Roberto Schaefer - Details

Biography

ROBERTO SCHAEFER, re-enacting his filmic tour de force from Waiting For Guffman, utilized his trademark style of creative documentary filming, shooting Best In Show in super 16mm and almost entirely with a hand-held camera.

A native New Yorker who attended Washington University's School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, Schaefer returned to New York upon graduation and began producing for a commercial production house. Subsequently he worked as a freelance cameraman for numerous international news outlets and eventually settled in Italy.

During his ten years in Italy, Schaefer's expertise as cameraman brought him work on numerous international films, television projects and music videos. He worked as steadicam operator with such renowned directors as Martin Scorsese and leading commercial director Joe Pytka. Schaefer also operated for such acclaimed cinematographers as Néstor Almendros, Tony Imi and Oliver Stapleton. Italian feature credits during that period include such films as Dead At Last, the award-winning End Of The Night and Flies In The Head.

After returning to the U.S. in 1992, Schaefer went on to become a director of photography for a number of Showtime productions, including the films Road Racers, directed by Robert Rodriguez, Ralph Bakshi's Cool And The Crazy and The Red Shoe Diaries television series.

He also shot an independent film called Loungers, which won a prize at Slamdance, the alternative film festival, and the feature, Whiskey Down, (AKA Just Your Luck) for Propaganda Films and Polygram.

Most recently, Schaefer completed the critically acclaimed Everything Put Together, which launched at the prestigious Sundance Festival. Directed by Marc Forster, the film was shot entirely with a hand-held camera.