5 Questions with Luke Stockman.

Hey, what's up, my name is Luke Stockman, I'm a commercial cinematographer currently based out of Auckland, New Zealand. I've come into Cinematography from what some kids in the schoolyard may call a strange route, Long story short straight after high school I left little old New Zealand at 18 and spent around 12 years overseas in a variety of different careers ranging from a camp counselor, cruise ship entertainer, ski bum, Window installation artist, An Aupair, private celebrity bar tender, Circus Stiltwalker through to Modeling amongst other jobs along the way which in some crazy twisted turn of events lead me to Cinematography. 

I haven't had a lot of time to spare coming into the motion space on the other side of 30 and wanting to take the path of DOP, most of the others in the community my age had already been at this craft for several years if not a decade-plus so I had my work cut out for me from day one. I came into the industry with zero knowledge of anything camera-related or how this whole thing even worked but I've never really been a stranger to the concept of dropping everything regardless of how crazy it might seem at the time and do what I like to call the act of "oh yea, that looks pretty cool, I'll figure it out and go do that". 

I've always operated/lived life around the idea of if you have a drive and passion for something along with a little encouragement there's no reason why you can't figure it out and move forward with it, and it doesn't have to necessarily be a career thing It can apply to any aspect in your own little world. These days the more I move into the DOP world and am starting to really craft my images in a more thoughtful and intentional way I find myself often drawing on the experiences and peoples stories I've met over the many years on the road to help convey what I'm trying to say on camera. The thing I love about cinematography and photography is that you can literally show people how you see the world, how your personal experiences and stories reflect your outlook on a day-to-day basis. I don't think a "job" gets any cooler than that. 

Q1. What made you first pick up a camera? 

Ha! well the first time I really picked up a camera that I truly remember was when I was about 8 years old, I was pretty hooked on music videos at the time even back then. One of my little sisters was just getting into dance at the time and I remember us watching a Brittany Spears Music Video and thinking "yea, we should make our own one!" I would like to have had a maybe more action sports or kung fu movie moment of inspiration but turns out it was Brittany Spears and one of my sister's ability to Lip sync that started this whole journey. The family had a camcorder thing way back in the mid-'90s and I figured out that if you pressed record and then cut where you wanted when you would play it back the clips would run back to back through each other therefore creating more or less a seamless video. So we got the outfits ready, put a tape deck in the stereo and camera, wired the speaker out the window into the garden, Got mum there with the disposal film camera to document the events and boom were shooting a multi-scene music video in the garden. 

Q2. What does success look like to you?

I think the idea of success probably changes more than people think, It moves, shakes, and bakes with the time you find yourself in. This year's success could be insanely different from next year or even next month. So I think when defining such a broad idea we have to be careful how much pressure we put on ourselves and aware that that idea from last week can and does change, and that's a good thing. Without getting too deep and too far stretched on the future, At this stage for where I'm sitting in my career, success looks to me like being able to not only create a living by using a camera but be able to have it take me on many more adventures with family and loved ones, Meeting new people I might not otherwise ever get to meet whether we get along or not is regardless It's just super cool that we even got to meet through something like a camera, getting to express thoughts and feelings with commercial and personal work is a huge one as it's like its own form of therapy for the heart and mind and Id say finally to be able to leave some personal images behind one day for future family to look at and have a glimpse into my time here.

Q3. What is your desert island lens? 

Oh, snap crackle pop that's a biggy! I'd say something portable, easy to carry, not expensive so you could get dirty with it in the sand and not have to stress, something like underrated but affordable Helios 44-2 would be fun and hassle/stress very so I could just go explore and run around. 

Q4. Which shoot for you stands out as most memorable?

I have got some awesome shoots under my belt at this stage and only just really starting to feel like I could be getting some good momentum in the content commercial space but funnily enough, my most memorable shoot to date would be probably one of my first shoots for a watch brand that I got a 3-month retainer for making 4 social media videos a month. It was an international company so I never meet them and they never meet me, we did everything via email and phone call which was pretty wild to me at the time. My sister came out to help me shoot it with a friend of mine who was the talent, we all split the small amount of money we got to do the shoot, and then I spent way to much time editing it trying to make it a Rolex commercial. It was super dirty and very run and gun shoot, in broad daylight with no idea what I was doing and with no gear except a camera and one lens but it was the fact that I got a client and did a shoot which was so powerful and memorable, I walked away from it thinking "well holy shit, This actually might be possible".

Q5. Which Cinematographer influenced you and your style the most?

I don't think I really have one at this particular stage as Id say I'm still too "young" in the space to single it down to one, I'm still very much in the zone of ingesting as many styles, concepts approaches, and ideas that I can. I'm looking at all aspects of photo and motion, from full-blown commercial shooters right through to photojournalists in war times and how they all looked at the world in their own ways. I'm still a way of yet I think from having a "style" but that's ok as I'm still very much enjoying the process of learning and developing new skills, There's nothing better than have that "click" moment and feeling like you've just unlocked a new level in your process. So as broad as this is and not really an answer id have to say that the whole space of motion and photography has influenced me.

You can find out more about Luke Stockman here @lukestockman