Andres "Andy" Heber Pichinte
Cinematographer, Artist, Editor (Avid, Adobe,Avid Media Composer), Director
“Some sort of pressure must exist; the artist exists because the world is not perfect.
Art would be useless if the world were perfect, as man wouldn’t look for harmony, but would simply live in it.
Art is born out of an ill-designed world.”
― Andrei Tarkovsky
-Biography-
Birth/Family History/Early Childhood:
My name is Andres Heber Pichinte, though I prefer to go by Andy. I was born July 16,
1997, in East Los Angeles, like the film starring Cheech Marin, though my family and I
had been living in the Hollywood area. I was born to immigrant parents who fled
from El Salvador, due to the rising tension and conflicts between the FMLN guerillas
and Arena/Government Military. My father’s family had become targets of
government forces, as there was a member of the guerilla rebels whose last name
was the same as ours. My mother, however, witnessed both the corruption of the
government and eventually saw the guerilla rebels becoming corrupt themselves.
They both arrived in the United States in the 80's, my father in '82 and my mother in
'84. An interesting fact about my family is at around the time of my birth we were
living in some apartments behind the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
before it was demolished around 1999 or 2000, and we had moved to the Silver Lake
Area, in a neighborhood on Sunset and Fountain close by the Vista Theater, which
famous filmmaker Quentin Tarantino now owns since 2020. Growing up I always had
a fascination with art, whether it be doodling something on a piece of paper, or even
writing, or drawing, I'm guessing it had something to do with my dad having more
talent when it comes to being more hands-on with woodworks, as my father has
done great drawings and some amazing woodwork. My mother growing up has
always had this negative worldview of everything and being fanatically religious. My
sisters and I have grown up with much drama, and much trauma, so it was hard
seeing my second oldest sister, by 10 years, leave to the U.S. Army, and was
deployed to Iraq, I was around 7. My third oldest sister, by 9 years, had to leave
because of the many problems with our mother, I was around 8 or 9. Growing up I
was pretty introverted and dealt with a lot of bullying through all of Pre-K to High
School.
Hobbies/Interest in Film/Los Angeles Film School:
I grew up fascinated by the folklore stories of El Salvador that my parents would tell,
to the mythology of the Greeks, Egyptians, Asians, Indigenous, etc. At home, we had
books that were dictionaries, fairy tales, mythology, and of course the Bible. Growing
up, I was more of a video gamer. I had little interest in reading when I was little,
though that was quickly taken over in my teen years by Dungeons & Dragons, and
developed an interest in reading fantasy and science fiction. At home, in my
childhood, my sisters and I would play the Nintendo 64, the PSOne (the first
PlayStation One Slim model), and both the Gameboy Color & Advanced (SP) and the
Nintendo GameCube. Though I still look back at some of these games and remember
that I was very much hooked into some of the stories, and art they presented, it was
like watching a film that you interact with. Growing up watching films was/and still is
a favorite pastime of my father and me, as we would always go to The Vista or the
United Artist Theater in La Cañada. My father still tells me to this day that the first
film he took me to see in theaters was 1999's The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser.
It was how my father and I had bonded. One thing we liked to do was arrive at the
theaters maybe thirty minutes early, or as early as before any ads/trailers started, as
the concession stand lines would be full. In late 2018, at the age of 19, I would
frequently see the advertisement for the Los Angeles Film School, when my father
and I would go to the AMC Theater that is up in Burbank. Because I already had
taken art classes, music classes in high school, and was on a three-year hiatus from
going to college, I decided to apply in 2019, and I started on February 4th, of that
year at the Los Angeles Film School, and I graduated November 20th, 2022.
My Degree/Concentration at Los Angeles Film School/Aspirations After
Graduating:
When I came to the Los Angeles Film School, I first came seeking to get my bachelor’s
degree in directing. I had wanted to put more use into writing, as in my time growing
up in a religious home, I had written several short stories fantasy, sci-fi, and horror,
though I felt that whatever story I wanted to tell wouldn't be great as just short
stories or as novels or even as scripts. After having discussions with colleagues, and a
flip of a coin, I changed the focus of my degree from directing to cinematography. I
realized that growing up with a passion for art, that the camera is the paintbrush, the
cinematographer is the artist, the screen or what you see on the camera is the
canvas, the lighting, color palettes, set/costume design, editing, color grading, etc. all
of that are the tools needed to create something with a passion hoping to make an
impact through the story given on screen. I found a lot of some of the most efficient
and practical workflows from how to set up a shot, framing, lens, and how much light
you need, aspect rations, what kind of gear can be used where, how to use the gear
itself, practicing your craft, working/networking with others and on their projects, a
lot of ways of making a name for yourself to be known, or maybe to some degree
work on storyboards, create concept art. Where I am right now (November 14), I
have gone through a lot of challenges and faced a lot of reality, I hope to seek out
passion projects in Wichita, Kansas, though I am moving to Wichita at the beginning
of 2023, sometime in March, family reasons, and hopefully come back with
something when I return to Los Angeles. In the meantime, as I work on my art, I
would like to work on creating comic books/graphic novels and implement
cinematography elements into them.
Insipirations:
Studying the various directors and cinematographers, there have been many that have inspired me to seek out filmmaking, my style, the genre, tones, themes, sounds, etc. and anything that comes to cinematography.James Rolfe (Filmmaker)
Kenneth Anger (Filmmaker)
Alejandro Jodorosky (Director)
David Lynch (Artist/Filmmaker)
Akira Kurosawa (Director/Editor)
David Cronenberg (Director)
George A. Romero (Director)
George Lucas (Director)
Guillermo Del Toro (Director)
Roger Deakins (Cinematographer)
Adrian Biddle (Cinematographer)
Alexander Knyazhinsky (Cinematographer)
Andrew Lesnie (Cinematographer)
Peter Menzies Jr. (Cinematographer)
Takao Saito (Cinematographer)
Azakazu Nakai (Cinematographer)
Mashaharu Ueda (Cinematographer)
Greg Fraser (Cinematographer)
Gilbert Taylor (Cinematographer)
Peter Suschitzky (Cinematographer)
Mark Irwin (Cinematographer)
Alan Hume (Cinematographer)
My name is Andres Heber Pichinte, though I prefer to go by Andy. I was born July 16,
1997, in East Los Angeles, like the film starring Cheech Marin, though my family and I
had been living in the Hollywood area. I was born to immigrant parents who fled
from El Salvador, due to the rising tension and conflicts between the FMLN guerillas
and Arena/Government Military. My father’s family had become targets of
government forces, as there was a member of the guerilla rebels whose last name
was the same as ours. My mother, however, witnessed both the corruption of the
government and eventually saw the guerilla rebels becoming corrupt themselves.
They both arrived in the United States in the 80's, my father in '82 and my mother in
'84. An interesting fact about my family is at around the time of my birth we were
living in some apartments behind the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
before it was demolished around 1999 or 2000, and we had moved to the Silver Lake
Area, in a neighborhood on Sunset and Fountain close by the Vista Theater, which
famous filmmaker Quentin Tarantino now owns since 2020. Growing up I always had
a fascination with art, whether it be doodling something on a piece of paper, or even
writing, or drawing, I'm guessing it had something to do with my dad having more
talent when it comes to being more hands-on with woodworks, as my father has
done great drawings and some amazing woodwork. My mother growing up has
always had this negative worldview of everything and being fanatically religious. My
sisters and I have grown up with much drama, and much trauma, so it was hard
seeing my second oldest sister, by 10 years, leave to the U.S. Army, and was
deployed to Iraq, I was around 7. My third oldest sister, by 9 years, had to leave
because of the many problems with our mother, I was around 8 or 9. Growing up I
was pretty introverted and dealt with a lot of bullying through all of Pre-K to High
School.
Hobbies/Interest in Film/Los Angeles Film School:
I grew up fascinated by the folklore stories of El Salvador that my parents would tell,
to the mythology of the Greeks, Egyptians, Asians, Indigenous, etc. At home, we had
books that were dictionaries, fairy tales, mythology, and of course the Bible. Growing
up, I was more of a video gamer. I had little interest in reading when I was little,
though that was quickly taken over in my teen years by Dungeons & Dragons, and
developed an interest in reading fantasy and science fiction. At home, in my
childhood, my sisters and I would play the Nintendo 64, the PSOne (the first
PlayStation One Slim model), and both the Gameboy Color & Advanced (SP) and the
Nintendo GameCube. Though I still look back at some of these games and remember
that I was very much hooked into some of the stories, and art they presented, it was
like watching a film that you interact with. Growing up watching films was/and still is
a favorite pastime of my father and me, as we would always go to The Vista or the
United Artist Theater in La Cañada. My father still tells me to this day that the first
film he took me to see in theaters was 1999's The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser.
It was how my father and I had bonded. One thing we liked to do was arrive at the
theaters maybe thirty minutes early, or as early as before any ads/trailers started, as
the concession stand lines would be full. In late 2018, at the age of 19, I would
frequently see the advertisement for the Los Angeles Film School, when my father
and I would go to the AMC Theater that is up in Burbank. Because I already had
taken art classes, music classes in high school, and was on a three-year hiatus from
going to college, I decided to apply in 2019, and I started on February 4th, of that
year at the Los Angeles Film School, and I graduated November 20th, 2022.
My Degree/Concentration at Los Angeles Film School/Aspirations After
Graduating:
When I came to the Los Angeles Film School, I first came seeking to get my bachelor’s
degree in directing. I had wanted to put more use into writing, as in my time growing
up in a religious home, I had written several short stories fantasy, sci-fi, and horror,
though I felt that whatever story I wanted to tell wouldn't be great as just short
stories or as novels or even as scripts. After having discussions with colleagues, and a
flip of a coin, I changed the focus of my degree from directing to cinematography. I
realized that growing up with a passion for art, that the camera is the paintbrush, the
cinematographer is the artist, the screen or what you see on the camera is the
canvas, the lighting, color palettes, set/costume design, editing, color grading, etc. all
of that are the tools needed to create something with a passion hoping to make an
impact through the story given on screen. I found a lot of some of the most efficient
and practical workflows from how to set up a shot, framing, lens, and how much light
you need, aspect rations, what kind of gear can be used where, how to use the gear
itself, practicing your craft, working/networking with others and on their projects, a
lot of ways of making a name for yourself to be known, or maybe to some degree
work on storyboards, create concept art. Where I am right now (November 14), I
have gone through a lot of challenges and faced a lot of reality, I hope to seek out
passion projects in Wichita, Kansas, though I am moving to Wichita at the beginning
of 2023, sometime in March, family reasons, and hopefully come back with
something when I return to Los Angeles. In the meantime, as I work on my art, I
would like to work on creating comic books/graphic novels and implement
cinematography elements into them.
Insipirations:
Studying the various directors and cinematographers, there have been many that have inspired me to seek out filmmaking, my style, the genre, tones, themes, sounds, etc. and anything that comes to cinematography.James Rolfe (Filmmaker)
Kenneth Anger (Filmmaker)
Alejandro Jodorosky (Director)
David Lynch (Artist/Filmmaker)
Akira Kurosawa (Director/Editor)
David Cronenberg (Director)
George A. Romero (Director)
George Lucas (Director)
Guillermo Del Toro (Director)
Roger Deakins (Cinematographer)
Adrian Biddle (Cinematographer)
Alexander Knyazhinsky (Cinematographer)
Andrew Lesnie (Cinematographer)
Peter Menzies Jr. (Cinematographer)
Takao Saito (Cinematographer)
Azakazu Nakai (Cinematographer)
Mashaharu Ueda (Cinematographer)
Greg Fraser (Cinematographer)
Gilbert Taylor (Cinematographer)
Peter Suschitzky (Cinematographer)
Mark Irwin (Cinematographer)
Alan Hume (Cinematographer)
Andres "Andy/Andrew" Heber Pichinte
July 16, 1997 - ???
July 16, 1997 - ???
(Background): Picture taken from Runyon Canyon by Andres H. Pichinte 2022 (Canon XC-10)