Cinematography Video Essay Script

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Have you ever watched a movie that you thought was
cinematically beautiful or hooked you in until the end?
That's mainly thanks to the cinematographer.

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A cinematographer (also known as a Director of Photography,
a DoP)is a master of storytelling and subliminally drawing
an audience and allocating a fitting visual style to a film
premise. This is done by utilising a personalised
combination of different lenses, composition, lighting,
camera movements and art direction.

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Being knowledgeable on how cinematography has progressed is
an integral part of being a cinematographer and gives you a
broader knowledge of what you see on screen.

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Sit down, relax and take a trip with me as we go through
the history of cinematography.

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Since the Birth of the motion camera in the 1880s a whole
lot has happened since then. When Edwin S. Porter and
George Melies created their films ​The Great Train Robbery
​ little did they know that they had
and ​A Trip to the Moon,
pioneered the birth of cinematography. Five years after the
release of George Melies’ first film, two american men
collaborated together and innovated the film industry and
pioneered cinematography techniques that are massively used
today. These men were Billy Bitzer and Director D.W
Griffith. In the space between 1908 and 1924 they made
around 500 films in which they discovered and pioneered
techniques such as using reflectors, close ups, diffusion,
fade outs and back lights. Billy Bitzer would go on to be
named the first cinematographer in history.

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Across the Atlantic the first official travelling shot came
in 1914 from the italian film ​Cabiria​ from Director
Giovanni Pastrone and Cinematographer Segundo de
Chomon.This was massive as film cameras at the time were
heavy and practically immobile, most shots were still
previous to this.

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Around the time of 1914, film in America entered the Studio
era, also known as The Golden Age of Hollywood. The US film
production industry was dominated by five production
companies that you may recognise. Each producing their own
specific movie aesthetic, they consisted of Paramount,
Warner Bros, RKO, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and 20th Century Fox.

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Technicolour was founded in 1915, it was a brand new
technique of capturing colour on film using beam splitters.

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While technicolour was evolving to be more
reliable,Cinemascope expanded the average aspect ratio of
4:3 to as wide as 2:66. And for those who can't visualise
that, it's this, to this! This was done by using an
anamorphic lens that has an optical element that compresses
the image horizontally so it allows the camera to film a
much wider shot that just needs to be decompressed in post
production.

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Technicolor evolved over the course of 15 years to a point
where it was reliable enough for Hollywood and resulted in
the creation of films like The Toll of the Sea in 1922 and
The Wizard of Oz in 1939 .

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While America was standing strong with its quintet of
production companies, in 1927 a german silent film was
released that brought pure expressionism to the film
industry that was never before seen on such a large scale
before. It was the most expensive film to date with the end
budget costing around 10 million pounds. This was due to
the elaborate nature of the film itself, with a story about
neo-futurism, elaborate cityscapes accompanied by the
existential questions facing the issues of technology (to
be precise, robots) and the idea of it developing enough to
take over mankind. Directed by Fritz Lang and
cinematography by Karl Freund, Walter Ruttman and Gunther
Rittau, some of the methods they used to create Metropolis
included attaching cameras to makeshift swings,superlative
long shots, making incredibly accurate miniature cityscapes
and using very early techniques of psychological shot
composition. Metropolis faces themes that hadn't been shown
in mass media before, these were themes of dehumanisation
caused by our society, from one extreme to the other, Fritz
Lang shows workers as a part of a machine and living just
to complete repetitive tasks and then people who have lost
their humanity from becoming slaves to their desires. These
were translated through colour contrast and camera
movement, for example in the scene where a worker fails at
his job and retrieves the consequence of the pain of
another worker the camera stays still, placing the camera
as a fly on the wall, yet when the main character Freder’s
reaction is shown there is an expressive handheld shaky
zoom, contrasting as human distress vs system failure.
This was a step towards greatness for cinematography that
influenced a world that needed it.

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Lenin, the head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to
1924, was the first leader of the 20th century to
acknowledge both the importance of film as propaganda and
its power to communicate.“Cinema is for us the most
important of the arts.”

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He prioritised the development of the Soviet film industry
which allowed for a large budget that led on to create the
World's first film school. VGIK(Translated to “All-Union
State Institute of Cinematography”).People who
worked/studied at VGIK include Mikhail Romm, Lev Kuleshov
and Andrei Tarkovsky.
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Between 1910 and 1920 Lev Kuleshov demonstrated the
importance of juxtaposition montages through showing an
audience a man's emotionless face intercut with three
different scenes. The audience were asked to describe the
man's emotion after each and their answers proved that the
meaning and emotion of video derives from the connection
between one image to another, not just the images alone.
This was an influential study that led to a reassessment of
belief around montage and gained recognition from directors
and DoP's worldwide, including the infamous Alfred
Hitchcock. This was to be called the Kuleshov Effect.

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The american film industry boomed in 1933 as film delivered
an immersion from daily lives during the great depression.

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A process that took over three decades from the 1930s to
the 60s, colour faced many difficulties while being
introduced into the industry. These issues were caused by
various problems including the fact that colour was a much
more risky and challenging job compared to the traditional
black and white.

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Despite the success of technicolour movies during its
development, black and white movies stood strong especially
for Orson Welles.In 1941 Orson Welles directed, produced,
co-wrote and starred in Citizen Kane. Often named the
cinematographers bible due to the variety of shot types,
visual storytelling and use of deep focus to create
physical and emotional space between characters and most
famously its pioneering use of a non-linear storyline.
Named by many filmmakers as the greatest film ever made,
many people disagree.

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In 1958, Vertigo was released, standing currently as
Hitchcock’s magnum opus, Robert Burks was the first
cinematographer who truly utilised the development of
colour and used it as a psychological tool of storytelling.
Burks also showed brilliant use of composition, precise
camera techniques including the mainstream introduction to
the Dolly Zoom. Names such as Martin Scorsese, Guillermo
del Toro and David Fincher have all spoken about their
positive connection and influence they had after watching
and studying Vertigo.

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Back in the Soviet Union along the span from 1966 to 1983,
Andrei Tarkovsky released seven masterpieces, he was
determined to break the barrier between film and poetry and
he certainly achieved this throughout his short career. His
films stuck to the traditional Soviet realism that had
grown to be a standard in cinema but faced the audience
with existential questions often juxtaposed in a serene
alternate universe. His plots were intimate reflections of
his own issues as a creative intellect and his struggles
with morals and spirituality. Relying heavily on his
cinematography to portray these themes, many directors and
cinematographers have openly described the influence that
Tarkovsky had on them. None as much as Lars von Trier.
Claiming “to me he is a god”.

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The biggest influence that one movie has onto a genre comes
down to the 1968 epic 2001: A Space Odyssey and its effect
on sci-fi. Kubrick intentionally made the dialogue in 2001:
A Space Odyssey brief because he believed that the “show
don't tell” motivation could evoke emotions that were
unattainable with vast amounts of dialogue, he wanted the
cinematography to be the primary form of storytelling, for
this reason, I hope the cinematography speaks for itself.

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Roughly in the years between 1967 to 1976 the New Hollywood
movement was created and developed by a group of film
students ready for Hollywood to change for the better. The
first films that truly kicked off this movement were both
released in 1967, the explicit The Graduate hand in hand
with the unapologetically violent Bonnie and Clyde, both
showed that the New Hollywood movement was a rebellion from
tradition. This independence built the portfolio of
cinematographer Burnett Guffey who was the DoP for Bonnie
and Clyde and gained an Oscar for his work, his work was so
influential that it changed censoring and Hollywood
forever.

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In 1979 the American Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now was
released, it faced many difficulties on set during
production that included a casualty and the accidental
purchase of real human corpses from a grave-robber to use
as props. Initially planned to be directed by George Lucas
on 16mm black and white film. Francis Ford Coppola replaced
him following his success with the first two Godfather
movies. The cinematography was done by Vittorio Storaro for
which he was awarded an Oscar for. As a consequence of the
lead Marlon Brando showing up to set overweight, Storaro’s
cinematography skills flourished when faced with this block
in which he had to create a protagonist out of shot types
that mask his body shape. Aside from this, Storaro was
praised by the masses for his colour control and its use to
assist the worldbuilding and storytelling. An interview in
New York in 2017 Vittorio described one his ideas of colour
and light that made the visuals what they resulted in
being.

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The years of the 80s and 90s gave the world movies like The
Lost Boys, ET, Labyrinth and Ferris Bueller's day off
among many others. At this time, Roger Deakins' first
feature as a cinematographer was on Mountains of the Moon
in 1990, a year later he started his infamous collaboration
with The Coen Brothers.
In Japan, the film industry had been taken over by animated
movies which gives a limitless approach to cinematography
and in 1988 Akira was released and Katsuji Misawa showed
the potential of cinematography even in animation.

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Ever since the release of YouTube in 2005, the purchase of
it in 2006 by Google and the evolution in which it grew up
to what it grew up to be, it has become the largest
streaming platform with an average of 2 billion users
worldwide, it has been a game changer for the film industry
especially for independent creators. Youtube has allowed
the creative video industry to have a platform in which
their content can gain them a following and career.

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Basically now somewhat of a household name Roger Deakins is
an infamous cinematographer in the film industry
Roger Deakins has been the DoP on many famous titles.
His career developed during the integration of digital
cameras into the industry. Showing his ever so stylish
flexibility when faced with two very similar Coen Brother
movie plots: ​No Country For Old Men​ and​ True Grit,
​ he
achieved two distinct styles that were fine tuned to fit
each story. Roger Deakins says that his ability as a
cinematographer is from his extensive knowledge of the
history of cinematography and he often merges multiple
styles from history to create dynamic shots that deliver
the same emotional punch that it was originally loved for,
with his own twist of course.

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Robert D Yeoman is nothing short of an exceptional
cinematographer with his collaborative partner being Wes
Anderson, he creates painting-like images to stylise the
entirety of Anderson’s film portfolio. Yeoman is able to
use his fluid ability to create practically perfect shots
no matter the complexity. Despite consistent colour
schemes, Yeoman can convey feelings of complete sorrow as a
juxtaposition of visuals by using techniques that were
innovated by many of the people we have spoken about. From
​ 1996) to his well-admired
Anderson’s original ​Bottle Rocket(
​ Yeoman brings Anderson’s symmetry bound
Moonrise Kingdom,
visions to life.

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Budgets for movies have increased and hit record highs,
creating spectacle from expensive techniques to CGI to
however you would describe the level of production of James
​ This ever growing budget for the film
Cameron's ​Avatar.
industry has allowed for the funding for more productions
than ever.

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Ah... and so we arrive at ​Submarine.​ ​Submarine​ is writer,
comedian and now director Richard Ayoade's debut feature
film. The brilliant cinematographer Erik Wilson is who
executed the intricate nostalgic visuals that make
Submarine​ what it shows now, showing inspirations from Jean
Luc Godard and ​500 days of Summer,​ Wilson carries the world
building of this timeless movie. Taking inspiration from
1970 French cinema, colours of blue and yellow are
prominent as a compliment upon the accentuated reds that
are used as a theme of love and lust within this
beautifully cringey coming-of-age. Filmed on an arriflex
lite in companionship with a Kodak 35mm, a Super 8 was used
to compile the montage of Oliver Tate’s self filmed beach
scenes. Based on the book of the same name written by Joe
Dunthorne, ​Submarine​ tells the deadpan story of a witty
teenage boy named Oliver Tate who lives his life like a
movie and establishes his journey to save his parents'
marriage all while dealing with his tumultuous first love,
the red coated Jordanna. Released in the same year as
Inception, the social network and despicable me, ​Submarine
was a true gift from 2010 and the beauty of this film is
thanks to cinematographer Erik Wilson who said that he
wanted ​Submarine​ to look … and he certainly achieved that.

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An honourable mention that I would feel wrong not to bring
up is Hoyte van Hoytema, his work as a cinematographer
shows how pure of an artform cinematography can be. Like
Tarkovsky, his shots are visual poetry and convey stories
without need for words, however, when there is dialogue the
cinematography still stands with its beauty. He is also the
​
cinematographer for the up and coming epic ​Tenet.
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Netflix was officially released in 2012 and has introduced
the world to paid streaming services, from March 2020 it
had 183 million users. This has allowed subscribers to
watch cinema and tv shows at home and on the go. Another
streaming app includes BBC Iplayer.

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To discuss modern masterpieces without mentioning the
series ​DEVS​ would be like missing out Da Vinci when talking
about art. Released in 2020, ​DEVS​ delivers an equilibrium
of meticulous shot design, visual effects and practical
camera work in a balance with the genius story and
worldbuilding that coincides with Rob Hardy and Alex
Garland's third large collaboration. The cinematography is
so poetic and possesses such a level of symbology and
profound sci-fi realism that makes watching ​DEVS​ a luxury
experience.

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Conclusion

Cinema has developed beautifully. From the spectacular

Metropolis to Submarine which shows the ease of making
movies today. Our cameras have gotten better, lighter and
more affordable. It has never been easier to make movies
and watch movies than the present.

The cinematographer’s job is deep rooted in history and has

evolved over the course of 100 years where it has seen the
development of technology and social beliefs. As for the
future, many people have theorised the extinction of cinema
and the impending superiority that comes from online
streaming.

I hope you enjoyed my talk through time and when you next
watch a movie, I hope you put yourself in the position of
the cinematographer and that you are aware of how this
artform evolved.