Louie Blystad-Collins

- RTS Judge -

In 2023 I was VERY honoured to be asked to be a Cinematography Judge for the Royal Television Society Awards. This was both a daunting, and very humbling task, as the standards of work submitted were world class, and the best in their field. It is always hard to assess the work of other experts and creatives, when you have huge admiration and respect for their skills and experience.

DarkGame - Feature Film

Feature film starring Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl), a dark crime thriller set in Portland, Oregon, USA. Made #4 on Netflix Top10 Films. Official Trailer above..

BIG BOYS DON'T CRY - Feature Film

Feature film starring Michael Socha, Zoe Tapper, Daniel Adegboyega and David Spinx. A gritty, British biopic inspired by the best selling autobiography 'Against all odds' exploring the shocking true life story of Paul Connolly. Made #3 on Netflix Top10 Films, and is available on Amazon, iTunes, Youtube Movies and TV, Google Play, Tubi USA, and other American platforms.

-RECENT AWARDS-

I was recently honoured to have won two awards for our short period film, called 'Confession Day'  including -Best Cinematography- at the Europe Film festival, and -Best Cinematographer- at the Los Angeles Cinematography Awards in Hollywood. So far, the film has also won 'Best Action/Thriller', 'Best Young Actor', 'Best Director International'.

-ABOUT ME-

I’m a Bristol based Director of Photography/Cinematographer with 25 years of experience in all genres ranging from Dramas, Feature films, TV & Cinema commercials, Music videos, Corporates, Brand films, Documentaries, Online how-to videos, Interviews etc. In the last 24months I've been fortunate enough to have 3 Feature films in the Top10 Films on Netflix, a #1, a #3 and a #4, all staying in the charts for a couple of weeks.

I am based in the southwest (Bristol), but have worked in 28 different countries, so I'm happy to travel when needed.

I am known for my lighting, and take pride in applying it to any style or look that is needed for a project. I love the challenge of bringing other people’s ideas, scripts and characters to life, and adding atmosphere and ‘feeling’ to any job.

Whether telling a story, presenting a product, campaigning for a cause, or simply ‘setting the scene’ for a character, that is what inspires me in what I do.

-MY MASTERCLASSES & WORKSHOPS-

I also run master-classes at various films schools, and regularly teach and mentor for the British Film Institute Academy, Channel 4 Random Acts, and the BBC New Creatives scheme. I run bespoke workshops in Cinematography, Lighting, Photography, Camera operating, Steady-cam/Easyrig/Gimbal operating, Video production (internal training for companies), and many more. 

If you or your employees need any level of training, I can put together a customised workshop for your needs. This can be from school child level, corporate videography, product photography, up to professional and specialist mentoring. For example if you are a company who sells products online, I can show you how to build a table top studio and produce your own high end product shots.

-MY KIT-

-Extensive full production lighting kit.

-Bespoke lighting designs and builds for each project.

-Full sized steady-cam rig.

-EasyRig Vario5 with stabiliser arm. (4-18kg cameras).

-Ronin1 Gimbal (Full sized modified, will take any camera and lens size)

-Heavy Duty Hague K14 Pro Jib/Crane (with Hague D2 Dolly).

-Dolly and Track (15ft).

- Slider (4/8ft motorised/programmable, can take any camera)

-Product Turn-table (for products up to 25kg for product filming/photography).

-Digital Slate (Time-code generating/reading, Denecke TS-3 back-lit clapperboard)

-Teleprompter (Ipad based auto-cue rig, fits any camera)

-LENSES-

With my background in shooting film, I have a love of optics, and how lens choices can add huge production value, style, cinematic feel, let alone a filmic character to digital cinematography. As a result, I have an extensive collection of vintage 35mm film lenses with different 'looks'. With nearly 200 lenses from all eras and nationalities, we can design a bespoke characteristic and style for each project. 

This also includes Macro, Tilt/Shift, modified and self-made lenses, FX lenses, bespoke aperture/bokeh shapes and anything in between.

-ANAMORPHIC-

Over 25 years I have also been collecting ANAMORPHIC lenses, which when combined with vintage optics can create a wide range of characteristics for any project. Whether that be nostalgic cinema, epic wide CinemaScope composition, swirly smooth bokeh (soft backgrounds), various shapes and colours of flare, or just appealing soft edges/distortions for a stylised film look. 

There is a huge growing trend in the media industry for these classic film looks to come back. Video got to a point of being too sharp and digital, and more and more clients are recognising this movie like quality.

Using these 2x anamorphic optics we can crop to any aspect ratio, from super widescreen 3.56:1, to classic Ultra Panavision 70mm Cinema 2.76:1, or down to the more standard 2.4:1 frame size. You can still deliver your project in 16x9 format for use on all devices, it would just have a black letterbox on screen. 

All my kit can be hired and added to a bespoke package for your project and budget. Please contact me with any questions, or if you just want to discuss the options, or see more examples of what we could create.

Low res 3.56:1 ANAMORPHIC aspect ratio tests

-Examples of my Anamorphic cinematography in CinemaScope 2.4:1 aspect ratio-

-Example of a vintage lens test for foreground bokeh and softness- 

-Examples of Anamorphic aspect ratios-

Please download my CV for more info.