About
Steph Curry for Kaiser commercial - Clio Winner for Cinematography
Ian S. Takahashi
California native, who interned under Francis F. Coppola, and had Francis as his ‘storytelling mentor’ while in Film School. He then moved to Los Angeles in 2005 where he was Camera Dept Intern under John Toll, ASC and Underwater legend Mike Thomas.
Immediately after he met Comedian / Director Bobcat Goldthawait and served as Director of Photography on the feature film “Sleeping Dogs Lie” that competed at Sundance in 2006 and released in theaters that same year.
Over the next decade Ian continued shooting Indy-feature while worked his way up the Camera Department.
Fascinated by the beauty and difficulty of the underwater world, Ian focused on Underwater Cinematography, taking on no-budget projects in backyard pools and pushing them visually further and further until he was shooting Beyoncé, Apple commercials, and feature films for James Gunn and Ron Howard.
His ‘above water’ work continues with a pair of streaming series in Asia for Creator / Show Runner Corinna Vistan, with their first project “K-Love” earning him a Best Cinematography at the Asian Television Awards, and their second project taking home a Silver Dolphin for “Best Series” at the 2024 Cannes Television Awards.
Moving to Director of Photography on FOX’s reboot of BAYWATCH is a natural fit combining his career’s work above and below the water.