'It always feels like you get booked for your eyes, your taste, and how you communicate with others. It's so much more than just a skill.’
Patrick Pichler shares his journey from freestyle skiing in Austria to becoming a cinematographer, inspired by nature and small, meaningful projects. While he appreciates both digital and analog, his love for the unique focus and intensity of shooting on film drives his creative process.
"My name is Patrick Pichler, and I work as a Cinematographer. The whole passion for filmmaking started in the Austrian mountains while freestyle skiing and skateboarding with my friends. We never saw it as something creative; rather, it was part of our culture. At that time, I was attending music school, playing the clarinet. My parents kind of forced me to do it as they were playing in a marching band. Looking back now, I’m super thankful for this—although hating it back in the days—as they taught me a sense of rhythm that I find super helpful in my work as a DP. After that, I went to Digital Business School, met my first love, and wanted to either start university with her in a different country or just stay there to work in the field of Controlling. So I applied, got accepted, and met a lot of filmmaking friends. Our love didn’t last that long after, but the spark for filmmaking grew pretty fast, haha."
"My first thought of early inspiration has to be freeski movies. The combination of snow, an individual in a wide shot amidst natural surroundings, throwing crazy tricks over jumps, combined with camera movement and music, always gave me the craziest goosebumps. Over the years, these movies also started having a plot. Suddenly, films and sports combined right in front of my eyes, and I wanted to create the same. Nowadays, this has shifted a bit from watching commercials or movies to the actual people working with them. Having good talks and finding ourselves stepping away from media and returning to nature—like hiking, ice bathing, or climbing—helps me right now in finding inspiration amid the sheer amount of commercial content that gets blasted at me every day."
"My favorite project at the moment is a short film we're currently working on. It's amazing because it involves such a small crew, throwing me back to the early days when you had to figure out everything yourself. We've already shot for 12 days in two blocks in Turkey with just the two directors, an Arriflex 416, 20 rolls of film (for now, haha), our Berlin production team, local producers, and myself. It feels so pure—learning a lot about the story on the go, constantly observing surroundings, and handling a film workflow on set by yourself, from cleaning to focus, changing films, keeping track of continuity, and more. It's challenging but super rewarding, and without the two directors helping with everything and never being too tired to carry things, this wouldn't have been possible. I'm super thankful to Jan and Samet (You know who you are) for bringing me with them. It's amazing to see how they're constantly open-minded about the unexpected and how we've grown together in this short period. It makes me want to do more fiction. I can't tell you more about it so that it has the full effect as soon as it gets released, haha."
"I believe every project is unique, and there are times when film doesn't quite fit the idea, story, or brand, requiring a sophisticated clean look. However, deep in my heart, I just love shooting analog. The feeling it gives me watching the scans, the insides of the camera moving the film stock, the concentration and focus on set, plus the dynamic range it offers and how the crystals interact with the color red—it's something I find harder to achieve in a digital workflow. It's the medium that laid the foundation for everything we're doing today, and analog movies trained my eyes. Beyond all the technical perks, film will always be my favorite because people are more concentrated, you have to know exactly what you're doing, and it helps me be in the moment more intensely."
"One movie that always directly jumps to my mind is "A Ghost Story". Beautiful, Haunting, Pathetic, Funny and Sad. 10/10"
"The craziest thing to this day is that I don't even know what a DP really does, and probably never will—not in the sense of the technical aspect, but more in terms of what makes you a good DP. For me, it always feels like you get booked for your eyes, your taste, and how you communicate with others. It's so much more than just a skill. There are super technically skilled people out there and super visual people. It really feels like you're booked for who you are and what makes you who you are, rather than necessarily having the craziest technical knowledge or education in this field. At least, this is how it feels for me sometimes, and it is fascinating and, I think, very beautiful. (Besides good catering and traveling, haha)"
"That's a question I'm asking myself all the time, and at this point, I can't answer it definitively. There are so many things I want to dive deeper into, like documentary, fiction, sports, fashion, or even cinematography in exhibitions. There is just so much to explore in this job still. Of course, I'm also not going to say no to a few big gigs, hihi."
A big thanks to Patrick Pichler for sharing his insights and experiences on his creative journey.
