Senior Cinematographer, Brand Studio

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the brand studio’s cinematographic language across lighting, lensing, composition, movement, and color.
• Shoot and light candid office content, executive interviews, product demos, social content, events, and documentary stories.
• Lead cinematography for brand films, campaigns, partnerships, and launches.
• Operate solo with a minimal kit, lead small crews, or help build full camera, lighting, and grip teams.
• Develop moodboards, shot lists, storyboards, and experimental storytelling concepts.
• Own camera, lighting, and movement decisions from creative development through capture, including package building, tests, and tech scouts.
• Recommend crews and equipment and lead camera and lighting departments on set.
• Help design, build, and operate the in-house studio, including lighting, audio, grip, and monitoring.
• Recommend, purchase, organize, and maintain production gear and ready-to-shoot packages.
• Perform color grading in DaVinci Resolve and support selects, stringouts, and light edits.
• Maintain high visual standards across formats and production sizes.

Requirements

• 6+ years of experience as a cinematographer or director of photography across branded, commercial, documentary, and interview work.
• Standout reel demonstrating visual authorship, lighting craft, camera movement, and unscripted storytelling.
• Strong creative point of view and ability to work within and strengthen an existing brand.
• Deep knowledge of camera systems, lenses, exposure, color pipelines, lighting, grip, and on-set monitoring.
• Hands-on ability to build cameras, shape light, operate, troubleshoot, and lead crews.
• Ability to produce premium imagery under constraints, from solo shoots to full productions.
• Strong pre-production skills, including translating creative ideas into technically sound, right-sized plans.
• Experience briefing and leading freelance crews and vendors and managing professional production equipment.
• Working proficiency with DaVinci Resolve for color grading, selects, and light editing.
• Collaborative, low-ego approach with strong judgment and openness to direction.
• Ability to work quickly in an ambiguous, high-output environment while maintaining craft, safety, and footage quality.
• Based in or able to work onsite in San Francisco, with flexibility for travel and long shoot days.

Nice to Have

• Strong Bay Area and Los Angeles network of camera, lighting, grip, sound, production, and rental partners.
• Experience in an in-house brand studio at a technology or consumer company.
• Documentary experience with founders, executives, talent, or nonprofessional performers.
• Experience with multicamera interviews, live events, tabletop or product cinematography, motion-control systems, or virtual production.
• Color-grading experience and strong understanding of how capture decisions affect finishing and delivery.