I’m pleased to announce the next major release of Radiance. The two main themes of this release are:
- Expanding on the foundational work of the previous releases around color tokens, painters and shapers
- The introduction of a brand new skin, Blueprint (image above)
Let’s get to what’s been fixed, and what’s been added. First, I’m going to use emojis to mark different parts of it like this:
💔 marks an incompatible API / binary change
🎁 marks new features
🔧 marks bug fixes and general improvements
Theming
Component
Radiance focuses on helping you make elegant and high-performing desktop applications in Swing. If you’re in the business of writing just such apps, I’d love for you to take this Radiance release for a spin. Click here to get the instructions on how to add Radiance to your builds.
Continuing the ongoing series of interviews with creative artists working on various aspects of movie and episodic productions, it is my pleasure to welcome James Laxton. In this interview, he talks about the changes in the industry in the last 15 years, the role of the cinematographer, and his thoughts on generative AI. Between all these and more, James takes a deep dive into his work on the second season of “Beef”.
Kirill: Please tell us about yourself and the path that took you to where you are today.
James: The easy part of that question is that I do have a family member that’s in this industry, and I was introduced not just to movie making and story telling, but also to what goes on under the surface of how these things are made at a quite early age.
My mother is a costume designer of motion picture films, and my childhood was spent oftentimes going to visit her on school holidays. I would fly out to see her wherever she was working in the world, and wander on to a film set, sit there and watch everything – as much as my patience of that age could bear. By no means did I think I wanted to join the industry at that young age, but it was an exposure to a world that not a lot of people knew about.
Then cut to teenage James, around my high school years I started playing with video cameras, making skateboard videos with my teenage friends, and just messing about. It was the advent of videography coming to be more accessible to people, and for me that coupled with an understanding of the larger scope of motion pictures and how they’re made. A few things synergized to me finding interest in filmmaking during my late teens and early twenties.
I went to a film school, and that’s where I got even more narrowed into cinematography in that period of my early twenties. I assisted in live loading film for a long time. I was a second AC for a long time. And during those years I would find weekends or a few weeks at a time to be a cinematographer in my own right. One of those projects did well enough to go to some film festivals. It started to get some attention from other filmmakers of similar ilk, and I started to run with it. It was a longer process than maybe I’m describing, because there’s many years of it not working before it worked – and that’s par for the course for a lot of people in this industry. There’s no fast and easy access point for most people, even for someone who had a parent in the industry. It took ten years or so before it felt like it made sense by any means.
Charles Melton as Austin Davis, Cailee Spaeny as Ashley Miller in episode 201 of “Beef”. Courtesy of Netflix.
Kirill: What are the misconceptions or misunderstandings about cinematography that you see from people in your life?
James: The average moviegoer probably might not know anything about the job [laughs]. We all know actors, and we all know writers, and we all know directors – and the general viewing audience probably has an overall sense of what those jobs are. After that, when you look at the credits list, there’s probably a lot of confusion as to what these roles do.
It’s a great job. In many ways, people largely think it has to do with the photography of a project, as the name of the job implies – and that’s not untrue. Of course I’m dealing with the cameras and dealing with lighting on the technical side of things.
Another part of the job that people either don’t know or don’t think about has to do with a lot of creative choices behind those technical choices. That part of the job probably isn’t even taught in film school all that much, to be perfectly honest. There’s a lot of conceptualization and long creative discussions, particularly with the director, but also with the filmmaking group in general. That can get into deep artistic conceptual conversations that have very little to do with what lenses you’re using.
It’s a discipline. At a certain point you need to be able to speak about art history. You need to know some version of film history. You need to be able to understand different cultures and how they communicate. It’s a job that can span a wide spectrum of interests.
The beauty of cinematography is we’re all unique as individuals, and we all come at this from a different perspective. My experience is not someone else’s experience, and therefore I make different creative choices as to where to put the camera, what lighting I might suggest for a certain scene, what colors those lighting choices might emphasize. It’s a great job. I get a lot out of it, and I continue to enjoy it.
Kirill: What would you say are the bigger changes in your part of the world in the last 15-20 years?
James: Like so many industries at this point in 2026, we’re seeing the advent and the impact of AI, and how it can help create ideas and make story-driven choices. Rewind a few years back, and you have the conversations about visual effects around ‘2000s. Between then and now, there’s the advent of digital photography and digital cinematography. The cameras that are coming out are pretty impressive. Rewind further back, and it was different film stocks that were coming out and changing the ability to photograph under different lighting scenarios. These would probably round the top five of the bigger ones.
Carey Mulligan as Lindsay Crane-Martin in episode 201 of “Beef”. Courtesy of Netflix.
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Continuing the ongoing series of interviews with creative artists working on various aspects of movie and episodic productions, it is my pleasure to welcome Julie Schubert. Julie is an Emmy Award winner for her work on “House of Cards”, and later she worked on “Mindhunter”, “Jessica Jones”, “Daredevil”, “Manifest”, and many other productions. In this interview, Julie takes a deep dive into her work on “The Diplomat” for which she just received an Emmy nomination for outstanding casting for a drama series.
Kirill: Please tell us about yourself and the path that took you to where you are today.
Julie: My name is Julie Schubert, and I’m a casting director. I’m based out of New York, but when I work, I work internationally, which is quite exciting. You get to experience a lot of different places and a lot of different people.
I wanted to be an actor ever since I was a kid, and then I went to college and I realized that I was quite bad at it [laughs]. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew that I still wanted to be in the industry in some capacity. My family is in the restaurant business, and as great as that is, that is not a place I wanted to end up. So I got a bunch of internships while I was in college, and one of them happened to be in casting – and that was the best thing for me. You get to work with actors all the time, which I love. You get to work on a lot of different projects in a lot of different worlds, which I love. And you never have to be seen, which I also love.
No one really knew what casting was at that point when I was entering the industry. It didn’t exist in any kind of conversation about what you could do, and you had to almost “happen” upon it. Now it’s a much more prevalent craft, which is fantastic. This year was the first time that casting directors were honored with Oscars for their work, which should have been done a long time ago. BAFTAs are eligible for it, Emmys are eligible for it, and you have these venues where our work is recognized for the craft that it is. There’s also a documentary called “Casting By” that I would highly recommend watching. It gives a great look at the history of it, of what casting is, the subjectivity and the art of casting. Everyone should know what that is.
Kirill: What are the most common misconceptions or misunderstandings about what casting is or isn’t?
Julie: It depends on who you are. There’s a lot of misconception among actors that casting is a gatekeeping profession – that you have to get through us to get jobs. The way I reframe it is that we actually are the best advocates for actors that there possibly could be. We are the ones that are watching what you do on stage and on film. We are having those conversations with our creatives about why you are the perfect person for the roles that we’re currently working on. That’s the biggest one which for me is about reframing that we are your advocates, we are your allies, we are partners in this, and we are not the enemy.
Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 302 of “The Diplomat”. Courtesy of Netflix.
Kirill: How big of an event was it to see the new category for best achievement in casting to be added to this year’s Oscars?
Julie: It was great to see it joining the other beautiful stages like the BAFTAs and the Emmys. Recognizing the art behind it is hard because it is so subjective – but so is directing, editing or costume design. A lot of those folks who have been recognized for their work wouldn’t be recognized without the cast that they put in front of them that they get to work with.
A lot of what we do is work with those collaborators to help shape what’s on screen, telling the stories that they want to shape, because we know those actors best. We know what they’re capable of, and the kinds of stories that they can tell, and finding a way to make it cohesive and make sense. How many times do you watch something, and you say that was such a great story, but that one actor didn’t feel like they fit into it. Part of casting is to find that seamlessness where you fall into the world and you walk away from it fully believing in it.
You can imagine everyone was so elated seeing this art – that not a lot of people understand – finally getting its due. I learned from incredible casting directors like Juliet Taylor who should have won 15 Oscars already. She’s top of the top. She worked with Mike Nichols and Woody Allen, and her career spans decades. You look at so many movies on all of those lists of must-sees, and she cast them. And without her casts, they wouldn’t be what they are. People are getting their due, and it was exciting to see it.
Kirill: Do you feel that it is more interesting, exciting, challenging for you to be working on an episodic production versus working on a feature film?
Julie: I like them both, and they’re just so very different. Episodic is long-form storytelling, so you get to live in the world for such an incredibly long period of time. But within that come its own unique challenges. You do want to keep it fresh. You want to keep it interesting. You want to make sure that there’s cohesion from day one, episode one of season one, to episode eight of season 20, depending if you’re lucky enough to get that many seasons. And you want to be able to see their trajectory and the arc of it, and be able to follow it and not feel like there’s any misstep. There’s a lot more responsibility in that regard because it is such long-form.
I love the slow pace of film. You take your time. You get to think about every piece in a very specific way. And it’s finite. A lot of times with film you ultimately get your first choice, because you’re not potentially having an actor lose an opportunity later on that may be something that they’re more excited about, or the arc is different, and that’s what they’re sort of leaning in towards.
The thing that I love about “The Diplomat” in particular is because the scripts are so good and the characters are so wonderfully fleshed, we got the first choices that we wanted for each role – which is a little unheard of in the series world.
(L to R) Keri Russell as Kate Wyler, Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler in episode 305 of “The Diplomat”. Courtesy of Netflix.
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Continuing the ongoing series of interviews with creative artists working on various aspects of movie and episodic productions, it is my pleasure to welcome Brendan Uegama. In this interview, he talks about the changes in the industry in the last 15 years, the role of the cinematographer, the evolution of tools at his disposal, and his thoughts on generative AI. Between all these and more, Brendan takes a deep dive into his work on the first season of “Star City”.
Kirill: Please tell us about yourself and the path that took you to where you are today.
Brendan: The path that took me here is not a straightforward one, and I think that’s probably true for most people. Going back to high school, I always knew I wanted to make films but I didn’t necessarily think it was possible for quite some time.
At that time my understanding of filmmaking was limited. I didn’t know how many people it took to make a show, what they all did etc. I only really knew about directors and actors. What I did know was that I was always drawn to visual storytelling. I was constantly taking photographs, drawing, and exploring other types of art.
Eventually, I went to film school and studied cinematography full time for a year. I became completely hooked and fell in love with cinema and kept pushing to build my career.
From there, I decided I only wanted to shoot and not work my way through the camera department on set. It was a decision that was right for me however it did mean it took many more years trying to get onto a bigger film set. But like everything you keep pushing and building steps by step. And with some lucky opportunities every now and then I was able to start shooting shows that helped me get to where I am today.
Kirill: Looking at these first 15 or so years in the industry, what are the bigger changes you’ve seen so far?
Brendan: Oh between today and 15 years ago there’s a big shift in filmmaking and in many different areas of the industry. I think the most obvious is the rise of streaming over that time. They are just dominating now. But before them y really had big features, network television and of course independent films. Starting out I was doing independents. It was little projects either on 16mm or on digital, and of course another thing that has drastically changed over that time is digital technology. You can shoot fantastic images on digital cameras now, and we’ve seen huge changes in lighting. You have consoles and LED lights that are fully programmable and that has changed the way that I work more than anything else I think.
Cinematography of “Star City” by Brendan Uegama, courtesy of Apple TV.
Kirill: Would you want to turn back the clock and go back to the old film world?
Brendan: Many parts of me would love that but there’s a lot of good things about both film and digital filmmaking. I do love the process of film, trusting your instincts like that, the workflow on set. But digital allows so much other creativity and freedom. There are pros and cons of both.
It’s pretty unbelievable to look at what we have access to today when it comes to digital cameras. Your main camera can do high speed, be extremely sensitive in low light and small enough to put in configurations that you couldn’t before. And you can get quality images out of cameras the size of smartphones. That kind of flexibility is fantastic.
Kirill: What do you feel are the bigger misunderstandings or misconceptions about the role of the cinematographer?
Brendan: I think one of the biggest misconceptions about the role of the cinematographer is that it’s simply about making things look beautiful. Yes we care a lot about images but the job is really about storytelling and emotion.
A cinematographer is constantly trying to understand what the audience should feel in a moment and then using all the tools we have to support that. Sometimes that means creating something beautiful, and sometimes it means doing the opposite. The most important thing is that the image serves the story.
For me it also means being very involved in as many aspects of production. I want to understand the entire world we are creating so that I can contribute to the storytelling as much as possible. The more I understand the more I can offer the director.
Cinematography of “Star City” by Brendan Uegama, courtesy of Apple TV.
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