Cinematography Salon

James Laxton, ASC came to Beef for its second season as the one new voice in a room that had already made something people loved. His job, as he saw it, was to carry forward what Beef is at the level of shot structure, whose shoulder the camera sits over, whose scene it is, how far back the wide holds, while telling a different story than Season 1.
He and host Jared Levy get into the season's organizing idea: four couples as four seasons, spring to winter, an ensemble led by Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Charles Melton, and Cailee Spaeny, and a color language built with the production designer, Grace, to track love across a lifetime. Laxton talks through shooting large format, 65mm, for the weight it gives a face, the episode-eight silhouettes he is proudest of, and the night he calls "impending doom," a car fight shot at the end of an already full day, where the thing he feared most was not the lighting but letting the actors down.
CREDITS
James Laxton, ASC
Instagram · Website · IMDb
Jared Levy, host
Instagram · Website · IMDb
David Kruta, producer
Instagram · Website · IMDb
Topher Hammond, producer
Instagram
MUSIC
Original music by One Wave.
THE SALON
Episode page and full gallery: https://cinematographysalon.com/podcast/james-laxton-asc-beef-season-2
Newsletter and events: cinematographysalon.com
Instagram: @cinematographysalon
PRESENTING SPONSOR
This episode is made possible by Fujifilm — home of the GFX Eterna 55, the large format, IMAX-certified cinema camera, and FUJINON cinema lenses. https://fujifilm-x.com
SUPPORT THE SALON
The podcast, the writing, and both Resources tools are free. No paywall, no membership, no login. That is on purpose: learning to light a scene should not depend on what you can afford. Sponsors cover part of it and readers cover the rest. If you want to chip in, it starts at the price of a coffee a month at https://cinematographysalon.com/support. If your company wants to reach working cinematographers, get in touch at https://cinematographysalon.com/sponsors.

When Tari Segal, ASC, took over the Las Vegas block of Margo's Got Money Troubles, the A24 series for Apple TV adapted by David E. Kelley from Rufi Thorpe's novel, she had three days and a working casino floor on which to extend a look someone else had established. It is the episode that earned her an ASC Award nomination, and in this conversation with host Jared Levy she is candid that the shoot ran closer to triage than choreography.
She walks through the problems in order. Faking a dead chandelier with PAR cans on the floor of a heavily tinted steakhouse when the circuit blew near sunrise. Building a full WrestleCon arena in a day and a half for Nicole Kidman's first day on the show. Putting Margo full frame through the then new ARRI Hero lenses so the world melts around her during the OnlyFans sequences. Negotiating a single 30 minute rotation of the High Roller observation wheel, its camera synced to a second unit shooting Nick Offerman a block below.
It is an hour on solving the unsolvable to a television schedule, and on the crew that made it fun, espresso martinis after wrap included.
CREDITS
Tari Segal, ASC
Instagram · Website · IMDb
Jared Levy, host
Instagram · Website · IMDb
David Kruta, producer
Instagram · Website · IMDb
Topher Hammond, producer
Instagram
MUSIC
Original music by One Wave.
THE SALON
Episode page and full gallery: https://cinematographysalon.com/podcast/tari-segal-asc-margos-got-money-troubles
Newsletter and events: cinematographysalon.com
Instagram: @cinematographysalon
SUPPORT THE SALON
The podcast, the writing, and both Resources tools are free. No paywall, no membership, no login. That is on purpose: learning to light a scene should not depend on what you can afford. Sponsors cover part of it and readers cover the rest. If you want to chip in, it starts at the price of a coffee a month at https://cinematographysalon.com/support. If your company wants to reach working cinematographers, get in touch at https://cinematographysalon.com/sponsors.

Against the backdrop of industry upheaval and the rise of AI, Nicholas Lam joins hosts Ava Benjamin Shorr and David Kruta to explore what it means to future-proof creativity. Lam critiques performative diversity initiatives, warns against chasing trends, and makes a case for human, low-fi storytelling as the antidote to algorithmic content. Taking a personal turn, Lam recounts losing his home in the Los Angeles fires of January 2025, and shares how the filmmaking community rallied to support him, reshaping his priorities and reinforcing the importance of showing up for others. That experience reframes his view of work, stripping away the false urgency of the industry and grounding him in relationships over accolades.
Nicholas Lam’s Instagram | Website
Ava Benjamin Shorr’s Instagram | Website
David Kruta’s Instagram | Website
This episode is sponsored by Fujifilm, Sandisk and TCP Insurance.

Director Mike Pecci joins host David Kruta to dissect the chaos of post-COVID Hollywood, the false promises of AI disruption, and the suffocating gatekeeping of the studio system. Pecci lays bare the existential challenges of trying to create authentic work in an industry gripped by fear, algorithmic control, and vanishing opportunities. In a world where pitching feels like shouting into a void, Pecci finds power in simply continuing to create, and the filmmakers who will survive are the ones who know how to make something out of nothing—and do it with heart. For him, AI is not the enemy. Mediocrity is.
Mike Pecci’s Instagram | Website | Watch 12 Kilometers
David Kruta’s Instagram | Website
This episode is sponsored by Fujifilm, Sandisk and TCP Insurance.

As fears mount over AI’s impact on creative labor, cinematographer and technologist Jim Geduldick joins host David Kruta to dissect the frenzy surrounding artificial intelligence and its encroachment into the film industry. As AI-generated imagery floods social media and marketing departments chase cost-cutting automation, Geduldick challenges the doom-and-gloom narrative with a nuanced, insider perspective—arguing that while jobs may shift, human storytelling will remain irreplaceable. However, decades of tech disruption, from DVX100s to LED volumes, won’t change the fact that great filmmaking has always been—and still is—about the people behind the lens.
Jim Geduldick’s Instagram
David Kruta’s Instagram | Website
This episode is sponsored by Fujifilm, Sandisk and TCP Insurance.