Shooting Movies Without Shooting Yourself in the Foot

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

One way to learn cinematography is foolproof and effective, and it's worked for over 100 years. It's apprenticeship. No doubt it began with the first movies, but it unquestionably stems from no later than 1912 when D. W. Griffith brought his company to Hollywood to settle permanently and make movies. One of the people Griffith brought along was G. W. (Billy) Bitzer, his cameraman. Today, the person responsible for everything concerning the photography in movies— cinematography—is variously called the cinematographer or the director of photography (DP). In the early days and for many years after, the cinematogra-pher was usually called the cameraman, or sometimes the first cameraman.

And, very specifically, it was always ...