Cinematographer

What they do

The cinematographer reads the script with the director and builds a look, then turns it into specifications: camera system, lens set, frame rate, resolution and aspect ratio, with the effect of those choices on post workflow discussed with the post house and the DIT before anything is ordered. Pre-production means camera tests, lens tests and, where the budget allows, actor tests in the intended wardrobe and make-up under the intended light. On recces they walk the location with the gaffer and key grip, note where the sun will be, and agree the camera, grip and lighting lists that then have to be defended to a line producer. On the shooting day they arrive early, line up each setup with the director and camera operator, decide where the light comes from and how hard it is, set the stop, monitor exposure through every take, and flag any shot that is not usable. They watch rushes with the director and carry the look into the grade with the colourist. Half the day is spent making the four o'clock setups match the eight o'clock ones, and a good deal of the rest is spent talking other departments through choices that will show on camera: a wall finish, a generator position, a fabric that flares.

What they decide

The calls that belong to this role and no other.

• Exposure: the stop, the ISO, and where a face sits relative to middle grey
• Which lens is on the camera for each setup, and the lens set for the whole show
• Where the light comes from, how hard it is, and the key-to-fill ratio; the gaffer decides how it gets built
• Camera system, frame rate, resolution and codec, subject to production sign-off on cost and workflow
• Whether a take is technically usable and whether to ask for another
• Camera position and movement, shared with the director
• Recommends the camera, grip and lighting crew; production hires them

Principles of the craft

• Exposure is a placement decision, not a correct answer: choosing a stop is choosing where a face sits relative to middle grey and how much headroom is left before highlights stop separating. Two cinematographers metering the same set can legitimately be a stop apart, because they want different amounts of information in the shadows and different amounts of risk in the sky.
• Lens choice is a statement about distance, not sharpness: focal length decides how far away you stand for a given head size, and where you stand changes the shape of a face and how fast the background falls away behind it. A 27mm two feet from an actor and a 75mm eight feet away can frame the same head and describe two different people.
• Motivated lighting: every source should have a plausible cause inside the world of the scene, a window, a lamp, a fire, an open door, which is what lets an audience stop noticing the lighting. Motivation is not realism. You may invent the cause, but you then have to commit to its direction and hold that direction across the coverage.
• Contrast ratio is the tone control: the difference between key and fill decides whether a scene reads as domestic or threatening more reliably than colour does. Set it by eye, then meter it, so the same look can be rebuilt on a different stage three weeks later.
• Block to the lens: once the staging is agreed, work out where the actor has to be for the frame to work, then give them a physical reason to be there, a table edge to lean on, a light switch, a drink to put down. Marks with a motivation survive nine takes; marks without one drift.
• Depth of field is a budget you spend: aperture, subject distance, focal length and sensor size all move it, and the shallower you go the smaller the margin you hand your focus puller. On a moving actor with a moving camera, that margin is the shot.

Common mistakes

• Lighting the set instead of the frame, so light arrives from everywhere and no direction reads
• Choosing the widest stop the lens has on every setup, then losing takes to soft focus
• Judging exposure on an uncalibrated monitor instead of metering and reading a waveform
• The experienced version: building a beautiful key for the master and then relighting each single for its own beauty, so the coverage will not cut together
• Ordering a lighting list out of habit rather than out of the script, and having nothing left for the one night exterior that needed it
• Locking wardrobe, make-up and set finishes without a camera test under the show's light

How to learn it

Exercises and routes in, not a reading list.

• Light one face five ways with a single source and a bounce board: key from the camera side, key from the far side, key from above, key from below, and key from behind with only bounce on the face. Same actor, same lens, same stop. Look at which versions kill the eyes.
• Shoot a portrait at 25mm, 40mm, 50mm and 85mm, moving your feet so the head stays the same size in frame. Compare nose-to-ear shape and how quickly the background dissolves. Keep that series; it is your lens argument for the next decade.
• Meter a scene, write down the stop, then shoot it two stops under, one under, at, one over and two over. Take all five through a grade and note which you can pull back. Repeat with a log file and with a baked Rec.709 file and compare the latitude.
• Rebuild one still frame from a film you admire using two lights and household objects. Do not stop at close. Match the direction, the ratio and the falloff, then write down everything you had to fake.
• Shoot a two-hander on a dolly move with a real focus pull at the widest stop you have, then again three stops down. Count the unusable takes in each and decide what the shallow version bought you.