About

Born in Malaysia to an expatriate American father and Straits-born Chinese mother, cinematographer C. Kim Miles ASC, CSC, MYSC had a reasonably simple upbringing split between the urban hustle of Kuala Lumpur and the quiet rural town of Bentong, where the family-owned a house originally built for the British Plantation manager of the Shanghai-Pahang rubber estate. It was here, on candlelit evenings, that Miles developed a love of stories and their telling. Inspired by his mother’s love of photography, Miles soon found himself experimenting with capturing images both abstract and documentary with whatever cameras he could talk his parents into lending or buying him.

The concept of telling stories by visual representation intrigued him, culminating in his attending the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Victoria, majoring in Still Photography.

After graduating secondary school at the age of fifteen, Miles accepted a job alongside his best friend, working for his parents at Peter Robinson Studios, a commercial production company in Kuala Lumpur. As a grip, Miles began a journey in the film business that has now endured thirty years of the ups and downs characteristic of the business. His photographic background and a staffing opportunity then allowed him to train and work as a camera assistant in the company, beginning a lifelong relationship with the department that has led him through his life, for better or worse.

In 1997, Canadian commercial director Jerry McKenna offered Miles his first opportunity to direct photography on a series of three commercials for Ayamas, a subsidiary of Kentucky Fried Chicken Malaysia. This led to the pair traveling to Saigon to shoot Vietnam’s first-ever commercials for Head & Shoulders shampoo and Tide Laundry detergent.

Miles’s reputation for quality visuals and collaborative problem-solving led to many commercials and music videos throughout South East Asia, which preceded a move back to Canada with his wife Joanna in 1998. In Canada, Miles’s young age of 23 worked against him in securing employment as a DP, and by happenstance he ended up accepting offers to work as a gaffer on a number of smaller-budget productions with cinematographers such as Richard Wincenty CSC, Peter Benison CSC, and Nicholas Bolduc CSC. Using the opportunity of working with other DPs to absorb the very different photographic approach to long-form filmmaking, Miles continued to develop an understanding of his craft.

In 2004, director David Decoteau gave Miles his first opportunity to shoot a direct-to-video movie entitled “Killer Bash”. The producers, Insight Film & Video, offered Miles further work with directors such as George Erschbamer, George Mendeluk, and Ron Oliver, resulting in over thirty films representing a variety of genres and styles that served to further Miles’s development as a DP.

In 2013, Miles received a call from Glen Winter CSC, the DP on Warner Brothers’ episodic “Arrow” for the CW network, asking if he’d be interested in shooting an episode that Winter was to direct. Taking the leap from low-budget production to network television, while daunting at first, led to Miles shooting six episodes of “Arrow” throughout the remainder of season 2. Miles’s work was noticed by executive producer Greg Berlanti, and Miles was then offered the helm of “Arrow”‘s new sister show, “The Flash” in 2014. Here, Miles had the opportunity to define the look and style of an episodic production and got his first taste of making the decisions necessary to take a show to the #1 rating spot for the network, a position enjoyed by “The Flash” for the three years that Miles photographed it.

Early in 2017, things took a drastic turn. Miles received an unsolicited request to interview for an upcoming passion project to be directed by none other than Robert Zemeckis, whose directorial portfolio had long inspired Miles about shot design and its profound influence on storytelling. Completely in a state of awe, Miles traveled to Santa Barbara to meet with Zemeckis and discuss his upcoming project to be entitled “Welcome to Marwen”, a touching feature film to be based on the true story of Mark Hogancamp as depicted in the award-winning documentary “Marwencol”. Miles was subsequently offered the show and went on to collaborate with Zemeckis and photograph “Welcome to Marwen” through the summer and fall of 2017.

Miles continued his collaboration with Zemeckis by directing photography on ImageMovers’ first episodic television production for A&E/History, “Project Blue Book”, for which he was recognized by his peers at the highest level with the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in an Episode of a Series for Commercial Television at the annual American Society of Cinematographers Awards in 2020.

Following a season on Netflix’s flagship episodic “Lost in Space”, Miles then photographed the second season of “Project Blue Book” for A&E/History and “Home Before Dark” for Apple TV+ and Paramount Television.

In September of 2020, a lifelong aspiration came to be when Miles was honoured with an invitation welcoming him to Active Membership in the American Society of Cinematographers.