International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Cinematography is the art of photographing motion pictures. All photographing of motion pictures is, in its broadest sense, →  cinematography , but it is the special combination of aesthetics and technology that distinguishes the term. It is the art of the cinematographer that makes cinema compelling, the skillful blending of →  Photography , lighting, composition, and the capture of motion that creates the essence of what is memorable in cinema. The cinematographer, also known as the director of photography (DP or DoP) or sometimes lighting cameraman, makes real a director's creative vision, establishing a sense of place, character, emotion, and drama, through the essential visualizing of the moment (→  Visual Communication ).   Stephen Herbert says of the original efforts to produce motion pictures on film, “To succeed, cinematography required the availability of a sufficiently sensitive photographic emulsion to enable at least sixteen pictures to be taken in one second; a suitable medium on which to fix the photographic emulsion; and the development of suitable camera and projection mechanisms” ( Herbert & McKernan 1996 , 3). The history of photographing motion pictures precedes the history of their exhibition. The first motion picture as we would now recognize it was a fleeting scene of people walking across Leeds Bridge, filmed in October 1888 by the French-born Louis Augustin ... log in or subscribe to read full text