Are your shots your own? Or Your Directors?

[Elmy]

I was having a discussion with the director/friend I work with a lot and we were talking about how I have specific shots and composition I use mainly. And he said a funny statement "Ya but is that your style or mine?". What he meant is when people are going to mention our films (Hopefully =p) For the most part everything will come back to him. The general public comments on how a movie looks and credits the director. Is it usually the director? Or shouldn't the cinematographer be credited?? It's kind of disheartening...

 

[Huy Vu]

Presumably a director would pick a cinematographer with similar sensibility who's able to execute his vision of the film. When I work with directors they usually give me general instructions such as "give me a wide shot" or "I want a two shot, with focus on X and not Y" etc. I set it up, then the director critiques it and we adjust until we're both satisfied. So the end result is a combination of my style and his. Never have I had a director who'll tell me EXACTLY where the shot should be, and IMO they shouldn't do that anyway because it takes focus away from actually directing and reduces the DP to a glorified operator.

 

[jimpatro]

When I direct I might say to my DP for example: " I want Joe to come around the corner of the building and Steadicam locks onto him and leads him as he approaches, once he gets to the streetcorner, I want steadicam to arc around so that he's heavily backlit by the sun and he becomes totally in silhouette."

The DP then figures out what he needs to do exposure wise, logistics wise to make it work.

If I'm DP and the diredtor suggests that, I do it. Period. I might suggest a little nuance here or there but it's the director's call and I greatly respect a director who can think that much in detail.

If he can't think visually complex like that, then I'll suggest the former scenario.

It's not about getting credit as DP, it's about working with each director, meshing with their style.

 

[Finnegan]

Every director/cinematographer relationship is different. I've had directors give me broad parameters like "This scene is about acceptance, and feeling at home. It should feel warm and familiar." Then I light and compose the shots based on that, and then if we're both happy we shoot it and if we're not we adjust until we are. On the other hand, I've had directors be very strict and say things like "I want a hard, blue-ish light simulating the moon coming through that window."

The trick, in my experience, is finding out the director's strong and weak points and working to compliment them. Some directors really know their glass, others know performance and direction, and still others are purely technical. As a cinematographer, our job is to best convey the director's vision through lighting and camera, so the methods of doing that can be widely varied. But a good director will know that when it comes to lighting and camera, it would behoove him/her to defer to the expertise of someone who has studied lighting and camera.

As far as the credit goes...I honestly don't think it matters. At least, it never did to me. In fact, I kind of like the idea of being some famous, groundbreaking, artistic cinematographer, and then going out to a restaurant and still having no one recognize you at all. It feels more authentic to me, in the sense that I believe true art manipulates in a way that is unobtrusive, purely visceral, and unlabeled. For me personally, art should be separate from the artist. And I feel like in today's world that is more the case with cinematographers than it is with directors. Of course, don't read this as me saying that I think directing is less of an art than cinematography. That's not what I'm saying at all. What I am saying though is that the credit shouldn't matter. If you're doing it for the credit, you're doing it for the wrong reason.

 

[PhilJackson]

I wouldn't get into the art of cinematography to be famous. I think a good DP knows when he needs to add his own style and when to stay back and allow the director to take control of the shots. We are there to make his vision come to life not our own. But that's not saying we are a glorified camera op when the director picks the shot. There is far more that goes into being a great DP than simply picking the framing of the shot.

 

[Elmy]

I'm not saying I really care about fame, just wanted your guys points of view. Just i know the director i work with a lot trusts me and really just lets me design how the film will look, what shots to use. I was wondering if thats the case for most big time DP's, like when certain directors are credited for how their film looks is it really the DP who's style that is? or the director. I use to feel bad crediting Wes Anderson for how much I love his shots until I found out he gets really involved in all aspects of his film and they really are his shots =p.

 

[jimpatro]

A couple of big name directors that come to mind are Lucas and Spielberg.
They storyboard every shot in a sequence including composition, choreography, even down to the specific focal length of the primes.
The film is pretty much pre-edited before shooting starts.

This is the style that I personally emulate when directing. And for low budget indie it really helps to only shoot what you need. It's not our job to give an editor the chance to be creative.