About
John Russell Schmidt is a cinematographer based between Los Angeles and Italy, and a member of the International Cinematographers Guild, IATSE Local 600.
He shoots at the luxury end of commercial work: Versace with the dancer Charles "Lil Buck" Riley, Bottega Veneta with the photographer Ryan McGinley, Adidas with Marina Abramovic, and Vogue China. The register is built light and controlled falloff rather than product on a sweep.
In long form he shot Summertime for Carlos Lopez Estrada, which premiered in NEXT at Sundance 2020, and three series across India: Bombay My Beloved for Amazon Prime, and Rana Naidu and Glory for Netflix. Glory is a boxing thriller that ran 85 days between Mumbai stages and practical locations in Punjab, off six weeks of scouting and a prep document covering more than 400 scenes.
He was nominated for Best Cinematography at Camerimage for Coldplay's "Up and Up," which won the MTV VMA for Best Visual Effects and was nominated for a Grammy.
He works from long prep. Show LUT built before the first day, lighting plans and shot diagrams per location, 3D previs when the rig is the problem to solve. On George Ezra's "Shotgun" that meant proving out a 30 foot motion control crane, one of two in the world, before anyone committed the money.
Case studies
- Prepping Glory2026Six weeks of scouting, 400 scenes and an 85 day shoot, and the point at which the prep documents stopped agreeing with each other.
- Control and chaos on Bombay My Beloved2025One question about a man's need for control, and the 440 page document that turned it into a lensing, movement and colour grammar.
- George Ezra, motion control and previs2018A square set that had to rotate vertically, solved in Cinedesign a week out, and the 30 foot moco crane it forced.
- A critical mission for BB82018Making corporate hallways at NBC read like the guts of a spaceship, around a robot that cannot move quickly.
- XXL Freshmen 2016 freestyles2016Building a circular lighting grid in a stage with no rigging points, so every artist could have a look of their own.
- Coldplay, Up and Up2016Working out perspective and greenscreen for a band performing as giants over stock landscape plates.
- Hiraeth2016A single four minute float through a decaying house, where the house is the only character and the light is whatever the afternoon gives you.
- Spirit Animal, Regular World2016Lighting a windowless boardroom for anamorphic Steadicam at T4, then collapsing the walls and turning it into a stage.
Selected awards and selections
- Camerimage 2016 nomination Coldplay
- Grammy 2017 nomination Coldplay
- MTV VMA, Best Visual Effects Coldplay
- Sundance 2020, NEXT Summertime
- Telly Awards 2019, Bronze As Much As I Can
- Telly Awards 2019, Silver As Much As I Can
- Vimeo Staff Pick NoTaxe (Warrior)
- Webby, Best Music Video Coldplay
LUXE
- Versace - Charles "Lil Buck" Riley
- Adidas // Marina Abramovic - Dustin Lynn
- Bottega Veneta - Ryan McGinley
- Vogue China - Radka Leitmeritz - Yesteryear
- Nirav Modi // Rosie Huntington-Whiteley - Shakun Batra
- Aphotic
- Mosette - Tommy Shull - Stuck in Motion
Commercial
- Coldplay // Up and Up - Vania Heymann + Gal Muggia - PrettyBird
- Bose - Marcus Smith - Making Pictures2019
- Love - Trent Jaklitsch - Gravy
- Tools to Inspire - Trent Jaklitsch - Gravy
- NBC // A Critical Mission for BB8 - Alan Harris - The Light / NBC Universal
- MTV // Anti-Vape PSA - Crobin - Gravy
- Doritos // MTV VMAs - Crobin - Gravy
- Dr Pepper // Tuition - Najeeb Terazi - Pomp and Clout
- Zenni - Shal Ngo
- Bayer // The Smith Family - David Garcia - NBC Universal
- New Orleans Tourism // Reverse Parade - Trent Jaklitsch - Gravy
- George Ezra // Shotgun - Carlos Lopez Estrada + Nelson de Castro - Little Ugly
- Bring Me The Horizon // Mother Tongue - Chris Muir - Little Ugly
- LANY - Najeeb Terazi
Narrative
- Summertime - Carlos Lopez Estrada - Little Ugly / LAMF2020
- Amazon Prime // Bombay My Beloved (Bambai Meri Jaan) - Shujaat Saudagar - Excel Entertainment
- Netflix // Rana Naidu S2 - Karan Anshuman
- Netflix // Glory - Karan Anshuman
- Jumpman - Ron Brodie
- The Rivalry - Trent Jaklitsch
- NoTaxe (Warrior) - Trent Jaklitsch
- As Much As I Can2019
- Devon Gilfillian - Clara Aronovich - Little Ugly
Comedy and broadcast
- Geico - Cameron Harris - Gravy
- KFC - Robert Gilbert - Anchor
- Maaco // Greenhorns - Crobin - Gravy
- Samsung // T7 Drives - Crobin - Gravy
- Jasper - Najeeb Terazi - Sandwich
- Dr Pepper - Crobin - Gravy
- Autotrader