Cinematography

PATRICK KEATING
Trinity University

Cinematography is the technique of photographing motion pictures. The art of cine-

matography involves working with three distinct sets of tools: the camera, the film, and
the lighting. We can make useful distinctions among cinematography, mise en scène,
and editing. Whereas mise en scène involves the arrangement of details in front of the
camera, cinematography involves the act of capturing this arrangement on film (→ Film
Production). The result of this process is a set of shots that can be cut together in the
process of editing. Although these distinctions are not always clear-cut, cinematogra-
phy is one of the major components of a film’s visual style, playing a powerful role in
shaping the spectator’s experience of cinematic time and space.

THE BASIC TOOLS OF CINEMATOGRAPHY

In the area of camerawork, the cinematographer can shape the appearance of an image
in several ways. For instance, a lens with a short focal length captures a wide angle of
view, while a lens with a long focal length (also known as a telephoto lens) captures a
narrower angle of view. The resulting images have distinctive characteristics. It is often
said that a telephoto lens “flattens” the image, while a wide-angle lens will produce more
apparent depth. In Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert (1964), cinematographer Carlo
Di Palma alternates between wide-angle and telephoto lenses to produce a disorienting
sense of space, shifting back and forth between flatness and depth.
Each lens is also equipped with an iris, or aperture. By opening the aperture, a cine-
matographer can allow more light to hit the film. The size of the aperture is one of the
most important factors in manipulating depth of field, the range of distance in which
objects are in acceptable focus. Opening the aperture decreases depth of field; closing
the aperture increases it. In Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941), cinematographer Gregg
Toland uses an array of techniques, including a narrow aperture, to produce deep-focus
images, allowing the spectator to see both the foreground and the background in sharp
focus.
Cinematographic composition is often dynamic, incorporating both figure move-
ment and camera movement. The camera movement options include pans, tilts, dollies,
and cranes. A zoom looks similar to a dolly, but it is actually a manipulation of the
lens, moving from wide-angle to telephoto, or vice versa. While many films use editing
to direct the spectator’s attention, some filmmakers rely more heavily on camerawork,
using dollies and zooms to move from long shot to close-up and back again. The Hun-
garian filmmaker Miklós Jancsó is a master of this approach (see Bordwell 1985).

The International Encyclopedia of Communication, First Edition. Edited by Wolfgang Donsbach.

© 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/9781405186407.wbiecc024
2 CI N E M AT O G R A P H Y

In composing the image, the camera crew must consider the aspect ratio of the film.
This ratio measures the width to height of the image. During the silent period, the most
common ratio was 1.33 to 1; in other words, the image had 1.33 times more width
than height. During the 1950s, several new widescreen ratios were introduced, such as
CinemaScope, with a typical ratio of about 2.35 to 1.
Since the introduction of sound, the film normally runs through the camera at 24
frames per second, but a filmmaker can produce special effects by altering the cam-
era speed. A fast-running camera produces a slow-motion image, and a slow-running
camera produces a fast-motion image. In Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera
(1929), cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman uses fast motion to convey the pace of the
modern city.
The choice of film stock can produce variations in contrast, color, and grain. In Oliver
Stone’s JFK (1991), cinematographer Robert Richardson creates a collage of visual styles
by mixing several different types of film stock. The cinematographer can also work with
the laboratory to manipulate the image in developing and printing. The lab can correct
routine cinematographic errors, such as underexposure, but it can also refine the film’s
visuals, by adjusting details like color and contrast. Recently, digital post-production
tools have increased the filmmaker’s ability to manipulate the image.
Although lighting is an aspect of mise en scène, it is usually considered a part of cine-
matography as well, because the cinematographer plays a leading role in coordinating a
film’s lighting schemes. This is particularly true in → Hollywood, though some indus-
tries divide the cinematographer’s chores between a camera operator and a lighting
cameraperson. Lighting has several variables, including direction, intensity, and con-
trast ratio. The most common arrangement in Hollywood is three-point lighting. In this
system, a key light provides the primary illumination on the subject, a fill light brightens
up the shadows created by the key, and a back light separates the subject from the back-
ground. With subtle variations, this arrangement can produce the glamorous images of
the romantic drama, or the somber tonalities of the film noir (Place and Peterson 1976).

THE BAZINIAN AESTHETIC

Perhaps the most celebrated analysis of cinematographic style is to be found in the work
of André Bazin (1967), the French critic of the 1940s and 1950s. Building his analysis on
his theory of the photographic image, Bazin argues that photography is distinctly valu-
able because of its ability to capture reality in all its ambiguity. The important point is not
simply that the photograph looks like reality; it is that the photograph, with its causal
connection to the object in front of the camera, preserves reality (→ Photography).
Bazin is well aware that intentions play a role in the production of most photographs;
still, even the most heavily designed photographic image preserves something of the
original reality in front of the camera. When it comes to enhancing the cinema’s capac-
ity to capture the real world, Bazin argues that certain strategies are better than others.
 CI N E M AT O G R A P H Y 3

He criticizes editing-based styles because they fragment space and time in the interest
of imposing a certain meaning on the spectator. By contrast, deep-focus photogra-
phy encourages spectators to scan the frame for meaning; the result is closer to the
relationship that the spectator has with the real world, where meanings are inherently
ambiguous, never in packaged form. Relying on shots of long duration enhances this
effect of realism by preserving the integrity of time. Similarly, relying on camera move-
ments rather than editing can preserve the integrity of space. In short, the Bazinian
aesthetic, favoring deep-focus compositions, long takes, and camera moves, emphasizes
the cinema’s capacity to capture the real world (→ Realism in Film and Photography).
In the 1960s and 1970s, film theorists drew on various methodologies, such as semi-
otics and psychoanalysis, to launch a sharp critique of the realist style. One of Bazin’s
successors at the journal Cahiers du cinéma, Jean-Louis Comolli (1990) directs his cri-
tique at the level of film technology. According to Comolli, a deep-focus film is likely to
sustain the dominant bourgeois ideology by reproducing the techniques of Renaissance
perspective, thereby relying on dubious assumptions about a universally valid individ-
ual observer (→ Film Theory; Perspective, Pictorial). The argument is designed to apply
to almost any deep-focus film, regardless of story.
More recently, Fabrice Revault d’Allonnes (1991) has produced a surprising mix-
ture of semiotics and Bazinian realism. D’Allonnes distinguishes between classic and
modern lighting. In classic lighting, all the devices work together to produce a single
meaning, as when sunlight expresses the mood of a happy scene, or when shadows set
the tone for a crime scene. However, d’Allonnes insists that the light of the world does
not have any meaning: the sun may shine even when we feel somber. Modern lighting,
as in the films of Jean-Luc Godard, respects the meaninglessness of light. Like Comolli,
d’Allonnes studies the ways that images produce meaning. Like Bazin, he admires films
that honor the ambiguity of reality.

QUESTIONS OF METHODOLOGY IN THE STUDY OF

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Some scholars build their arguments on the statistical analysis of a large group of films;
others prefer the close analysis of individual cases. Barry Salt (1992) is the most promi-
nent champion of the statistical approach. Examining thousands of films, Salt looks
for patterns in variables of cinematography, such as shot scale, as well as in variables
of editing, such as cutting rates. One of Salt’s achievements is the tracking of changes
in shot scale over a century of cinematic style (→ Cinematography, History of). This
statistical method provides a background for more evaluative claims about the achieve-
ments of individual filmmakers. Salt evaluates filmmakers according to various criteria,
including originality and influence. These criteria make sense only against a background
of norms. Techniques are original when they depart from prevailing norms; they are
influential when they cause a change in norms. Because the statistical method is the
best way to track stylistic norms, Salt suggests that it is an essential tool of evaluation
(→ Quantitative Methodology).
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Some scholars have criticized Salt’s approach, on the grounds that he pays too lit-
tle attention to questions of ideology. In his study of Hollywood cinematography in
the 1930s, Mike Cormack (1994) argues that changes in the Hollywood style cannot
be explained sufficiently by pointing to the intentions of individual filmmakers; nor
can they be explained by developments in technology. Instead, they were most likely
caused by changes in American ideology as the United States weathered the Depression.
In brief, Cormack proposes that an unpredictable, somber style expressed the sense
of crisis in the early 1930s; later, a restrained, high-key style appeared, expressing the
reassertion of American ideals that took place after the trauma of the early years. Such
an argument combines statistical analysis with interpretation, pointing out systematic
correlations of style and theme.
Taking another approach, Richard Dyer (1997) argues that Hollywood’s three-point
lighting system produced a particular standard of beauty – a standard that cannot be
understood without considering the ideologically charged concept of “whiteness.” This
is particularly true for female stars, who often appear to be aglow with soft, bright keys
and powerful backlights (→ Woman as Sign). Because cinematography shapes mean-
ing, Dyer relies on interpretation more than statistics. In other words, he builds his
argument on the analysis of several individual examples, such as the lighting of Lillian
Gish and Mary Pickford, or the writings of major cinematographers (→ Qualitative
Methodology).

CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THE DIGITAL AGE

As digital tools become more and more important to filmmaking, the techniques of
cinematography continue to change (→ Digital Imagery). The changes are obvious for
cameras and film stock, but digital technology has even changed the way filmmakers
approach lighting. It is now relatively easy to modify the lighting in post-production,
adding shadows and highlights that previously would have been created on set. Some
filmmakers lament the changes; others hope to use the new tools to reproduce the
established styles more efficiently; still others predict that the new tools will produce
distinctive new cinematographic styles. In any case, cinematography will continue to
play a powerful role in shaping the spectator’s experience of time and space, even if the
borders between cinematography and mise en scène continue to blur.

SEE ALSO: → Cinema → Cinematography, History of → Digital Imagery

→ Film Production → Film Theory → Hollywood → Perspective, Picto-
rial → Photography → Qualitative Methodology → Quantitative Method-
ology → Realism in Film and Photography → Television, Visual Characteristics
of → Woman as Sign

References and Suggested Readings

Bazin, A. (1967). What is cinema?, vol. I (trans. H. Gray). Berkeley: University of California Press.
 CI N E M AT O G R A P H Y 5

Bordwell, D. (1985). Narration in the fiction film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Comolli, J.-L. (1990). Technique and ideology: Camera, perspective, depth of field (trans. D.
Matias). In N. Browne (ed.), Cahiers du cinéma, 1969–1972: The politics of representation.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp. 213–247.
Cormack, M. (1994). Ideology and cinematography in Hollywood, 1930–39. New York: St. Mar-
tin’s.
Dyer, R. (1997). White. New York: Routledge.
Malkiewicz, K. (1989). Cinematography, 2nd edn. New York: Fireside.
Place, J. A., & Peterson, J. L. (1976). Some visual motifs of film noir. In B. Nichols (ed.), Movies
and methods, vol. I. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 325–338.
Revault d’Allonnes, F. (1991). La lumière au cinéma [Light in the cinema]. Paris: Cahiers du
cinéma.
Salt, B. (1992). Film style and technology: History and analysis, 2nd edn. London: Starword.