Reed Morano

“When you work as a cinematographer, the actors look to you for reassurance. When you're lighting them, they can never think you're making an adjustment because of the way they look. If they are nervous, it impacts their performance, which impacts the story.”

“In my 20s, I was too shy to reach out to successful DPs and directors for an internship or to shadow them. I see young people nowadays doing that all the time. I think that experience would have been cool.”

“I like movies as a viewer that challenge me to actually think rather than spoon feed everything to me.”

“A lot of TV and film commits to one tone.”

“My family lives on Long Island.”

“Huge studio movies are handed over to a man with less experience before they're handed over to a woman with less experience. That's a fact. But I think it's not just about men not hiring women: it's about women not hiring women, too.”

“Directing is not about gender. Directing is individual to the actual individual. From woman to woman, directing is completely different. It's about giving more than half the population a chance to express themselves, you know what I mean? It doesn't always mean it's going to be more sensitive.”

“I love strong women like Uma Thurman, Meryl Streep, and Charlize Theron.”

“We moved around every winter. I don't know. Maybe my dad was, like, on the run from the law.”

“Being a cinematographer taught me a lot. I got to expedite the visions of many directors and learned how to navigate many styles and worlds.”

“Ultimately, the idea of being able to escape and lose myself in a new world every time I go to 'work' was too appealing to ignore.”

“I learned a lot while I was ACing and gripping for other DPs as I was coming up.”

“I don't want to step on the DP's toes. That's the first lesson I learned when I started directing with other cinematographers.”

“A lot of male cinematographers stick a pillow to their stomachs so they have somewhere to rest their elbows while shooting.”

“My father passed away when I was 18. It was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but it is not like that all the time. Not every moment is dark.”

“'The Handmaid's Tale' is a very special story.”

“There was a movie that was made about 'The Handmaid's Tale.' And I never watched it on purpose because I didn't want to... I just didn't want to know.”

“My dreams are like fuzzy Charlie Kaufman movies, so I love going to sleep.”

“Eventually, when I got the 'Meadowland' script, I saw something in it that made me think I could make something special out of it, something that could work with my style. Emotionally, I connected to it. I thought, 'If I feel this way just imagining it, maybe we can make that happen on screen and make people feel something when they watch it.'”

“The way I'm used to telling a story is by looking through the viewfinder and being really close to the actors.”