Star Trek Cinematographer Reflects on His Craft

Cinematographer Crescenzo G.P. Notarile. Image: GoldDerby.

JUNE 12, 2023 - Crescenzo Giacomo Notarile is a photographer and cinematographer with an expansive 40-year career. He has photographed commercials for companies from American Express to Yoplait and music videos for performers ranging from Aretha Franklin to ZZ Top. And, of course, he found his way to film and television. He came to the Star Trek universe as director of photography for season three of Star Trek: Discovery after serving in that capacity for shows such as CSI and Gotham (which garnered him an Emmy nomination). Notarile also directed photography for seasons two and three of Star Trek: Picard.

Notarile recently sat down with GoldDerby to talk about his time with Star Trek. He began by talking about the differences between Discovery and Picard. “There’s a lot of legacy involved, and each one is very specifically different,” he says. “They each have a signature, they each have a stamp, they each have personal aesthetics.”

Trek and sci-fi generally represented a new genre for Notarile, and he learned a lot coming onto Discovery from the canon and from director Olatunde Osunsanmi, with whom he had worked on Gotham. “Star Trek: Discovery was very visual, … really eye candy for a cinematographer. We had an opportunity to get our chops strengthened and to think outside of the box.

“When I went to Picard, it became a little more introverted, a little more thought provoking, a little more soulful in the heart regarding trying to evoke certain emotions, not more in a visual stance, but more in an emotional stance, more in a story stance.” The latter got him more involved in sets and characters and stories from the visual perspective.

When it came to lighting decisions for the opposing ships, the Shrike and the Titan, for example, despite wanting to work “outside of the box,” which Notarile mentions several times, he was also conscious of the philosophies of Trek, canon, the fanbase, and the approaches of his “grand poobah” Alex Kurtzman and showrunner Terry Matalas. He was, however, willing to make “visually strong” decisions that might not have necessarily made sense scientifically but rather made sense emotionally.

Notarile also stresses the close relationship that cinematography has to have with visual effects, how knowing what the story and the effects are doing get translated into lighting and photographic decisions. “There’s a tremendous marriage between the director and photographer and the visual effects department. You gotta pay very close attention when you read these scripts to know what goes on out there, to how to prepare your equipment, your lighting scheme, your colors, your movement, your energy of light….”

Notarile goes on to talk about working in today’s television environment and the creativity and stamina that it takes “to really lift that story in a visual sense.” For lots more from Star Trek cinematographer Crescenzo Notarile, head over to GoldDerby’s YouTube channel.