Ruben O’Malley is a DP and occasional director, known for his creative and character driven approach to camerawork. In all his work he tries to tell each character’s story as the narrative demands. While honing his craft, Ruben tries to never forget the nature of the people and stories he’s working with and treat them honestly and with affection. He’s seen into the lives of people who never saw a lens before when he shot a doc in the middle of Sudan, and witnessed performances of people who make their lives around lenses in his feature work. He brings the same passion and dedication to both disciplines and sees them as strongly related when they are at the best. Whether the simple truth is in front of the lens, or a more complex relationship created by the filmmakers, it is best approached with care, precision and honesty.

He began his career as a lighting technician in San Francisco working at the highly prolific commercial house Colossal pictures, where he moved in to shooting old school animation and motion control for spots. It was here that he developed a keen eye for special effects and the precision needed to pull off footage for highly complex time lapse and composite work. After a few years Colossal’s incredible attention to detail and complete creative freedom caught up with them. Ruben and many other talented people had to find a new way to work. Ruben worked for years after that as a union Camera Assistant on commercials in the Bay Area, before he shot his first feature Cutting Horse for his Larry Clark. After that Assisting became sidelined as he shot another feature (Max, 13) and numerous short pieces. A commitment to camerawork brought him to New York University, where he focused on shooting a number of award winning shorts, and his own documentary movie Go Army (about army recruiters right before 9/11). Since NYU, he’s shot numerous features (For Real, Deceit, & Love Ludlow) and occasionally vacations in the television world where’s he’s photographed Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Indy Sex ii and Fabulous for IFC among many other docs, commercials, music videos and shorts.