Nic Sadler: Difference between revisions

British cinematographer

Nic Sadler is a British/Australian cinematographer, photographer and inventor, living in Los Angeles.

Sadler was born in East London in May 1965, to an Anglo-Indian mother and a British-Roma father. His mother Elizabeth “Betty” King emigrated from India in 1956 with her mother Mavis, siblings Aubrey and Angela “Angie” King, shortly after their father died in Madras.^[2]: 65 At age seven he moved with his parent to Perth, Western Australia.

While at North Lake Senior High School he developed an interest in photography from Daniel, his photolithographer father, supported by then teacher at NLSH, John Longley (a future crew member of the successful 1980 America’s Cup challenger, Freedom).

Sadler graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from WAIT (Western Australian Institute of Technology), later known as Curtin University, in Perth in 1985,^[3] studying under filmmakers Bill Constable^[4] and Steve Jodrell, and renown cultural theorists John Fiske and John Hartley.

Sadler began working in the film industry in 1986 as a production assistant on the film Shame^[5], directed his former tutor Steve Jodrell; then on the martial arts films Day of the Panther and Strike of the Panther.^[6]

In 1987 he worked as 2nd assistant camera on television film A Waltz Through the Hills,^[7]. The following year he worked as second unit 1st assistant camera on Australian miniseries Jackaroo.^[8].

After moving to London in 1989, Sadler began working primarily as 1st assistant camera to John Mathieson BSC, then a popular music video cinematographer, woking with artists including U2 ^[9], Sinéad O’Connor^[10] and Prince^[11]

By 1992 Sadler had begun working as a cinematographer, shooting music videos for artists including Elbow, The Prodigy ^[12], Echo & the Bunnymen, Supertramp and Ocean Colour Scene. He worked extensively with Spidercom Films ^[13] with directors Alex De Rakoff and David Slade while Guy Ritchie was an in-house director.

In 1997 he shot Nick Cave’s The Boatman’s Call concert film for the MTV Live’n’Loud series.^[14]; following on with concerts for R.E.M.,^[15] The Corrs,^[16] Norah Jones,^[17] Mumford & Sons ^[18] and others

He shot numerous television commercials over a 20 year period for brands including Coca Cola, De Beers, Axe^[19] and Samsung^[20]. In 2000 Sadler an the award winning Peugeot commercial featuring David Blaine^[21]

In 2000 he began shooting short films for commercials directors Peter Lydon ^[22] and James Wood ^[23]. In 2002 he shot Me, You and the Dead for Dircetor Rick Griffiths, who worked as a grip for Sadler while shooting commercials in Manchester. The film won the Audience Award at the Commonwealth Film Festival in 2002.

He shot his first television drama, Paren’t Night ^[24] from the series Shockers, for director Marc Charach and producer Barney Reisz ^[25] in 2000.

By 2004 Sadler had begun working with live TV director Hamish Hamilton, first on a concert film for Norah Jones, then on four Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show TV specials. The last of these, the Victoria’s Secret Swim Special, featured Maroon 5 performing Animals on Vieques in Puerto Rico.

After moving to Los Angeles in 2004, he shot the low budget independent film Intellectual Property,^[26] which went on to win Best Cinematography at the 2006 Australian International Film Festival.

In 2011 he shot Tales of the Code: Wedlocked directed by James Byrkit.^[27] a prequel featurette to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film. In 2013 he collaborated again with Byrkit on the ultra-low budget cult film Coherence ^[28]. Shot over five nights for under $50,000, Coherence is listed as one of the “150 Essential Sci-Fi Movies to Watch Now”^[29] by Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2014 Sadler began a creative photographic partnership with Julia Sandberg Hansson under the name SHSadler.^{[30] [31]} Working closely with LA Make-up artist Satya Linak,^[32] their award winning work ^[33] has been widely published in art magazines and journals.

A series of pictures by SHSadler of Daft Punk were published by Triple J Magazine ^[34] in May 2013, as part of the promotion for Random Access Memories.

The Fresh Meat^{[35] [36]} series of pictures began as an editorial commission about make-up, morphing into a commentary about cultural beauty standards.^[37]. It was rejected by the commissioner then published in their sister magazine Schön!. In 2020 the images won Gold and 1st Place prizes at the TIFA (Tokyo International Foto Awards) ^[38].

In 2025 the Bad Wolfy ^[39] image from the Fresh Meat series was used on the cover of Phoebe Stuckes ^[40] novel Dead Animals.^[41]

The Fresh Meat images have been referenced in numerous music videos including Middle Child by J Cole ^[42] and Gnarly by Katseye ^[43], a poster for the movie Fresh ^[44], the tv show Central Roast – Netherlands ^[45] and in unlicensed merchandizing by the influencer Emma Chamberlain ^[46].

Sadler formed the company Chemical Wedding in 2007 with Toby Evetts and Simon Reeves,^[47] to produce software tools for filmmakers on the newly established iOS platform. Helios,^[48] an early Apple iOS application for filmmakers to pre-visualise the effect of sunlight on locations and people, was released in 2008. This was followed by the release of Artemis Digital Directors Viewfinder in 2009, the first digital directors viewfinder on a mobile phone platform.

In 2016 Chemical Wedding began production of the Artemis Prime,^[49][50] a hybrid hardware / digital director’s Lens finder system. The system is in wide use, notably by camera operator Jim McConkey ^[51] with cinematographer David Mullen on the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.^[52]

Sadler & his partners at Chemical Wedding were awarded both an Emmy^[53] and the British Society of Cinematographers Bert Easey^[54] awards for the development of Artemis and Helios.

From 2017 to 2024 Sadler was Consultant to Caldwell, an optics company based in Glendale, California, in their production of the Chameleon Anamorphic motion picture lenses, used on the production on The Mandalorian^[55] from Disney Studios.

From February 2014 until June 2018 Nic was a co-host on over 200 episodes of the political podcast From the Bunker ^[56] with Richard Beatty, David Schockett and Jody Hamilton. Jody (the youngest daughter of Carol Burnett) is currently Executive Producer of the Stephanie Miller Show.

Sadler has featured on several podcasts as a guest, including Movies We Like ^[57] and Film Salon ^[58]

Sadler lectures in Cinematography at numerous institutions, including the American Film Institute, CSUN, and UC Santa Barbara. He also speaks regularly at film festivals and trade shows about cinematography, technology and the future of filmmaking. ^[59]

in partnership with Julia Sandberg-Hansson as SHSadler

Australian International Film Festival

Emmy Awards

Tokyo International Photo Award

British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) Awards