TUT Society of Cinematographers

10-02-'09

What is cinematography about?

• Putting the script into moving pictures.
• Turning the Director’s vision into images = Visual Auteur.
• It is a means of creating a picture using lighting, composition and movement.
• Motion and visual communication.
• It is all about MOOD. What mood does this light give you? Happy? Sad?
• Cinematography involves psychology.
• “In the beginning there was Cinematography” – before directing, script, etc.
• NB. “If we have beautiful pictures and yet the audience does not understand the story, we have FAILED!”

What does a cinematographer do?

• He assists with the shot list.
• He interprets to screen what is written.
• He interprets the script in such a way that the audience can interpret it visually. (Visual Language)
• Cinematographers must be Cool.
• He mainly does the visual part.
• He translates objects into moving images.
• He is a CRUCIAL PART of the production process.
• He is a visionary.
• He is a visual artist painting with light that what is in the director’s mind.
• He determines the look and the feel of the story.
• Cinematographers are after EMOTIONS.

- Emotions become beats.
= She cries – Beat
= He laughs - Beat

• Cinematographers show the beats without saying “She cries”.
• He determines what the audience sees, how they experience events happening on the screen and how they (audience) interpret the story.
• He inputs and collaborates with the other creative team members.
• He captures moments constructed by the director.
• He creates the medium – the film itself = the message
  - The medium is the message (Visual Language).

Extra

• Movement gives meaning = you need to see the image before and after to understand the meaning of the picture.
• When we watch a film we bring our past to the experience of the film.
• We bring our emotions to the film.