Craig Wrobleski is a Canadian cinematographer, best known for his work on the television series Fargo, Legion and The Umbrella Academy.

Career

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After graduating from the Broadcasting Program at Mount Royal College in Calgary, Craig Wrobleski started working as a studio cameraman at CFCN Television.[1] After leaving CFCN, he worked on many independent productions, often volunteering his time to learn about the world of dramatic production and build relationships. This led to opportunities to get behind the camera for documentaries. Craig's documentary work took him all over North America and Europe for films including Chrome Dreams (a 4-part history of the automobile), The Geometry of Love (based on the book by Margaret Visser and shot in Rome and Toronto), God's Explorers (a feature length doc about Jesuit missionaries in Northern Canada) and Hitman Hart; Wrestling with Shadows. Wrobleski also served as a camera operator for the cycling events at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, BC.

Wrobleski has also worked on numerous commercials, music videos, and live concerts over the years, producing content for MTV, MuchMusic, CMT, CBC, and PBS. He also shot Balletlujah! a dance collaboration between K.D. Lang, Joni Mitchell, and the Alberta Ballet.[2]

As an entree into dramatic storytelling, Wrobleski shot award-winning short dramatic shorts and took on second unit photography for numerous television and feature projects including Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story, as well as the television mini- series Human Trafficking, which took him to the Czech Republic and Thailand.

His first long-form dramatic cinematography roles were for TV movies including Northern Lights and the feature films 45 RPM and Rufus. In 2010, he started working as cinematographer on the internationally popular Canadian television drama Heartland. Second Unit work on the award-winning first season of the FX television series Fargo led to Wrobleski working alongside fellow cinematographer Dana Gonzales on the acclaimed second and third seasons of Fargo as well as the revolutionary FX series Legion, alternating DP duties with Dana on an episode-by-episode basis.[3] Craig's series work continued with the 11th season of the legendary series The X-Files, the re-boot of the groundbreaking Twilight Zone, two seasons of the hit Netflix series The Umbrella Academy and an episode of the visionary Amazon series Tales From the Loop. In 2019, Wrobleski photographed the feature film adaptation of the Stephen King/Joe Hill short story In the Tall Grass for Netflix.

Awards

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Craig's work on the "Blurryman" episode of Twilight Zone earned him an ASC Award Nomination in 2020. The "Swedish Job" episode of The Umbrella Academy was a winner at the 2021 CSC Awards and the "Stasis" episode of Tales From the Loop was nominated. The Umbrella Academy and In the Tall Grass were both nominated for CSC Awards in 2020. The Fargo "Who Rules the Land of Denial" episode garnered a win at the 2019 CSC Awards in addition to a CSC win in 2011 for the short film "June". Other projects nominated for CSC Awards included the short film Synthesis and Fargo "Fear and Trembling". Over the years, Craig has been the recipient of the Alberta Media Production Industries Association Rosie Award 16 times in various categories.

Filmography

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Television

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TV movies

Year Title Director
2002 Blue Rodeo: Palace of Gold Joel Stewart
2005 Stepping in It Eppo Eerkes
2006 I Dream of Murder Neill Fearnley
2007 Don't Cry Now Jason Priestley
Hush Little Baby Holly Dale
Lost Holiday: The Jim & Suzanne Shemwell Story Gregory Goodell
2008 Love Sick: Secrets of a Sex Addict Grant Harvey
The Other Woman Jason Priestley
Confessions of a Go-Go Girl Grant Harvey
2009 Northern Lights Mike Robe
Held Hostage Grant Harvey
2010 Athletes in Motion Mark Adam
Miryam Bouchard
Cam Christiansen
2014 The Dorm Rachel Talalay

TV series

Year Title Director Notes
2010-2016 Heartland 104 episodes
2015-2017 Fargo Michael Uppendahl
Keith Gordon
Mike Barker
8 episodes
2016 Zoo 6 episodes
2017 Legion Larysa Kondracki
Hiro Murai
Michael Uppendahl
3 episodes
2018 The X-Files 10 episodes
2019 The Twilight Zone Greg Yaitanes
Richard Shepard
Christina Choe
Simon Kinberg
4 episodes
2019-2022 The Umbrella Academy Ellen Kuras
Jeremy Webb
Stephen Surjik
Cheryl Dunye
Jeff King
Kate Woods
14 episodes
2020 Tales from the Loop Dearbhla Walsh Episode "Stasis"

Feature films

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Year Title Director
2012 Rufus Dave Schultz
2008 Bootcamp Christian Duguay
45 R.P.M. Dave Schultz
2006 Dream Makers Susan Cardinal
2019 In the Tall Grass Vincenzo Natali
2021 The Unholy Evan Spiliotopoulos

References

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  1. ^ Heartlands director of photography answers your questions CBC
  2. ^ "Congratulations IATSE 669 Members for Rosie Nominations! | International Cinematographers Guild | Local 669".
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-01-02. Retrieved 2017-05-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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