Path to Becoming a Successful Cinematographer
The cinematographer or Director of Photography (DOP) is regarded as one of the most senior and most important people in the film creation process. The cinematographer must interpret the director’s instructions for obtaining a certain aesthetic for a film production, and use their technical skill to deliver against these demands by using specific film production, camera and lighting techniques to achieve a certain mood for the film.
Responsibilities of a Cinematographer
- Interpret instructions given by the director for the required mood, theme and feel
- Relay instructions and describe project-specific demands to the camera operators and production crew
- Manage a crew of up to 50 people
- Advise director on suitable composition and use of lighting, shadow and fill
- Listen to feedback from the camera operators and decide how to improve their performance
- Work closely with the director to make decisions on aesthetics and visual representation
Skills Required to be a Cinematographer
- An eye for detail and a mind for fast invention
- Thorough understanding of lighting techniques, light colour, shade and manipulation
- Strong technical knowledge of cameras and the film production process
- Strong communication skills
- Strong team management skills
- Excellent listening ability
- Flexible approach to adapting knowledge already accumulated to achieve an improved result
Tips to be a Cinematographer
1. Be patient and loyal:
Everything that travels through your eye and into the camera, it's up to you to bring together all the hard work of many, many people, to create a hopefully unanimous agreement of what makes a lovely vision.
A cinematographer is a person who stands behind a camera and is patient and loyal and understanding of actors, directors and producers.
2. Take your time:
Take you time to learn and research with photography. Try different angles and positions. One photo can mean a thousand different things to others.
3. Move both yourself and the camera:
Whether you are working in photography or film, it's about contrast, luminance, density, exposure all of these things are things you should know about it.
Where you move both yourself and things move in the frame and the light changes, that's the big, difficult jump. Controlling the light, for the fraction of a second that the picture demands it is so important.
4. Have an understanding family:
You're away for long hours doing this job. It's too hard a job, physically and mentally if you're not that involved.
You have to make sure that it works for you while you are away from home. You also have to make sure that the crew around you behave and you have to trust people and hope they trust you too.
5. Give up your ego:
it's very unhealthy mentally to go into this vocation without being aware of the potential frustration of not being credited or noticed or applauded. You have to sign an invisible agreement accepting you'll be comparatively invisible, compared with say actors and directors.
The drive and the passion you invest in a film doesn't always pay back. A good director will remember to applaud their colleagues and remember that they could do very little without them, but they're not all like that.
6. Never stop learning:
Learning is a never ending process. Always take inspiration from different places and learn from your co-workers and if not take up some simple courses. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll soon be out. So if you work against something, or you don't understand or you just don't liaise well with people then the machine won't work properly - the film will suffer, the actors will suffer, the whole process will suffer, the whole art form will suffer too.
7. Decide what motivates you:
It can be on an atheistic level, a political level or a cultural level, there could be other dynamics, find a way in which the story motivates you. Keep it close to heart and you will give you 100%.
8. Don't give up:
It doesn't matter if at the age of 20 the door isn't open. What's important is believing that it will open and believing that even if it takes five years longer to find the door, keep believing, keep yourself active, and stay inquisitive about the world and the people that surround you.
