Cinematographer and photographer Peter Castagnetti ’99 works behind the scenes on an ad campaign for Goodr Sunglasses as the director of photography, pictured with his former business partner and longtime collaborator, Barret Bowman.
The prophecy section of Peter Castagnetti ’99’s eighth-grade yearbook predicted that he would become a film critic. “I always loved movies,” he says. “But where I grew up, it really wasn’t considered that you could grow up to actually make them.”
That perspective shifted when he arrived at Taft. “Taft had a video program before a lot of colleges did,” Castagnetti says. As a mid, he learned to edit on a VHS-to-VHS system and started making his own films.
While Castagnetti downplays those early projects, they proved formative, helping him develop technical skills and a feel for storytelling. “That gave me a leg up when I got to college because I was thinking a little more dynamically about the process,” he says. Castagnetti studied film at Emerson College before moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career behind the camera.
Over the past two decades, he has established himself as a filmmaker and photographer focused on purpose-driven storytelling. His production company, WorkLikeHell, collaborates with brands and nonprofits—such as YETI, lululemon, and the Gates Foundation—to tell stories with heart and intention.
His cinematography credits include the 2023 dark comedy Adventures of the Naked Umbrella and Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race and America, a stirring documentary that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2015 South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival.
A pivotal moment in Castagnetti’s journey came in 2013, when he joined Easton Sports’s in-house content team. The iconic baseball company gave him access to high-end gear and creative freedom. “They bought us a super slow-motion camera so we could shoot 1,500 frames per second,” he says. “You’re watching the millisecond the baseball mushes on the bat as it makes contact.”
Castagnetti works behind the scenes on an ad campaign for Goodr Sunglasses as the director of photography.
Through Easton’s brand director, he was introduced to The DO Lectures, a speaker series similar to TED Talks that features people who’ve taken bold paths or followed their instincts to success. This experience led Castagnetti and his former business partner to begin seeking projects with impact-driven clients and compelling characters.
“We started to look at it as, if you have a worthwhile story to tell, then we can tell it with heart, soul, and style,” he says. “Another north star we followed was how to take a really complicated concept and translate it to the cinematic language in a way that’s fun, inspiring, and relatable.”
That approach shines in Hungry Life: Yellowstone River, a short series he codirected for YETI. Over two four-day travel shoots, Castagnetti followed chef Eduardo Garcia down the Yellowstone River as he prepared meals with found ingredients. Striking visuals aside, it’s the intimacy and sense of adventure that linger. “I’m always trying to connect with the soul of the person on the other side of the camera,” he explains. “A thinking face is one of the most interesting things in the world to me.”
Castagnetti (in tan shirt) shoots macro miniatures in the desert for a PBS (SoCal) series, Off the Beaten Path; also pictured is Director Georg Kallert. Photo Credit: Jay Steger
Establishing trust is at the core of Castagnetti’s work. He recently served as cinematographer for The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, a Netflix docuseries examining the troubled teen industry. Castagnetti interviewed dozens of survivors who had endured horrific abuse at a behavior modification program. “My biggest job was building trust and honoring that trust,” he says.
In one shoot, they returned to the program’s abandoned facilities in upstate New York. The visit stirred painful memories but yielded powerful footage, including an interview in the same room where one subject had been held in solitary confinement.
Before filming someone, Castagnetti always made a point to spend time with them. “We’d find some things to connect on as human beings, so by the time I’m pointing a camera at them, I’m just Pete,” he says.
Last year, Castagnetti gave his own DO Lecture titled “How do we make it special?” The talk captured the creative approach he’s been developing since his earliest days at Taft.
“Two of the most important things are that I absolutely love to learn, and creative problem solving is my happy place,” he says. “Production, at the end of the day, is just a hurricane of creative problem solving.”