Cinematographer Ricardo Diaz joined the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty for Season 2's third episode, The Second Coming. Depicting the backstory of basketball legend Larry Bird (played by Sean Patrick Small), the episode marked the directorial debut of Todd Banhazl, ASC, who had served as cinematographer on the series' pilot episode and five subsequent episodes in Season 1 and was shooting four episodes across Season 2. Rick is such a supportive, talented filmmaker and a dear friend I knew I was taken care of, Banhazl shares. We had done the prep work together, and I trusted he had my back.
For his work on the episode, Diaz has now been nominated for an ASC Award in the Episode of a One-Hour Series category. Panavision recently connected with Diaz for his insights on the episode and his collaboration with Banhazl.
Panavision: How was your experience joining the Winning Time team?
Ricardo Diaz: Joining Winning Time was a dream come true. It felt like every cinematographer was talking about the groundbreaking style that [executive producer and pilot director] Adam McKay, Todd Banhazl, [production designer] Rich Toyon, [costume designer] Emma Potter and countless others created in Season 1. So when Todd reached out to me about lensing his Season 2 episode, I jumped at the opportunity. The entire team warmly welcomed me from the start, so I immediately felt like I was a part of the family. Todd has a way of doing that making you feel heard and as if you always belonged. He's a great listener. It's his superpower.
From that place of creative safety, I felt empowered to try things and experiment. In analyzing the script, we really saw Larry Bird's portion play out like a spaghetti western. Todd and I talked about how we wanted his backstory to have a small-town Americana feel but still be as bold as the rest of the show. So we took visual inspiration from aspects of Smallville in Superman: The Movie to play into the tall tale' of Bird. We also creatively mined the gunslinger-for-hire' aspect of Larry's recruitment by using Panavision's anamorphic 16mm glass to give us the scope of a Western and the nostalgia of Americana while still firmly planting us in the framework of Winning Time.
How did you familiarize yourself with the shows unique style?
Diaz: Todd and I have been friends since meeting at AFI, so while he was conceptualizing the look of the show, I was frequently checking in to see if he would spill the beans on his testing. The results, as you know, were exciting, bold, and singular. When I started prep for my episode, I was given the show's visual guides both of them, one created by Todd that gave detailed emotional and technical direction, and one created by camera operator and 8mm 2nd-unit cinematographer Justin Cameron detailing how and when the 8mm and Ikegami cameras were utilized. Finally, I had the man himself directing the ship at all times.
Todd was generous with his time, answering any and all of my questions about the show's visual language. He encouraged me to add my own voice to it when it came to conceptualizing Birds backstory, which led us to the creation of a new LUT for our episode. The Winning Time color palette is steeped in an Ektachrome look reminiscent of commercial photography in the '80s. So when designing Larry Birds early days, we looked to the '70s to find our color palette for the everyman.' That was Kodachrome. In combination with our 16mm anamorphic glass, we immersed Larry's past in this Kodachrome LUT that just oozed Americana. This helped ground the image while still giving it that outsized Western scope.
What was it like working with a director who's also a cinematographer?
Diaz: I've had the good fortune of collaborating with several directors whose roots were in cinematography. It's a total joy. The language and shorthand is there along with a zeal for visual storytelling. Todd's and my love of the craft and decade-long friendship is what drove our process. Most of our prep was spent speaking about how the pathos on the page could be translated into visual language. Then we went to the archives! We looked at work that inspired us and tried to understand how and why those scenes, shots and films were so effective. Often it came down to purpose.
Todd and I would also sometimes play out scenes in his dining room to get a feel for the characters. From their perspectives, we would try to imagine where the camera was in the room and why. They were wonderful meetings that reminded us why we do this: for the joy, immersion and magic of filmmaking.
Ricardo Diaz (right) with Todd Banhazl, ASC.
Explore all of our Winning Time coverage:
Championship Caliber
In Conversation: Winning Time
Winning Depth
All images courtesy of HBO.
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
02/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
02/07/2026
A new era in unmixing and spectral editing
The latest version of Steinberg's spectral audio-editing software has just arrived, building on the strength...
02/07/2026
Aims to simplify additive synthesis
Sine Machine is the debut launch from Melatonin, a Vienna-based developer who have spent the past six years creating wha...
02/07/2026
Products to remain fully active & supported
Following the news of Native Instruments joining the inMusic brand line-up, Academy and Emmy Award-winning visua...
02/07/2026
What you missed!
Last weekend, Saturday 27 June 2026, saw the debut of Sound On Sounds new GearExpo UK event, the largest dedicated pro-audio event to take ...
02/07/2026
Thursday 2 July 2026
Tea with Judi Dench returns to Sky Arts with legendary guest, Sir Ian McKellen
Sky today confirms Tea with Judi Dench will return this su...
01/07/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
01/07/2026
Stammering, stuttering, strangulated tones
The Crow Hill Company's latest creation promises to be the most original sound set they've produced to d...
01/07/2026
Exclusive run of limited-edition modelling pedals
Sweetwater and Andertons M...
01/07/2026
LEXINGTON, Kentucky - July 2026 -Tyler Childers' seventh and latest studio record, Snipe Hunter, is an adventurously sprawling collection of tunes that span...
01/07/2026
** MEDIA ALERT **
BLEACH Comes to Life in Los Angeles with First-of-Its-Kind...
01/07/2026
UKTV has today announced the appointment of Matt Berry to the newly created role of General Manager - Marketing, effective 1 July.
Matt will take on this senio...
01/07/2026
Sky Zero Footprint Fund-backed TV campaign featuring Deborah Meaden challenges consumers to rethink everyday bathroom wasteWednesday 1 July 2026
Fussy asks Bri...
01/07/2026
Constituency-level analysis reveals where girls miss out most on sport - and where targeted action could unlock more than £640 million in economic and health be...
01/07/2026
Wuppertal July 1, 2026
Riedel and SKAARHOJ Expand Collaboration With SimplyLive IntegrationRiedel Communications today announced an expanded collaboration wit...
01/07/2026
Apple today introduced power-packed updates to Apple Creator Studio, a groundbre...
01/07/2026
Nectar360, the Retail Media, Loyalty and Insights business of the Sainsburys Gro...
01/07/2026
9.2 million streams on RT Player between 11 and 28 June
Reach of 2.9 million viewers during Group stages of FIFA World Cup on RT 2
23 million video views acr...
30/06/2026
Could your journalism reach an international stage?
Entries are now open for the Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist Award 2026, one of the most prestigi...
30/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
30/06/2026
New IR reverb engine, Juno-inspired chorus & more
The latest version of Rapid Flow's hardware-emulation synth plug-in expands on its predecessor with a ...
30/06/2026
Excels at heavy-handed VCA compression
For their latest release, Shy Audio have recreated the crunchy' sound of a rackmount compressor that found its w...
30/06/2026
Component scarcity drives cost increases
Shortly after Apple's CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that cost increases would soon be inevitable , the company hav...
30/06/2026
Hitachi and Bank Pekao S.A. have completed the installation of the first Hitachi...
30/06/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/06/2026
Four-layer instrument aimed at dark electronic music
Excite Audio's latest software instrument has been designed with dark drum and bass, atmospheric te...
29/06/2026
New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more
Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...
29/06/2026
Details environmental policies & results
The Focusrite Group have just announced that following a long audit process, they have published their 2026 sustain...
29/06/2026
Arvato Systems Achieves AWS Cloud Operations Competency
The team behind the AWS Cloud Operations Competency (from left to right: Philipp Hellmich, Johanna Bod...
29/06/2026
RT today announced that Ger Gilroy will join the RT Podcasts team to present a daily sports podcast. Launching later this year, the new show will set the spor...
29/06/2026
RT Commercial announced OUTsurance as sponsor of the Oliver Callan show on RT Radio 1 from Wednesday 1 July.
Oliver Callan doubles the fun, delivering two ...
28/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
28/06/2026
New EXO Series DSP control software announced
EVE Audio's EXO Series monitor range has just gained a new software element that provides remote access to...
27/06/2026
Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects
Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...
26/06/2026
Virtual session musician plug-in gains new percussion options
Celemony's latest update for their virtual session musician platform complements the exist...
26/06/2026
Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up
Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...
26/06/2026
ELT Group and Rohde & Schwarz sign a cooperation agreement to explore commercial...
26/06/2026
Flicker Productions to produce five-part docu-reality series following women who have fallen for men in prison and have become TikTok sensations, with brands an...
26/06/2026
Catch up on the latest developments across Baselight and Daylight v7, Nara and F...
26/06/2026
26. June 2026 News
DFT is pleased to announce that a second Polar HQ film s...
26/06/2026
A fresh look at how the Irish helped shape the foundations of the United States
...
Cinematographer Ricardo Diaz joined the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty for Season 2's third episode, The Second Coming. Depicting the backstory of basketball legend Larry Bird (played by Sean Patrick Small), the episode marked the directorial debut of Todd Banhazl, ASC, who had served as cinematographer on the series' pilot episode and five subsequent episodes in Season 1 and was shooting four episodes across Season 2. Rick is such a supportive, talented filmmaker and a dear friend I knew I was taken care of, Banhazl shares. We had done the prep work together, and I trusted he had my back. 
