Cinematography in Canada Since 1957

#AaronBernakevitch | #AssociateMemberCSC
Personal IG: @aaronbernakevitch_dp

HI THERE.

My name’s Aaron Bernakevitch, checking in from the prairies, Born and raised in Calgary, A.B.

I’m humbled to be guest-hosting here for the next two weeks. It’s an honour to be part of this space and this community, sharing alongside many mentors and artists whom I`ve admired to for years.

My filmmaking journey began as a lil skate grom in late-’90s Calgary. Armed with a used Hi8 camcorder and a cheap fisheye lens, I spent my youth filming skateboarding and snowboarding, and somehow, 25 years later, I’m still pressing record and capturing stories through the lens.

From the start, I was hooked on capturing life, replaying it, and finding unique ways to shift perspective. Back then, it was all about making a handrail or jump look bigger than it was. You’d take your fisheye, crouch low, and find wild angles to create drama and scale. Those early lessons shaped how I shoot today.

Filming skateboarding and snowboarding didn’t just shape my aesthetic — it built the foundation of my cinematography. I still love capturing motion. There’s something about using a moving camera chasing a moving subject that is just so satisfying.

A turning point came in 1999 at a teen summer camp with @thecsif (huge thanks, Dave Jones). We shot on actual film, and that sunk the hook deep. I’d played around with B&W 35mm stills in school, but motion picture film? That was a whole new world.

That experience gave me the push I needed. After high school in 2004, I headed to @vancouverfilmschool to keep the momentum going.

Over the next 2 weeks, I’ll share past work, stories, lessons, and the moments that shaped my path, from early skate sessions to the mentors who guided me. and talk about what keeps me motivated and inspired.

I’m here not as someone who has it all figured out, but as someone who’s still learning, still curious, and still deeply in love with the craft.

Much love from Calgary and a HUGE and HUMBLED thank you to @canadiancinematographer and @416cw for trusting me with this space.

#keepalbertarolling @easyrig @chapmanleonarduk @flowcine @freeflysystems @oconnorsupport

#GabiKislat, #AssociateMemberCSC @gabi_kislat_dop

Last day! I can’t leave without mentioning my favorite film of 2024 - The Substance. Such a brilliant film. I watched it with hundreds of others in a sold-out cinema, having a blast. Experiencing different emotions and reactions together was so much fun - the “Ooohs” and “Ahhhs,” the hands clapping over faces (including mine) when it got too intense - so good! This film isn’t just a movie; it’s an experience. It’s also part of my inspiration for my next project, an arthouse thriller feature with surrealist elements written and directed by the talented Maude Michaud. We will shoot this fall and prep has started.

The Substance is a must-see. It explores misogyny, ageism, and the objectification of women. While men face this too, having a 14-year-old daughter made me reflect on these societal expectations deeply. Seeing myself in it, I started a photo project featuring women in my environment - helping them work through their fear, and embrace their uniqueness through authentic portraits. It can be empowering to find your spot in front of a camera. I know that because I was my first guinea pig, despite hating being photographed, and eventually took one picture that resonated with me - it’s on my very first post here from two weeks ago.

I set up a home studio and invited friends willing to experiment. Most were nervous, thinking they weren’t pretty enough, too awkward, or “not photogenic.” My goal was to put them at ease and create something together that would feel like truly themselves. The key words that emerged were “raw” and “essence”.

The first reaction upon seeing their photo is usually, “That’s not how I see myself.” The second is, “Thank you for seeing me.” That’s why I love The Substance so much - it brings all the limitations we often unconsciously impose on ourselves to the point. When we look beyond the societal conventions we’ve built up throughout our lives, we can see that everyone’s uniqueness is beautiful - ours included.
I’m still taking photos of women, making this an on-going project.

Thanks for joining me these past two weeks—it was a real pleasure to share. Cheers and take care!

#GabiKislat, #AssociateMemberCSC @gabi_kislat_dop
To apply to film schools, I produced my own shorts and continued for a while. Once I was shooting TV shows, traveling a lot and had a child, that completely stopped. Making your own projects takes so much time, effort, and money!

The TV show How the World Ends asked me to direct and shoot all the documentary segments. Our tiny crew of three flew across North America, hauling gear for weeks. We shot six episodes, each covering a different topic: biblical apocalypse, nuclear disaster, pandemic, alien invasion, Nostradamus, and Planet X.
This show was different because fear was at its core. Many topics revolved around humanity`s annihilation, with only a handful of true believers or preppers surviving. It was whacky hearing people talk about leaving behind family members who didn’t believe in the apocalypse - or theories like autism existing only because women are abducted in their sleep and impregnated by aliens. Talking to NASA engineers and meteor specialists, though, was great.
Aesthetically I like the show, it has its own cool look. But I’m not very proud of the show. I gave it my all - so did the whole team. I shot with two cameras: a C300 with zooms and a DSLR I could stick on a C-stand for moving top shots. For an apocalyptic feel, I used a Cokin P173 Varicolor Blue/Yellow filter, which created an unnatural, unhealthy atmosphere depending on the rotation of it. The polarizing effect made clouds pop, though it sometimes affected skin tones more than I liked, which we adjusted in color correction.
I dislike how the production company used the footage. We met many people, especially in the U.S., who opened their doors and told their stories. Many were already extreme characters, yet the producers chose takes that exaggerated their strangeness. If someone behaved oddly, I’d ask them to retell their story without, say, gripping their aluminum hat the entire time of the take - yet those were the shots used. That’s what I can’t stand about so-called documentary shows - the extreme dramatization and manipulation of people’s personalities. As media creators we have a responsibility to the protagonists & their lives.

#GabiKislat, #AssociateMemberCSC @gabi_kislat_dop
I shot two projects about magic—a one-off documentary called Beyond Magic (Maîtres de L’Illusion: au-delà de la magie) and the TV series Magic Challenge (Défier la Magie). Luc Langevin is Québec’s most famous magician. When it comes to filming magic, it’s all about placement—where you position the camera so it doesn’t give the trick away. Luc is a master at this, and it was fantastic to collaborate with him while he performed.
I’m very happy with how both projects turned out. We shot the one-off documentary with two Alexa cameras, while the TV show was filmed on a Sony F55 with 15-40mm and 28-76mm Optimo T2.6 zoom lenses. I shared the cinematography credit for the TV show with the very kind and talented Maxime Pilon-Lalande - he handled the on-location shoots, while I designed and shot all the studio setups. The look is clean but colorful, with lots of cool tones like blue, peacock, green and turquoise. To create contrast, I added warm accents here and there using Kino Flos and Fresnels with CTO gels. For overall luminance, I used three space lights. We also had opaque white tables, which I lit from underneath with fluorescent practicals, casting a soft and warm light on the performers’ faces. We had one day to prelight. Big thank you`s go to gaffer Martin Leduc-Poirier and his team, as well as my outstanding camera assistant, Harold Cassière for their hard work.

The one-off was just amazing - London, Paris, NY with two Alexas and amazing people. One of Québec’s best 1st ACs, Maxime Boutin, also operated the B-camera while I ran A-cam. Just a great experience! Very well directed by Hugo Matte, both projects were nominated for a Prix Gémeaux (the Québec equivalent of the Gemini Awards) for Best Documentary and Best Lighting & Cinematography (TV show). Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but we all had a great time at the party!

Link to watch the one-off (French only):
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/videos/1-6979254/maitres-illusion-au-dela-magie?isAutoPlay=1

#GabiKislat, #AssociateMemberCSC @gabi_kislat_dop

I had the absolute pleasure to shoot a music documentary on Steppenwolf - the band of the song Born To Be Wild. It was a project where shooting lasted almost two years and it recently had its premiere in Munich and in New York at different film festivals. I believe it will be on streaming platforms soon too.
It’s one of my recent coup de coeur projects, and I ended up writing a short article on the experience of shooting the film, with a small crew, road trip-style, getting the best out of each shot with the means that we had, including a pretty cool and budget friendly slider shot in a car. I geeked out a bit in the article on different approaches and set ups, amongst others, reenactments of the singer’s past with the lensbaby 35mm.

Check it out by copy pasting the following link:

https://gkfilm.myportfolio.com/steppenwolf-article

Hope you enjoy.

Producer: Lisa Roth, Rezolution Pictures and Markus Hilss, Luna Beach TV
Director: Oliver Schwehm
Assistant extraordinaire & gimbal operator: Pasquale Tropea

#GabiKislat, #AssociateMemberCSC @gabi_kislat_dop

Immigrating to Canada wasn’t easy - culture shock and language barriers took years to overcome. But I love a challenge and working on sets, especially documentaries, helped a lot. Fun fact: I learned French on my first TV show as DP. Québécois people are amazing that way: at first I didn’t understand much, and some directors and assistants helped translate. Over time, I picked up more, and one morning I woke up with my “French switch” flipped—I could finally understand! Speaking fluently took longer, but that moment was unforgettable.

Documentary work helped me to find my place in Québec, making me realize what a great place Canada is overall. I’ve travelled a lot for work and was lucky to be welcomed into homes I’d otherwise never visit. Witnessing people who endured hardship but who come out at the other end - with scars - but still standing and continuing on, is very moving to me. Having the privilege of diving into their life and telling their stories has been empowering.

Two recent CBC projects I worked on followed sex trafficking survivors in Canada. We were coached on how to approach the young women, since one wrong word or one wrong approach could trigger their trauma. A counselor was present during filming, regularly checking in with the women.
It was also the first project where the crew had budgeted therapy sessions for each block of shooting. Hearing the women’s trauma affected the whole crew. We couldn’t simply “shake it off”. In my case, the stories changed my perspective on men which I didn’t want to carry forward. Those sessions helped us process and finish the shoot in a way that we could support the filmmaking process, instead of, for example, burning out. I`ve heard of other filmmakers and crew developing issues after trauma-heavy projects. I wish that more projects that tell stories like that would budget psychologist sessions for the crew. It made all the difference.

I’m posting different documentary stills here because I don’t have any material from the sex trafficking docs. The two CBC projects are called Branded and Butterfly.

#GabiKislat, #AssociateMemberCSC @gabi_kislat_dop

My background is in 35mm photography, which I developed and printed myself in my bathroom-turned-darkroom. When I moved to Montreal in 2004 to study Film Production, we learned to shoot on 16mm and edit by hand on a Steenbeck (shout out to Bruno Philip, CSC Eastern VP, who taught us cinematography & film with full passion!) Handling and touching film with pristine white gloves was almost a spiritual endeavor—every frame was precious. It’s such a stark contrast to today, where we sit at a computer and plow through hours of footage in a matter of seconds.

We mostly shot on 16mm film with Bolex and Aaton XTR cameras. You had to wind up the Bolex by hand all the way to get a maximum shot length of 28 seconds. Timing was crucial—you had to be ready to shoot so as not to waste any precious seconds. Do you know how long a 100’ roll of 16mm film lasts?

I always liked the feel of the footage once we got it back from the lab - an organic feel, with grain and texture. Each film stock has its own character. As a student, sending exposed rolls to the lab and waiting for the print was nerve-wracking, but I was never disappointed. I like the softness of film - the way it rolls off, the way it interprets colors. I sometimes crave that in digital cinema, and one of my tools to recreate a filmic feel is vintage lenses. I recently did a masterclass with Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF, who likes to break the clarity of the digital image by using glass filters with self-made textures, disrupting the uniformity of a pristine digital look.

Shooting on film taught me to see light differently. I teach my students to use a light meter not just for exposure but to understand how light translates through different mediums. The moment they stop relying solely on the monitor and start recognizing how light shapes an image - how it relates to both their eyes and the numbers on their light meter - is their `aha!` moment. To explore light and shadow more deeply, I took drawing classes in university - chiaroscuro and all of that, and I loved it. It felt like the perfect complement to learning about lighting for film.