Sight, Sound & Story: Behind the Lens of “The Pitt”
Inside the Episode: Join Sight, Sound & Story for an in-depth conversation with The Pitt Cinematographer Johanna Coelho, whose visual approach is helping redefine the language of contemporary television. As the sole cinematographer on The Pitt, Coelho crafts an unobtrusive camera style that places viewers inside the emotional intensity of a high-stakes emergency room, creating what she describes as an almost “invisible” real-time experience.
Moderated by Josh Apter, the discussion will explore Coelho’s creative process, including designing long, choreographed camera movements, working within fully immersive 360-degree sets, and maintaining visual continuity across an entire season. Coelho will also share and discuss favorite scenes from Season Two, offering insight into how they were created.
Presented as part of the ongoing Sight, Sound & Story series, this session offers a rare opportunity to hear from one of today’s most innovative cinematographers about collaboration, storytelling, and the evolving role of the camera in shaping audience experience.
Moderator: Josh Apter (Owner & Founder of Manhattan Edit Workshop)
Panelists: Cinematographer Johanna Coelho (The Rookie, The Pitt)
When: Thursday, May 28, 2026
Time: 8:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM PT
General Admission: FREE!
All attendees who register for this event will receive a link and a password before the event begins. This will gain free access for attendees. This will also give free replays for 48 hours.
By signing up for the event, all attendees agree to receive promotional emails from Manhattan Edit Workshop.
Panelists:
Johanna Coelho is a TV and film cinematographer, also featured in Variety in 2018 as one of the Up Next generation of filmmakers. Most recently, she served as the sole DP on HBO MAX’s The Pitt, a unique medical drama in which each episode follows a single hour of the same 15-hour ER shift.
Previously, she also worked on seasons 2 and 4 of The Rookie on ABC and has worked on a variety of content from narrative to documentary and reality TV with other renowned companies such as Netflix, Oxygen Network, Hello Sunshine, Scout Productions, and COSM. Outside of television, her recent feature film Séance premiered at the Newport Beach Film Festival, while her other recent feature film, “All Happy Families,” premiered at the Chicago Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release across the country.
Johanna has been passionate about creating and experimenting with meaningful images since a very young age. Her early determination and drive for cinematography have led her to be one of the youngest cinematographers to ever shoot network television. She loves to say she is a visual psychologist: her role is to understand and interpret the emotions of the characters to create the best visual atmosphere for actors to perform in.
Johanna was born and raised in France. Seeking to enrich her European approach with the American perspective, she moved to Los Angeles in 2011, where she studied cinematography at the prestigious American Film Institute.
Josh Apter has worked in all areas of filmmaking, from location sound recordist on numerous feature films, to videographer for Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation, where he recorded the testimonies of over 150 Holocaust survivors. As a film editor, Josh has worked on over ten feature films, including “The Holy Land” (winner Slamdance FF/Cavu Pictures Distributor), “Kaaterskill Falls,” and “Barbecue is a Noun” (Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Rome International Film Festival and the River Run Film Festival).
From his love of post-production, Josh founded Manhattan Edit Workshop in 2002. MEWShop is an Avid, Assimilate, and Blackmagic Authorized Training Center offering a variety of classes in the art and technique of film editing. With clients ranging from AMC Networks, HBO, NBC, CBS, WNET, and CNN, Manhattan Edit Workshop has become the premier training destination for the highest-level content creators and media professionals.