artists entrusted with them. “You will accomplish
much more,” advises Gregg Toland—the cinematog-
rapher famous for such classics as John Ford’s The
Grapes of Wrath(1940), William Wyler’s The Best
Years of Our Lives(1946), and Orson Welles’s Citizen
Kane (1941)—“by fitting your photography to the
story instead of limiting the story to the narrow con-
fines of conventional photographic practice. And as
you do so you’ll learn that the movie camera is a flex-
ible instrument, with many of its possibilities still
unexplored.”^4
Many cinematographers succeed in “fitting
[the] photography to the story.” For example, in The
Lives of Others(2006; director: Florian Henckel von
Donnersmarck), the cinematographer Hagen Bog-
danski, employs a flat lighting scheme and color
palette to portray an ugly world of surveillance in
which citizens are fearful, paranoid, and humili-
ated into submission to the Stasi, the secret police
in Communist East Germany in the 1980s. Todd
Louiso’s Love Liza(2002) concerns the anguish of a
man (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman) whose
wife has killed herself. Lisa Rinzler, the cinematogra-
pher, influenced by German Expressionist movies,
observes him from a 360-degree tracking shot and
from striking angles shot with bold lighting to
depict the emotional torment and physical clumsi-
ness with which he confronts his despair.
The three key terms used in shooting a movie are
shot, take, and setup. A shotis (1) one uninterrupted
run of the camera and (2) the recording on film,
video, or other medium resulting from that run.
A shot can be as short or as long as necessary, with
the obvious condition that it not exceed the time
limitations of the medium on which the moving
images are being recorded. The term takerefers to
the number of times a particular shot is taken. A
setupis one camera position and everything associ-
ated with it. Whereas the shot is the basic building
block of the film, the setup is the basic component of
the film’s production process and the component on
which the director and the cinematographer spend
the most time collaborating.
The cinematographer’s responsibilities for each
shot and setup (as well as for each take) fall into
four broad categories:- cinematographic properties of the shot
(film stock, lighting, lenses) - framing of the shot (proximity to the cam-
era, depth, camera angle and height, scale,
camera movement) - speed and length of the shot
- special effects
Although these categories necessarily overlap, we
will look at each one separately. In the process, we
will also examine the tools and equipment involved
and what they enable the cinematographer to do.
In carrying out these responsibilities, the DP
relies on the assistance of the camera crew, who
are divided into one group of technicians concerned
with the camera and another concerned with elec-
tricity and lighting. The camera group consists of
the camera operator, who does the actual shoot-
ing, and the assistant camerapersons(ACs). The
first AC oversees everything having to do with
the camera, lenses, supporting equipment, and the
material on which the movie is being shot. The sec-
ond ACprepares the slatethat is used to identify
each scene as it is shot, files camera reports, and
when film stock is being used, feeds that stock into
magazines that are then loaded onto the camera.
The group concerned with electricity and lighting
consists of the gaffer(chief electrician), best boy
(first assistant electrician), other electricians, and
grips (all-around handypersons who work with
both the camera crew and the electrical crew to get
the camera and lighting ready for shooting).Cinematographic Properties of the Shot
The director of photography controls the cine-
matographic properties of the shot, those basics of
motion-picture photography that make the movie228 CHAPTER 6 CINEMATOGRAPHY
(^4) Gregg Toland, “How I Broke the Rules in Citizen Kane,” i n
Focus on Citizen Kane, ed. Ronald Gottesman (Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971), p. 77. For an excellent account
of how many contemporary cinematographers consider their
art and craft, see Roger Clarke and Edward Lawrenson,
“Talking Shop,” in the special cinematography issue of Sight &
Sound(April 2009): 18–26.