Matt Fore of Studio City on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Matt Fore. Check out our conversation below.

Good morning Matt, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: When was the last time you felt true joy?
I usually experience transcendent moments of what one might call “pure joy” when I’m in the middle of a take on set. When cameras are rolling and everything is silent except for what’s happening in front of the lens and everyone on set is focused on the same goal and we are all in it together, it’s those fleeting moments that I sometimes experience that positive, removed perspective outside of one’s self — it can be quite magical, but of course, when the director calls cut, we are all as a collective thrust back into “reality” and the feeling is gone…until someone once again calls “roll camera”….

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a freelance cinematographer in Los Angeles, and having grown up in Southern California, I’ve always enjoyed the natural beauty surrounding the metropolis just outside the city limits. I’m an avid hiker and landscape photographer as well, capturing the hidden gems of the majestic California coast. I also run a small boutique film company specializing in untold and rare stories. I love to use my gift of passion for visual mediums and constant drive to always see beyond the veil to shine a light on underserved and under-represented groups of society, and communicate through story the need for social justice, equality, and equity. Finding ways to showcase and express how we all as humans are one and share the same planet is always at the forefront of my work, and helps push a cohesive connectivity we all share deep down.

I’ve found that my approach to each project over my 20+ years as a professional DP is inevitably more different than the last. I find myself conforming to the style and general feel of each director I work with, and I approach each project as a servant of both the story and the director’s vision. Many people say my work has great range as I don’t like to foist any outside “signature style” onto any particular project, but rather allow the unique story and vision from the director to guide where the visuals should go, building the tone, mood, and look from the ground up and from within rather than forcing it from without. 

My ideal fit with regard to directors is very broad, as I like to adapt myself to each individual project and director, but usually and overall, the more communication the better. Any visual examples or references in pre-pro are always welcomed to help spark the inspiration and help get us on the same visual path together. Shot-listing with the director is also a fantastic process and I welcome it in a variety of ways, from either being handed a director’s shot list and then adding my two cents for perhaps combining or consolidating certain shots together for visual elegance and to be succinct with production efficiency (or adding a shot here or there that might help underscore something particular), or helping to craft the shotlist from scratch together with the director, or however they prefer working. Overall, I’m quite malleable and flexible. 

I’ve also come from the low budget world and have also worked on huge shows, so I’m able to coalesce the ends of the spectrum together to pull off stunning and adept visuals, even when financial resources are slim. Some directors have referred to me as “the fastest DP in the West” or “DP Quickety-Quick” as through my understanding and experience of working on all types of sets over the years, I’m able to quite speedily accomplish high quality lighting setups and camera moves at a fraction of the normal expected times, knowing ahead of time what might be erroneous or where not to spend too much time on a small non-critical detail. 

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world told me who I had to be, I was me. I think I still am, as far as I’m aware. I grew up as a very curious child. I suppose that ever since I was a kid, I always had a clear vision of what I wanted, or at least what I thought I wanted at the time. I don’t really remember a time that I wasn’t crafting stories with my toys (LEGOs, He-Man, Aliens, Jurassic Park figures) and telling myself the stories as I went along, later writing them into short stories with pencil and paper, and eventually planning to shoot movies to tell these stories at age 7 or 8. I was always rapt by stories and the process of creation itself. Even my sense of humor grew out of me just cracking myself up over some oddball perspective of something or the way a word was used on a sign, or anything that tickled my own inner creativity, if just simply to entertain myself.

I was what you might call a shy kid, and while I had a small close group of friends, I was never outspoken or wanting to take center stage or have all eyes on me in the classroom or anywhere, for that matter. I suppose without a large group of friends and keeping mostly to myself, it makes sense that I’d find my own way to entertain myself and find my own way to look at the world I was beginning to understand. Sharing these early creative impulses with my close group of friends throughout kindergarten and elementary school, we inadvertently coalesced into somewhat of a “production company” and eventually began making movies together to share these stories with others and help bring them to life. Rudimentary at first, and some projects even starting with “animating” my toy action figures through stop-motion (the best we could do on my family’s 1990s camcorder), we sort of gave ourselves our own “film school” and learned by doing, as well as mistake.

Now at age 42, it’s interesting to look back to those early formative years and see that there was no question that there was a creative spark intrinsically within me. The ensuing decades were of course a roller coaster of ups and downs and discovering myself, along with finding where I could fit best in this creative industry of entertainment. I feel the key to keeping one’s creativity alive is to find that child version of yourself that’s still inside you, and examine what it was like to feel the way you did at that age, with that inner creativity percolating and ready to burst forth in a myriad of ways. I found that long drives were vast sources of renewing and fostering creativity — some say this is similar to when they have their best ideas in the shower or when you’re doing something “automatic” where your brain has the time to look outside of itself and the current task, and open up to wider perspective. If one is able to “turn off” the “day-by-day” or “play-by-play” surface level of thought or set it aside for a particular amount of time, the deeper consciousness of the mind can begin to seep up to the surface — at least, this is what I’ve found for myself. Hiking, long drives, anything to take one’s self out of the day-by-day helps also remove your deeper mind from that surface-level thinking and can help inspire and revitalize creativity and different ways of thinking. Humans in general are not only pattern-seeking creatures, but also fall into patterns and habits easily, and that can entangle our thinking into a semi-automatic behavior of functioning, with only brief blips of opportunity to dive deeper into creative thinking or even a different way of thinking. The trick is to be as aware as you can of this as you get older, and to actively find ways to open yourself up to the opportunity of creative thinking.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
While I don’t think I could ever give up the idea of filmmaking or camera/lighting work (as perhaps I simply don’t have any other viable skill sets to lean on, that I’m aware of!), there was a time a little less than a year from when I had moved to Los Angeles in late 2005 that I questioned if this “freelance cinematographer thing” was going to work for me as a feasible way to make a living. After about 9 months from the initial move to LA and booking camera/lighting gigs here and there, I realized I wasn’t making enough to cover my monthly expenses. This was the only time I considered getting a “real job,” as it were, and I applied at camera and lighting rental houses, as well as FilmTools in Burbank, just to have a steady paycheck and work a 9-5. As fate would have it, the day FilmTools called me to schedule an interview for a staff position, I booked an indie feature film as the DP (at age 22), followed by a second back-to-back feature film subsequently after that one only a week after later that summer. If that wasn’t the Universe guiding me on my path, I don’t know what would be. Here I am 20 years later in 2025, having been a freelance cinematographer for that entire period of two decades, each year growing and networking and making new connections.

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What do you believe is true but cannot prove?
I believe that all of humanity, nature, the Earth, and the Universe are all one and that all people and animals and life are all individuated aspects of one Universal true self. Of course, there’s no way to prove this, but it’s something I’ve come to see and believe on a personal basis, which also helps me navigate my way through any contention or issues that arise and is a fantastic pillar of perspective to fall back upon in times of stress or conflict.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Are you doing what you were born to do—or what you were told to do?
I believe I’m currently doing some aspect of what I was born to do, but perhaps I’m not at full fulfillment yet — I personally believe that I’m just on the path and on my way. Ever since I was a wee lad, all I wanted to do was “make movies,” whatever I thought that really meant at the time. When I was young, I thought I wanted to be a director, but as I grew, I gravitated more towards the camera and visual side, not wanting to deal with talent and their performances, but more on how to be a visual storyteller and bring the story to life in non-verbal ways. While that is still what I do today at age 42, I feel like I’m still “on my way up,” as it were, and not exactly at the zenith of what I was born to do. I’m excited to see how these next few decades play out and what they’ll have in store for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mattfore-dp.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfore
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattfore
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattforedp/
• Other: StaffMeUp: staffmeup.com/profile/mattfore
  Vimeo: vimeo.com/mattfore