Interview with Guernslye Honorés
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As a part of our series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker”, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Sherri Kauk.
Emmy-winning cinematographer Sherri Kauk discovered she was at home behind the camera before she even knew what a Director or a DP did. Her camera became a fascinating way to explore new worlds. “When I had a camera in my hand, people let me in, wanting to share their experiences,” she says.
In 2020 Variety named her a Rising Star of Cinematography.
Her first scripted series, season 3 and 4 of CBS’ The Inspectors, garnered her an Emmy Award for Lighting Design. There, she also directed her first network episode, ‘Scam School’.
Her cinematography highlights include “Sex Appeal” (Hulu), the SXSW feature ‘LOEV” screening on Netflix, and season 3 of the Snapchat series “Endless Summer.”
She has camera operated on prestigious shows such as “The Big Leap” (FOX), “Insecure” (HBO), “The L Word: Generation Q” (Showtime), “Making the Cut” (Amazon Prime) and the Sundance documentary “Akicita: The Battle of Standing Rock.”
Sherri is an alumna of The American Film Institute & Ithaca College.
Excerpts from Variety Magazine: These Rising Cinematographers Are Shaping Tomorrow’s Media
— Carole Horst
“I am drawn to everyday characters challenged to deeply understand themselves through confrontation with self and society. This character journey becomes my cinematography.” Sherri Kauk
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?
I grew up “corn fed and beef raised” in the Midwest and South Central United States. Between the cracks of sports, band, and Sunday, Wednesday church, I caught the creative arts bug.
Often, being a filmmaker feels more akin to my wild west farming family responding to droughts, tornadoes, free will and solitude than a “career path.”
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
People stop and listen to good storytelling; for their experience reflected.
People gather, laugh and cry because of meaningful storytelling.
I learned this watching the school films of Mike Goubeaux, a high school mate of mine and current L.A.-based commercial director. Administration would pause classes and hold assemblies to watch his films. Gathered, faculty, staff and students laughed and cried together.
Mike opened my world to visual storytelling by bringing me into his filmmaking circle.
One year later, he graduated, and School assembled to watch my films. 🙂
Can you share the funniest or most interesting story that occurred to you in the course of your filmmaking career?
Staying in high school for a moment, while working to complete my all-seniors farewell video, I was contemplating its ending. At some point, while gathered with my marching band percussion and family group, I mentioned envisioning a shot starting on our high school full screen and then going higher and higher until the building was an anonymous spec in a gigantic landscape of towns, farmlands and forests. That would be the dream, I commented. The parent of a fellow drummer threw into the conversation, “I’ve got a helicopter.”
A week later, belted in and doorway open, I got my shot.
🙂
I’ve got a helicopter : visualize, verbalize and step up to your dreams.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Movie Stars have an energetic magnetism. It’s true. Some light up the room with a capacity bigger than the lens can fully reveal. And, for other stars, this magnetic force comes to life in relationship to the lens — possessing the frame with absolute presence. That is fact. It’s hard to look away and it is wild to experience.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Mike G, my first mentor, gave structure, resources and time to my budding filmmaking curiosities. His influence redirected my professional vision and I landed at Ithaca College, where experimental filmmakers Meg Jamieson and Cathy Lee Crane stand, to this day, as lifelong pillars and visions for me of what living a creative life looks like. I see parts of myself in each of them and, in college, this breathed life into expanding my identity.
Shane Hurlbut ASC — he’s at once cursing, celebrating and calling out some awesome moment — the way sun light reflects off a pool of water, a fluid camera transition from technocrane to handheld, or gathering everyone for the final frame sendoff of a three-hour live masterclass. Shane’s mastery is his choice to be awake to spontaneous life moments, be moved by them, study them with curiosity and then recreate that look, mood and feeling for the camera, on a set, far removed from that spontaneous natural moment. His passion, like a movie star’s magnetism and is electrifying, contagious, and a kick in the butt when I dare let the grind get to me.
Shane, is an early mentor, too. I met Shane while he was filming ‘The Greatest Game’ in Montreal. That summer, I skipped out on my hometown warehouse packing job, drove to Canada, bunked in a hostel and landed on a new planet called the Hollywood Film Set.
Because of Shane’s influence I traveled west, to Los Angeles, CA.
With boots on the ground in L.A. I found a dear friend, camera extraordinaire and aspiring director, Kathryn Moss. While working a music video together we discovered we were neighbors living across the alleyway from each other. One needs a tribe of peers to grow up with, hire and get hired by and become with. Kate is that friend, warrior, and industry colleague for me.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Create a 3rd option. When both Yes and No, A or B, do not hold the full solution — discover or create option C.
Being able to create out of thin air instead of referencing the way via a rule book or guided path — as obvious as it may sound — still astounds the small town girl in me.
I am very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
#1
The Skully Affect . Period.
https://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/the-scully-effect-i-want-to-believe-in-stem/
# 2
It’s critical to see unknown parts of myself reflected on the screen, in books or in my environment so I may begin visualizing and imagining my life opportunities in myriad forms beyond my current known experience.
AND, It is as critical for me to see individuals apparently unlike me possessing positions of artistry, leadership, power and strength for me to grow beyond identity politics and become a part of a larger robust community of badass creators, change makers and visionaries.
These ‘diversity layers’ are apparent first from external characteristics, but affect inner identities and eventually connect the personalities of what engage us in career, family and community building.
#3
Because the Entertainment Industry utilizes Gatekeepers to filter and connect talent, and to distribute entertainment, it is critical that the gatekeepers get access to and experience the value of inviting Creative Genius in all forms into the inner circles of our Industry.
Growing up, watching Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Amelie, and Love and Basketball, put lives and lifestyles in front of me that I connected with in various ways. These experiences continue to fuel my creative force, today.
Off the screen, I know I’ve received calls for interviews because of someone seeking a diversity option. Which is great. The film industry moving out of its zone of familiarity and comfort can be awkwardly languaged. I am an individual in two protected classes:LGBTQIA+, and — colossally underrepresented within the cinematography discipline- female. But, I am also white. The American majority. So, I am at once thankful for the intentional calls I’ve received to interview while also proactively reaching beyond my core circle to increase who I know and who I may have the opportunity to work with in order to expand the makeup of our industry and the creative genius influences on me.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
Re-teaming with Executive Producer Andrea Metz (Hi Mom Productions) for Hulu’s Secret Lives of Mormon Wives brings me joy. This is my 4th collaboration with Andrea. Collaborations with fabulous creatives like Andrea and Hi Mom Productions co-founder Michelle Peerali excite the creative fuel I bring to projects.
Which aspect of your work makes you most proud? Can you explain or give a story?
- Learning how to take ownership in a film’s creation without possessing it — or it possessing me. It is, actually, a switch in perspective from ‘ownership’ to ‘guardianship’.
- Learning how to differentiate between my creative journey and creative giving. Having a personal mission and practice outside of filmmaking allows me to continue to show up to my collaborations with an offering, not a need.
- I am proud that I can effortlessly move between genre and structure, while connecting with the Creative Mission of each project. My previous releases, for example, move from HBO’s Angel City, a soccer documentary series, to Showtime’s The Chi, a scripted multi-season drama, to E!’s Nikki Bella Says I Do, a non-scripted docu-follow limited series, to PBS’ 9 Parts a film adaptation of playwright Heather Raffo’s internationally acclaimed play, ‘9 Parts of Desire’. And, most recently, Drugstore June — a $1 million dollar indie feature film made in L.A. and premiering in theaters across the U.S.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started”
- Do not multitask while cooking.
- Your gut knows the way — learn its voice, listen to it confidently and make it your North.
- Learn how to give direct and kind feedback, and how to request feedback.
- Learn how to build a masterful team.
- Put as much consideration and effort into building a full life outside of filmmaking, as you do in being a filmmaker.
- Dance in front of the mirror.
- Shoot into the light. Lens flares are flavor.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We each have the ability to affect directly, within arms reach.
A powerful practice for me, for example, is the practice of eye gazing — whereby two people gaze into each other’s eyes for 3 minutes. It is an intensely intimate, vulnerable, shared experience. Those three minutes, may bring up feelings of mistrust, curiosity, fear, judgement, nervousness, embarrassment, softness and power. Working through such emotions in ourselves while in the company of another is powerful.
Practically, the choice to affect directly, within arms reach, looks like me bringing new people into my inner circle, creating career building opportunities — as well as accepting the offer to enter another person inner circle.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. 🙂
First, let me share my respect and loss to the passing of Richard Serra. Through his sculptural work, he conversed with Brancusi, with Scale and the Subject-Viewer. These conversations move me.
With us still, is Helen Pashgian — her creations exert in the space, as she says, “between the eye and the brain, making you question what you are seeing.” Her Untitled 2023 work currently at LACMA, for me, creates the “ahhh” of the sun rising, setting; of the breath of consciousness and physical life. Rising and falling. Her work is magically cinematic while also human in its materiality and mass.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.
Sherri Kauk: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became A Filmmaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.