Cinematography Matters. Here's Why.

Ever watch a really good film and by the end of it say, "I really liked the cinematography in that movie."? Not likely. It's because the typical movie viewer primarily pays attention to only the acting and directing in the movie. Never do they give recognition to the cinematographer because the basic audience member doesn't even have a clue what a cinematographer's role in a film is. So let me tell you.

The cinematographer is the director of photography. Therefore, the cinematographer takes care of many pivotal aspects behind the camera such as lighting, camera positioning, framing, and color correction. Usually when a film is being made, the cinematographer and director work very closely because ultimately, the director is the one who the cinematographer has to go through in order to insert their cinematographic ideas into the movie. In a way, cinematographers and directors have very similar roles, except the director has a lot more power and impact to the movie's overall making. Of course cinematographers have a lot more smaller, less significant roles in a movie's production and I can go on for hours explaining into depth each and every thing a cinematographer does, but I feel like I've explained enough at the moment. Maybe another time.

So what's the point of this article? To bore you with irrelevant information about cinematography? I wish, but no. I want to delve right into the idea about why cinematography is one of the most important factors to a film's production. Even though we may not notice it, many of us have ended up liking a movie because of its cinematographic features. A recent and underrated example of good cinematography is in the movie "Fury". For the first three quarters of the movie, the movie's color scheme is dark and tainted (first picture). Roman Vasyanov, the cinematographer for this movie, purposely made it like this in order to immerse the audience into the sick and claustrophobic environment, which takes place during World War II. The color scheme is perfectly fitting to the dark mood that the cinematographer is trying to portray. When the climactic battle sequence emerges for the last quarter of the movie, the original, tainted color scheme turns reddish and gloomy (second gif). As one of the main messages of the movie is that "war is hell", Vasyanov metaphorically depicts the final battle sequence as if it is actually taking place in hell. Thus, the message about how terrible war is can be more powerfully portrayed to audience members. All of this said, the cinematography alone in "Fury" made it one of my favorite movies of 2014.

Another example of amazing cinematography is in one of my favorite movies of all time, "The Master". Similar to Fury, the color palette in "The Master" fits accordingly to the mood that the cinematographer, Mihai Malaimare Jr., is trying to accomplish; however, the thing I want to point out about Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece is the film's camera positioning and framing. From the very first shot of the roaring ocean waves to the final shot of Freddie Quell, the troubled protagonist in the film, laying hopelessly beside a female body made of sand, it can be seen that both the cinematographer and director put a lot of thought into each and every shot for this movie. In my opinion, one of the few things that differentiates good cinematography to amazing cinematography is when you can pause the movie at any time during the course of the film and observe the still as if it were a painting, noticing that behind each of these stills, something new can be learned about the characters, the story, the location, etc. "The Master" is one of the few films to do this ever so flawlessly; not one shot in this entire movie is wasted. Every time I watch "The Master", the exquisite cinematography, directing, and acting, reminds me about how powerful of an art form cinema is.

All in all, cinematography really freaking matters. Imagine seeing "The Tree of Life" without Emmanuel Lubezki's gorgeous imagery and precise camera placement. It would defeat the whole purpose of the movie. The main reason why "The Tree of Life" became one of the most critically praised movies of all time was its ability to portray a myriad of distinctive messages primarily through the movie's eye-popping and symbolic imagery. Other examples of cinematography being one of the main reasons for a movie's success is "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Apocalypse Now", "The Third Man", "Metropolis", and "Citizen Kane". So the next time you see a movie, I highly encourage you to keep an eye out for the visuals and pay close attention to what the cinematographer is trying to reach to the audience. You may never know; maybe doing this will make you appreciate cinema even more. I know that was the case for me.