Emerging
Ruben Contreras
Biography
Ruben is from Sacramento, CA, where he was taught how to use a camera at an early age from his father, who learned from his father. Transforming hobby into passion, Ruben earned his Masters at the USC School of Cinematic Arts Graduate Film and Television Production Program where he received the Edward and Mildred Troutner Award for Cinematography. While at USC, Ruben served as cinematographer on "South Arcadia Street", which received the DGA Student Jury Award, a BAFTA Student Awards Nomination and was an HBO Access Finalist.
Ruben has been working as a freelance cinematographer since and has shot award winning short films that have screened internationally starring Emmy-winner Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Tracie Thoms, and Danny Pino. He has also been the cinematographer for several short documentary pieces as well as the feature documentary - "Use Your Delusion". In addition to his fiction and non-fiction work, Ruben has shot music videos for The Dandy Warhols, Honus Honus (from the band Man Man) and Machine Gun Kelly - which generated over 7 million views on Youtube.
Recently, Ruben was awarded the American Society of Cinematographers Vision Award where he studied under Larry Fong, ASC (Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Kong: Skull Island, Watchmen), Antonio Riestra, ASC (The 33) and Shelly Johnson, ASC (Captain America: The First Avenger, The Wolfman, Jurassic Park III).