What is the role of the cinematographer in film making?
It’s a matter of bouncing ideas back and forth, its never simple, there is always a disagreement, but the role of the cinematographer is to depict and find ways to extract the vision of the film from the director, and to have the director to explain how is should look in great detail, how the shot should look, what lighting does he want/feel of the lighting, to then be able to create it. A cinematographer is also the author of the light in a film and how it contributes to the story, you put an idea in the audience’s mind, which they carry with them. The lighting and the look of the film makes the pauses speak as eloquently as the words, you have moments in films that are there because of how it is visually.
Why did director Roman Polanski insist on using hand held camera in the film Chinatown?
Because he could shoot within an actual bathroom, and create a very intimate scene, and spontaneity between the actors, a closeness that had not really been seen before, but this is because they had new technology to play with. He came from the Polish school, were they had to shoot things like that. He would force the actors to hit certain marks and to intimidate them, he wanted that voyeuristic kind of look.
Name two films which use colour in a very symbolic way, and describe what they suggest.
‘Days Of Heaven’ Nestor Almendros, is a period film that used the natural lighting throughout the whole film, and mostly used the lighting just after the sun had set, and for the 20 minutes after that it stayed light, ‘the magic hour’. It created a ‘magical’ sort of lighting across the entire film, that you can simply only see in colour, which enables the film to be told through images.
‘The Last Emperor’, there was an possibility to make an analogy between the life and the light, the journey that The Emperor was thrown into himself, could be represented in stages, with the different stages of light, so different colours. The first time he was cutting his own vein, the blood was red, like when we are born, the beginning. Into the scene when the people with the torches are coming to pick him up, the colour is orange, the warmth of the family, the colour of the Forbidden City. He was using all the lights around the family, to get across the warmth and embrace. Yellow is colour of our identity, it leads the right, represents the light. Green is knowledge, only see green in the film when the tutor comes, this is the first time we see green, it means to know something, up to that moment, green was a forbidden colour, as he knew nothing, as of yet.
In the film Raging Bull why was the fight scene filmed at different speeds?
It was based on big 1940s poster shots in life magazine, and that was what people of Michael Chapman’s generation remember fights as, as big flash photos in life magazine. They would start in 24 frames and go up to 48 frames and back to 24 frames, shooting in big 360-degree shots. They made a rule, that when in the actual fights they would try to stick to 24 frames, but they didn’t, and save the over crank stuff for when he was in the corner/not actually fighting. They had dozens of fights and different styles for each one, but it was an example of what Marty can really do, know what the audience emotional stories are with the shots, its very evocative.
Who is the cinematographer for the film Apocalypse Now, and what is his philosophy?
Vittorio Storaro, photography is a single part, like painting, cinematography is a common art, is not an art from that can be expressed by one single person.
See “Visions Of Light, The Art Of Cinematography” Arnold Glassman
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