MAXIMILIAN SCHMIGE | DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Maximilian Schmige is based out of Los Angeles and originally from Berlin Germany with German and Finnish roots. He grew up in the film industry and is the son of the German screenplay writer Hartmann Schmige. He studied film history and film theory at UC Santa Barbara and later went on to receive his MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He was mentored by ASC cinematographer Karl-Walter Lindenlaub and has over 15 years of industry experience with close to 200 aired episodes of television as a DP.  His career has encompassed a wide range of work beginning in documentary, unscripted television, and music videos before broadening also into narrative features, scripted television and commercial productions.

His credits include filming two seasons of the Saturn Award nominated sci-fi action-drama series Pandora on The CW, the Universal Pictures released award-winning documentary feature Long Promised Road on Brian Wilson from The Beach Boys, and movies such as Can’t Have You on Showtime TV, The New York Times hailed Me, Myself and The Void and Raindance Festival nominated Double Exposure. He photographed documentary and tv shows such as about hip hop artist Nelly, gospel singer Tamela Mann, directed multi-cam television with Ru Paul’s Drag Race Germany for Paramount Plus and 2nd unit / additional photography on shows for Toby Keith, Dolly Parton, and Neil deGrasse Tyson’s  Cosmos: Possible World. 

Music videos include top European artists such as for Booba with over 150 million views on YouTube and Asaf Avidan’s “Over My Head”, for which he received a Berlin Music Video Awards Nomination. In commercials, he lensed the award-winning fitness campaign for Nordic Track. Notable short films include the AFI Fest Jury Prize nominated and Oscar Qualifying Go for Grandma starring Justine Lupe from Succession and Academy Award nominated Amy Madigan. 

He recently completed production on the feature film Where Did the Adults Go?, a family drama directed by Academy Award nominated Courtney Marsh. 

He has traveled to film across the US and international such as in Bulgaria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Germany, Greece, India, Jordan, Mexico, Malaysia, Norway, Russia and Serbia. His work has been aired by NBC, CBS, The CW, National Geographics, Paramount Plus, BET, TV One, Fox, NBC Sports, and many more. 

Technical experience includes motion control systems, ultimate-arm car systems, gearhead wheels, LED walls, underwater photography, green screen VFX heavy productions and emerging technologies such as virtual productions.