Allow me to introduce myself
I’m Alan Hereford, a cinematographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Some highlights of my career include: Shooting the BTS for Matrix II & III, Camera Operator on Top Chef, Mythbusters and the Emmy and James Beard Award-winning Avec Eric.
I’m YOUR Director of Photography and Camera Operator for cooking shows, television programs and feature and corporate films because:
- You need a team member who brings his A game to every shoot, which will save you time and money.
- You want a team that works like a smoothly operating machine, which requires focused leadership from your DP or focused support from your camera operator.
- You value a positive can-do-attitude, which will save your sanity when things get tough in the studio or the field.
10 things that will help you understand me (or at least entertain while you read it)
- I LOVE my work! Every self-help guru will tell you to do what you love and the money will follow. Lucky me, I get to do what I love every day and have done it since 1999.
- My father was a filmmaker. I didn’t want to follow in his footsteps until I outgrew my need to rebel. Once I was old enough to recognize my passion without the need to be different from my dad, I attended the Community Film Workshop of Chicago. All those years of working with him behind the scenes gave me a real advantage.
- I can’t cook a casual weeknight dinner. I have worked with many of the best chefs in the world* and I love to cook. But when I cook, it has to be something complicated and messy (according to my wife).
- Thomas Keller hand fed me from his own spoon in his kitchen at French Laundry during a shoot. I sometimes replay that moment in my head in slow motion.
- I was the Illinois Junior State Champion for cycling in 1986. Now I live in Marin County, California, the birthplace of mountain biking.
- I met my wife at a rave in San Francisco in 1991. Our eyes met across a crowded room and we’ve been together ever since.
- I grew up in Chicago’s Edgewater neighborhood. I rode public transportation to school by myself and my parents were not arrested for child endangerment.
- My son and I built the Lego Deathstar in two days over Christmas in 2010.
- I jumped out of a plane while shooting a music video with Megadeath for their song “Holy Wars.”
- I got top billing over Tony Award winning actress, Joan Allen (she was a receptionist at the time) when I was a kid in a PSA that my dad shot. I still can’t believe that I never got discovered from that film.
* I’ve worked with Phil Tessier and Mathew Peters who brought the gold home from Lyon! Eric Ripert of Le Bernadine, Thomas Keller of French Laundry, Alice Waters of the acclaimed Chez Panisse, Jacques Pepin, Michael Chiarello, Michael Mina and Joanne Weir, among others.