Partner with the Creative Director and Video Lead to define and evolve Perplexity’s cinematographic language, and turn it into repeatable approaches for lighting, lensing, composition, movement, and color.
Shoot and light a steady mix of day-to-day content: candid office moments, executive interviews, product demos, social, events, and documentary stories.
Lead cinematography on brand films, campaigns, partnerships, and launches.
Scale to the work: operate solo with a minimal kit, lead a small crew, or help build a full camera, lighting, grip, team (with help from producers).
Bring storytelling ideas to the table through moodboards, shot lists, storyboards, and experimentation.
Own camera, lighting, and movement decisions from creative development through capture: build packages, run tests and tech scouts, and solve constraints before the shoot.
Recommend crew and equipment for each production and lead the camera and lighting departments on set. Producers handle budgets, schedules, contracts, and logistics.
Help design, build, and run the in-house studio, including lighting, audio, grip, and monitoring.
Own the team’s gear: recommend, purchase, organize, and maintain it, with ready-to-shoot packages so no setup gets rebuilt from scratch.
Handle color grading in DaVinci Resolve, and support selects, stringouts, and light edits when turnaround is tight.
Keep the visual standard high across formats and crew sizes without overbuilding.
Requirements
A standout reel showing visual authorship, lighting craft, camera movement, and an eye for honest, unscripted moments.
A strong point of view, paired with the sensitivity to work within and strengthen an existing brand.
Working proficiency in DaVinci Resolve for color grading, selects, and light edits.
Preferred
Experience within an in-house brand studio at a technology or consumer company.
Strong documentary instincts and experience working with founders, executives, talent, or people who are not professional performers.
Experience with multi-camera interviews, live events, tabletop or product cinematography, motion-control systems, or virtual production.
What We're Looking For
6+ years as a cinematographer or DP across branded, commercial, documentary, and interview work.
Deep command of camera systems, lenses, exposure, color pipelines, lighting, grip, and on-set monitoring.
Genuinely hands-on: equally comfortable building a camera, shaping light, operating, troubleshooting, and leading a crew.
The judgment to make premium images under real constraints, solo with a small kit or leading a full production.
Strong pre-production instincts: turning a creative idea into a technically sound, right-sized plan.
Experience briefing and leading freelance crews and vendors on set, and managing professional production equipment.
Collaborative and low-ego. You bring a strong opinion, take direction, and solve problems with partners.
Comfortable moving fast in an ambiguous, high-output environment without compromising craft, safety, or footage.
Based in or able to work on-site in San Francisco, with flexibility for travel and long shoot days.
Nice to Have
A strong Bay Area and Los Angeles network of camera, lighting, grip, sound, production, and rental partners.
Color-grading experience and a strong understanding of how capture decisions carry through finishing and delivery.
