Biography

Richard Crudo, ASC is a cinematographer and director with a long-standing and celebrated career in the film industry.

His most recent work includes: directing "Ed Murphy: American Hero", a documentary chronicling the life of a decorated World War II veteran who was one of the first members of the Naval Combat Demolition Unit (forerunner of today's SEAL teams); and shooting the Los Angeles segments of the upcoming CBS series "Tommy".

Since his debut as a cinematographer in the 1990s, he has lensed more than thirty features including the timeless classic, "American Pie" and other notable films such as "American Buffalo", "Outside Providence", "Down to Earth", "Federal Hill", "Out Cold", "Grind" and "Brooklyn Rules".

Crudo also photographs commercials and episodic television series for various entities including, FX Network's, "Justified"; CW's "Jane the Virgin"; MTV's "Awkward"; Amazon's "Good Girls Revolt"; and CBS's "NCIS" and "SWAT".

In 2011 Crudo became the first cinematographer to be chosen by Canon to test its new motion picture camera, the EOS C300, for which he wrote, directed and photographed the contemporary crime feature, "Dirty People". In turn, Canon asked him to join their elite Explorer of Light family of Canon professionals. His additional directing credits include Sony's post-apocalyptic horror thriller, "Against The Dark".

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and currently based in Los Angeles, Crudo has served six terms as president of the American Society of Cinematographers and three years as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is a frequent lecturer at universities across the United States and is a regular contributor to American Cinematographer magazine and other industry publications. He is also a leading proponent of the drive to establish standards for digital imaging workflow.

Other professional affiliations include membership in the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, the National Film Preservation Board for the Library of Congress, the International Cinematographers Guild and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Crudo is also a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.
- IMDb mini biography by: Meredith Emmanuel

President of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) (2003-05) (2013- ).

President of the American Society of Cinematographers, 2003-2006, 2013-2016.

[on Brooklyn Rules (2007), his first experience shooting in the anamorphic format] There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding anamorphic photography. Everybody says, "You need a wider set, you need more light." That's all nonsense. I did light the film to a deeper stop for the sake of the lenses - a T4 as opposed to a T2.8. But what does that mean? You take one scrim out of the lamp. It really changed nothing else in my working methods. I didn't order one more lamp, and it didn't take one more minute of time. All it did was provide a much more appealing picture - a bigger canvas, better graphics, and more compositional possibilities.