ASC Welcomes Sean Porter as New Member

Born in Tacoma, Washington, Sean Porter, ASC was interested in filmmaking from an early age, shooting shorts with his siblings on their parents’ camcorder. Taking vocational education classes in high school, he began to focus more on the technical aspects of filmmaking and became interested in cinematography. At the University of Washington, he took every available film course while adding classes in physics, CAD, 3D animation, engineering, and comparative literature. In UW’s Digital Arts & Experimental Media (DXARTS) program, Porter produced, directed and shot more of his own shorts, and began shooting other student projects as well.

He landed his first production job in 2004 as part of the art department on Canadian director Guy Maddin’s horror fantasy Brand Upon the Brain!.

Porter describes that his professional career as a cinematographer began while crammed in the back of a small VW bus while shooting director Linas Phillips’ comedy Bass Ackwards, which premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.

This was followed by several other Sundance-debut features, including Eliza Hittman’s It Felt Like Love (for which Porter earned a 2015 Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Cinematography) and the Zellner Brothers’ Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter. The cinematographer then shot two back-to-back award-winning films: Jeremy Saulnier’s cult thriller Green Room and Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women.

Porter went on to partner with director Peter Farrelly on the period drama Green Book, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2018. Shortly after, the filmmakers re-teamed for Apple TV Plus’ Vietnam War-era comedy The Greatest Beer Run Ever.

Spanning more than two years, Porter and director Jon Watts began their collaboration on the FX series The Old Man, for which the cinematographer earned was an Emmy nomination and received the ASC Award for best cinematography in a Pilot, Limited Series, Or Motion Picture Made For Television. (Story here.)

You can watch this complete presentation below (starting at 1:43:50):

Porter also spoke to AC backstage:

Most recently, Porter and Watts completed principal photography on Lucasfilm’s Disney Plus streaming series Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, due to premiere on December 3.

When not in the far reaches of the galaxy, the cinematographer resides in Ashland, Oregon, with his family.

You’ll find his personal site here and Instagram here.

Complete details on the 15 founding members of the ASC can be found here.

A complete list of all current ASC members can be found here.