When your resume includes an Oscar nomination and films like Flyboys, students tend to listen. And so when Hollywood cinematographer and photography director Blake Evans ’86 told a room of theater and RTVF students in November that it’s “all about the reel,” they grilled him about how to find success in the business.

Evan’s brought his own reel to share, which included highlights from “Try Seventeen” and “3 Ninjas” as well as TV shows “The District” and “Jake in Progress.”

He enjoyed being a director of photography because “you have fewer people putting their nose in your business.” One key is to mold your style to the director’s; in a television series, for example, he works with a different director for every episode.

“A director of photography should be the director’s right-hand person,” he said.

Evans moved to Los Angeles after graduation. During the second year of his master’s program at the American Film Institute he garnered a 1990 Oscar nomination for his film project. One connection led to another opportunity, and his reel became increasingly impressive.

Evans’ most recent gig took him away from the camera and in front of a computer as screenwriter for “Flyboys,” a film about the country’s first fighter pilots.

“I saw that some of the scripts I was reading were really bad, and it was driving me crazy. I thought, ‘How hard can it be to write a script that makes sense?'”