Reflections Magazine Issue #83 - Fall 2015 | Page 21

Feature Article

By Doug Goodnough

Siena Heights Graduate Enjoys Distinguished
Career as Director of Photography

D

arryl E. Smith casts a long
shadow standing 6 feet, 8 inches tall.
However, that shadow pales in comparison to the one he has cast as a director
of photography in Hollywood.
The 1985 Siena Heights graduate has
an impressive list of credits and clients,
including MTV, Disney, Coca-Cola, CBS,
the NFL Network and HBO. The owner
of his own production company, Darryl
E. Smith Productions, for the past 14
years, he said his path to success was a
winding one. And his starting point was
Siena Heights.
Originally recruited to play basketball
at Siena by former coach Ben Braun,
Smith said Siena Heights was the only
school that showed interest in him as a
student—not just as a basketball player.
“(Coach Braun) basically recruited
me on my interests instead of what they
needed,” said Smith, who planned to
study biology at Siena Heights. “He was
guaranteeing my mom that I would graduate. He said, ‘Basketball is important,
but so is education.’ I played basketball
to get an education.”

And Smith was well on his way to a
biology degree when a teammate asked
him to participate in a campus theater
production his junior year. He called that
experience a “pivotal point” in his life.
Acting was OK, but it was behind the
scenes that intrigued Smith. He began
working with former theater professor
Doug Miller on set building and lighting.
It was then that the literal “light bulb”
went on for Smith.
“We lit a couple of small lab theater
plays, then Tennessee Williams’ play
‘The Glass Menagerie,’” Smith recalled.
“(Miller) allowed me to implement an
idea. There was a symbol on top of the
statue, and he allowed me to put a light
up through it. At a certain time in the
play when someone went to reach for
(the statue), I pulled the lever and the
light streamed out. And the whole crowd
went ‘Oooohhhh.’ The hair stood up
on my arms, and that was it. After that,
I was over there (at the theater department) the whole time.”
Reflections Fall ’15 | 21