What exactly is the job of cinematographer?
In: Other
My daughter is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker. Very early in her career, cinematographer for a project couldn’t come last minute and she was the local talent replacement—never having done it before. I literally had to look it up because while I had heard the word I couldn’t easily calculate JUST how over her head she was.
She did great! I was also relieved to understand it was also called “director of photography” since she had that shit down……
The director manages every artistic aspect of the film, and the DP (director of photography) manages what appears in the shot and all the cinematographers, the cinematographers job is controlling the camera Technically and artistically
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Roles on a film can change pretty dramatically depending on who is directing and producing.
The cinematographer (essentially the same role as a Director of Photography) is responsible for the “look” of the film, how scenes are lit, what cameras and lenses are used to capture a scene, and how a shot is framed.
A cinematographer is a creative problem solver and usually very high in a films creative department (usually they are second-in-charge of the creative side of the film and works directly with the director).
For example: A director will say “I want *this* type of shot that evokes *this* type of feeling” and it will be the cinematographers job to figure out what lenses and film stock to use to capture the shot, what camera setting to use, how to light it, where to place the cameras, etc. and then instruct the other departments on what to do to achieve the shot.
They will usually be highly experienced and technically knowledgeable.
Their job is to *technically* achieve the director’s vision for capturing the action on camera.
As simple as I can put it, the director decides what the scene should look and feel like and the cinematographer/director of photography is in charge of bringing that vision to life. Director wants high angles to communicate anxiety, the cinematographer/dp figures out what that would actually look like and how to shoot it to convey the director’s vision.
It’s the same for a lot of jobs on movies. They exist to physically realize the visions of the director. Sure, maybe it was the director’s idea to have a wall of old bottles but the art director has to figure out how to achieve the look the director wants from them, how to set it up, what kind of bottles, etc. It all goes back to the director’s vision, but filtered through the lens of each person’s specialty.
(Cinematographer and director of photography are usually used to mean the same thing, but occasionally, “cinematographer” is used to indicate the person who physically carried out the shot. But usually that’s just called a camera person.)
The cinematographer (also called a director of photography, or DoP for short). is part of the leadership trio on set.
producer: finds money for the project, runs the budgets for project and accounting, hires crew,
director: in charge of “above the line”- hires actors, composers, and makes creative decisions
director of photography: head of the below the line: heads of canera dept and lighting dept and grip dept report directly to him and take orders from the DoP.
often times the DoP makes the call on what department heads are hired.
Like all power trios, the power shifts around from project to project.
I have seen DoP’s that really were “shadow directing” for a weak director- including giving actors performance notes. ( the directors job)
I have seen some directors compose every single shot, turning the DoP into basically just a camera operator. A director can do that though. The DoP Is there to serve the directors vision, and is the technical expert on how best to capture it.
Most of the time a director goes “Okay lets get a (fill in the blank) shot”. The DoP will go. “if i move to the left here we see the building in the background, its a better angle”. and the director goes “yeah love it. Action!”
or a director may go “no, i want the camera higher, it makes us look down on Tom, and I want him emotionally fragile in this scene.”
DoP concerned with making the composition and lens choice and lighting to set emotional mood and tone of the movie.
They tap the part of the display needing a relighten and it automatically adjusts… at least the phone cinematographers do this
Simply put, a cinematographer makes the movie looks how everyone sees it. The lighting, colors, etc.
Yeah above the line is the creative, that which usually appears on screen or on the audio.
bleow the line are all the crew. the people wearing tool belts on set, and are considered “behind the scenes.”
really creativity is everywhere on set. Even the snack table can be a work of art ;).
So above the line. means, on the call sheet itll list the actors and the musicians and the dancers and the guy in the penguin suit.
then theres a hard line, and then it lists
all the crews call time. camera dept lighting dept grips, pas, ad, transpo, the flame bar guy missing a fonger from pinoccio 3, the reckoning. ect
Hence the term above the line”. and “below the line”. its an actual line on the call sheet separating the two
Someone mentioned Roger Deakins. when i was a gaffer, I got asked to light Roger for the hollywood reporter. blade runner 2049 had just came out. I asked him “how do you feel about the movie”. and he said “ive seen it over 150 times. all i can see are my mistakes”. we all laughed. “but its such a beautiful movie!!”
Hes a very humble and incredibly talented director of photography.
Watch some of his youtube videos on how he lit “the assasination of jesse james”. with brad pitt.
deakins had new lenses made woth beautifully flawed edges that imitated vintage 1880s glass
At its most basic, they are the “technical” side to the director’s “artistic” side. The director has the vision, the cinematographer (DP) makes it happen.
Of course, as some have already pointed out, there are varying levels depending on the skill of the director and/or the DP. For instance, I did a paper on Steven Spielberg and his relationship with his DP, Janusz Kaminski. He’s been Spielberg’s guy since Schindler’s List.
There is a very different look to Spielberg’s films pre-Schindler and post-Schindler. Pre-films have a Spielbergian look to them. ET, Indiana Jones, Jaws, etc are all very flat but colorful with focus on the story and the characters because that’s what Spielberg believed was important. The post-films are more artistic, deeply staged, and monochromatic. Think Lincoln, Saving Private Ryan, and Minority Report.
That’s not to say one style is bette than the other, but there is a stark difference in how Spielberg’s films look. I, for one, love Kaminski’s work and you can see how much artistic control Spielberg has to handed to him, which shows a relationship of trust. Spielberg imagines a shot and Kaminski puts it on film even better than he could have envisioned.
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