Reference Literature

[PaulClements]

Hi all,

I just wanted to pick the brains of people as to what they believe is good Reference literature for cinematography in general. I've been looking at a few pieces but as yet am a little unsure. By all accounts the American Cinematographer Manual seems to offer alot of good detail but I'm worried that alot of it might be based around using film, and in the case of Red or any other digital camera this might not be as much use. If I'm wrong please let me know, perhaps later editions might be angled towards the digital market as it progresses. Another is "Hands-on Manual for Cinematographers" and again this looks like it could be quite heavily based in film. What I'm looking for is something focusing on Lenses, Lighting, Techniques, Achieving this or that shot kind of stuff, things that are generic to film and digital and wondered what others consider must have reading material onset?

Cheers

Paul

[PaulClements]

American Cinematographer Manual seems to have a wealth of info according to the contents, problem there doesn't seem to be anywhere in the UK to buy it from! Even Amazon.co.uk only has listings from American sellers! Anyone here use it at all?

[Jeremy Hughes]

I'm looking for the same thing.

[chuck colburn]

There is a lot of info over at Cinematography.com about just that. A popular one and it's just been revised I believe, is The Five C's of Cinematography

[Finner]

"Motion Picture and Video LIGHTING" by Blain Brown is a pretty good one when it comes to lighting.

As far as camera movement goes I have found learning from watching films almost the best learning tool. I was flying home from a commercial shoot and learned a little trick by accident. A movie was on but I had seen it already so I did not bother putting on earphones. To my suprise while watching it without audio I found I could watch and critique the shots much better without getting in to the story. This is something I do quite often now with films at home and find it to be a great learning tool.

[Ken Willinger]

I recommend picking up "Visions of Light - The Art of Cinematography". It was put out by AFI and is available on DVD. An excellent history of filmaking with scenes from over a hundred films and interviews with many of the great DP's like Gordon Willis, Vittorio Storraro and William Fraker. It's a must for any cinematographers library.

[chuck colburn]

Oh yeah an go to this site.

http://www.cinematography.net/Pages%20DW/WhatsTheNodalPoint.htm