Martin Ahlgren, ASC brought a clean eye for chaos to 3 Body Problem. The cinematographer shot episodes four to six of the Netflix series. He’s now nominated for Outstanding Cinematography For A Series (One Hour) at The Emmy Awards, thanks to his work on the exceptionally terrifying episode, “Judgement Day.”
On a beautiful-looking day, Ahlgren depicts a massive attack with brute precision and sunny clarity. It’s a scene impossible to shake. Recently, Ahlgren spoke with Immersive’s editor-in-chief, Jack Giroux, about the episode and shared his advice for aspiring cinematographers:
The most important thing is to get as much hands-on experience shooting as possible. I think that’s invaluable. You can get certain experience working on big productions in an assistant capacity or something like that; there are things that you can learn from that. Ultimately, you really only start learning when you have to make the decisions yourself, whether that light has to move to the right or left.
Even if it’s on a much smaller scale, that’s a very important aspect. I always tell people that are aspiring to do cinematography, that it’s great to get on big sets and see how it’s done, but the most important thing is that you’re constantly doing things on the side, like photography or short films and getting experience doing it yourself.
The most important thing that you can do is to be forced into taking decisions about what it is that needs to happen. It will inform yourself about your own taste for how you like to do things. Also, it will give you the confidence to make those decisions later when things are on a much larger scale as well.
Check back soon for more from our interview with Martin Ahlgren.
