Relationship between a Cinematographer and a Director

Relationship between a Cinematographer and a Director

A relationship between a cinematographer, and a director should be very strong, and there should be a bucket of understanding in front of them. A cinematographer as I had said in my previous posts is the eye of the director, as it portrays the director’s visualization in reality. We write a screenplay which is in other words a visual writing, and a shooting script which is as well for the cinematographer. As a film maker you can make this successful when your cinematographer will be able to almost visualize your idea the same way you did so, then he/she can compose the frame according to what you want as well. We cannot always guarantee that both of the director and the cinematographer will have that bonding which is professionally needed, but in my point of view creating that particular bonding will make the job much easier as well. Making the story into moving images is completely upon the director, and the cinematographer. They both are equally responsible for the quality of the film. A director should have overall knowledge of film making. You see, the director should have the knowledge of the cinematography stage, because it will then only be possible to coordinate in a much appropriate way to portray the film in real life. Whereas a cinematographer should have the knowledge of the director on the part of what exactly he/she wants the film outcome to be like, and also the cinematographer should go into the depth of the story, as to make the visual approach world look as characters as well.

The execution part of the film is mostly dependent on the way the cinematographer work. If we become practical, a director can just explain the imagination either verbally, or by the written part (like script/screenplay, story boarding, shooting script, etc.) Sometimes the story isn’t very strong so the cinematographer can use his/her talent to make the film look very appealing in front of the audience to continue watching the films. But in my point of view, this should be fully avoided as the story as well should be very strong enough.

Even though film making is a team work, in the team the director, and cinematographer has the responsibility for making the hard work look good in the celluloid. Even though the actor/actress does their job very well, or the other crew of the team contributes their hard work these two are dependent for the outcome on- screen to look appealing to the audience. Sometimes conflicts such as, a director having a different perception of taking a particular shot, and a cinematographer has his/her own. But this can resolve by thinking, and discussing on how to manage it will help resolve this problem as well. The editor’s job can be much easier also when the part of cinematography is done in an appropriate way. Sometimes the shots are taken in such a manner that it becomes difficult for the editor to manage during the editing. So both the director and cinematographer should look upon this part as well. The success of the film is also dependent on the way the director, and cinematographer makes, and portrays the film on screen, and as a director you should be very witty enough to choose the kind of cinematographer you want to work with, especially the one who matches your style of film making.