ABOUT

Trent Watts has DP’d over 850 productions in the past 11 years, specializing mostly in commercials and documentaries, and slowly moving into narrative work since moving to Brooklyn.  He started his career in DC and Baltimore, cutting his teeth on hundreds of low-budget commercials, and often helping clients as a Co-Producer  by crewing up, scheduling, and budgeting their shoots too.  While trying to focus on DP work, he somewhat-accidentally grew a thriving production company that served the top commercial clients and agencies in the area.  Still wanting to be “just a DP”, he downsized his producing roles in 2019 and moved to Brooklyn to further his cinematography career and work in the larger creative infrastructure of New York.  His background in producing means he’s always taking a big picture approach to the project, and making decisions that are sensible for the budget and schedule of each project.  He still has a large network of crew in DC-Baltimore and travels down a couple times a month for shoots.

APPROACH

Trent’s process starts with carefully listening to collaborators to understand the story they’re telling, the bigger picture of what they’re trying to accomplish, and the initial obstacles/concerns/intricacies of their project.  Drawing on his years of experience as well as the experience of his crews, he works through solutions to present the best options to maximize production values AND tell the most compelling story.  He enjoys the process of working through the unique technical, logistical, and storytelling challenges of each project, having a solid plan in place, and then throwing that plan out to improvise when necessary, always with a story-first (or brand-first) mindset.  On set, he loves fostering a positive collaborative atmosphere, where crew and talent are empowered to work at their fullest potential.