A few weeks ago we talked about the importance of having a great team to make a movie. Among all the key roles, we would like to highlight the importance of the work of the director of photography. But what do they do?
In general terms, we can say they are in charge of everything related to the visual image of the film and they participate in all the stages: from pre-production to post-production. Their work is very close to the director since they must agree on multiple issues: lighting, color aesthetics, contrast, camera locations, among others. In other words, they manage everything related to the visual part of the film and they are also in charge of the photography team (lighting and camera).
As mentioned before, they are involved in all the stages of the project. After reading the script and during pre-production, they and the director search for filming locations, talk about the visual aesthetics of the story, choose and coordinate the team that will be in charge of the cameras and lighting objects, and also work closely with the wardrobe, makeup and art teams to match goals and achieve coherence in the product. During the production stage, they also decide the camera settings and, together with the director, the frames to obtain the best results.
Once the shooting is over and the post-production stage arrives, they must keep an eye on how the film will look together with the colorist so that, if needed, the tones, contrast and brightness are corrected.
And so, this is a very helpful, important role for us to enjoy a movie on the big screen.
