By Michelle Paster
AFI FEST Daily News

AFI Conservatory Cinematography Alum Michael Grady ('95) has two films screening at AFI FEST 2006 presented by Audi.

DEAD GIRL written and directed by Karen Moncrieff was shot by Grady. The mystery joins seemingly unrelated people around the murder of a treacherous youth played by Brittany Murphy. The film also stars Josh Brolin, Rose Byrne, Toni Collette, James Franco, Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Beth Hurt and Giovanni Ribisi.

THE DEAD GIRL has its world premiere November 7, 7:00 PM, and screens again November 8, 1:30 PM.

BUG, by Academy Award winner William Friedkin (THE EXORCIST) and screenwriter Tracy Letts, was also shot by Grady. The psychological thriller starring Ashley Judd amasses paranoia and nightmarish reality.

BUG screens November 11, 10:00 PM, and November 12, 4:00 PM.

AFI FEST Daily News: How did AFI help you as a cinematographer?

Michael Grady: AFI was a tremendous help to me early and still echoes in my thoughts today. I learned how a movie set functions and all set etiquette from my days at AFI.

I had an art background, was working at a documentary company in post, and had taken some film and cinematography classes at NYU before AFI; but my experiences there solidified my knowledge base and it is where I learned to love the art of cinematography.

In the end, the ability to collaborate and the value and importance of collaboration on a film set was instilled in me during my time at AFI.

I owe a lot to AFI and the cinematography classes there. Without that experience, my career might be very different. It was a great jumping off point.

How did you land you first cinematography job after AFI?

Michael: My early jobs were born from the relationships I formed at AFI. Early on we helped each other and hired each other on our crews. Three or four of my best cinematography student friends stuck together. We crewed for each other and survived.

As far as work as a cinematographer, my first feature came from the reel that I cut in the editing rooms at AFI. My Cycle projects and Thesis film were the beginning of a reel that stretched to shorts, music videos, indie features, documentary work and episodic television.

On my first 35mm feature job, I was hired by an actor-director who had acted in my Cycle 2 project and he wanted to work together again. He hired me to shoot his first feature as a director.

The most important thing is to keep shooting after school. The best advice I got from instructors in school was to find ways to shoot--whatever the subject matter. Just keep practicing and honing your skills.

Along those lines, I shot over 30 shorts in the years in and after film school.

With THE DEAD GIRL, how were you brought onto the project?

Michael: One of my agents at ICM, Craig Bernstein, gave me the script. He sent it to me months before it actually shot and I liked it, but I wasn't sure. Then, days later I realized how much the script stayed with me.

I wanted to meet the director and investigate further, but the project pushed and was on hold for a while.

Then last February, I had just finished a movie called FACTORY GIRL when the project resurfaced.

ICM set up a meeting with writer-director Karen Moncrieff at the Lakeshore Entertainment offices. Karen responded to my reel and also to a movie I shot called WONDERLAND. I felt like we bonded immediately and really clicked in terms of aesthetics and the influences and interests we shared in film making.

What was the reasoning behind shooting primarily in green and yellow lighting hues?

Michael: Cyan and a tobacco-slash-sodium vapor warm hue were two keys for our palette.

Most of the film has a de-saturated, high contrast feel like that of bleach bypass and each of the five stories have singular elements to them.

In the beginning, Arden's story, "The Stranger", has this tobacco-yellow hue and is controlled, composed and slightly elegant with a claustrophobic sensibility.

Next, "The Sister" has a much colder palette with blues and cyans invading a very monochromatic, metallic, de-saturated world. Here, we tried to never connect her in frames. She is always isolated or disconnected with her environment and those around her.

"The Mother" is also a cold monochromatic palette with a composed aesthetic to the camera work that reflects the character's outward impression.

"The Wife,Ó I hope, is a tobacco-stained beautiful ugly with a heavy skip bleach feel, i.e. high contrast and deep blacks. This section is quite chaotic with the camera interacting more with the characters.

Finally, the fifth story entitled "The Dead Girl" is an explosion of techniques. It is all hand held, chaotic, and visceral. Her story is the collision of all of the other palettes.

Mixed hues and mixed color temperatures were a big part of the approach.

Is this a collaborative decision between you and Karen Moncrieff?

Michael: All of these elements were collaborative decisions between us. She loves contrast as much as I do and we both felt like the aesthetic of a high contrast de-saturated look was perfect for THE DEAD GIRL.

Siggy Ferstl also did a wonderful job as our colorist. The three of us had a good time color correcting this movie in a D.I. suite at Co.3 in Santa Monica.

Ultimately, Karen is very visual director but also totally open to collaborate. I think we had a good game plan going into this movie. We talked about most of the motifs and aesthetic choices that are in the final film.

I am quite proud of our work on THE DEAD GIRL.

BUG is also in AFI FEST. Were you expecting to have two films in at once?

Michael: It was a mere coincidence. I shot BUG six months before THE DEAD GIRL but here they both are at AFI FEST.

BUG premiered at Cannes with critical acclaim and both of these movies will be released in December.

BUG is, in many ways, a disturbing movie. It is also one that I am very proud of. It was directed by William Friedkin and I was honored to work with one of the great film directors of all time.

I sat in the AFI screening room and listened to Bill Friedkin give lectures as a student, never dreaming I would be lucky enough to shoot a movie with him. But, less than 10 years after leaving AFI, I did get the opportunity to do a movie with William Friedkin. It was truly an amazing experience.

BUG is an investigation of paranoia and a descent into madness. Hopefully, the cinematography echoes this paranoia and slides down the rabbit hole with our characters into a living hell. Their world transforms throughout the narrative and our techniques and palette transform with the environment and with the characters state of mind.

Michael Grady is a member of the International Cinematographers Guild. Local 600.