Steven Poster (b. 1944)

Alias:
Steve Poster
Steven B. Poster
Steven Barry Poster
Steven Poster, ASC

Birthplace:
Chicago, Illinois, USA

Born:
March 1, 1944

Steven Barry Poster, A.S.C, I.C.G. (born 1 March 1944) is an American cinematographer and photographer who is the former President of the International Cinematographers Guild. He is best known for his collaborations with Richard Kelly, including the director's 2001 cult classic Donnie Darko.  Poster began his career as a creative assistant at 'The Film Group,' a commercial film production company based in Chicago, Illinois. After being promoted to director of photography due to his skill at lighting, he met Herschell Gordon Lewis and worked with him in various crew positions on a total of three films. Poster founded a production company with director Michael Mann and served as the cinematographer on numerous industrial and education films. He served as the second-unit director of photography on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Poster joined the American Society of Cinematographers in 1987, relocating to Hollywood in the process. He shot the iconic music video to Madonna's "Like a Prayer", as well as commercials directed by Ridley Scott and Kinka Usher. In 1988, he was nominated for the ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Releases for his work on Someone to Watch Over Me. Poster served as the President of the ASC between 2002-2003. In 2006, he received an Emmy nomination for Mrs. Harris. That same year, he was elected as the National President of the International Cinematographers Guild, a position he held until 2019.  Source: Article "Steven Poster" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Additional information:

The Search Form


Additional Photography:
1982  Blade Runner

Camera Operator:
1980  Gallagher: An Uncensored Evening
1982  Blade Runner

Cinematography:
1979  Beggarman, Thief
1980  Gallagher: An Uncensored Evening
1982  Blade Runner
1990  Opportunity Knocks
2014  Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D

Director of Photography:
1978  The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank
1979  Beggarman, Thief
1979  The Night Rider
1980  Blood Beach
1980  Gallagher: An Uncensored Evening
1981  Coward of the County
1981  Dead & Buried
1982  Blade Runner
1982  Mysterious Two
1983  Spring Break
1983  Strange Brew
1983  Testament
1983  The Cradle Will Fall
1985  The New Kids
1986  Blue City
1986  The Boy Who Could Fly
1987  Someone to Watch Over Me
1988  Aloha Summer
1988  Big Top Pee-wee
1989  Next of Kin
1990  Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Special
1990  Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
1990  Opportunity Knocks
1990  Rocky V
1991  Life Stinks
1993  The Cemetery Club
1994  Nunzio's Second Cousin
1994  Roswell
1996  Once You Meet a Stranger
1997  Color of Justice
1997  RocketMan
1998  A Midwife's Tale
1998  Half a Chance
2001  Donnie Darko
2002  Stuart Little 2
2003  Daddy Day Care
2007  Southland Tales
2009  Spread
2009  The Box
2010  Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
2011  Flypaper
2014  Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D
2017  Amityville: The Awakening
2020  For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close
2022  'Round Miles: A Miles Davis Documentary
2024  Scared to Death

Executive Producer:
1978  The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank
1979  Beggarman, Thief
1979  The Night Rider
1980  Blood Beach
1980  Gallagher: An Uncensored Evening
1981  Coward of the County
1981  Dead & Buried
1982  Blade Runner
1982  Mysterious Two
1983  Spring Break
1983  Strange Brew
1983  Testament
1983  The Cradle Will Fall
1985  The New Kids
1986  Blue City
1986  The Boy Who Could Fly
1987  Someone to Watch Over Me
1988  Aloha Summer
1988  Big Top Pee-wee
1989  Next of Kin
1990  Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Special
1990  Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
1990  Opportunity Knocks
1990  Rocky V
1991  Life Stinks
1993  The Cemetery Club
1994  Nunzio's Second Cousin
1994  Roswell
1996  Once You Meet a Stranger
1997  Color of Justice
1997  RocketMan
1998  A Midwife's Tale
1998  Half a Chance
2001  Donnie Darko
2002  Stuart Little 2
2003  Daddy Day Care
2007  Southland Tales
2009  Spread
2009  The Box
2010  Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
2011  Flypaper
2014  Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D
2017  Amityville: The Awakening
2020  For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close
2022  'Round Miles: A Miles Davis Documentary
2024  Scared to Death

Second Unit Director of Photography:
1977  Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1978  The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank
1979  Beggarman, Thief
1979  The Night Rider
1980  Blood Beach
1980  Gallagher: An Uncensored Evening
1981  Coward of the County
1981  Dead & Buried
1982  Blade Runner
1982  Mysterious Two
1983  Spring Break
1983  Strange Brew
1983  Testament
1983  The Cradle Will Fall
1984  Starman
1984  The River
1985  The New Kids
1986  Blue City
1986  The Boy Who Could Fly
1987  Someone to Watch Over Me
1988  Aloha Summer
1988  Big Top Pee-wee
1989  Next of Kin
1990  Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Special
1990  Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
1990  Opportunity Knocks
1990  Rocky V
1991  Life Stinks
1993  The Cemetery Club
1994  Nunzio's Second Cousin
1994  Roswell
1996  Once You Meet a Stranger
1997  Color of Justice
1997  RocketMan
1998  A Midwife's Tale
1998  Half a Chance
1999  The Rage: Carrie 2
2001  Donnie Darko
2002  Stuart Little 2
2003  Daddy Day Care
2007  Southland Tales
2009  Spread
2009  The Box
2010  Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
2011  Flypaper
2014  Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D
2017  Amityville: The Awakening
2020  For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close
2022  'Round Miles: A Miles Davis Documentary
2024  Scared to Death

Thanks:
1977  Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1978  The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank
1979  Beggarman, Thief
1979  The Night Rider
1980  Blood Beach
1980  Gallagher: An Uncensored Evening
1981  Coward of the County
1981  Dead & Buried
1982  Blade Runner
1982  Mysterious Two
1983  Spring Break
1983  Strange Brew
1983  Testament
1983  The Cradle Will Fall
1984  Starman
1984  The River
1985  The New Kids
1986  Blue City
1986  The Boy Who Could Fly
1987  Someone to Watch Over Me
1988  Aloha Summer
1988  Big Top Pee-wee
1989  Next of Kin
1990  Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Special
1990  Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
1990  Opportunity Knocks
1990  Rocky V
1991  Life Stinks
1993  The Cemetery Club
1994  Nunzio's Second Cousin
1994  Roswell
1996  Once You Meet a Stranger
1997  Color of Justice
1997  Eye of God
1997  RocketMan
1998  A Midwife's Tale
1998  Half a Chance
1999  The Rage: Carrie 2
2001  Donnie Darko
2002  Stuart Little 2
2003  Daddy Day Care
2007  Southland Tales
2009  Spread
2009  The Box
2010  Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
2011  Flypaper
2014  Walking with Dinosaurs: Prehistoric Planet 3D
2017  Amityville: The Awakening
2020  For Madmen Only: The Stories of Del Close
2022  'Round Miles: A Miles Davis Documentary
2024  Scared to Death

Director of Photography:
1987  I'll Take Manhattan
2013  Hemlock Grove

About the Movie Section

Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).

Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).

At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.

Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)

While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:

  • I added "runners up" to Top 10 lists, treating them as ties where applicable and numbering them accordingly at the bottom of each list.
  • Regarding those polls wherein "franchise" movies were submitted as one project until BFI's policy changed to regard them separately, I treated them as ties and renumbered the affected lists accordingly (e.g. the Godfather films).

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Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).

Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.

Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.