From American Cinematographer, Storaro and Bulworth by Garrett Brown (June 1998)
Regarding shooting black-and-white photography:
"It would be like having a piano with only three keys."
- Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC
I read, discuss, and discover new things about cinematography everyday. Most of it, I consider incredibly interesting. Everyday I will share one of those things, maybe more if I have time.
Showing posts with label analogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label analogy. Show all posts
25.5.09
Warren Beatty: Making Movies
From American Cinematographer, Storaro and Bulworth by Garrett Brown (June 1998)
Warren compares making movies to repeated trips on a 747:
"You can't get off in mid-flight, so when people ask each other back it means there is a shared feeling of confidence and understanding."
- Warren Beatty
Warren compares making movies to repeated trips on a 747:
"You can't get off in mid-flight, so when people ask each other back it means there is a shared feeling of confidence and understanding."
- Warren Beatty
Gabriel Beristain: Subtracting Light & Darkness
From American Cinematographer, Paging Machiavelli by Eric Rudolph (March 1998)
"In that office set there were places where I could not put any lights, [which led to] gigantic gaps of darkness. We tried, were possible, to use darkness in this film the way a playwright might use silence, where the lack of words says something very important. I've always believed that sometimes lighting, as opposed to illumination, is more about subtracting light."
- Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC
"There are moments where Campbell Scott is in almost complete darkness. Then he steps out of the shadows and delivers a powerful line. One of those moments is actually a turning point for his character, where he goes from being pushed around to standing up for himself. He steps out of the darkness and into the light and says 'How dare you, after what I've done for the company?' He challenges his boss for the first time."
- Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC
"In that office set there were places where I could not put any lights, [which led to] gigantic gaps of darkness. We tried, were possible, to use darkness in this film the way a playwright might use silence, where the lack of words says something very important. I've always believed that sometimes lighting, as opposed to illumination, is more about subtracting light."
- Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC
"There are moments where Campbell Scott is in almost complete darkness. Then he steps out of the shadows and delivers a powerful line. One of those moments is actually a turning point for his character, where he goes from being pushed around to standing up for himself. He steps out of the darkness and into the light and says 'How dare you, after what I've done for the company?' He challenges his boss for the first time."
- Gabriel Beristain, ASC, BSC
12.5.09
Peter Suschitzky: On His 'Painterly Style'
From American Cinematographer, Flesh for Fantasy by Eric Rudolph (May 1999)
"We're all subconsciously influenced by all that we look at as we go through life. I have always loved the visual arts, including painting, but paintings and photography are necessarily different, if related. In photography, we can never experience or convey, as can the painter, the touch of brush on canvas or the feeling of the passage in the making of the painting. Light is only one element in the medium, and ours is a medium involving optics and chemistry, and is very much of the instantaneous moment. We should not try to mimic painting, rather we should use our medium for what it is; a mimicry of painting will usually just look awkward, if not kitsch."
- Peter Suschitzky, BSC
"We're all subconsciously influenced by all that we look at as we go through life. I have always loved the visual arts, including painting, but paintings and photography are necessarily different, if related. In photography, we can never experience or convey, as can the painter, the touch of brush on canvas or the feeling of the passage in the making of the painting. Light is only one element in the medium, and ours is a medium involving optics and chemistry, and is very much of the instantaneous moment. We should not try to mimic painting, rather we should use our medium for what it is; a mimicry of painting will usually just look awkward, if not kitsch."
- Peter Suschitzky, BSC
11.5.09
Cecil B. DeMille: "He is a True Artist"
Cecil B. DeMille, wrote a small letter to the members of the American Society of
Cinematographers. It was a "heartfelt gesture in praise of ASC members Wyckoff, L. Guy Wilky, J. Peverell Marley, Karl Struss, Victor Milner, Hal Rosson, George Barnes and other cinematographers who had helped bring his films to the screen — and, by extension, of all ASC members for their contributions to the art of filmmaking." - American Cinematographer
The following is the letter entitled, He Is A True Artist.
"Amid the strange ingredients of Hollywood — a world typified by the human swarm and the artistic abstraction — there is a figure unknown to the chants of promoters and glorifiers. His hand has rarely held the scepter of public acclaim, his brow is not crowned with the envied olive leaf which so often settles upon the lordly producer and queens of beauty. This figure, a giant in his industry, is the cameraman — the sine qua non of a profession which often boasts that no one in its ranks is indispensable. No one, I say, save the cameraman.
I believe this is why:
He is the custodian of the heart of filmmaking as the writers are of its soul …
His tool is a box with a glass window, lifeless until he breathes into it his creative spirit and injects into its steel veins the plasma of his imagination …
The product of his camera, and therefore of his magic, means many things to many persons — fulfillment of an idea, an ambition ... realization of dreams …
He is the judge who applies the laws of dramatic effect in complete coordination and fellowship with the director who interprets those laws …
Light, composition, treatment are his instruments of power, which he wields with intelligence and sensitiveness to bring to full bloom the meaning of his art …
His versatile management of an intricate mechanism yields astonishing
results in mood, emotion, dramatic effect …
A slanting shadow becomes a shattering portent of doom …
A lifeless chair instills the feeling of infinite sorrow …
A dead wall awakens a foreboding of plunging terror …
A flash of a man’s face rises to the grandeur of drama, inspiring and ennobling …
Before his wizardry, wrinkles fade from the faces of Hollywood’s ageless, imperishable beauties… chins take on lovely contours… years melt away ….
Yes, the technique of the cameraman is the technique of artistic vivisection that lays bare the inner workings of our profession. If art can be said to be the expression of beauty in form, color, sound, shape or movement, then it must
be said that same art is the art of the cameraman — expressed in the boundless reaches of his imagination.
For his patience and singleness of purpose in a most arduous work, he is eminently deserving of that which is justly said of few men: 'He is a true artist.'"
— Cecil B. DeMille
Cinematographers. It was a "heartfelt gesture in praise of ASC members Wyckoff, L. Guy Wilky, J. Peverell Marley, Karl Struss, Victor Milner, Hal Rosson, George Barnes and other cinematographers who had helped bring his films to the screen — and, by extension, of all ASC members for their contributions to the art of filmmaking." - American Cinematographer
The following is the letter entitled, He Is A True Artist.
"Amid the strange ingredients of Hollywood — a world typified by the human swarm and the artistic abstraction — there is a figure unknown to the chants of promoters and glorifiers. His hand has rarely held the scepter of public acclaim, his brow is not crowned with the envied olive leaf which so often settles upon the lordly producer and queens of beauty. This figure, a giant in his industry, is the cameraman — the sine qua non of a profession which often boasts that no one in its ranks is indispensable. No one, I say, save the cameraman.
I believe this is why:
He is the custodian of the heart of filmmaking as the writers are of its soul …
His tool is a box with a glass window, lifeless until he breathes into it his creative spirit and injects into its steel veins the plasma of his imagination …
The product of his camera, and therefore of his magic, means many things to many persons — fulfillment of an idea, an ambition ... realization of dreams …
He is the judge who applies the laws of dramatic effect in complete coordination and fellowship with the director who interprets those laws …
Light, composition, treatment are his instruments of power, which he wields with intelligence and sensitiveness to bring to full bloom the meaning of his art …
His versatile management of an intricate mechanism yields astonishing
results in mood, emotion, dramatic effect …
A slanting shadow becomes a shattering portent of doom …
A lifeless chair instills the feeling of infinite sorrow …
A dead wall awakens a foreboding of plunging terror …
A flash of a man’s face rises to the grandeur of drama, inspiring and ennobling …
Before his wizardry, wrinkles fade from the faces of Hollywood’s ageless, imperishable beauties… chins take on lovely contours… years melt away ….
Yes, the technique of the cameraman is the technique of artistic vivisection that lays bare the inner workings of our profession. If art can be said to be the expression of beauty in form, color, sound, shape or movement, then it must
be said that same art is the art of the cameraman — expressed in the boundless reaches of his imagination.
For his patience and singleness of purpose in a most arduous work, he is eminently deserving of that which is justly said of few men: 'He is a true artist.'"
— Cecil B. DeMille
Denis Lenoir: Cinematographer or Cook?
"On a film set, I think of myself as a cook. With its own minor notes and surprising harmonies, the sauce I make concurs to the taste of the movie and brings out the story and the actors. Three extra grains or too little spice can change the experience of the people eating the meal. I love to cook, and when I do, I want to start with the best ingredients. If you leave something out of the recipe so you can cook faster or easier, it's probably not going to taste the same. Cinematography and cooking are sensual experiences. They are part art and part science, part tradition and part innovation. Whether I am cooking or part of a team creating a movie, I love improvising under pressure."
- Denis Lenoir ASC, AFC
- Denis Lenoir ASC, AFC
Gordon Willis: The Story Telling Cinematographer
"A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist - moving an audience through a movie ... making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark."
-Gordon Willis, ASC.
-Gordon Willis, ASC.
Giuseppe Rotunno: Cinematography Analogy
From American Cinematographer, Renaissance Man by Ron Magid (March 1999)
Rotunno likes to say that he has created a great deal out of very little; he points out that just as music only has seven basic notes, cinematography has only three lights:
"You've got the key light, fill light, and back light, out of which comes an infinity of results. The light is like a kaleidoscope, but those three lights mixed together are more touchy than the kaleidoscope. It's difficult to ask a painter, 'How did you paint the picture?' I go with my eyes and intuition. I like so much to light, and I cannot stop. When I was shooting with Fellini, I was always lighting the next shot, because I was afraid to lose the idea of the light. My love for this work made it really easy. I work very hard, but the days seem only five minutes long. It's a business I'm very, very proud of, because I was able to crate wonderful harmony with my directors, and to release their fantasies."
-Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC, AIC
Rotunno likes to say that he has created a great deal out of very little; he points out that just as music only has seven basic notes, cinematography has only three lights:
"You've got the key light, fill light, and back light, out of which comes an infinity of results. The light is like a kaleidoscope, but those three lights mixed together are more touchy than the kaleidoscope. It's difficult to ask a painter, 'How did you paint the picture?' I go with my eyes and intuition. I like so much to light, and I cannot stop. When I was shooting with Fellini, I was always lighting the next shot, because I was afraid to lose the idea of the light. My love for this work made it really easy. I work very hard, but the days seem only five minutes long. It's a business I'm very, very proud of, because I was able to crate wonderful harmony with my directors, and to release their fantasies."
-Giuseppe Rotunno, ASC, AIC
9.5.09
Conrad Hall: Contrast
"For me, the use of light is really exciting. In nature, contrast is what makes light fascinating. So the use of contrast- surprising someone with the amount of difference in those values-- is what makes things interesting. When you're driving toward the Grand Canyon, all you can see is an open plain until you suddenly come right up to the edge of it, and then you gasp because of the striking contrast of this thing being so deep. It's the same with brightness and darkness. Contrast can be used to create that same sort of breath taking sensation of too much or too little. It's a tool to work with in creating mood, but you have to be courageous. And, of course, it's hard to be courageous! It's not like the writer who can just simply rip out a page; it costs a lot of money to put images on film. There's a great responsibility to make sure that everything works, which often keeps you from getting to adventurous in the storytelling. You have to struggle with this knowledge that you can't and mustn't fail, but then again, you should always try to do more than just succeed. In telling a story, you should try to be exact in a spectacular way, and that requires courage and a good sense of your craft."
-Conrad Hall
-Conrad Hall
Conrad Hall: Approach to Lighting
"I'm not like a lighting cameraman, who can light without looking through the camera. I cannot light if I can't see the movie that I'm dealing with. I've always imagined that cinematography is like a writer with a blank, white paper in front of him. Cinematographers have a blank screen that has to be filled with the story. I don't necessarily have one mental checklist of how I approach the lighting on a film, but I do have a frame. And in that frame, you have a subject to deal with that's involved with a story. You have to create visualizations that suit the theme and utilize all of the techniques at your fingertips to enhance the right mood. Being a visualist , I often absorb the environment around me and make mental notes. I don't even do it consciously, but I'm always noting how someone looks in a certain scenario. That impression gets stored away in my mental computer. When you're working on a film, all of your past comes with you, with all of the observations you've stored away; you bring forth the observations that apply to the particular story at hand."
-Conrad Hall, ASC
-Conrad Hall, ASC
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