What is Cinematography?
What is cinematography? Don’t bother looking up the definition, why you ask? Well, the actual definition of cinematography could just as well be the definition for any number of the working parts of what goes into a film. (Okay…okay, I’ll give you the definition but I warned you…here it is… cinematography is the art of making motion pictures…see I told you…not helpful at all.) I think this art and perhaps the most important part of making a film needs a little clarification. So, let’s discuss what cinematography is, its components and why it is so gosh darn important to how we view and interpret a film…
Cinematographer…Director of Photography (or DP for short), these are the men and women who often don’t get the credit they deserve for creating the masterpieces we all throw money at on a daily basis. you know those masterpieces that move us even though we just can’t figure out why! The answer to why is that there was some very devoted artist behind the camera working hand in hand with the names (you know the directors) we know and tout as genius’. The cinematographer can make or break a film just as much as the wrong actor…bad VFX…bad sound or an overzealous director and in my opinion, the cinematographer might just be more important than the director or even the writer in some cases. Now that I have gone on my little rant let’s actually discuss what it is that these unsung heroes of film do. A cinematographer is the right hand of the director (and sometimes even the left hand), they are responsible for the visual elements of the film. This includes shot composition, lighting, camera movement and creating the mood through color. Cinematographers treat the film as a language as all filmmakers do and learn the rules just to turn around to break them to further the films visual story. Now that we kind of know what the cinematographer does let's talk about the main components of cinematography….
- Selection of image sensor/film stock…Now, most filmmakers film in digital but when the film was still done on film this decision was amazingly important. Nowadays it’s about the image sensor (still super important) and picking one that will lend itself to creating the look of the film desired by the director and the story itself.
- Selection of the lens’…. The selection of lenses is massively important for the creation of depth of field and focus. This, of course, helps define what our eyes should be focused on as well as can be used to create and enrich the visual story within the film.
- Lighting composition and filter selection… Both of these choices are key for the cinematographer to create the desired mood and emotional response that the director and story wish to elicit from the audience. The color temperature and use of dark and light often time serve as almost a tertiary character within many of the classics in cinema…i.e Apocalypse Now (a bio on its cinematographer and a review of this film's cinematography will be coming soon.).
- Shot composition, framing, and camera movement…. A shot within a film can in and of itself tell a mini-story within the overarching story. Within that shot composition the camera movement and framing of a scene is intended to create an emotion, focus our attention on what the director wants us to be focused on or even give us little clues to mysteries within the story. The angle and movement can sometimes even pull emotion from the audience that they feel viscerally and unknowingly.
- Aspect ratio… The ration of the width to the height of the film can be used effectively to silently convey the scope and emotion of the film.
These are just some of the components of cinematography and some brief ideas of what each does for the overall film.
The importance of the cinematographer in no way takes anything away from the director’s part, nor the story-teller that wrote the script, and in no way am I intending to do that either. Instead, I am shining a light on someone who works just as hard at creating the films we all love to rip apart or praise (myself included) depending on our own tastes and an art form that I feel sometimes just doesn’t get the respect or love it deserves. After all most of our commentaries and reviews are simply our own opinion just as this post is nothing more than only my geekin’ opinion.
I would love to know what movie is your favorite for its cinematography. You can always reach out to me on Instagram @ mygeekinopinion (Plus follow My Geekin’ Opinion over there as well for more awesome geeky content.)
