Written and directed by Miles Warren, the feature Bruiser takes an unflinching look at the role that hand-to-hand combat plays in a boys maturation into manhood. The movie, available to stream on Hulu, follows 14-year-old Darious (Jalyn Hall), who struggles to reconcile the non-violent values of his upbringing with the painful reality of recurring bullying at school. Darious suddenly finds himself on solid ground after building a bond with Porter (Trevante Rhodes), a maligned newcomer to town who's working through his own history with violence.
Cinematographer Justin Derrys intimate understanding of Bruiser's visual storytelling stems from his collaboration with Warren on the story's first iteration as a short film, which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival (and which Panavision featured here). Derry credits Marni Zimmeran at Panavision New York and Steve Krul at Panavision New Orleans for helping to see Bruisers visual refinement from prep on the short through the wrap of the feature. From his love for vintage Panavision optics, Gordon Parks' photography and the collaborative process, Derry retells the making of Bruiser through the lens of inspiration.
We wanted to embrace the different and opposing character traits between the two father figures in Darious' life by allowing our camera to embody their personalities, Derry explains. For Porter, we used Steadicam and a loose tripod head when operating his scenes with Darious so that they would feel fluid and relaxed and in contrast to the scenes with Darious' father, Malcolm [Shamier Anderson]. Malcolm was framed with very static and rigid compositions and only subtle dolly moves, but as he begins to unwind, the camera becomes frantic and loose.
Thanks to having served as cinematographer and executive producer of the short version of the movie, Derry was able to help Warren build the look of Bruiser from a formidable visual framework. We wanted to take the blueprint we established in the short film we shot two years prior, Derry says, but with the texture and warmth of the rural South ingrained throughout.
We mixed a lot of color temperatures and utilized green fluorescents as well as sodium-vapor and mercury-vapor streetlights, Derry continues. Sometimes I would choose a cooler streetlight look to make the audience feel lost and alone, or I would use warm sodium-vapor streetlights to evoke a sense of aggression and violence. I like using color to portray emotion, but it always has to be grounded in the reality of the environment.
The filmmakers also found visual inspiration in a considered selection of films and photographs. Some of our key references were Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Cold War, George Washington and The Place Beyond the Pines, Derry says, but we also spent a lot of time looking at Gordon Parks' photography of the rural South. Parks often isolated his subjects in a way that made them feel like they are the sole individual in an expansive world. You can feel a gravity in his images that draws you in and makes you feel like nothing outside of this intimate moment matters.
I love to look at many references throughout the prep process, Derry adds. The more references I take in, the more I develop instincts that don't necessarily directly copy anything specific, but instead form a subtle alchemy that defines our look.
For the short version of Bruiser, the filmmakers had worked out of Panavision New York, but for the feature, they went south to source their package from Panavision New Orleans. I've worked with Marni Zimmerman at Panavision New York for almost 10 years now, and she's always supported my vision, the cinematographer says. On this film, she connected me with Steve Krul out of Panavision New Orleans. Our prep was very rushed because we lost some time due to the pandemic, but Steve was very supportive and set up a last-minute camera test for me that was instrumental in discovering the look of the film.
Panavision is always my first call when I'm starting to prep a film, Derry continues. I love that over the years, I've developed a relationship with Panavision that feels like family. They support filmmakers and prioritize the creative choices we make when choosing equipment for a film.
Derry's lens package for the feature included Panavision's vintage Super Speed and Ultra Speed optics, which, he shares, are probably my favorite spherical lenses of all time! They have the perfect blend of soft, bloomy highlights and beautiful flares while maintaining decent contrast and sharpness. They're also very fast, so I can make a lot of creative choices about depth of field. For me, they also go back to Gordon Parks, reflecting the character in his photographs. If you look at a lot of his photography, there's a soft creaminess to the highlights and shadows and often a very shallow, creamy depth of field.
Reflecting on the years he spent working on Bruiser across the story's short and feature-length versions, Derry notes, This is the first feature I've shot where my collaboration with the director was developed over several years of working together. I've shot all of Miles' short films. We know what stories inspire each other, so discussing the look felt organic. It's always my goal to support the director's vision, so I usually react and adapt my style to create a look that I'm excited about while also reflecting what the director envisions for the film. With Miles, I know that we always share the same vision, so it was just a seamless, fluid way of working.
All images courtesy of the filmmakers.
Learn more about Justin Derry's work on the short-film version of Bruiser in this article: A Question of Strength
Most recent headlines
22/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Neerav Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
22/12/2025
Hitting the bullseye: Sky Sports readies itself for the biggest PDC World Darts ...
22/12/2025
Unique skillset: Bringing new directors to the world of darts at The Worlds with...
22/12/2025
Gravity Media prepares for a flight of fancy with the PDC World Darts Championsh...
22/12/2025
One hundred and eighty: Gravity Media on hitting the production bullseye at the ...
22/12/2025
The Famous Group's Jon Slusser on Fascinating Fans Through Immersive Content...
22/12/2025
ESPN's Meg Aronowitz on Continuing High-Quality Broadcasts of Collegiate Spo...
22/12/2025
ESPN Takes Data-Driven Storytelling to New Heights with MNF Playbook with Next ...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Paramount Scores Largest Share Increase Among Distributors as Paramount and CBS...
22/12/2025
New multi-year deal integrates Roku's data to fuel Nielsen's measurement suite
Roku gains access to Nielsen's streaming ratings, showing The Roku C...
22/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
22/12/2025
Berklee Wrapped 2025: Our Top News and Stories A look back at a year highlighted by faculty milestones, major film and television projects, Bob Dylan's ho...
22/12/2025
Partnership integrates complementary satellite data and AI analytics to enhance security, infrastructure, and environmental monitoring solutions for global cust...
22/12/2025
Workflows allow you to create a sequence of planned events which may be added to your template(s) or inserted directly into your sequential or background playli...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Back to All News
Global Anime Hits and New Releases Take Center Stage at Jump Festa 2026
Entertainment
22 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to clipboar...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
Back to All News
Legoshi and Haru's Story Reaches Its Finale: BEASTARS Fin...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
20/12/2025
Atomos announced the immediate availability of a new firmware update for its Ninja TX GO and Ninja TX monitor-recorders, unlocking ProRes RAW recording from the...
20/12/2025
CJP Broadcast has completed the digitisation of the European Gymnastics tape archive, converting 328 tapes containing more than forty years of recorded material...
20/12/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced the launch of the Stream Lab MCP Server, to give AI agents and large language model...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
20/12/2025
Barack Obama Includes Laufey on His 2025 Favorite Music List The former presidents roundup of books, music, and movies includes a song from the Berklee alums ...
20/12/2025
Study reveals a key hormonal circuit in the kidneys Scripps Research scientists identify the protein that helps kidney cells regulate renin, providing foundatio...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Diversified's Jared Timmins on AI for Broadcast Sports and Cre...
19/12/2025
2025 SVG Summit Audio Recap: Say What?The Audio Production and Distribution Workshop at the SVG Summit 20 took on issues including speech intelligibility, Next-...
19/12/2025
Gamified fun: Channel 5 on its NFL Big Game Night ambitions with Hungry Bear Med...
19/12/2025
College Football Playoff Preview: For ESPN, Round 1 is a Fantastic Yet Familia...
19/12/2025
AWS's Jason Dvorkin on Developing Partnerships With the NBA and PGA Tour, Em...
19/12/2025
Netflix Kicks Off Packed Sports Week with Paul-Joshua Fight Before Shifting to N...
19/12/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Presidio's Nareev Shah on the Role of Its Captiva...
19/12/2025
Mounted to the pylon of an AH-1Z Viper helicopter, a Red Wolf vehicle successful...
19/12/2025
L3Harris technology for the SDA Tranche 3 Tracking Layer program will provide in...
19/12/2025
Partnership brings Nielsen ONE measurement activation directly into XR's adv...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
19/12/2025
Berklee Announces Spring 2026 Signature Series This season's highlights include the Gospel Extravaganza, the 40th International Folk Festival, special gue...
19/12/2025
Performing arts centres across the globe have doubled down on live production infrastructure in recent years. For venues like the Queensland Performing Arts Cen...
19/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Written and directed by Miles Warren, the feature Bruiser takes an unflinching look at the role that hand-to-hand combat plays in a boys maturation into manhood. The movie, available to stream on Hulu, follows 14-year-old Darious (Jalyn Hall), who struggles to reconcile the non-violent values of his upbringing with the painful reality of recurring bullying at school. Darious suddenly finds himself on solid ground after building a bond with Porter (Trevante Rhodes), a maligned newcomer to town who's working through his own history with violence.
