Chris Teague’s thriving movie career is due to his vision. Literally.

Teague, AS’02, is a cinematographer, also known as a director of photography, the person in charge of cameras and lighting on a film set who, more than anyone else, determines what the lens actually captures.

He’s already had a taste of the big time. Teague served as the director of photography on the indie film “Children of Invention,” which was selected for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

Is the Park City, Utah, glamourfest all it’s cracked up to be? Yes and no, says Teague: “Sundance is a mix. It’s fun and exciting, but also overwhelming. There’s pressure to network and meet people.”

A cinema studies major at Northeastern, Teague went on to earn an MFA in film at Columbia University. He’d minored in photography at Northeastern, so when his classmates needed someone to shoot their films, he answered the call, and taught himself cinematography shot by shot.

Now Teague wants to stretch himself as a director. He wrote and directed “Thorndike,” his thesis film, which screened at several festivals and won a New Line Cinema Development Grant. Another project he directed, “Monkeywrench,” is the shorter version of a feature-length movie he’s currently working on.

Short films are tough to make, Teague reports. “Shooting a longer film is easier,” he says. “You need time to get momentum. And ‘longer’ means more time to collaborate.

“Collaboration,” Teague adds, “is what gets me most excited.”