Watch the video:
Here’s a quick summary:
| Area | Responsibility |
| Storyboards, Shot Divisions | Director |
| Format, Aspect Ratio | Director |
| Camera | Cinematographer |
| Lenses | Cinematographer |
| Aperture | Cinematographer |
| Camera Operation | Cinematographer |
| Lighting | Cinematographer |
| Color | Director |
| Camera Movement | Director |
| Framing | Director |
The important thing to remember is, these are traditional demarcations of responsibility. Ultimately, a cinematographer will need to have a “heart-to-heart” with the director at the beginning to make sure who does what.
Just because, traditionally, framing and camera movement is the director’s job, he or she can use the cinematographer’s expertise and wisdom, or might even hand over the entire responsibility to the cinematographer. It all depends on the skills of the director and the comfort level between both parties.
E.g., Steven Spielberg is known to decide on the framing and camera movements. Some directors like Spielberg and James Cameron might even operate the camera themselves.
A director like Stanley Kubrick might have a strong preference for aperture and film stock. Directors like Pedro Almodovar likes to decide on the color palette.
If a director is comfortable with taking on the responsibility, or if it’s their ‘thing’, it’s best for the cinematographer to be satisfied with a complementary role.
Universally, though, one aspect of cinematography every director leaves alone, is lighting. If they take that on, the cinematographer should probably move on to something else.
Having said that, there’s a funny anecdote about the great Gregg Toland and Orson Welles. On the first day of filming Citizen Kane, Orson Welles, new to the world of directing, tried to light the set himself. Gregg Toland watched with a bemused smile, but let him have his way at first.
After observing Welles’ attempts, Toland graciously stepped in and guided him, teaching him the techniques that would eventually make the film’s groundbreaking deep-focus cinematography legendary. This collaboration allowed Welles to push the boundaries of visual storytelling under Toland’s masterful eye.
Bottom line, whatever the cinematographer comes up with can be overridden by the director. If it happens too many times, maybe the fit isn’t good.
Happens all the time. It’s better to iron out the differences right in the first couple of meetings.
There is no link to the promised video about directors and cameraman in this email. Instead there is a link for What Does a Producer Do?
However I will offer one comment, for what it’s worth. In the USA, union rules forbid a director to touch the camera. He’s allowed to look in the viewfinder and ask for adjustments. The roles of the cameraman, his first and second assistants are clearly defined. Whereas, in Europe, a director can be his own cameraman unless he is required to work on a USA contract. In the independent world, and the non-signatory world, filmmakers say to hell with all that nonsense.
Antonioni and Kubrick, for example, frequently operated their own camera and chose their own lenses.
Richard
I’ll look into that. Spielberg and Cameron operate cameras regularly. How do they circumvent the rules?
I’ve fixed the video. Got mixed up in the thumbnail.
Watching this video was quite interesting and puts into perspective the different roles.
What is confusing to me, and why I am posting here, is noting that in early movies up through, I don’t know, the 50s or 60s, maybe later, there was often one or two producers. Yet with modern television shows, some shows have seven, eight, nine, or even ten producers. I understand the roles as you describe them in this video. But with the television productions I mentioned, are these people just getting credit for their name on the board, or do they really contribute that much at all?
Thanks for this video and these quite informative series in general.
There are possibly two reasons for this:
1. Money comes in from many places. Contributions can expect a Producer or Exec. Producer credit. Financing is a complex affair, especially on low budgets or really high budgets.
2. There’s some level of barter or profit sharing that goes on in films to keep costs low. If an actor lowers fees for a share in the profit, he/she can get producer credit, and so on.