The rigors of production in Los Angeles, I found, were quite different from that of Kansas City, but I welcomed the challenge, and given the enormous pool of talented creatives here, I have become a better filmmaker learning from them.
In the four years I’ve been in LA, I’ve been lucky enough to film a lot of super fun commercial projects, documentaries with festival runs, music videos, and recently more narrative work, including the second film from acclaimed director Sav Rodgers. Sav’s first film, “Chasing Chasing Amy” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival to much commendation and is now streaming on many major platforms. His second film, “Pancake Skank,” is a comedic narrative short film about the ups and downs of new friendships set in a neon-soaked world of diner mayhem. It is Executive Produced by Lilly Wachowski and Mark Duplass. In May of 2025, Sav, who is a friend of mine from back in my Kansas City days and a recent collaborator, asked me to be the Director of Photography for his new short film, and I ecstatically agreed. We spent the next ten months intensively preparing for and previsualizing the film, creating references, watching movies together, shot listing, and much more. We just recently wrapped principal photography in March, shooting in Las Vegas for seven days and in Los Angeles for two, with a fantastic crew of super talented individuals from all over the country. We are very excited to share the film with the world once it’s completed and are hoping for a great premiere at a festival later this year.
I’ve met so many talented directors, production designers, camera, grip, and electric department folks, sound engineers, etc. during my time so far in LA, and I’m eternally grateful for the new friendships and professional relationships that this city has gifted me.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
All roads have bumps along the way and my time so far in LA has been no exception to this. I think the largest struggles for me so far during my time in Los Angeles have been getting stuck in creative ruts during downtimes, or times when the amount of freelance work has lightened up a bit for me. It’s difficult as a creative person to not constantly be creating, but I find comfort in reminding myself that the next project is always just around the corner, and lately I’ve been trying to practice a bit of relaxation; TBD if it’s working or not! I’m grateful though that the year so far has been extremely creatively fulfilling for me and am looking forward to doing more work with new collaborators very soon.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
As a Director of Photography/cinematographer, my work has largely been in the commercial, documentary, and narrative world, and has recently shifted to largely focus on commercials and fiction films. I find that while both of these avenues are completely different, they are both incredibly creatively fulfilling and have taught me a lot about who I am and how I tend to express myself artistically. While I take great pride in my ability to light and shoot these projects, I am constantly learning and trying to improve my craft. I have a great set of mentors that have spent decades in the industry whom I am extremely grateful to for passing on their hard earned knowledge.
I think the biggest thing that sets me apart from others in my field is my own lived experience and how that contributes to my craft. Growing up in the middle of Nebraska as a young gay person in the closet wasn’t always the easiest experience, but the support I received from family and friends after coming out has always motivated me to fully put all of myself into my work, because I know that I have a great support system and people out there who I really want to make proud. I feel confident in every project that I go into that I will bring a sense of myself; my own personal tendencies and creativity shaped by years of working alongside like-minded and supportive people.
In terms of my work itself, I try to always bring a sense of heightened realism to it; the characters I light and film come from all walks of life, and I strive to inject that into the way they’re conveyed on screen. But it’s also important to me to tell the story of the film in such a way that is captivating from an audience perspective and is creatively boundary-pushing, and this often requires enhancing and heightening the look of the film, which the director and I usually collaborate very closely on.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other reching the Big Fish” is a book I go back to quite often; it holds many ruminations about life, filmmaking, meditation, and has lots of great anecdotes about his career which are funny and fascinating. From it, I’ve taken away a ton about how David lived his life as an artist, discovering how he let his lived experiences inform his creative endeavors
“Painting With Light” by John Alton is also a book that I refer back to quite often. Alton is a renowned cinematographer most known for his work in the 40s and 50s, and offers his philosophy on lighting and camera work in a really striking way that always hits home for me. I always recommend this book to aspiring cinematographers for its musings on the craft.
I do listen to a lot of podcasts as well, including Hot Rod Cameras’ “The Cinematography Podcast” as well as Rodger and James Deakins’ “Team Deakins” podcast, both of which offer unique perspectives from industry professionals that I find extremely helpful and insightful.
Watching movies, though, is my biggest ones coming out, as well as find time to watch films that I’ve never seen before. I love watching a film and then immediately finding the American Cinematographer Magazine article about it to gain a ton of insight into how it was shot
- Website:https://www.johnbeattydp.com
- Instagram:@johnbeattydp
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