I'm looking for recommendations (books, articles, videos, anything..) on the creative aspects of cinematography, and film-making more broadly.
I'm aware of the aesthetic effects of lenses and filters and other equipment-related things, as well as the technical aspects of things like coverage and how this influences the options and style of editing, of motivated camera movement vs unmotivated etc, which are often discussed but only from a technical/logistical perspective and not normally from an artistic perspective.
I'm a solo film-maker doing no-direction no-retake documentary style run-n-gun shooting and essentially have full creative freedom to cover the locations and situations I shoot however I choose.
So the considerations I have are more about translating the feeling and mental associations of a location / situation into a final film through a series of creative decisions: what shots I should get (A and B roll), how I frame them, how I move the camera, so that then when I go through post I can choose the appropriate edit structure (linear, non-linear, fast/slow cuts / rhythm / pacing) and approach to using B-roll, colour grading and sound design, etc, to replicate the aesthetic 'truth' of the experience and situation.
It's a very similar job to Zach Zamboni and Alan Jacobsen shooting Parts Unknown where the brief is as much emotional / cultural in the way the location is experienced (by Anthony Bourdain in this case) as it is logistical with locations and events and cast and things that could be written down. I found these to be valuable glimpses:
https://gocreativeshow.com/the-cinematography-of-parts-unknown-with-zach-zamboni-gcs091/
https://filmmakermagazine.com/76630...creativity-and-shooting-with-just-two-primes/
In the podcast Zach talks about 'atmosphere' and how the decisions are being made in order to create that in the final product. Famously, Herzog also talks about facts and not letting them get in the way of representing a deeper truth. Ethics aside, this, to me, is the crux of film-making - making the decisions all contribute to the target aesthetic.
These were tiny little glimpses into that subject and I feel like I need to just submerse myself into material like this to hear and contemplate the thoughts of the greats out there, to give me things to think about and questions for me to try and answer for myself and experiment with. Another 200 of these glimpses would be great!
Between 'real' projects I have a side-project of shooting my family whenever we go do fun things and I finish and publish these little projects so I can understand what effect that every decision has all the way through the production process. I experiment heavily with concepts and use these as 'no fail' experiments. They prove to be an excellent test-bed for any ideas that are thrown up by reading or hearing ideas from others. Plus I get great memories too, a nice side-bonus.
I suspect that many people are visually and aesthetically astute enough to just watch great content and be able to see what made it great and read it like an open-book, but my eye is not at that level yet, which is why I'd like to hear great creatives talking about it. Thanks..
I'm aware of the aesthetic effects of lenses and filters and other equipment-related things, as well as the technical aspects of things like coverage and how this influences the options and style of editing, of motivated camera movement vs unmotivated etc, which are often discussed but only from a technical/logistical perspective and not normally from an artistic perspective.
I'm a solo film-maker doing no-direction no-retake documentary style run-n-gun shooting and essentially have full creative freedom to cover the locations and situations I shoot however I choose.
So the considerations I have are more about translating the feeling and mental associations of a location / situation into a final film through a series of creative decisions: what shots I should get (A and B roll), how I frame them, how I move the camera, so that then when I go through post I can choose the appropriate edit structure (linear, non-linear, fast/slow cuts / rhythm / pacing) and approach to using B-roll, colour grading and sound design, etc, to replicate the aesthetic 'truth' of the experience and situation.
It's a very similar job to Zach Zamboni and Alan Jacobsen shooting Parts Unknown where the brief is as much emotional / cultural in the way the location is experienced (by Anthony Bourdain in this case) as it is logistical with locations and events and cast and things that could be written down. I found these to be valuable glimpses:
https://gocreativeshow.com/the-cinematography-of-parts-unknown-with-zach-zamboni-gcs091/
https://filmmakermagazine.com/76630...creativity-and-shooting-with-just-two-primes/
In the podcast Zach talks about 'atmosphere' and how the decisions are being made in order to create that in the final product. Famously, Herzog also talks about facts and not letting them get in the way of representing a deeper truth. Ethics aside, this, to me, is the crux of film-making - making the decisions all contribute to the target aesthetic.
These were tiny little glimpses into that subject and I feel like I need to just submerse myself into material like this to hear and contemplate the thoughts of the greats out there, to give me things to think about and questions for me to try and answer for myself and experiment with. Another 200 of these glimpses would be great!
Between 'real' projects I have a side-project of shooting my family whenever we go do fun things and I finish and publish these little projects so I can understand what effect that every decision has all the way through the production process. I experiment heavily with concepts and use these as 'no fail' experiments. They prove to be an excellent test-bed for any ideas that are thrown up by reading or hearing ideas from others. Plus I get great memories too, a nice side-bonus.
I suspect that many people are visually and aesthetically astute enough to just watch great content and be able to see what made it great and read it like an open-book, but my eye is not at that level yet, which is why I'd like to hear great creatives talking about it. Thanks..
