Drive All Night

Feature Film - 2019

Drive All Night is a neo-noir romantic thriller built on atmosphere, isolation, and stylized tension.

The director came in with a highly specific visual language: bold colors, heightened contrast, and a controlled sense of psychological space. The challenge was that our locations, schedule, and resources offered little environmental control. Every space had to be captured, rather than manipulated.

Instead of fighting those constraints, I treated them as design parameters. Each location was photographed strategically to draw out texture, selectively show space, and sculpt mood. I often manipulated color in-camera, coordinating closely with my lighting team to build stylized frames that felt intentional rather than improvised. There were days where we had almost no control over the surroundings, so control had to come from composition, contrast, and lighting specifically for camera.

Early in production, I pulled the team aside and reframed the challenge: we shouldn’t see this as a handicap, but rather an incredible opportunity to really flex our abilities and show what we could accomplish even when resources are small.

Drive All Night was shot in Fall 2019 and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Camera: ARRI Alexa XT
Lenses: Sigma Cine Zooms
Filmed on location in San Jose, California