英文

1. Please simply introduce yourself.

 

Hi! my name is Dominique Pazmiño Ríos, I am an Ecuadorian cinematographer and every time I take a camera I try my best to create breathless images that takes the spectator out of the ordinary world. I am currently working in Ecuador. In 2023 I had the opportunity to made an internship during I was studying a cinematography workshop in LA. I hold a BFA degree in Film from The University of the Arts in Ecuador.

 

 

 

2. Could you please share your story? 

 

In 2016 I started to work on fiction projects and documentaries as cinematographer. These projects have been screened at top-tier film festivals and film markets around the world as Locarno International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Cannes Shortfilm Corner, and other important festivals. Aside from film I also do commercials. I have worked for big TVC campaigns in Ecuador.

 

When I was younger I used to work as camera assistant with one of the biggest film equipment rental house in Ecuador, that experience gave me the opportunity of working in some many projects for ecuadorian production companies, and international projects where I shared film sets with great international cinematographers whom I learned from as Marcelo Camorino, Zelmira Gainza and others.

 

I remember that moment when I started to feel I was on a set looking at the DPs and feeling I needed to express my ideas through light, that was the moment I decided seriously that my time on the camera assistant job was ended and I started to work as DP for documentaries and music videos at first and all of a sudden I was making TV commercials and my first feature film as DP.

 

To be honest becoming a female DP in Ecuador (and all around the world) is really a complicated path because Ecuador is still far from being a solid industry with a variety and diversity of female directors of photography. I personally feel that in Ecuador there’s a sensation of an industry monopolized by men colleagues. In the country (until now but I hope not forever) there are only 10 female DPs having a solid career on advertising for example. That’s why I have always had the idea to break this stigma and to help new female DPs, I have given cinematography workshops to young girls to break this stigma and to help them not to hesitate on their hopes to take the step to new professional horizons.

 

 

 

 

3. You were the first DP using DZOFILM Catta Zoom lenses for shooting a film. Really want to how do you know DZOFILM lenses and the reasons you chose it.

 

I feel grateful I was the first DP in Ecuador using the Catta Zoom lenses to create a film piece where the Catta Zoom look really amazing. Using new and different brands is always my personal stamp because I think that so many times we are losing the opportunity to try amazing new gear that is in the same quality of the more common brands just because we don’t feel confident with it but I like to try and test new gear always, to understand the difference between other brands and to see the advantages each gear can give me in every shooting situation.

 

I knew DZO lenses maybe fours years ago because of NBA show news. After that I follow DZO on instagram and started to watch some video test for the lenses. Here in Ecuador the rentals don’t get constantly new gear from new brands but due the entry of the Arri LF to the ecuadorian industry, a rental gear (Wylgar) decided to buy the Catta Zooms so when I knew that I decided to try them and to see for myself its capabilities.

 

I feel that the first time I used the Catta Zooms was something really impressive. I was amazed with the solid construction and lightweight they are. For that moment I couldn't even believe that a really compact zoom lens had good aperture as T2.9 and a constant parfocal, those two qualities are for really good optics but mostly those qualities doesn’t come from lightweight and not too expensive optics, that’s why I was impressed.

 

In terms of aesthetics approach I felt that the Catta Zoom was going to help me with my cinematography proposal in the project that I was about to shoot at that moment. I wanted to use really minimum depth of field, really shallow, to construct a proposal around the main character emotion of not feeling part of this world and different from the other people. It was a queer sensitive UFO story so I thought it would be nice making that kind of visual analogy plus the beautiful round bokeh the lenses creates.

 

 

 

 

4. What is the latest project you participated in? What kind of role you have worked in this project?

 

The last representative project I cinematographed was “Back to Las Maravillas”, a short film where I used the DZO Catta Zooms and that short film was selected on Locarno Film Festival in the Open Doors Selection.

 

 

 

 

5. Congratulations on the short film“Back to Las Maravillas” being selected in the Locarno International Film Festival, are there any memorable experiences or feelings during the shooting of this project?

 

Appreciate it, thank you. To be honest being part of Locarno has always been one of my dreams so I was happy when we get selected for the festival. I can say there’s a lot of memorable stories about the shooting of the short film. One of the most notorious I can share is that we were filming inside some gold mines so it was a really extreme condition of shooting, and again I take advantages of the lenses because they are really compact and I was able to film inside some complicated places without feeling uncomfortable or tired.

 

 

From left to right Henry Zambrano (focus puller), Dego Coello (camera assistant),  Carlos Insua and Dominique Pazmiño Ríos

 

 

6. How does the Red Epic camera with Catta Zoom lenses perform in the short film shooting?

 

Red Epic with the Catta Zooms have become my constantly favorite set up. After that project I continued using the Catta with other Red camera as the Komodo and the Weapon 8K where the lenses fits great. I really like the filmesque natural contrast the Red Cameras provides and I think they can be nicely pair with the DZO lenses because they also provides natural contrast and beautiful tones, specially on the skin tones. Every time I see the short film I think about how amazing the skin tones looks despite the intense color grading process, its like the image has an important visual dimension because the natural tone that the camera+lenses set up brought to the project.

 

Now I am looking forward to work in a new film using the Vespid Retro Primes with the Arri LF. I think it would be interesting considering the FF sensor and the nice vintage look the Vespid can contribute. It would be again a story full of sun and landscapes so I think the flares from the Vespid will help me to create a new cinematography proposal full of visual analogies.

 

 

 

 

7. Do you have some tips for the users of Catta Zoom lenses?

 

To be honest my only tip is enjoy them and take advantage of the great bokeh you will get, not matter if you are not using a FF sensor I promise you that you will have a nicely cinematic shallow background.

 

 

 

 

8. What advice do you have for young cinematographers entering this industry?

 

My advice to them is to start shooting today, not matter if you don't have a professional camera or the people tell you're not ready for it. Start to see the world and to take a deep look in every space you walk on: analyze the light, the textures, the dark, take pictures, register the spaces because you never know when you will need to remember the atmosphere from certain space to create a cinematography proposal. The most important thing: never let anyone discriminate against you for who you are and where you come from. Believe in yourself, that's your power.