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
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
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.
