Cinematography

Directors of photography are responsible for the photographic heart of production. They read the screenplay and work closely with the director to discuss the look and feel of a film. They then research how to create the look through lighting, framing, and camera movement and what they will need in terms of kit and crew to achieve this. On each day of filming, DoPs and their camera crews arrive early to set up and rehearse. Working with the director, the DoPs do blocking (decide the exact movements of both actors and camera). They discuss any special camera moves or lighting requirements with the camera operator, gaffer, and grip. Each shot is marked up for focus and framing by the focus puller and then the DoP oversees the lighting of the set for the first take. Cinematographers use a lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sensor or light-sensitive material inside a movie camera. These exposures are created sequentially and preserved for later processing and viewing as a motion picture. Capturing images with an electronic image sensor produces an electrical charge for each pixel in the image, which is electronically processed and stored in a video file for subsequent processing or display. Images captured with photographic emulsion result in a series of invisible latent images on the film stock, which are chemically "developed" into a visible image. The images on the film stock are projected for viewing the motion picture.