Cool Interview With Cinematographer Anthony Di Ninno [Medium Spoilers in Linked Article]

First off, go see the movie; it's pretty swell. Anyway, I never was really sure what a cinematographer did for animation, now I know better. I think I'll have a greater appreciation for the design of the movie when I go to watch it a second time. A short excerpt:

What sort of materials were used as references for the film? Was there any reference material specific to cameras, staging and lighting?

At the beginning of any project you always kind of gorge yourself on reference. For this movie, being a musical, we looked at a lot of those. We wanted each song to have a different feel. We looked at a lot of Busby Berkeley sequences as reference for the sea pony song, Capper’s song was more Bob Fosse inspired in the staging and lighting and so on.

Here's the full interview: https://www.awn.com/animationworld/lights-camera-action-cinematography-my-little-pony-movie
And here's a gallery showing the rough blocking of scenes compared to the final product: https://www.awn.com/gallery/gallery-cinematography-my-little-pony-movie