ASC Welcomes New Member Mike Berlucchi

Michigan native Mike Berlucchi, ASC recalls a pivotal moment in his youth when his father, who designed camera rigs for crash tests at General Motors, came home with a box full of Nikon cameras and lenses and said, “Here you go!” GM was transitioning to digital, and the film gear had been tossed in the trash. Berlucchi was 13 at the time and had already shown an interest in photography, but that day, he recalls, “was when it really began.”

By the time he finished high school, he knew he wanted to be a cinematographer, and he was propelled toward that goal when Michigan launched a generous tax incentive for film productions and discovered it was short of crew. Working at a local rental house, Berlucchi suddenly found himself swept into Local 38 and assigned to a $12 million feature as a best boy grip. “I had no idea what a best boy was!” he recalls. Soon, though, he was learning the ropes from a roster of gaffers and cinematographers, including ASC members Peter Deming, Phedon Papamichael and Matthew Libatique. He built a reel by shooting music videos on the side, and in 2010, he moved to New York to pitch himself as a cinematographer.

After connecting with a producer who made fine-art films, Berlucchi shot work for Robert Wilson, Marina Abramovic and Lady Gaga. He gained a foothold in the industry when a friend brought him onto Season 3 of the FXX series You’re the Worst, and he shot the show for three years. The series Teenage Bounty Hunters, Mythic Quest, Our Flag Means Death, Time Bandits and Interior Chinatown followed.

Berlucchi won an ASC Award (shared with Marc Carter) for an episode of Mythic Quest, and he received an ASC Award nomination for Interior Chinatown. His first feature as a director of photography, Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, is scheduled for release next year.

Find Berlucchi’s website here and his Instagram here.

View the current ASC Membership roster here.