2.4: Cinematography

Capturing the moving image.

Photography is the art of fixing an image in durable form through either a chemical or digital process. It requires a detailed, scientific knowledge of how light reflects off the lived environment and how that light reacts to various light-sensitive media. It also requires a sophisticated grasp of color temperature and the interplay of light and shadow. An artist’s sensibility to composition, the arrangement of objects, and setting within the camera's frame to achieve balance and visual interest. Not to mention a deep, technical understanding of the gear required, cameras, formats, lenses, and their respective idiosyncrasies. And it helps if you know how to tell a story in a single image, frozen in time. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Now, do that at least 24 times every second.

That’s cinematography: Capturing the moving image.

For many film lovers and even just the casual viewer, this is what we show up for. But I’ve waited five chapters to discuss it because it’s important to understand that cinematography – while it may often get the most glory – is only one part of how cinema works. Without a sophisticated mise-en-scéne and a narrative to follow, it’s just a bunch of meaningless images. Not to mention the importance of editing, sound, and performance. Put it all together, cinematography is the anchor point to a much larger cinematic experience.

The person responsible for all of this is the cinematographer, sometimes known as the director of photography (DP). Their job is to translate the director’s vision into usable footage, using all of the photographic skills listed above and only after making a series of crucial decisions, which we will get to below. It is one of the most technical jobs in cinema, requiring as much science as it does art:

And just as the production designer oversees a whole crew of craftspeople helping to fully realize the mise-en-scéne, the cinematographer also relies on a large team known as the camera department. The camera department includes the camera operator, the person actually handling the camera. I know; it seems like that should be the cinematographer. And it often is. However, on larger productions with multiple cameras or very complex shots, the cinematographer can only be in one place at a time. There’s also the 1st assistant camera (1st AC), which is responsible for the camera components, swapping out lenses, and, most importantly, keeping the camera in focus. However, that last job is sometimes given to another dedicated member of the team, the focus puller. Then you have the 2nd assistant camera (2nd AC), who assists the 1st AC and often operates the slate or clapper (more on that later).

A relatively new member of the camera department is the Digital Imaging Technician (DIT). With the rise of digital cinematography, instead of a dedicated person responsible for loading film onto the camera (known as a film loader, so creative with the names), we now have a person solely responsible for organizing the digital files coming off the camera. That can include quality control and color correction during the shoot.

Outside the dedicated camera department, the cinematographer also oversees the lighting department as well as the grip department, also known collectively as grip and electric. The lighting department is, well, responsible for all the lights required to shoot a scene. As should be obvious, lights require electricity. Electricity can be dangerous, especially when 100 crew members are running around trying to get a shot before lunch. So, the head of the lighting department is a skilled electrician known as the gaffer. The gaffer has a first assistant as well, called the best boy. (I know, not very gender-neutral. If the “best boy” is female, they might be called best babe, which is worse.) And then a whole crew of electrics is responsible for putting the lights wherever the gaffer tells them to. Grips are there to move everything else that isn’t a light. That includes lighting stands, flags, bounces, even cranes, dollies, and the camera itself. The head of the grip department is the key grip, and one of their most important jobs is on-set safety. With so many literal moving parts, it is very easy for someone to get hurt.

That’s a lot of people to keep track of for one cinematographer, but fortunately, there is a tightly controlled hierarchy, and they all know their jobs. A simple command from the cinematographer, “Flag off that 10k, we’re going wide on the dolly,” may sound like gibberish, but everyone on a film set knows exactly what to do. In fact, there’s a whole cinema-specific vocabulary that film crews use to keep the shoot moving quickly and efficiently. From apple boxes to barn doors to C-stands, the lingo can get downright bizarre. Clothespins are not clothespins; they’re C-47s (and yes, they use a lot of clothespins on a film set), and breakfast isn’t the morning meal; it’s the first meal on set, which could be 6 o’clock in the evening. And if someone is in the bathroom, they’re 10-100 (or 10-200 as the case may be), but they’re definitely not “in the can”, which is what you say when a scene is completed.

But aside from the esoteric lingo on the set, there are a few key terms everyone should know. The first is the shot, the most basic building block of cinematography. As mentioned in Chapter Two, a shot is one continuous capture of a span of action by a motion picture camera. A finished film is made up of a series of these shots of varying lengths, that ultimately tell the story. But during production, each shot may need to be repeated several (or dozens or even hundreds of) times until everyone gets it right. Every time they repeat the shot, it’s called a take. And once the director and cinematographer feel they have the best version of that shot, it’s time to move the camera – and everything associated with it – to a new shot, sometimes just a slightly different angle on the same scene. That’s called a set-up. New set-ups require everyone on the crew to jump into action, rearranging the camera, the lights, the set dressing, etc. That can take time. Lots of time. And it’s one reason assistant directors, responsible for planning how long it will all take, think of the schedule in terms of the number of set-ups a crew can accomplish each day.

Obviously, a film set is a complicated place requiring a complex choreography of dozens, if not hundreds, of personnel all dedicated to rendering the moving picture. But there are many decisions a cinematographer has to make before they even arrive on set. These decisions – film or digital, black and white or color, lighting, lenses, framing, and movement – are all made in collaboration with the director and in service to the narrative and the overall mise-en-scéne. Some of them are incredibly technical, and some are purely aesthetic, but each one of them will affect how we engage in the cinematic experience.