John Guleserian (/ˌɡʊləˈsɛriən/;[1] born April 7, 1976) is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his collaboration with Drake Doremus on Like Crazy and Breathe In, and for the 2013 film About Time.

John Guleserian
Born (1976-04-07) April 7, 1976 (age 48)
OccupationCinematographer
Spouse
Theresa Avram Guleserian
(m. 2010)
Children1

Early life

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Guleserian aspired to be a filmmaker from a young age.[2] He worked as an ice cream truck driver before studying cinematography at college, first as an undergraduate at Columbia College Chicago and then graduate school at the AFI Conservatory.[3] While studying, he spent his spare time "shooting short films for any director that would let me" to gain experience.[2]

Career

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Guleserian began a longstanding collaboration with writer–director Drake Doremus at AFI, which both men attended at the same time. In 2006, Guleserian photographed Doremus's thesis project, and they paired up again to shoot numerous commercials and music videos in addition to the 2009 feature film Spooner.[4] They later collaborated on Like Crazy, a romantic drama film that premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and won the festival's Grand Jury Prize, an achievement that Guleserian later said "opened up a lot of opportunities" for him.[5] One such opportunity was the 2013 romantic comedy About Time, which was the first big-budget studio film Guleserian worked on; previously, he had only shot independent films with smaller budgets.[5] The same year, he returned to work with Doremus as cinematographer on Breathe In, starring Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce.[4] Since Doremus's films are largely improvised, Guleserian filmed these projects unconventionally, with mostly handheld camerawork in takes that usually last over ten minutes.[2]

Guleserian's television credits include I Heart Vampires and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!,[3] and he was the director of photography on the 2014 films Parts per Billion, Song One and Before We Go.[2][6] He shot the 2015 film Equals, a science fiction romance directed by Doremus and starring Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult.[7] He also filmed the 2015 sex comedy The Overnight, a project he became involved in because of his wife, a production designer hired to work on the film, who introduced Guleserian to the director, Patrick Brice.[3]

In December 2014 he was named one of Complex magazine's "Underrated Cinematographers Poised to Make It Big in 2015".[7] He has expressed an interest in working as a visual consultant on animated films.[2]

Filmography

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Short film

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Year Title Director Notes
2003 The King, the Lawyers, and the Cheese Brigid Maher Documentary short
2006 Name of the Game Danny Buday
The Shirt Drake Doremus
2008 Whirlybird Danielle Corches
Plain and Simple Merrin Marra
Buddy 'n' Andy Shaun Peterson
2012 Here Luca Guadagnino
I Have No Hold on You Tim Thaddeus Cahill
2017 Come Swim Kristen Stewart

Film

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Year Title Director Notes
2009 Spooner Drake Doremus
ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction Kevin Hamedani
2011 Like Crazy Drake Doremus
2013 Breathe In
About Time Richard Curtis
2014 Song One Kate Barker-Froyland
Kiss Me Jeff Probst
Parts per Billion Brian Horiuchi
Before We Go Chris Evans
2015 The Overnight Patrick Brice
Equals Drake Doremus
2018 Love, Simon Greg Berlanti
Zoe Drake Doremus
Trial by Fire Edward Zwick
2020 An American Pickle Brandon Trost
Happiest Season Clea DuVall
2021 He's All That Mark Waters
Candyman Nia DaCosta
2023 Cocaine Bear Elizabeth Banks
Genie Sam Boyd
2025 You're Cordially Invited Nicholas Stoller Post-production

Television

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Year Title Director Notes
2006 Orastories Annie Mebane
Lindsay Stidham
TV short
2007-2009 Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Tim Heidecker
Eric Wareheim
Jonathan Krisel
29 episodes
2008 My Alibi Oren Kaplan
The Juice Box Shaun Peterson
Oren Kaplan
2009 Electric Spoofaloo Shaun Peterson
Oren Kaplan
Tim Thaddeus Cahill
I Heart Vampires Shaun Peterson
Oren Kaplan
6 episodes
2015 Transparent Silas Howard
Jim Frohna
Episodes "Bulnerable" and "The Book of Life"
2015-2016 Casual Jason Reitman
Max Winkler
Michael Weaver
Tricia Brock
Fred Savage
Karyn Kusama
Iain B. MacDonald
Lynn Shelton
23 episodes
2017 Friends from College Nicholas Stoller
Andrew Gurland
Francesca Delbanco
All 16 episodes
2020 Homemade Kristen Stewart Episode "Crickets"
2023 Platonic Nicholas Stoller
Francesca Delbanco
10 episodes

References

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  1. ^ "Episode 141: John Guleserian on Candyman, working with director Nia DaCosta, Like Crazy, About Time". The Cinematography Podcast. September 25, 2021. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved September 29, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Behind the Scenes: Cinematographer, John Guleserian (Like Crazy / Breathe In)". Decorated Youth Magazine. July 17, 2014. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Perry, C. J. (January 27, 2015). "Sundance Interview: Filmmaker John Guleserian on 'The Overnight'". Film Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  4. ^ a b Valentini, Valentina I. (April 2013). "Let's Get Personal". ICG Magazine. International Cinematographers Guild. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Valentini, Valentina I. (January 2014). "Deep Focus". ICG Magazine. International Cinematographers Guild. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  6. ^ Bernstein, Paula (January 23, 2015). "How I Shot That: DP John Guleserian Captures the Adult Playdate Gone Awry in 'The Overnight'". Indiewire. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  7. ^ a b Formo, Brian (December 10, 2014). "Underrated Cinematographers Poised to Make It Big in 2015". Complex. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
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