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The Director of Photography
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This chap seems to have many other
possible titles:
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Director of Photography |
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Cinematographer |
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Lighting Cameraman |
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Photo-Visualiser |
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Videographer |
That multiplicity of names perhaps
reflects the complex nature of a cameraman's work. But his main
responsibility is the picture. The DP is the person who, above
all others, determines the texture of the visual images on screen. You might think that a cameraman's
job is mainly pointing a camera. But it's much, much more than
that.
The Cinematographer must interpret
what the screenwriter intended each scene to look like, modify
that with what the director sees in his head, take into account
the needs of wardrobe, make-up, sound, grips... a thousand and
one considerations.
And some DPs do, indeed, point
the camera themselves. It's the most prominent part of being
a cinematographer, but it's just the tip of the iceberg.
The DP has a lot of responsibilities. Whether he's
the same person as the director doing a little family holiday shoot
or working on the latest Hollywood action movie, the problems are
the same (though maybe of different magnitude!).
As this is only a 'look at' the cameraman's art,
I'm not going to go into huge amounts of detail. (Maybe some better
qualified chap would like to do a small piece for this site, though).
So I'll consider the 'camera pointing' part of being half covered
in the Visual Grammar section and worry about the two other main
areas that concern the picture man:
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