A Conversation With Producer Daniel Lupi
Brie Clayton June 29, 2022
0 Comments
The line producer of the upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon discusses past projects and his longtime collaboration with Panavision.
Producer Daniel Lupi's credits include the features Catch Me If You Can, Lincoln, Ready Player One and West Side Story with director Steven Spielberg; Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread with director Paul Thomas Anderson; and, most recently, Killers of the Flower Moon with director Martin Scorsese. He began his career in the mid-1980s as a production assistant in New York. I've been around cameras for 39 years, he shares, and I'm still learning.
Panavision recently caught up with Lupi to discuss his work as a line producer, what he looks for when partnering with a rental provider, and the logistics he's had to navigate for some of his far-flung productions.
West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, cinematography by Janusz Kaminski. Image courtesy of Disney.
Panavision: As a line producer, how do you determine where you'll rent your cameras and lenses for any given project?
Daniel Lupi: Honestly, it's DP-driven. With some line producers, I'm sure it's about budget and where you can get a better deal, but to me, the point of the camera rental is all about the DP.
I have a bit of a unique r sum . I've done something like 30 movies as a line producer, and I think only two of those have been digital jobs. When we did Her with Spike Jonze, we shot digital, and that was because we were trying to have a really low footprint. And then on Us with Jordan Peele, we went digital, and that was because we had a lot of night work. Killers of the Flower Moon was film. Spielberg only shoots film. Paul Anderson only shoots film. Also, Paul loves anamorphic, so that's been a big part of what's brought us to Panavision.
Us, directed by Jordan Peele, cinematography by Michael Gioulakis. Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
When do you make your first call to the rental house for a new project, and what is that first conversation about?
Lupi: I'll sometimes call before we've done the deal with the DP, but on a lot of those jobs, we still usually know who the DP will be, so I'll say, Robert Elswit [ASC] is shooting it,' or Janusz Kaminski is shooting it.' And the first conversation is, There's a job in six months,' and it's about making sure we have the right lenses on hold and most times, it's about anamorphic.
The films I do tend to be budget-challenged. I've never gone on one of those films where there's 10 cameras. For me, it's always been an A and a B camera, and then you've got backups. On Killers of the Flower Moon, we shot for 20-odd weeks, so we probably ended up taking more than we needed, as backups. Now, though, we're getting into the world of split packages. On Killers, with cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto [ASC, AMC], we were shooting film during the day and digital at night, and that was partly because we were shooting in the middle of nowhere, and you could never light the exterior. You can push a sunset that much longer if you use a digital camera. But cost-wise, that approach is more challenging.
Because you're essentially doubling your cameras?
Lupi: It's the same number of lenses, but you're doubling the cameras. And you shoot a lot of footage with digital. With film, when you're shooting a thousand-foot mag, which is about 11 minutes, everyone is far more cognizant of a take. With digital, they just tend to let it roll, so you're shooting a lot more footage than you are with film, and memory's not cheap. You can't wipe the cards until you've completed the transfer, so you're doubling up on the camera cards, and then all that footage has to be dumped into the Avid. If you're doing a cost analysis between film and digital, I could show you how film's not any more expensive - but then I could probably show you how digital is less expensive as well. It really depends how much you're going to shoot.
It's also a question of where you're shooting and how quickly you can back up. Because we're shooting film, we're obviously not doing on-site colour, so basically it's all going back to L.A., New York or London for processing. Depending on where you're shooting, the turnaround can end up being so big that it might be cost-prohibitive.
There Will Be Blood, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, cinematography by Robert Elswit, ASC. Image courtesy of Paramount.
What's kept you and your collaborators coming back to Panavision so consistently?
Lupi: I think it all comes down to relationships and service. The DP, the director, the focus pullers, what they want is service, and no one beats Panavision. The staff is amazing. I've known them for 35, 40 years. They're always there for you. We've done shows where Panavision's sent techs out on weekends or during the week to service the cameras. I remember in Texas, on There Will Be Blood, techs were sent out mid-shoot to completely clean and service the cameras because of all the sand. And when we shot The Master on 65mm cameras, Panavision sent us a technician who basically stayed with us whilst we shot out of town.
Panavision's also great at despatch things out and back to be serviced lenses, cameras, all of it, and turning it around quickly. And of course [Panavision's senior vice president of optical engineering and lens strategy] Dan Sasaki and his Special Optics team, and the wonders they can do with building lenses and tweaking them, are amazing. You really want that person who understands what you're going for, and Dan is a
Most recent headlines
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
23/04/2025
In 2024, Thomson's Total Turnout project played a pivotal role in elevating ethical election reporting and strengthening journalist safety in Pakistan.
Wit...
23/04/2025
We heard that you could use a little pick-me-up, so get ready to sh-sh-shake it ...
23/04/2025
WBD's Max viewership climbs 6%, boosted by The White Lotus' and The Pi...
23/04/2025
March shows a further downward trend of time spent watching television; following the February period when winter holidays contributed to a shorter time spent. ...
23/04/2025
During March, audiences in Mexico increased their streaming usage by 2.1 points compared to the previous month, accounting for 24.4% of TV viewing.
Disclaimer:...
23/04/2025
AANHPI audiences over index the total U.S. for share of time spent with Netflix ...
23/04/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Roku has announced new TVs, new streaming devices and significant upgrades to its user interface and software platforms that are designed to st...
23/04/2025
COW Job Listing: Opportunity for a Passionate Feature Film Editor - London-Based...
23/04/2025
RM Equity Partners Acquires MAGIX Software, Appoints Robert Rutkowski as CEO to ...
23/04/2025
All Men Are Wicked Western Shot with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton April 23, 2025
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4Ks were put to the test...
23/04/2025
NEW YORK Warner Bros. Discovery captured the largest monthly viewership increase among media distributors in March, according to Nielsen's latest Media Dist...
23/04/2025
MIAMI, Fla. Hemisphere Media Group has inked a deal with Samsung to launch WAPA+ as a FAST channel on Samsung TV Plus, a free TV streaming service that comes pr...
23/04/2025
HEBDEN BRIDGE, U.K. Calrec Audio has promoted Sid Stanley to managing director. Stanley, who joined the company in July 2018 as general manager, has been instru...
23/04/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Nathan A. Simington has announced a series of staff appointments made in March and April 2025, includi...
23/04/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has set its agenda for the Monday, April 28, 2025 Open Meeting, which is scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. in th...
23/04/2025
COW Job Listing: Full-Time Video Editor, Remote
Brie Clayton April 22, 2025
0 Comments
Full-Time Video Editor
April 23, 2025COW Job Listing: Opportu...
23/04/2025
Berklee Abu Dhabi's Jazz Night Kicks off Global Celebration of Music and Cul...
23/04/2025
The E.W. Scripps Co. said it was shutting down its Scripps News over-the-air channel effective November 15 and eliminating at least 200 jobs....
23/04/2025
Audio Helps Chess.com Checkmate Cheating Matches are produced using REMI workflows By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Wednesday, April 23, 2025 - 7:00 am
Print Th...
23/04/2025
Tech Focus: Intercoms, Part 1 - Key to Onsite, REMI, Hybrid Operations Intercoms keep increasingly disparate production locations together By Dan Daley, Audio ...
23/04/2025
Speaking my language: Bringing AI to the fore with real time audio translation f...
23/04/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Drops Trailer for Crime Drama Secrets We Keep, Set in ...
23/04/2025
Back to All News
World Book Day: Netflix Announces New TV Adaptations and Impac...
23/04/2025
Comscore to Announce First Quarter 2025 Financial ResultsRESTON, VA, April 23, 2025 Comscore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a trusted partner for planning, transacting...
23/04/2025
In an email to RT staff today, RT Director-General, Kevin Backhurst confirmed that RT 's Voluntary Exit Programme (VEP) 2025 is open from today, Wednesday...
23/04/2025
RT will air live coverage on television, radio and online of the funeral of Pope Francis which takes place this Saturday, 26 April 2025.
Beginning at 8.30am o...
23/04/2025
As AI models evolve and adoption grows, enterprises must perform a delicate balancing act to achieve maximum value.
That's because inference - the process ...
23/04/2025
Financial services has long been at the forefront of adopting technological innovations. Today, generative AI and agentic systems are redefining the industry, f...
23/04/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Enables Michelin to focus on development of its ...
23/04/2025
AI is rapidly reshaping what's possible on a PC - whether for real-time image generation or voice-controlled workflows. As AI capabilities grow, so does the...
23/04/2025
An AI agent is only as accurate, relevant and timely as the data that powers it....
23/04/2025
April 23 2025, 02:00 (PDT) Dolby Ushers in the Future of In-car Entertainment at Auto Shanghai 2025
Dolby and industry partners demonstrate robust momentum ...
22/04/2025
Chloe Sevigny at the Magic Farm premiere (photo by Michael Hurcomb/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)...
22/04/2025
Music has the power to connect us to one another and to the world around us. Spotify is once again teaming up with the Museum for the United Nations - UN Live&#...
22/04/2025
Spotify has an unwavering commitment to supporting emerging artists across all g...
22/04/2025
This year marks the 55th anniversary of Earth Day, celebrated annually on April 22. On Spotify, listeners can explore a world of stories about our planet in our...
22/04/2025
McAvaney takes the lead for SBS' Coverage of the World Athletics Championshi...
22/04/2025
Virtual idols are poised to revolutionize entertainment, with the market projected to top $4 billion by 2029. Crafted with motion capture and game engine techno...
22/04/2025
As the audiovisual (AV) industry rapidly evolves, educational institutions are preparing the next generation of AV professionals for the future. Singapore Polyt...
22/04/2025
DENVER A new survey highlights just how important streaming has become in the entertainment landscape. Data compiled by Adtaxi shows streaming isnt just an alte...
22/04/2025
Samsung TV Plus has announced that it is now offering nearly 700 streaming channels in the U.S. more than any of the other major FAST platforms, the streaming s...
22/04/2025
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. New findings from Hub Research's latest survey on sports and television coverage reveal Amazon may have cracked the code of how to use tech...
22/04/2025
DETROIT Rockbridge Growth Equity has sold a controlling stake in GSTV to MidOcean Partners. Rockbridge will retain a minority stake in the video network which i...
22/04/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has promoted Dana Neves to senior managing vice president, overseeing a number of Gray's television markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atla...
22/04/2025
The Infrastructure of Creative Flow: DigitalGlue's creative.space Wins NAB 2...
22/04/2025
iZotope unveils Equinox: the ultimate reverb plugin for Post and Music productio...
22/04/2025
Every way to export transparent videos from After Effects
Graham Quince April 21, 2025
0 Comments
In this video, I break down each way you can export ...
22/04/2025
April 22nd, 2025 Press Materials Available Here
Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Short Film Lineup
Featuring How I Learned to Die Executive Produced by Osca...
A Conversation With Producer Daniel Lupi 
