Johnny Jensen

Industry Affiliations:The International Cinematographer's Guild, The Directors Guild of America, The American Society of Cinematographers, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Johnny Jensen is a director of photography who has worked in the motion picture industry for many years. Early in his career, Jensen was a Cinemobile technician forThe Godfather, a camera assistant for Altered States, and a camera operator for An Officer and a Gentleman amongst many other projects.

He began working as a director of photography/cinematographer for feature films during the early 1980s. He was the DP for the two-time Academy Award nominated film Rambling Rose for director Martha Coolidge whom he works with to this day. The film also received a Spirit Award nomination for Best Cinematography. Hi other cinematography credits include Grumpy Old Men, starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, Rosewood, starring Jon Voight and Don Cheadle and The Game of Their Lives, starring Gerard Butler and Wes Bentley.

Jensen has also been the DP on numerous television productions including L.A. Dragnet and Heartland.

He was nominated for a Best Cinematography Emmy Award for the TV movie Into The Badlands and An American Story. 

He has also directed films for television including The Lazarus Man (a two-hour pilot), which was sold to series, starring Robert Urich, and The Ditchdiggerʼs Daughters, a movie-of-the-week that was nominated for Best Film, Best Actress (Kimberly Elise) and Best Original Score by the Cable Ace Awards. He has directed numerous second unit and stunt, action sequences in feature films as well.

Jensen has directed and photographed commercials, (international, national, regional and web content branding) as well as music videos for both established artists and young upcoming talent.

At Dodge College, he has spent the last several years teaching a curriculum to both undergrad and graduate students and mentored grad students for their thesis projects. He has also orchestrated workshops off campus where he highlights cinematography done both on location and in a studio environment with standing sets. In 2012, he spent three weeks in Korea mentoring students at the Asian Film Academy during the Busan Film Festival.

He still works in features and television.

He was born in Denmark, lives in Southern California and continues to enjoy the ocean, surfing, bicycling and riding fast motorcycles.