Cinematography: The Language of Light
James Nakamura
James Nakamura teaches you to see light before you manipulate it — the discipline that separates cinematographers who make images from those who make meaning.
Cinematographer & Director
Sundance award winner · Netflix original series DP · AFI alumnus
About
James Nakamura's career spans independent film, television, and commercial work across three continents. He shot the Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner 'Still Water' and served as Director of Photography on two Netflix original series. His visual aesthetic — long exposures, naturalistic lighting, minimal rigs — has been the subject of masterclasses at AFI and the Berlinale Talent Campus.
James teaches cinematography as the art of directing the viewer's eye and emotional state through light, lens choice, and movement, with strict attention to the physics of light before the poetry of it.
James Nakamura
James Nakamura teaches you to see light before you manipulate it — the discipline that separates cinematographers who make images from those who make meaning.