Michael Underwood(IV)

Michael Underwood Michael was born in Detroit and holds an MFA from Cal Arts. He is a founding partner and Director of Photography at Pine Flat Studios, a production house dedicated to serving independent filmmakers and video artists. Projects he has shot have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, LAX Art, UCLA, the Luckman Fine Arts Complex, and the Mount Wilson Observatory. Michael's cinematography and lighting skills were learned during years spent on set shooting behind the scenes photographs for clients including MTV, Revlon, FOX, Capitol Records, Nieman Marcus, Comedy Central and The Academy of Television arts and Sciences. His pictures have been published in People, the LA Weekly, InStyle, Variety and Vanity Fair just to name a few. An artist in his own right, his book Dispensaries (2011) examines the economic crisis by documenting the medical marijuana phenomenon in Los Angeles, his home city. Michael's film Escapement (2009) covers the conflict over water rights on the Columbia River and its impact on fisheries, farming, and the environment.