Cinematography Video Essay Script

Cinematography: the work of the people behind the camera, the one who, according to legendary
cinematographer Roger Deakins, decides where the audience views the world projected in front of
them. These silent, hardworking cornerstones of the film industry have the gift of making a blank
canvas into a shot that will stay with the audience forever. The history of these masterminds on set
and the tools they use is a century long story of technical advancement, creative passion, and the
birth of a whole new media platform. So, who were the inventors of cinematography and film as we
know it? Who were the greatest to guide the camera? And what does the future of film hold for
today’s aspiring filmmakers?

During the early Twentieth Century, this “mastermind” was often the director themselves, who took
the important aspect of where to place the camera into their own hands instead of working with
others. The Lumiere brothers (Lu-Mi-Air-E) invented the Cinematograph during the 1890s, a fusion
of a camera and projector which filmed some of the earliest motion pictures to date. Although they
saw their invention as nothing more than a “fad” themselves, their idea would only grow in
popularity as the years past. Pioneers of this new style of storytelling included Georges Méliès (Meh-
Le-Ays), who’s iconic 1902 picture ‘A Trip to the Moon’ used revolutionary editing techniques
stemming from Méliès’ background as an illusionist and fantasy elements to portray astronomers
going into outer space. Since cameras of the time couldn’t be moved whilst in use, the importance of
the frame and what was shown in it was clear; long takes usually from one or two positions was a
normality before newer, more advanced cameras were created in later decades. Notable directors
from the 1920s include F.W Murnau, Fritz Lang and Charles Chaplin.

The 30s and 40s held the peak years of the ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’. This new era saw directors
becoming close partners with their Directors of Photography, ‘DPs’ for short, in order to maintain
the film’s wanted artistic direction. This partnership became an industry standard that has been an
essential in filmmaking ever since. The era also echoed in a new generation of technology; smaller,
more lightweight cameras helped crew members guide the frame much easier than the crank
handled, practically immobile ones of the previous decade. It is a common misconception among
audience members that the cinematographer only focuses on camerawork; the reality is in fact that
Directors of Photography also have to bring their attention toward the lighting of scenes, framing,
and many other aspects that control the overall look of both shots and the film entirely.

[Use clips from CASABLANCA and THE THIRD MAN videos used in research]

40s classics such as ‘Casablanca’ and ‘The Third Man’ are masterful in their lighting and shot
compositions, making characters appear with different sizes in frames whenever necessary to tell
the story and to show how they are feeling. This is all thanks to great DPs such as Arthur Edeson and
Robert Krasker. Look at this shot of Rick from ‘Casablanca’, he is small, alone and surrounded by the
darkness of his empty bar. Soon after, the camera remains on a mid-close up where his full,
saddened expression is visible as he speaks. ‘The Third Man’‘s final act works in a similar fashion,
with Harry Lime being chased by police offers in the Vienna sewers. The camera can have Lime
squeezed into the frame to show his fear, or pan far out to present how small he is compared to the
space he is running and hiding in. These two films, among many others of the time, act as perfect
examples of emotional, meaningful cinematography. Though, no film from the decade is more
important for cinematography as a whole than Orson Welles’ 1941 stroke of genius ‘Citizen Kane’.
From the deep focus cinematography, to the superb lighting and narrative told through the camera,
‘Citizen Kane’s influence is undeniable and prominent even today. The wide depth of field in scenes
are clear and pioneering, with the entire set in focus instead of just what’s directly in front of the
camera. One of the many examples is the slow zoom in on Kane’s room high up in Xanadu’s tallest
tower, the only room that isn’t lit by the moonlight. It closes in more and more before cutting in on
the mutter of his last word: “Rosebud”. The close up of his lips show the importance of the word,
which is the plot of the entire film. Scenes shot like this are scattered all throughout ‘Citizen Kane’,
making it a masterpiece in terms of visual storytelling among many others.

The most popular genre of film for the 1950s and early 1960s by far were Epics; a style that simply
wouldn’t be the same without the introduction of widescreen film. Big stories, usually either
historical or biblical, in huge worlds required new wider film to present them. Icons such as ‘Ben-
Hur’, ‘The Ten Commandments’, ‘Spartacus’ and ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ all being perfect examples of
this, depicting vast landscapes and crowds within their usually long stories.

[Shots from all three films]

Widescreen wasn’t the only upcoming feature of the time. Colour film, although used in previous
eras to success, was starting to become the standard medium with directors who could afford to use
it like Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock’s use of colour can be seen with ‘Vertigo’ and its flashes of colours
when its protagonist Scottie Ferguson is having a nightmare. Though for directors who either
couldn’t buy colour, had the stronger light to use it, or didn’t care since monochrome was still
popular, black and white was still the way to go. Colour film was always much more difficult to work
with throughout the decades; rumours say that the set of ‘The Wizard of Oz’, the set was so bright
from the needed lighting that some actors suffered from permanent eye damage and required
constant drinks of water from the heat. A perfect example of a black and white filmmaker was Akira
Kurosawa, who made masterpieces such as ‘Seven Samurai’ in the poor location of post-war Japan
on a tighter budget.

As usual, times changed for the film industry when the 1970s came along, although these changes
were greater than previous decades. As the new generation of directors and their DPs had more
creative freedom and control than ever, the ‘New Hollywood’ began. Starting with the controversial
but successful ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ in 1967, the sex, violence and an overall grittier image of the
‘American New Wave’ was the foundation for what we know as modern cinema, and became the
subject matter of some of the greatest films of all time. This grit stems from the more cynical and
nihilistic outlook the American public had during the 70s. Directors from this era included Steven
Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, and many more who still direct today.

[Show graphic scenes from ‘New Hollywood’ era films]

Despite the era’s wide reaching influence, technology has only advanced more and more fifty years
down the line. For an example of how far Hollywood has come, look at Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The
Godfather’, released in 1972, compared to Sam Mendes’ ‘1917’, released in 2019. ‘The Godfather’
was recorded on film reel while ‘1917’ was recorded on digital cameras; the difference between the
two films is clear when compared side by side. Since the 70s cameras have become smaller and
capable of capturing images in much greater quality, especially in scenes that are dimly lit or shot at
night. An example of dimly lit scenes and technological advancement would be Stanley Kubrick’s
beautiful 1975 feature ‘Barry Lyndon’. In order to film scenes for the movie just by candlelight,
Kubrick and his go to cinematographer, John Alcott, had to utilise a Carl Zeiss camera lens created
for NASA to photograph the dark side of the Moon in order to film in such low light; these shots from
‘Barry Lyndon’ won Alcott the Academy Award for ‘Best Cinematography’. In the modern age, digital
cameras can do all this and more with ease. Alongside lighting capabilities, ‘1917’ and other films
from the modern era had the use of Steadicams, dollies and drones to record and create shots that
simply weren’t possible in previous eras, such as the one shot Sam Mendes and Roger Deakins use.
The one shot look keeps the film as an “immersive, tick tock thriller” according to Mendes, bringing
the audience in the horrific scenes of World War I era France, utilising a technique as a method of
storytelling instead of being a gimmick.

[Use clip from Mendes interview when discussing the one shot]

Looking at over one hundred years’ worth of movies, it is clear that the role of the cinematographer
has always been important, from the motion picture’s birth the 19th Century to now. The
advancement of filming technology has allowed amateur directors and even film students to make
pieces with higher picture quality than the gigantic professional film cameras of older times. As for
professional photography directors themselves working in the high budget realm of modern
Hollywood, they have access to the most recently invented equipment in the world. And with films
such as the ones in the ‘Avengers’ series utilising and pushing the newest CGI and VGI technologies
to their limits, one can only wonder what the next step in movie production as a whole is going to
be. A brand new camera to overpower all models before it? Entirely 3-D movies? Only time will tell.