Faculty
Graham Willoughby is non-fiction DoP with a diverse background of shooting, including extensive work in Documentary, Commercial and Music Video. Among his biggest cinematic accomplishments is lensing the 2014 Oscar Winning Documentary “20 Feet from Stardom”
After landing a math education degree in his midwestern birthplace, Graham cast all aside to move to New York and pursue a career in comedy and waiting tables. All was well until one day a friend of his turned him on to his first film set.
He worked on a Salt n’ Pepa music video in the rain, watched the DP get launched off the dolly, heard the best boy get partially electrocuted thanks to a “helpful” PA, saw the Key Grip threaten to kill somebody – and all 36 of these enchanting hours he was working for free. Graham was hooked.
For the next ten years he wove his way along the feeder cable, working as an electric, a best boy and a gaffer under amazing cinematographers and photographers like Joaquin Baca-Asay, Lance Accord, Stephen Klein, Tim Ives and Joe Zizzo.
While it was a TV show for VH1 that brought him out of gaffing, his universe quickly became a mix of documentary films, commercials and music videos. Since then, Graham has happily been able to maintain a diverse range of projects, bouncing between passion projects and money makers, between festivals and corporate Industrials, and between travel and local fare.
For Graham, each project is a new opportunity to find the inspiration in the character and tell the story at hand. With each of these opportunities he loves working with the director to find these moments and to draw them out, his passion gleefully carried out in the art of story telling and the craft of the moving image.