The Secret Number

“I often approach a situation with a simple precept,” Michael Alden Lloyd says. “What would Waylon Jennings do?” A former musician, Lloyd’s first paid gigs were regional commercials in Kentucky. He joined Local 600 two years ago while still in graduate school at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

“I trust my eyes and my instincts and try not to generalize any approach to cinematography,” Lloyd shares. “I do what makes me feel a certain way in the moment, and hope it translates to the screen. On The Secret Number, I feel like we were very ambitious and maximized our resources to best serve the story. I would probably go at it differently now, but that’s part of it. We learn from our failures.”

The film, co-written and directed by Colin Levy, focuses on higher math, obsession and a previously unknown integer. Lloyd’s favorite scene involves a psychiatrist listening to tapes from a patient’s session. Shot without dialog, it was captured with the REDMX and vintage Cooke zooms. “We did some pretty cinematic shot design in a very small space without making it feel forced,” Lloyd notes.

“These days I much prefer to embrace the digital format. I’m lighting entire pictures with improvised rigs and putting more money into the art department. It’s fantastic!” he says. “I just recently did some night work with one of the new digital cameras that wouldn’t have been possible without the sensitivity, given the low budget and limited resources.”