When someone’s hobby turns into a career you know that the person must absolutely love what he or she is doing. That’s just what happened to cinematographer Lucios Sallouti Guimaraes. It also helps to have a kind and generous brother.
Lucios was born in Brazil and lived there until 2021, when he moved to Los Angeles to study Cinematography at the New York Film Academy (Burbank). Before that, he attended the famous Waldorf School in Brazil, which strives to develop pupils’ artistic, intellectual and practical skills, with a focus on imagination and creativity. Growing up, he was surrounded by all types of art and artists and the Waldorf School strengthened and nurtured his artistic drive. When he was a teenager, his brother loaned Lucios his camera and he used it just to have fun. It didn’t take very long at all before his fun hobby became a full time passion. He used his patient brother’s camera for two years and studied and experimented with still photography, which culminated into a realization that he could be even more creative with cinematography. That intensity, of course, moved him to take cinematography classes at the “Instituto de Cinema (INC)” in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The classes showed Lucios the basics of the art of controlling the camera and lights and how to tell a story visually. They opened his mind to all the grandness that is involved in shooting a film. Unfortunately, however, in Brazil, the art of Cinema is not recognized and there are not that many practical schools and opportunities for someone who is starting out.
So, he decided to come to Los Angeles to study and work in the film industry. While there he earned a degree in Cinematography at the New York Film Academy (Burbank location) and began working on films as a Gaffer. In fact, he found that being the Gaffer, the one who is responsible for creating and executing the lighting plan of a film gave him not only great pleasure, but a sense of being a very necessary part of the filmmaking process. It also gave him a perfect vantage point to see how the whole film/story is made.
The Gaffer position enables him to manage and mix his creativity and artistic vision with his technical knowledge of lighting. The feeling that he has when he lights a scene on a film is something that he can’t find anywhere else; it is a blend of relief, happiness, and great satisfaction. Lucios wants to pursue his dream of being a Gaffer for narrative and documentary films. In the future, he will also become a Cinematographer as well.
