---
title: James Neihouse IMAX Interview
publisher: "IMAX"
canonical: "https://www.imax.com/james-neihouse-imax-interview"
date: 2025-12-10
last_updated: 2025-12-10
---

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![James Neihouse operates a camera.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F3YNadmthhiGPY1GBNwKpgn%2Ffaf58a7a38292ddfead9a5c061a6bb89%2FDSC_0072.JPG&w=512&q=75)

December 9, 2025

In conversation with James Neihouse, ASC, IMAX cinematographer extraordinaire
=============================================================================

_From astronauts in space to rock gods on a concert stage, there’s nowhere IMAX hasn’t been. An essential part of that journey is the brilliant technical minds behind the camera and in the sound booth who’ve been working to perfect the IMAX craft since the medium’s invention._

_Read our interview with cinematographer James Neihouse, below and then also check out our interview with sound & music Maestro Paul Massey_ [_here_](/news/paul-massey-imax-interview)_._

_Both professionals worked on_ [_ROLLING STONES - AT THE MAX_](/movie/rolling-stones-at-the-max)_, the very first concert film to be shot with IMAX Film Cameras, hitting theatres this week._

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### **ROLLING STONES - AT THE MAX was the first ever concert film shot with IMAX Film Cameras. Can you talk a little bit about how you got the gig to help shoot in that format?**

Well, actually my first IMAX film that I worked on was in 1976 with \[IMAX co-founder\] Graeme Ferguson, who co-invented the format. I did UNDERWATER with him and then I did several other films. Then I worked with him up on the space program. That's what I was doing when the Stones gig came along. They of course wanted folks that knew the format because this sort of thing had never been done before. So, I was very familiar with the format. There wasn't a lot of us, and I think we ended up with six cameramen on the film.

### **What was your favorite number/song from the film?**

I think the song that the crew particularly latched onto was "You Can't Always Get What You Want." \[_laughs\]_ It was sort of the anthem for the whole shoot.

### **Might you have any career path advice for fans reading this who wish to become cinematographers themselves?**

Get a law degree. You'll make more money!

No, but just stick with it. Shoot as much as you can. Watch as many films as you can. Get to know people in the industry. You know, be persistent. There will be years and times when you might not work, and there'll be times when you've got too many films and you can't do them all. So just be persistent and have passion.

### **Your filmography tells the story of quite an adventurous life. Do you have a favorite or even most challenging shoot (IMAX or otherwise)?**

Well of course, the space films have been my favorite. They presented a challenge— getting an IMAX Film Camera to orbit and then teaching astronauts how to actually work that IMAX Camera in Zero G. I was fortunate enough to be able to do that for thirty years. From 1984 onward. The astronauts were pretty easy to train, technically. It was the aesthetics of filmmaking that was the real high bar that we had to get them to. They did it pretty well. We ended up using a vast majority of anything that they shot in space.

![Space shuttle blasting off.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F1mcR1zERMyHDwCFlt97hcp%2F1d44f30f8dff0193293fe6e86db96e4e%2FScreen_Shot_2020-05-14_at_7.43.46_PM.png&w=1920&q=75)

### **You’ve trained astronauts a few times now to facilitate that filming process in space. Can you tell us a little bit more about the experience?**

They get a photo 101 class the first year of astronaut training, and in that class, they learn to shoot for television and stills. They don't really have any training whatsoever for the giant screen.

So, it's getting them into the mindset of, you're going to put the audience exactly where you put the camera when you shoot in IMAX. So, it was getting them to understand that you need to shoot for longer periods of times. You need to frame differently. You need to watch what was coming at the top, what was coming up from the sides, just be aware of many more things happening. We didn't have a whole lot of film on every flight. I think the most that we ever flew, we had thirty minutes of film on one flight. That was just ten rolls. So, you have to be very conscientious of your shot selection.

### **What was the size and weight of these film rolls on the flight?**

The film cans were about the size of a medium-sized pizza. They weighed ten pounds, so they're quite heavy. Three minutes of film. Anytime you can save weight, that's something you really want to do - save space, in space. A lot of times we couldn't fly more film because there just wasn't any place to put the extra canisters. Occasionally, the astronauts would say, _"just take some of my clothes out of the lockers and stuff another roll of film in. I'll just wear dirty clothes for another day."_

### **Can you talk a little bit about the documentary genre – what draws you to it?**

It's just what I started out with. Graeme's film OCEAN (1977) was the first one that I worked on. It was a documentary for the Reuben Fleet Space Theater in San Diego. I was a still \[photography\] major at Brooks Institute of Photography. I was taking still pictures on the production and keeping Graeme from killing himself when we went diving.

The film bug hit me pretty hard and it just happened to be a big IMAX bug that bit me. I really put myself forward into the documentary thing, because that was mostly what IMAX did \[at that time\]. So, I just kind of migrated straight into documentary. It wasn't a conscious choice actually. _\[chuckles\]_

### **You’ve shot on IMAX 15/65mm Film more than any other cinematographer – do you have a favorite film you've shot?**

I think my favorite would be THE DREAM IS ALIVE, which was the first film shot in space. I did a lot of the groundwork, ground shooting and ended up meeting my wife during the production. She was a NASA public affairs officer at Kennedy Space Center and was in charge of taking us around to shoot launches, hardware processing, and anything else involving the space flight hardware. It has meaning to me in that respect. But it also came along just before the Challenger accident. The Challenger was featured quite heavily in THE DREAM IS ALIVE. So emotionally, that made it even more special. Having \[newscaster\] Walter Cronkite as the narrator - everything seemed to come together for that film. It was released forty years ago and still plays at a space museum in Washington.

### **What’s something that might surprise people about shooting in space?**

The astronauts always tell me it's a whole lot harder work than they expected it to be. Zero gravity makes it easy to handle things and move them around, but it also makes it difficult to keep things steady. Getting a steady shot with a big camera becomes difficult.

One crew member named it Max, like a big dog, because it was on this power cable leash and it always followed them around. But I think one of the biggest surprises I got was from the Expedition 1 Space Station crew. We got a roll of film that was labeled covert ops. I'm watching it as it's coming out of the film processor. I always did that to make sure they had an image. And here's this shot of the space station from another spacecraft.

That wasn't supposed to be possible. What happened was they put the IMAX camera into the Soyuz spacecraft, undocked from the space station, and then flown around to another docking port in order to facilitate another vehicle coming up. They filmed it and it was a total surprise. Had something gone wrong, they couldn't have redocked and they would have had to put our camera in the part of the Soyuz that burns up on reentry. We could have lost the camera.

But we got a really great shot, and kudos to \[astronaut\] Bill Shepard for thinking of that. It was interesting how he got the shot as they couldn't fit the camera in the place where they could see out of the window. So they got he mirror from the bathroom and shot out of the window that way to make it work. They are astronauts - quite adept at problem solving.

### **Is there an environment or subject you haven’t shot in yet that you would like to tackle?**

I haven't shot in space myself, so I guess that's number one on my list. I would love to go to space to shoot. But I've done underwater, aerials, jungles, and the arctic. So, I don't know, as far as environments go, space is about the last frontier for me, so beam me up!

### **What was your relationship to cinema growing up? Who were some of your influences?**

I was actually more involved in still photography growing up. I'm from a very small town in Arkansas and our one movie theater was sporadically open. It eventually burned down. I had to travel to go to the movies, which I did as a teenager more and more. But it was more for entertainment rather than just for the love of movies. I really didn't understand it until I got on that first shoot with Graeme. I'm still totally in love with the process.

![Mick Jagger.](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.ctfassets.net%2Fc4ucztjx9pmu%2F6wSnKOyQjcsSDwyfETDDQW%2F8c098b7111edb00311f53510ba623dca%2FScreen_Shot_2020-05-14_at_7.34.08_PM.png&w=1920&q=75)

### **The landscape of media is constantly changing, with many people, especially younger people, opting for the smallest screen possible (their phones), to consume media. What does a premium large format like IMAX mean to you as a storytelling medium, and what might you say to someone who is on the fence about coming out to see something like ROLLING STONES AT THE MAX in the theatre?**

Toni Myers, who is one of the big names in the IMAX documentary world, once called the iPhone "Squint Vision." I would say if you really want to be immersed in a movie, if you want to be transported to where it happened, go see it in IMAX. It's probably the world's best simulator. So if you want to be on stage with the Roling Stones, we had cameras on stage with them, so go see it in IMAX. It puts you there in the moment, in the middle of hundreds of thousands of screaming fans and loud music and Mick's big lips.

### **Do you have a favorite IMAX screen or theater?**

Oh, it varies. I really like going to the California Science Center, it's probably one of my favorites. The Kennedy Space Center has always been fun. The Smithsonian, I think I have a special place in my heart for, because we've made so many films for that.

### **If there’s any film you could watch again for the first time in IMAX, what would it be?**

I think I would like to see 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in IMAX. It's still one of my favorite films. I think Kubrick handled it very well, and I think he would have handled it very well for the IMAX screen. It's the kind of film you want to be totally immersed in.

* * *

_This interview was transcribed from a Zoom conversation. They have been edited for clarity and length._

Experience [ROLLING STONES AT THE MAX](/movie/rolling-stones-at-the-max) in theatres this December.

Experience the best of IMAX educational documentaries at your local museum or science center.