Quotes about Cinematography: Words of inspiration

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Please join me in sharing great quotes from cinematographers which either portray an interesting point or simply help inspire your work.

Some of my recent finds:

"There are several aspects of lighting. There's a broad sweep that's sort of impressionistic and reasonably realistic, but some of our British cameramen, and the French cameramen, too, were sort of 'itty-bitty'. George Perinal was considered one of the best cinematographers at the time, but he used dozens of lights-- a little bit here, a little bit there-- and it didn't look natural. A big director who had been a cameraman came over from America to do a screen test, and when this director came on set, he said: 'Are you ready, Peri? Peri said, 'Yes.' Then the director said to the gaffer, 'Kill that one, kill that one...' and he killed about 10 lights. Watching that was a lesson to me: Simplicity."

-Jack Cardiff, BSC

"I didn't start making films until I was 34.But that wasted youth was probably the most valuable asset for what I'm doing now. You see the world, you end up in jail three or four times, you accumulate experience. And it gives you something to say. If you don't have anything to say then you shouldn't be making films. It's nothing to do with what lens you're using." -Christopher Doyle

"It [zooming] creates a different emotion- when you zoom in, it's like focusing on a detail in a painting. It's looking at a painting and realizing there's someone in the corner of that room, holding a knife."
-M. Night Shyamalan

And from all the great quotes of Conrad Hall, ASC, this one really touched me. It was written less than five years before his death and features a brief self-reflection about adapting as a cinematographer/ new technology:

It was almost exactly 50 years ago, in the spring of 1948, that I started studying cinema at USC. In the years since then I've tried to pay attention to life, and learn to tell stories with film language. Now, the language is over 100 years old, but I don't know if I've paid enough attention to the craft of cinematography as it has evolved-- and is evolving-- so rapidly. I don't know how to pay attention to it. I'm so disinterested in computers and mechanical things-- shooting bluescreens and greenscreens. You can do some wonderful and magical things with that sort of technology to create stories, but I'm personally not very interested. I remember how I learned to do things a long time ago, and I'm going to hang onto that, which limits the types of stories I'm going to tell... -Conrad Hall, ASC

 

[Michael B. McGee]

i think Doyle's quotes could take up a few pages. I remember Vittorio and Gordon having said some inspirational words. stay tuned....

 

[CovenantPictures]

Wow Ryan, I agree. Hall's words ring very true to many. And sort of bring me back to the reality of cinematography, reconnecting me with it's original intent: to tell stories.

 

[CovenantPictures]

I'll try to dig up some quotes. This could make an interesting thread indeed.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

These are a few quotes assembled by a friend, for his research when he was writing a paper on Gordon Willis, for his AFI work.

"I don't really like directing. I've had a good relationship with actors, but I can do what I do and back off. I don't want that much romancing. I don't want them to call me up at two in the morning saying, 'I don't know who I am." Gordon Willis, ASC

"A cinematographer is a visual psychiatrist - moving an audience through a movie ... making them think the way you want them to think, painting pictures in the dark." Gordon Willis, ASC.

"Zooms are lazy closeups. And too many people hang their hats on video assist; it's a way to avoid too much. Video assist helps people dissociate from the scene that they are directing. Pretty soon the director will be directing all the way from his apartment." Gordon Willis, ASC

Not shockingly, Willis is an enormous proponent of less is more. "I spent a lot of time on films taking things out. Art directors would get very cross with me. If something's not going well, my impulse is to minimalize. The impulse of most people when something's not going well is to add — too many colors, too many items on a screen, too many lights. If you're not careful, you're lighting the lighting. American films are overlit compared to European ones. I like closeups shadowy, in profile — which they never do these days... What's needed is simple symmetry, but everyone wants massive coverage these days because they don't have enough confidence in their work and there are way too many cooks in the kitchen." Gordon Willis, ASC

Oddly enough the last quote is the opposite of the first quote I posted above from Jack Cardiff, although Jack was speaking about the very early days of cinema while Gordon would be referring to the 'new wave' european movement and after. If you know anything about the history of cinema, you should know how European cinema and American Cinema have been borrowing from each other!

So in the early days, European films tend to overlight with many units, then they went "new wave" with the frenchies and got simple. Meanwhile Americans, in contrast, now looked over lit! Crazy!!!

 

[Michael B. McGee]

So in the early days, European films tend to overlight with many units, then they went "new wave" with the frenchies and got simple. Meanwhile Americans, in contrast, now looked over lit! Crazy!!!

i wonder when we'll start borrowing automobile ideas???

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Haha, right now. :beer:

And just like our modern day cinema, many of our current influences are coming from Asia, where they have a relatively 'fresh' style and culture our American audiences are beginning to appreciate.

I would venture to say that more filmmakers are influenced by modern Asian cinema versus modern European. Most of European influences are still stemming from the new wave 60's and post era... not what is going on right now.

 

[Michael B. McGee]

Haha, right now. :beer:

And just like our modern day cinema, many of our current influences are coming from Asia, where they have a relatively 'fresh' style and culture our American audiences are beginning to appreciate.

I would venture to say that more filmmakers are influenced by modern Asian cinema versus modern European. Most of European influences are still stemming from the new wave 60's and post era... not what is going on right now.

what are some examples of this statement? personally, within the last 10 years i've been inspired by Mexican, South American, and Spanish filmmakers. films by Pedro Almodovar, Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Inarritu, Walter Salles, and Fernado Meirelles. i find these guys to making fresh, original, and memmorable films.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

You are right, as well!

There have been many Latin film makers who have really helped shape some recent cinema. Remember the Academy Awards about three years ago? So many Mexican nominees! :beer:

Certainly European filmmakers continue to influence all filmmakers today.

I guess my point of view is from the recent trend in Hollywood, borrowing many aspects of modern Asian cinema.

I think the influence of Asian cinema is much more buried and shrouded from our immediate recognition because it is rarely the Asian films which we see, but instead the Hollywood versions.

The Departed, which won an Oscar for best picture is a remake of the Japanese film, Internal Affairs. The similarities between the two are striking. I do believe the Departed to be a WONDERFUL film and deserving of it's credit, but there is no doubt about the overpowering influence from the Asian version.

The biggest influence in Hollywood is from the Horror genre in Asia. Most of our modern horror films are based off of the late 1990's to early 2000's horror genre in Asian Cinema. Of course, again, we do not see these films, just the remakes... such as: The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water, The Eye, Mirrors, One Missed Call, The Uninvited, etc.

Yes, most of these films suck, but the originals are usually considered to be critically better and the simple fact the horror genre is being imported from Asia speaks for itself when discussing who is influencing who.

We do, occasionally, get to see movies which make it here, such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Old Boy, Chungking Express, etc.

There are many more, and especially if you count India as Asain!

I think the influence is as high as it has ever been (since Kurosawa) and will continue to grow. The growth the Asian cinema has experienced in the last 20 years is outstanding, and I think you will see the asian market continue to grow.

 

[Michael B. McGee]

You are right, as well!

There have been many Latin film makers who have really helped shape some recent cinema. Remember the Academy Awards about three years ago? So many Mexican nominees! :beer:

Certainly European filmmakers continue to influence all filmmakers today.

I guess my point of view is from the recent trend in Hollywood, borrowing many aspects of modern Asian cinema.

I think the influence of Asian cinema is much more buried and shrouded from our immediate recognition because it is rarely the Asian films which we see, but instead the Hollywood versions.

The Departed, which won an Oscar for best picture is a remake of the Japanese film, Internal Affairs. The similarities between the two are striking. I do believe the Departed to be a WONDERFUL film and deserving of it's credit, but there is no doubt about the overpowering influence from the Asian version.

The biggest influence in Hollywood is from the Horror genre in Asia. Most of our modern horror films are based off of the late 1990's to early 2000's horror genre in Asian Cinema. Of course, again, we do not see these films, just the remakes... such as: The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water, The Eye, Mirrors, One Missed Call, The Uninvited, etc.

Yes, most of these films suck, but the originals are usually considered to be critically better and the simple fact the horror genre is being imported from Asia speaks for itself when discussing who is influencing who.

We do, occasionally, get to see movies which make it here, such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Old Boy, Chungking Express, etc.

There are many more, and especially if you count India as Asain!

I think the influence is as high as it has ever been (since Kurosawa) and will continue to grow. The growth the Asian cinema has experienced in the last 20 years is outstanding, and I think you will see the asian market continue to grow.

wow, i had no idea about those films being remade except for The Departed. so, its not just game shows being remade here in the states. does america make anything that's original anymore? where has our creativity gone? and don't reply back with reality television anyone.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Ricky Gervais coming clean that the Office is actually stolen from a Japanese TV show.

Link Here



To keep on topic and tie back into this threads initial purpose:

[Christopher Doyle talking about Asian Cinema] "In recent years, much of what our films do and the talents that make them have been exported or appropriated; it's pretty much an East-West one way street. Occasionally an Asian 'punter' might come back with a diploma or an investment. But most who have "made it" jump on the bandwagon of the Hollywood dream.

The tide is turning. The Last Samurai took his first and last breath on New Zealand's East Coast. The Great Wall is seen more often from Burbank than suborbital space these days. Thailand, Korea, and China are creating vibrant local cinemas that are becoming more prestigious than a fake Rolex watch. My curiosity and the desire to challenge convention have provoked me into working on local production in China, Korea, Japan, and Thailand, as well as in the United States, Australia, and France." -Christopher Doyle, HKSC

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Another good one:

"On a film set, I think of myself as a cook. With its own minor notes and surprising harmonies, the sauce I make concurs to the taste of the movie and brings out the story and the actors. Three extra grains or too little spice can change the experience of the people eating the meal. I love to cook, and when I do, I want to start with the best ingredients. If you leave something out of the recipe so you can cook faster or easier, it's probably not going to taste the same. Cinematography and cooking are sensual experiences. They are part art and part science, part tradition and part innovation. Whether I am cooking or part of a team creating a movie, I love improvising under pressure." - Denis Lenoir ASC, AFC

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

Cecil B. DeMille, wrote a small letter to the members of the American Society of
Cinematographers. It was a "heartfelt gesture in praise of ASC members Wyckoff, L. Guy Wilky, J. Peverell Marley, Karl Struss, Victor Milner, Hal Rosson, George Barnes and other cinematographers who had helped bring his films to the screen — and, by extension, of all ASC members for their contributions to the art of filmmaking."

The following is the letter entitled, "He Is A True Artist"

Amid the strange ingredients of Hollywood — a world typified by the human swarm and the artistic abstraction — there is a figure unknown to the chants of promoters and glorifiers. His hand has rarely held the scepter of public acclaim, his brow is not crowned with the envied olive leaf which so often settles upon the lordly producer and queens of beauty. This figure, a giant in his industry, is the cameraman — the sine qua non of a profession which often boasts that no one in its ranks is indispensable. No one, I say, save the cameraman.

I believe this is why:

He is the custodian of the heart of filmmaking as the writers are of its soul …

His tool is a box with a glass window, lifeless until he breathes into it his creative spirit and injects into its steel veins the plasma of his imagination …

The product of his camera, and therefore of his magic, means many things to many persons — fulfillment of an idea, an ambition ... realization of dreams …

He is the judge who applies the laws of dramatic effect in complete coordination and fellowship with the director who interprets those laws …

Light, composition, treatment are his instruments of power, which he wields with intelligence and sensitiveness to bring to full bloom the meaning of his art …

His versatile management of an intricate mechanism yields astonishing
results in mood, emotion, dramatic effect …

A slanting shadow becomes a shattering portent of doom …

A lifeless chair instills the feeling of infinite sorrow …

A dead wall awakens a foreboding of plunging terror …

A flash of a man’s face rises to the grandeur of drama, inspiring and ennobling …

Before his wizardry, wrinkles fade from the faces of Hollywood’s ageless, imperishable beauties… chins take on lovely contours… years melt away ….

Yes, the technique of the cameraman is the technique of artistic vivisection that lays bare the inner workings of our profession. If art can be said to be the expression of beauty in form, color, sound, shape or movement, then it must
be said that same art is the art of the cameraman — expressed in the boundless reaches of his imagination.

For his patience and singleness of purpose in a most arduous work, he is eminently deserving of that which is justly said of few men: “He is a true artist.”

— Cecil B. DeMille

 

[Noel Evans]

Couple I like from Peter Weir

There's almost a fear that if you understood too deeply the way you arrived at choices, you could become self-conscious. In any case, many ideas which are full of personal meaning seem rather banal when you put words to them.

and

So much of the work is intuitive. The resistance you detect is just that, a kind of evasion, a sense that too much analysis will inhibit creativity.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

"Lighting is so complex that it's hard to quantify. It's like playing piano. How did I do that? What did my fingers do? What made me think about where they should go? I like to equate cinema to music. I'm performing a musical composition when lighting a scene. There are crescendos, allegros and pizzicatos. The visual language is an undulating language, and, like music, it has to have its peaks and valleys. You can't just photograph everything beautifully; otherwise. how would you get the gasps if you had nothing but gasps? You can only get a gasp because the audience hasn't been paying attention to anything but the story and the actors. Then suddenly, there's something magical that grabs them. Those instances do something to the story and the individual watching, and it's those rythms [in the visual construction] that are important."

-Conrad Hall, ASC

So many good ones from Conrad.

 

[Ryan Patrick O'Hara]

A great reminder for those of us who occasionally find ourselves trying to emulate or replicate a look or shot from other films. Sometimes it's about sitting back and thinking 'what is this scene about?... what is my scene about?'

"If someone says to me, 'I loved that shot, how did you light it?', I'll think they've lost the point. My explanation doesn't mean a thing because there are 20 ways to light a shot and get the same result. Why you do something is far more important than how."

- Freddie Francis, BSC

"There are no rules and there is no formula to filling the frame to please everybody. I've got this corny saying though: 'There are three types of photography: good photography, bad photography, and the right photography. The right photography is what tells the story best.'"

-Freddie Francis, BSC

 

[PDX_DVX]

I remember reading something by Deakins to the effect of "Every shot I have ever done has been a compromise", that made me think a lot. He's truly one of the greats.

 

[Noel Evans]

"If someone says to me, 'I loved that shot, how did you light it?', I'll think they've lost the point. My explanation doesn't mean a thing because there are 20 ways to light a shot and get the same result. Why you do something is far more important than how."

- Freddie Francis, BSC

Really liked that one Ryan.

 

[AdamHD6]

This is from Cinematographer Style, I had another really good quote I think it's from Ron Dexter, ASC but I can't find it.

Cameras, ya know they'll hate me for saying this but cameras don't matter to me, i think that it's the lenses

-Matthew Libatique, ASC

 

[Jiggityjiggs]

Great thread... for anyone who hasn't seen cinematographer style... watch it