Vilmos Zsigmond: Freedom on Set

From American Cinematographer, A Poignant Pas de Deux by Bob Fisher (December 1998)

"It's important to have the freedom to alter compositions and camera moves and take advantage of things that happen on the set. In order to do that, you need to plan for motivated light sources. Lamps, windows, open doors and mirrors are great because you can put them anyplace. This is especially important when you're working in the anamorphic format, because you can see more of the background behind people."

- Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC

John Lindley: Shooting Color and B&W

From American Cinematographer, Black-and-White in Color by Bob Fisher (November 1998)

Lindley made several accommodations to shooting color film for conversion to black-and-white. He used hard light to get crisp separations in scenes with monochrome characters. He also used a dimmer control board for lighting transitions when a black-and-white person left an area and a color character moved in.

"The black-and-white characters would be hard-lit, even though they were occupying the same space where we had soft light on a color character. Almost every light was wired to a dimmer board. The operator watched a monitor with a live video feed from the tap on the camera. We did a lot of cues on the fly as people moved around sets.

Your eye naturally goes to color in a black-and-white world. If you pick up a newspaper that has one color photograph and a bunch of other black-and-white ones, everybody looks at the color one first. It's human nature."

- John Lindley, ASC

He further explains that the same dynamic applies when there are color and black-and-white characters in the same shot.

"That was great if [the black-and-white person] was the character Gary wanted to highlight. But if it was a two-shot and he wanted to feature both characters, I sometimes adjusted the composition to give the black-and-white person a little more prominence."

- John Lindley, ASC

Chris Carter: Film vs. Television Composition

From American Cinematographer, Elusive Truth by Christopher Probst (July 1998)

"It's interesting what a 2.35:1 composition does to dramatic weight. Things that you're used to having to force on television — like a two- or three-shot — are standard on the feature screen, which carries a much broader dramatic image. Then when you get into a close-up, it has a totally different impact although I did feel that some scenes played better close than they did in the distance, because close shots put us more into the character's stories. Rob and Ward both have such a good sense of composition that I was actually quite amazed at the fluidity and lack of on-set discussion about composition and lens sizes."

-Chris Carter, Creator of The X-Files

Vittorio Storaro: On Visual Effects Artists

From American Cinematographer, Storaro Advises Digital Artists by Jay Holben (May 1999)

"On the whole, visual effects artists can do a little more to bring cinematographers into the fold. It's rare to find a visual effects artist that actually has an appreciation for cinematography-- that's another reason why I wanted to bring in Vittorio. I often hear visual effects artists say, 'Well, why can't we just have them lock down the camera?' When you hear Vittorio speak, you understand why. It's not just a technical matter-- it's about the emotion, pacing and life of the film. It's very important for effects artists to hear the passion and motivation that everyone else on a film has for their area of responsibility. Vittorio really exudes a passion and love for cinema that, frankly, some digital technicians lack. Educating visual effects artists is a great step toward keeping our doors open to cinematographers by saying, "We're not here to supplant you, we're only here to help create the same vision. We're no different that any other creative department."

- SPI Senior Visual Effects Supervisor Scott E. Anderson

"In cinema, you are selecting the piece of reality to show the audience. Through the camera angle, lens choices and framing, you are using one very important tool: composition. I don't know how conscious you are of composition in your work, but it is one of the most important elements. Without composition, it is difficult to put one element in relation to another. As they took me around the facility this morning, I saw a lot of you studying your screens on how to animate a creature. If you moved that creature from the center of the screen-- perhaps off to the side and slightly higher-- the [resulting] difference in perspective would totally change the character. Composition is a form of writing. You use the composition to say 'Look over here!' or 'Look this way and you are going to have this reaction, and afterwards you will have this information.' Color is also incredibly important to composition. Once you start to know the meaning of color, then you start to know who to write and compose with color. Using either a warm or cold color can completely change the perspective. Take one creature in the foreground and put the other in the background. By putting a red light on the front creature, and a green or a cyan light on the creature in the background, and you can force the perspective: the one in the foreground comes closer, and the one in the background moves further away. Now try the opposite-- put the green or cyan light in the foreground and the red light in the background-- and you will become confused. The distance between the them will become compressed as the warm color 'moves' forward and the cool color 'moves' backward. You can use this type of information to tell the story. The more you know about these tools, the more you can create meaningful compositions. The more concerned you are with composition, the better you can express yourself to an audience."

- Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Conrad Hall: Composition

"Composition is terribly important, and such a critical tool in storytelling. You use the frame to communicate the feelings you want to convey in the shot. By centering a character, placing them on a side, or short-siding them, you use the composition to support the movement that counts dramatically. The one moment where the composition makes a dramatic statement is what is important. Otherwise, in a lot of situations, composition isn't as critical. You don't necessarily have to have a great composition every second. But when the dramatic import of the scene is crucial, the composition should reflect that and aid the shot is being effective."

- Conrad Hall, ASC