Cinematography resources

April 3, 2009 3:20 PM

Where can I learn more about cinematography?

I am looking for ways to learn more about cinematography so I have additional things to appreciate when I watch movies. Mostly I am looking for books, but I am open to any other suggestions too.

I am not looking to put any of these ideas into practice -- I don't film anything -- only observe them. In that sense what I'm particularly interested in things like how doing certain things will help tell one story better than doing something else, or doing another thing will invoke an emotion better than an alternative way of doing it, etc. In other words, something that someone who is not familiar with recording equipment will be able to appreciate. I'm not opposed to learning more technical things as well, though.

I'm in the Los Angeles area if that opens up any additional suggestions. Thanks!

posted by Nattie to media & arts (12 comments total)

Visions of Light is a good start.
posted by cazoo at 3:22 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

The 5 C's is a classic.
posted by shino-boy at 3:29 PM on April 3

Though it focuses on all aspects of film, there's a great deal of information on cinematography as well in the classic text FILM ART by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson.
posted by quintno at 3:30 PM on April 3

In addition to reading some books on cinematography (I'm sure there will be a number of really great suggestions), try to become a better watcher of films. Really look at what you're seeing. If there is a person's face in frame, ask yourself how the face is being lit. Is one side brighter? Is the back/top of the head lit? Does it appear that light is hitting the face uniformly, straight on? What about the background, how is it lit? Does the lighting make sense - if the only window is on the character's left side, would it make sense to have a light hitting them from the right? Be conscious of, and try to identify sources of light - okay, there is clearly a light hitting the face from the left...but also, their right shoulder is lit...and everything in the background is brightly lit...

Of course, reading about cinematography will help you understand why things are lit the way they are, where lights are most commonly placed in a scene, and why. All that stuff. A lot of people think that cinematography is camera placement or camera angles, but it has much more to do with lighting and the placement of lights.
posted by billysumday at 4:00 PM on April 3

Check out Yale Film Studies' Film Analysis Web Site 2.0. Section 3 discusses the essential terminology/techniques of cinematography, with plenty of illustrative stills and clips. The whole site is a fantastic resource.
posted by Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh at 4:15 PM on April 3

The book you want to go with your viewing of Visions of Light is Masters of Light: Conversations with Contemporary Cinematographers.

You also can't go really wrong with Film Directing Shot by Shot, which will show you all the basic camera movements, framing, lighting, and other considerations involved in shot composition.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 4:18 PM on April 3

And since you'll probably end up having to know something about how editorial decisions play into the emotional and visual impact of a shot, grab a used copy of In the Blink of an Eye, Revised 2nd Edition by Walter Murch. Murch is a pretty famous editor and writes very lucidly about the artistic process.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 4:24 PM on April 3

American Cinematographer magazine for traditional cinematography discussions.
Cinefex for computer generated stuff.
posted by mrmojoflying at 5:14 PM on April 3

These suggestions are fantastic; keep 'em coming!
posted by Nattie at 5:19 PM on April 3

There's an amusing and educational new book called The Citizen Kane Crash Course in Cinematography: A Wildly Fictional Account of How Orson Welles Learned Everything about the Art of Cinematography in Half an Hour. Or, Was It a Weekend?
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 6:53 PM on April 3

seconding visions of light. also consider driving up to pasadena and taking a night class or two at art center. the film and photo departments have a cinematography/director of photography track that's pretty good. directing one is a class I took a long time ago and it was pretty awesome though harsh.
posted by krautland at 8:14 AM on April 4

So far I have been able to watch Visions of Light and was underwhelmed. It didn't talk about much of anything technical or helpful; every short segment about each example movie basically said, "We did the lightning a certain way," without giving any details about what that even meant or why they choose that way instead of another way. I can appreciate that some people probably do certain things based on feeling or intuition without being able to articulate why, but I didn't feel like I learned anything about cinematography or got any deeper appreciation of movies from it.

To use an analogy, I am a writer. There is some degree to which any artistic decision is difficult to explain, but I find I can very much do that for a lot of things related to writing. I can explain why I would choose one word over another, or why a long sentence here and a short one there, or why something is two sentences and not one, or vice versa. I could explain why a paragraph breaks here instead of another place. There is always a reason I choose to reveal information at one point and not earlier or later. I could explain why a character is a certain way and not another, or why the plot goes the way it does. I can discuss what I was trying to accomplish and how I set out to do it. I can explain how I got the idea to do something. I can talk about what motivates me.

A great many writing books do just that. Then there are some that don't really say anything helpful. To me, watching Visions of Light was like reading one of those unhelpful writing books. It had a lot of cinematographers talking about how they use light to show emotion, and that's as deep as it went. It's kind of like a writer saying they use words to show emotion; it's too general to be helpful, and it's something you already know going in.

I'm just putting that out there for anyone who comes across this thread later; I don't mean to sound ungrateful for the suggestion.
posted by Nattie at 2:04 AM on May 22