Cinematography

"Go inside the making of Tron: Ares with cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth (Fight Club, The Social Network) and motion control operator Mike Morgan from SISU Cinema Robotics. Hear how Jeff approached the film’s distinct visual style, blending gritty realism with digital perfection, and why SISU’s motion control systems were key to capturing complex, high-precision shots, including a daring move just millimeters from Jared Leto’s eye."

https://youtu.be/1PjpPAe7Zis

https://petapixel.com/2025/10/09/cinematographer-gives-an-8mm-camcorder-from-the-1950s-a-new-digital-life/

Every project ends, but the process doesn’t. Once delivery is done and the dust settles, take time to learn from the journey before you move to the next one.

Review the full arc

Pull your notes, stills, lighting diagrams, and look cards into one folder. Revisit what worked, what broke, and what surprised you. Study the shots that still move you — and the ones that fell short — to understand why.

Debrief with your team.

Schedule short postmortems with your director, gaffer, editor, and colorist. Ask what helped them most and what slowed them down. These conversations often reveal small workflow tweaks that save hours later.

Build your personal playbook.

Turn your discoveries into reusable assets — reference frames, LUTs, lighting setups, gear lists, templates. The best cinematographers refine their process between projects, not during them.

Archive the lessons, not just the footage.

Alongside your backups, store annotated stills, look at evolution notes, and BTS lighting photos. These are gold for teaching, pitching, and prep on future work.

Keep relationships alive

Send thank-yous to your crew and post partners. A quick follow-up, even weeks later, reinforces trust. The best crews reassemble not by luck, but by leadership.

Rest and reset

The process takes a lot out of you. Give yourself space to recover, reflect, and refill the creative well before diving into the next story.

Indie micro checklist

– Debrief notes and lighting diagrams archived

– Team postmortems done and feedback logged

– Look and gear references saved for next project

– Thank-you emails sent to crew and post team

– Personal creative reset planned

Question for the Lounge

What’s one lesson or workflow change you’re carrying forward into your next shoot?

Next up:

This wraps The Cinematographer’s Process series — but we’re not done yet. Next, we’ll kick off a brand-new series: The Cinematographer’s Transition – From One-Person Band to Working with a Crew.

We’ll explore how to build trust, delegate without losing your touch, and step confidently into leadership on set. Stay tuned for Part 1 next week!

I'm working on an unscripted series for broadcast where one of the characters we follow requires a car rig for recording day-to-day activities when we're not on location. This is not something I do regularly.

Of course, I'm looking at GoPros, and maybe the purchase of a few Insta360s (which seem to be a little more user-friendly). However, I'm wondering about including a consumer-grade interior-facing dash cam. Do any of you have experience in this area? How does the image hold up on TV? Would a consumer system blow out highlights or crush blacks to compensate?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

https://petapixel.com/2025/10/08/how-fujifilm-changed-the-gfx-eterna-55s-100mp-sensor-for-filmmaking/

If you can make a film trailer for your unproduced script, AI is a way to do it for little cost with cinematic-level outputs.

But, not to say that it won't come with frustration to nail any given scene with consistent characters and getting the cut acceptable. It does take patience to hit each scene with the right cinematography.

I’ve been searching for a cinematographer for a while now. I’ve posted this request several times in the Jobs section, but it seems like everyone is caught up in their own “personal apocalypse”. Honestly, I’m not sure what the best way to find the right person is, so I thought I’d ask for some guidance. Because at this rate, my job posts are starting to feel just like the title of my film Expire—slowly expiring themselves

The picture looks great. Now make sure it arrives everywhere it needs to be, plays perfectly, and is safely stored for the future.

Lock the delivery specs.

Ask the distributor, festival, or platform for a spec sheet. Confirm frame size, frame rate, color space, codec, and file naming. Get audio requirements in writing. Many outlets want separate 5.1 and stereo, plus stems.

Build your deliverables set.

Create the master picture file. Export audio mixes and stems. Create captions and subtitles. Prepare clean versions if needed. Gather poster art, stills, credits list, cue sheet, EPK, and proof of licensed music and fonts.

Audio pass that saves headaches

Check peaks and loudness. Make sure dialogue is clear in both stereo and 5.1. Verify channel order matches spec. Listen for pops, clipped breaths, and room tone jumps on headphones and speakers.

Captions and subtitles

Export captions in the format they ask for. SRT is common. Spot check timing, spelling, and names. Watch with captions on. Make sure caption colors and positions are legible over the grade.

Picture QC before you ship

Watch the whole piece, eyes on the screen. Look for dead pixels, flash frames, bad dissolves, noise pumping, aliasing, and mismatched shots. Confirm titles and credits are spelled correctly and safe on frame. Check for legal range if required.

Festival vs streamer

Festivals often want a DCP and a high-quality mezzanine file like ProRes 422 HQ, plus a stereo mix and captions. Streamers may require specific HDR or SDR masters, 5.1, stereo, stems, accessibility assets, and strict naming. Do the easy one first, then transcode to the picky one.

Name it so no one cries.

Use a clear pattern. Show_Title_Version_Date_Resolution_FrameRate_ColorSpace_Audio. Put it on screen in a slate or PDF too.

Final view like a viewer

After you pass on a calibrated monitor, do a full watch on a normal TV or tablet. If it plays clean there, you are in good shape.

Archive with a simple rule

Follow 3–2–1. Three copies. Two different kinds of storage. One copy off-site or in the cloud. Keep the final masters, project files, LUTs, stills, fonts, caption files, and a readme that explains versions. Test your backups twice a year.

Indie micro checklist

– Spec sheet received and read

– Master picture exported to spec

– 5.1, stereo, and stems rendered and labeled

– Captions exported and spot checked

– Picture and audio QC pass done on two screens

– Festival and streamer packages created

– Filenames and slates follow a clear pattern

– 3–2–1 backups complete with a readme

Question for the lounge

What is one delivery or QC step that has saved you from a last-minute fire drill?

Go behind the scenes with award-winning cinematographer Sam McCurdy ASC, BSC, as he breaks down his work on the series Smoke. In this in-depth interview, McCurdy talks about his collaboration with creator Dennis Lehane, the cinematic rules they developed for the show, and why he chose the Sony VENICE 2 to capture the story’s tone and texture.

He also digs into the heart of visual storytelling, how to make every shot serve both the narrative and the emotional truth of the characters.

Watch the full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvDN8wfAJ18

For those of you working in cinematography:

When you begin a project, do you set specific “rules” for the visual language, or do you prefer to discover the look more organically as you go?

If we learned anything watching The Studio, Adolescence, and The Pitt clean up at last night’s Emmy Awards, it’s this: Steadicam long takes are here to stay.

If you’ve ever watched The Shining, Rocky, Goodfellas, or Children of Men, you’ve seen the magic of the Steadicam in action.

Before gimbals and drones, there was the original game-changer in camera movement, and it’s still used on major sets today.

This video from StudioBinder is a fantastic breakdown of what a Steadicam is, how it works, and why it remains a vital tool for DPs and operators alike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_thX0rDNu0Y

When do you think a Steadicam is the right choice for a scene?

Are you looking to lean into the growing trend of immersive long takes and fluid motion?

Greetings Comrades, hope you are well. I’d like to share a success story of the short-film I worked on previously as a Dp.

To bring the Jimbi Shortfilm to life, we had to unlearn old habits and embrace new techniques. As soon as pre-production began, chief lighting technician Emmanuel Gashumba played a crucial role in advising on lighting aesthetics, particularly during our technical recce. He also inquired about my preferred camera, with the initial choice being the Alexa Mini. However, due to budget constraints and the need to prioritize production design—since a more expensive camera would limit our set dressing resources, which is critical in shaping the film’s overall look—we opted for the Blackmagic Pocket 6K Pro. This camera was ideal for its ability to capture raw footage and for its cost-effectiveness.

To achieve a colorist-friendly image, I sought additional guidance from Gino Amadori, CSI