Call her Assistant Camera, call her Director of Photography – and definitely call her busy.

From web series to indie features to high-profile network TV, Kingslea Bueltel has a full dance card to say the least. The Texas-based Film Production alum, who graduated in late ’08, assisted on the feature Rising Stars, which got its theatrical release last week, and worked on Doonby under DP Peter Field (Hot Fuzz, Tomb Raider). Then she spent her summer as director of photography on Throwing Stones, a web-based horror series.

Now she’s working as an assistant camera (AC) on The Good Guys, the Fox series from Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, starring Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks. Kingslea was kind enough to make time in her hectic schedule to catch us up on her growing filmography.

The Good Guys – how’s that been going?

Kingslea: Camera assisting on The Good Guys is a total fantasy job. Awesome people, a lot of laughs on set, and tons of fun, crazy action scenes. This is my first television series and it’s so cool to be able to tune in each week and know that I play a small part in creating something seen by so many people. The show is set in Dallas and it’s great to see my hometown featured on a network series.

Good Guys creator and executive producer Matt Nix is also the mind behind the very popular Burn Notice. I’ve been a fan of that show for some time and I was so stoked when the Dallas Film Commission broke the news last year that his latest project would be coming to Dallas. It’s a privilege to be a member of the crew and a fan at the same time. Our leads, Bradley Whitford and Colin Hanks, have phenomenal chemistry and comedic timing and I never miss an episode. My friends and family all really love the show and that makes it even more meaningful to me, knowing that they’re all getting to see and enjoy what I do.

I work a lot of the 2nd Unit shoots and we do so many fun stunt and special effects sequences. It’s an incredible feeling to be so excited about going to work each day. Blowing up buildings or tearing down the street shooting a car chase is a pretty rad way to earn a living.

You’re obviously really busy, but one of the projects you worked on a while ago, Rising Stars, is seeing the inside of theatres this month. What can you tell us about it?

Kingslea: Rising Stars is a musically-driven story about a group of kids competing to make a hit music video on a reality show. It’s a family-friendly film that features some great pop music – one of the songs from the film, “It’s You”, performed by Jesse Payo and Leon Thomas III, has been released as a viral video cut from the movie as part of the promotional campaign. [See it here]

We shot Rising Stars in August of ’09 over 18 days. The movie was made on a very low budget, but we had amazing talent – Fisher Stevens, Barry Corbin, and Canadian actor/musician Kyle Riabko to name just a few – and a small but extremely gifted, accomplished, predominantly Texan crew. It was a two-camera shoot led by fantastic Ft. Worth-based DP Ron Gonzalez, and I was the ‘A’ camera 1st AC. Our art department was comprised of several awesome graduate students from AFI and they did a killer job. We filmed at the University of Texas at Arlington, writer/director Dan Millican’s alma mater, and they were incredibly gracious hosts. All of these elements came together as a finished film that we’re all proud of and it looks like it cost ten times what was actually spent.

You’ve worked on so many things since then – is it strange to get hyped for it now that it’s gotten a limited release?

Kingslea: No, it’s not at all strange to get hyped for something I worked on a year ago. You just expect feature films to take awhile to get from script to screen and I haven’t forgotten the challenges of the shoot or the fun we had on set. I feel that way about everything I work on; it’s always exciting for me when a film is released or gets a festival screening or when a music video or television show makes it to air. We do what we do for the sole purpose of that work being seen and finding an audience – regardless of the time it takes to deliver it. I am thrilled every time I have the chance to share something with my friends and family who have supported me throughout the beginnings of my career in what can be a tough industry.

I’ve been lucky enough to have been involved with a lot of great projects in the year since Rising Stars wrapped, but that’s definitely a special show for me. I made some wonderful friends and many of us still work together regularly. Rising Stars was my first time to work for Ron Gonzalez, and I’ve been assisting for him ever since.

My little film family from Rising Stars and I are all excited about the movie making it to theatres and a group of us are planning a trip to go see it together. We’ll probably take over a whole row of seats and be singing along with all the songs that were stuck in our heads during the shoot, and I’m sure there will be tons of memories that come back to us as we watch. I’m definitely looking forward to it!

And on Doonby, you got to work with Peter Field. How was that?

Kingslea: Doonby is a project that I’m truly grateful to have been a part of. The cast and crew were among the best I’ve encountered and Smithville, Texas – the town where we filmed – was a fabulous, hospitable place to shoot.

Working for Peter Field was a dream. He’s such an accomplished filmmaker and he’s tremendously kind, patient and knowledgeable. I’ve found that many DPs in the US have come to be cinematographers by way of gaffing and lighting design; it’s apparently more common for DPs in the UK to have come up through the camera department, and it was very instructive for me to work for a DP with years of experience as an AC. He taught me so many amazing little tips and tricks that I’ve since permanently incorporated into my own approach to the job.

Peter’s past credits include several films in the James Bond franchise, Hot Fuzz, and Tomb Raider – he has tons of experience shooting huge action sequences – and we got to do a couple of fun, exciting scenes with action and special effects on Doonby. It was an awesome opportunity to expand my own skill set under the guidance of a DP with such an incredible body of work.

Then, this summer, you were busy doing things like Throwing Stones – what was that experience like? The horror genre seems like an interesting change of pace for a DP.

Kingslea: Throwing Stones is a smart teen slasher rooted in the ‘Broken Window’ theory of socioeconomic decay. It’s sort of a blood-soaked twist on The Breakfast Club. I’m a huge horror fan and I share a love for the genre with Throwing Stones creators Bart Van Bemmel and Jason Wheeler. Earlier in the year, I worked as an AC on their horror short Virgin Mary Christmas, and we discovered our mutual passion for scary movies. When they offered me the DP position on Stones, I jumped at the chance to work with them again.

Bart and Jason definitely understand the genre, and the way that they wanted to tell this story presented an attractive challenge. We shot five short episodes in three days at a high school in Carrolton, Texas. The cast is comprised of some of the most talented young actors imaginable and we put them through some serious emotional and physical paces. The actors gave us so much that we wanted to really highlight the raw emotion coming from these characters.

One of our goals was to take a massive, almost empty high school campus and make it feel like a claustrophobic trap. The look and feel is manic and gritty, lots of handheld camera work, and we are all really happy with the way it’s coming together so far.

We are currently in post-production, but plan to roll out Season 1 soon. Bart and Jason are doing something really creative by posting student video yearbook clips on the show’s website that will give viewers some backstory about Blair High School and lead up to our first episode. I think it’s a fantastic way to set up the series and introduce the audience to the characters.

Several of the top horror websites – Fangoria, Dread Central, and Shock Till You Drop to name a few, have been so supportive in covering the project. Bart and Jason have done an outstanding job of connecting with the horror community early on and I have high hopes that Throwing Stones will do well and return for additional seasons.

We do too! Thanks, Kingslea, for taking the time to talk about these projects. We’ll be looking out for the debut of Throwing Stones along with horror fans everywhere.