JOHN INWOOD

#2: [Center] with dir Bertha Bay-Sa Pan [at camera] - "Face"

JOHN INWOOD ASC

Born: ?, Santa Monica, CA, USA [raised in Brooklyn, New York], as John G. Inwood.

Education: Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. [English literature]; Tisch School of the Arts of NYU.

Career: 'The summer before I got into film school, I got a break on a little horror movie. I heard there was an opening in the electric crew, and I talked my way on to the electric crew. […] I gravitated towards the camera and became a camera assistant. I worked on a film by Otto Preminger's nephew, and I worked on Ang Lee's thesis film, which was called 'Fine Line'. That was a fantastic experience. After about four films, I decided that I loved it and was going to apply to NYU Film School. I presented some short stories and my photography show from college, and got in. […] Whenever there was a break or during the summers, I would go off and work on commercials. By my third year, I entered the union, which was then Local 15, as an electrician. […] I wrote and directed a lot of films. At NYU, everyone is given an opportunity to direct, unlike some of the other schools, where it's broken down into positions. […] When I crewed on other movies, I would shoot them. I became what was called a 'camera jock'. There were three or four of us in my class. We ended up shooting all the films, so I got a tremendous amount out of my three years at NYU. I was either writing or directing, or I was shooting, on a variety of films. […] When I got out of film school, I lived a dual life. I was a union electrician on commercials, TV shows, and movies, including experience with my mentor Fred Murphy, a very fine cinematographer. I also worked on Frank Prinzi's crews for many films. I learned a tremendous amount from those guys. I would live that life, and then sneak off and shoot student films and other things for free, never mentioning to anyone around the set that I was shooting on the side. […] Over the course of five or six years, I started shooting more and more. First it was 25 percent shooting, 75 percent electrician, and then it was 50/50. At a certain point, I hung up my gloves and said 'I'm a DP now'.'

Worked for Nickelodeon shooting promos. Ph 100+ commercials for BMW, Nokia, Calvin Klein, Citibank, a.o. Ph industrial films and music videos [a: R.E.M., The Indigo Girls, The Fleshtones, Aimee Mann, a.o.].

Member of the ASC since 2020.

Awards: 'Emmy' Award nom [2008] for 'Scrubs' [ep #150 'My Princess' dir by Zach Braff].

Website: John Inwood

'Scrubs' [2001] is one of a handful of series shot on Super 16mm today. "It's a great medium for the show because we move very fast, have small sets and a very fluid camera style," says John Inwood who has been 'Scrubs' director of photography for all but its pilot. "There are a lot of walks-and-talks through hallways, in and out of rooms and elevators."

Steadicam and A Camera Operator Rich Davis uses Inwood's own Aaton XTR to shoot the fast-paced series, now in its third season. A longtime Aaton user, Inwood likes the camera's superior registration, good balance for extensive Steadicam work and ergonomic design for occasional handheld shots. His camera has been modified with an adjustable shutter so it can produce the clipped, staccato look of 'CSI: Miami' or 'Cold Case' if desired. It can also accommodate the Preston shutter-speed control device for adjusting frame rates during the course of a shot.

Since its debut, 'Scrubs' has "matured on many levels," Inwood says. "We've gotten better at shooting it, better at lighting it. We've done all we possibly can to challenge ourselves in various ways, so we're ready for anything the directors throw at us."

While 'Scrubs' remains fast paced, another sign of its maturity is less frantic and frenetic scripts. "In the first season the snappy, fast-moving style almost got ahead of itself," Inwood notes. "The scripts were so chockfull of great scenes there was almost too much material for the amount of air time." Each episode now averages some 30 scenes, down from an average 40-plus in previous seasons and a record 60-plus for certain episodes.

The camera team shoots an average of 10 scenes or six-and-a-half pages a day which is still quite a fast rate of shooting. "Scenes may be less than a page long, with as many as five or six characters, requiring a lot of intricate blocking and camera movement," Inwood says. "The camera is constantly adjusting and moving. A given shot may begin with a transition, become an establishing shot, develop into a Steadicam walk-and-talk and end as an over-the-shoulder coverage shot, all done rapidly and fluidly."

Inwood has chosen to shoot Super 16mm with medium ASA stocks. He opts for Kodak 7246 250 ASA and 7274 200 ASA because he wants as fine grain as possible to handle all the tonal ranges that need to be photographed. "We approach the look of 35mm with all the benefits of Super 16: a smaller camera moving fast through small spaces," he notes. He also uses reversal film stocks for flashback sequences. [From article on the AbelCineTech website (2004)]

FILMS
1988	Swingin' in the Painter's Room [Greg Mottola] b&w; short/11m
1988	Voices from the Attic [Debbie Goodstein] 16mm/c; doc/60m; addph; ph: Oren Rudavsky
199?	Fambro [Creed Taylor] ?; mus doc/?m
1991	Larry Coryell - Live from Bahia [prod: Creed Taylor] 16mm/c; jazz perf/58m; filmed at the Passeio Público in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
1991	The Devil's Toothpick [Gary Scharfin] ?; mus doc/?m
1992	Bottom Land/Bottomland [Edward A. Radtke] c
1992	Guerillas in Our Midst/Guerilla Art [Amy Harrison] 16mm/c; doc/35m; co-addph; ph: Ellen Kuras
1993	My Daughter's Son [Andrew Lund] 16mm/c; short/17m; prod Columbia University School of the Arts
1995	The Daytrippers [Greg Mottola] s16-35bu/c; + 2uc
1996	Anton, Mailman [Dina Waxman] 16mm/c; short/13m
1997	Six Ways to Sunday [Adam Bernstein] c
1998	Going Nomad [Art Jones] c
1999	A Whole New Day [William Garcia] c; short/18m
2001	Face [Bertha Bay-Sa Pan] c; adapted from short film (1997; ph: Michael Barrett)
2001	In America/East of Harlem [Jim Sheridan] c; ph snow unit New York (s16); ph: Declan Quinn
2009	The Best and the Brightest [Josh Shelov] RED/c
2010	The Tailor [Gordon Grinberg] HD/b&w; short/6m
2011	Don Peyote [Michael Canzoniero & Dan Fogler] HD/c

TELEVISION & INTERNET
Was 2uc on the series 'Oz', 'Seinfeld', 'Mad About You' and 'Largo Winch'.
1994	The Adventures of Pete & Pete [ep #14 'Halloweenie' dir by Peter Lauer & #15 'Inspector 34' dir by Maggie Greenwald] 34-part series/s16, 1993-96; 2nd season, 1994 (13 ep); other ph: Michael Spiller
1995	The Adventures of Pete & Pete [13 ep dir by various] 3rd season, 1995-96 (13 ep); see 1994
199?	The Difference [Bob Mittenthal] pilot; 2uc: Joe Foley; for Nickelodeon
1997	[The] Speed of Life [Peter Lauer] pilot; for ABC-tv/Disney
1998	Bus No. 9 [Mark Teideman] pilot; for Nickelodeon
1999	Strangers With Candy [pilot 'Retardation, a Celebration/The Trip Back' dir by Adam Bernstein] followed by 30-part series, 1999-2000
1999	Pulp Comics: Caroline Rhea [Barbara Kanowitz] special; ph film seq; for Comedy Central
1999	Cry Baby Lane [Peter Lauer] tvm
2001	Scrubs [23 ep dir by various] 182-part series/s16, 2001-10; 1st season, 2001-02 (24 ep); other ph: Richard Quinlan (pilot dir by Adam Bernstein); see above
2002	Scrubs [22 ep dir by various] 2nd season, 2002-03 (22 ep); other ph: Billy Dickson; see 2001
2002	The Johnny Chronicles [Adam Bernstein] pilot/30m; for ABC-tv
2003	Rubbing Charlie [Adam Bernstein] pilot; for CBS-tv
2003	Scrubs [21 ep dir by various] 3rd season, 2003-04 (22 ep); other ph: Richard W. Davis & Andrew Rawson; see 2001
2004	Everyday Life [Rob Reiner] pilot; for NBC-tv
2004	Scrubs [23 ep dir by various] 4th season, 2004-05 (25 ep); other ph: Andrew Rawson (2 ep); see 2001
2005	Confessions of a Dog [Chris Koch] pilot; for NBC-tv

[Center] with dir Zach Braff [left] & gaffer Andy Rawson - "Scrubs"

2005	Scrubs [23 ep dir by various] 5th season, 2006 (24 ep); other ph: Andrew Rawson; see 2001
2006	Scrubs [21 ep dir by various] 6th season, 2006-07 (22 ep); other ph: Richard W. Davis; see 2001
2007	Wainy Days [ep #16 (5m) 'The Pickup' dir by Adam Bernstein & #18 (5m) 'The Sublet' dir by Jonathan Kesselman] 26-part internet (My Damn Channel) series; 2nd season, 2007-08; cph (#18): Phillip Martinez
2007	Scrubs [10 ep dir by various] 7th season, 2007-08 (11 ep); see 2001
2008	Scrubs [9 ep dir by various] 8th season, 2009 (19 ep); see 2001
2011	Parks and Recreation [21 ep dir by various] 125-part series/HD, 2009-15; 4th season, 2011-12 (22 ep)
2012	Awesometown [Jesse Peretz] pilot; for ABC-tv

MISCELLANEOUS
1984	C.H.U.D. [Douglas Cheek] lighting tech; ph: Peter Stein
1984	Fine Line/Fen jiexian [Ang Lee; short/43m] c.asst; ph: ?; prod NYU
1986	In Transit [Cédric Klapisch; short] co-gaffer; ph: Kevin Morrisey
1988	My First Haircut [Alex Zamm; short/9m] c.op; ph: Stephen McNutt
1989	Enemies, A Love Story [Paul Mazursky] electrician; ph: Fred Murphy
1990	Once Around [Lasse Hallström] co-electrician (Boston); ph: Theo van de Sande
1990	Class of Nuke 'Em High Part 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown [Eric Louzil] unit cam (New York); ph: Ron Chapman
1995	Intimate Portrait: Carly Simon [Kathleen Dougherty] doc/44m; co-video op; ph: Ernie Fritz; for Lifetime-tv

FILMS & TELEVISION AS DIRECTOR
1988	What Then? [short/?m] ph: ?; prod NYU (his thesis film)
2003	Scrubs [ep #50 'My Lucky Night'] 3rd season, 2003-04; ph: Andrew Rawson; see Television & Internet
2004	Scrubs [ep #73 'Her Story' & #88 'My Boss' Free Haircut'] 4th season, 2004-05; ph: Andrew Rawson; see Television & Internet
2005	Scrubs [ep #105 'My Cabbage' & #112 'His Story III'] 5th season, 2006; ph: Andrew Rawson; see Television & Internet
2006	Scrubs [ep #118 'My Mirror Image' & #136 'My Cold Shower'] 6th season, 2006-07; ph: Richard W. Davis; see Television & Internet
2007	Wainy Days [ep #17 'Jonah and the Manilow'] 2nd season, 2007-08; ph: Ben Wolf; see Television & Internet
2008	ExTerminators [feature] ph: Robert Baumgartner
2010	Childrens Hospital/Children's Hospital (web series) [ep #10 'Joke Overload' & #15 'Show Me on Montana'] 10-part web series, 2008 + 86-part tv-series, 2010-16; 2nd season, 2010 (12 ep); ph: Marco Fargnoli; for Adult Swim-tv