Faculty
Steven Fierberg is an award-winning cinematographer, receiving an ASC Award for best cinematography and a Latin Grammy.
Steve has created the ‘look and feel’ of some of the most successful series in television, including The Affair (Golden Globes Winner, Best Drama), Emily in Paris (Golden Globe nom), Entourage (5 Golden Globe noms), Once Upon a Time and Attila (ASC Award Winner for Outstanding Cinematography).
In addition, Steve created the look for HBO’s new season of ‘In Treatment, ABC’s hit Once Upon a Time and NBC’s cutting edge cult classic Kingpin. He shot pilots for Mark Mylod, Bryan Singer, Darren Star, Jason Moore and Sanaa Hamri.
His feature cinematography has ranged from studio movies like Aspen Extreme, the Entourage movie, Ed Zwick’s Love and Other Drugs featuring Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal, to micro budget indy films such as Alex Cox’s Repo Chick. His favorite work includes Joel Schumacher’s poignant Twelve and Steven Shainberg’s provocative Secretary, which won a Special Jury Prize for Originality from the Sundance Festival before ‘inspiring’ 50 Shades of Grey.
He worked with Baz Luhrmann on additional photography for the transcendent Moulin Rouge! and Sally Potter for Rage. Alex Cox’s existential road movie, Searchers 2.0, premiered at the Venice and AFI film festivals, winning an ovation for the cinematography. The Hollywood Reporter singled out “stunning visuals captured to mesmeric effect by cinematographer Steven Fierberg.”
A native of Detroit, Steve escaped to Stanford University as a National Merit Scholar. His senior year was spent in a joint program with Oxford University in England studying British drama and film.
He then plunged into the New York underworld of graffiti art and ‘Punk Noir’ films, beginning his career in filmmaking as a cinematographer. He worked with Andy Warhol director Paul Morrissey, Scott and Beth B, Paul Bartel and Alex Cox. At the same time, he apprenticed on feature films in Los Angeles for D.P.’s Adam Greenberg and Dean Cundey.
Fierberg’s keen eye helped the launch the careers of many first-time directors, including Renny Harlin on A Nightmare on Elm Street 4, Dream Master, which had the largest August opening of any film in cinema history and introduced the Hong Kong-style of action filmmaking to the U.S.
Steve won the Latin Grammy for Best Music Video of the Year for Robi ‘Draco’ Rosa’s Mas Y Mas. He’s worked with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Easy E, Latifah, Fab Five Freddy, David Lee Roth, F. Gary Grey, Kid Cudi, and Tim McGraw.
He has been a vice-president of the American Society of Cinematographers and is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures. In between projects, he mentors & teaches guest classes at AFI, NYU, USC, UCLA and the Maine Media Workshops. He plans to teach workshops for underprivileged youth at the Academy Museum.
Brief Interviews with ASC Members