American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 65

Peterson
operating the
camera on the
pilot for Star
Trek: The Next
Generation in
1987.

projects, including the Emmy Awardwinning Something About Amelia. "Ed
represented the way Hollywood used to
be, when the director of photography
was the god on set and nobody said
anything against him," muses Peterson.
"He came from that tradition and he
insisted on it."
When Brown didn't have a
project, Peterson took other jobs. Sater
promoted him to operator on the multicamera comedy Newhart, after which
Peterson started operating B-camera on
features, including four for Michael
Ballhaus, ASC. But when Brown did
get another TV series, Peterson would
sign on. Their last show together was
Star Trek: The Next Generation, from
1987 to 1989, after which Peterson was
hired to operate on the long-running
series Knots Landing. When cinematographer Craig Denault left after shooting
two seasons, Peterson was promoted to
director of photography for the show's
14th and final year.
"Craig had been a highly
respected camera operator in the feature
world," reminisces Peterson. "He
worked for Caleb [Deschanel, ASC]

and Gordy [Willis, ASC], and he
brought all the stuff he learned to the
television world, including the use of
soft light, which I had long championed
and used on my UCLA student films. I
learned a lot from Craig about using big
sources on actresses, while creating
contrast and highlights in other parts of
the frame."
It was on Knots Landing that
Peterson met gaffer Joe Gallo. "Lowell
said to me, 'I want to learn about lighting and understand what you do,'" Gallo
recalls. "I said, 'Okay, but I want you to
teach me about cameras.'" Thus began a
collaboration and friendship that has
continued through Jane the Virgin; for
that show's second season, Peterson
bumped Gallo up to alternating
cameraman. Reflecting on their 25 years
together, Gallo remarks, "Early on,
Lowell and I had this saying: 'Tonight
we are marching through Siberia.' It
meant we knew we were in for a tough
night - but nothing we couldn't
handle."
Peterson has earned three ASC
Outstanding Achievement Award
nominations, the first in 1993 for the
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CBS drama Second Chances. "I lit it like
a film noir," says Peterson. "I tried to
make it look like Sunset Boulevard: hard
light through window blinds and soft
light on the faces." His second nomination was in 1999, for the similarly noirinfused Profiler. Peterson joined the
series at the start of its third season and
was surprised and disappointed when he
wasn't asked back for the fourth. "It was
the first time that had happened, and I
took it hard," he admits.
A third ASC nomination came in
2001 for the Lifetime movie Just Ask My
Children. Peterson also earned an
Emmy nomination for a 2004 episode
of HBO's Six Feet Under.
Peterson took 2nd-unit work on
features for a couple of years before
returning to TV as 2nd-unit cameraman on the initial season of Desperate
Housewives, the series with which he
would become most closely identified.
The workload was so onerous on cinematographer Walt Fraser that within a
few weeks Peterson was appointed alternating director of photography.
Paul Plannette, who was a 1st AC
on the series when Peterson came
March 2016

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