Cinematography in Turkish film industry

[Akın Ay]

Hello to all,

 

I am a 19 year old cinematographer in Turkey and I'm having some problems with this. In Turkish film industry people don't really care about cinematography. Like, I'm lighting a scene and the director tells me to just bounce one light off the ceiling and start recording. Which just makes a very unnatural and a very ugly looking scene in my opinion. But all the directors want is to just be able to see the actors. That's cinematography in Turkey, being able to see the actors... My problem is that I don't want my name on a project with poor cinematography and I get in fights with the directors. How do I get the directors to just trust me and let me do my job? Or should I just do what they want? I don't want to work in Turkey for the rest of my life. Would this affect my career in UK or USA? Like, would I be able to explain to them that I'm not responsible for the bad cinematography in my resume?

 

Sorry for my poor English.

[Kemalettin Sert]

First of all im from Turkey and never heard of your name before.And you criticize cinematography in Turkish cinema :) its funny

i would recommend watching Reha Erdem,Nuri Bilge and Semih Kaplanoglu's work.

[Akın Ay]

I'm sorry it's my bad I should've said mainstream Turkish cinema. Of course there are good ones like the ones you said. But every single person I've ever worked with is like I described in the post.

 

Oh btw you haven't heard my name because I'm 19 and I'm new at filmmaking :)

[James Steven Beverly]

All you can do is learn to set up as quickly as you possibly can and live with what you have. Think practical, utillitarian three point set ups and save the artistic set ups for important scenes. I would imagine the reason your directors want you to do simple set ups in because of financal considerations. He or she doesn't have the money to do a longer shoot than the budget will allow so YOU have to compromise art with practcal necessity. At 19, all you want to do is create art but art takes time and you have to learn to become a journeyman before you can have anyone call you an artist. Speed is essental on any set in the world and pre-planning the shoot us essential to a smooth porduction. You need to do your homework and be prepared the minute you step on set. You can have a lighting set up done before the director has a chance to say a thing if you quick and prepared. It will only take a few shots for the director to see the difference in quality and professionalism in you approach.

[Aapo Lettinen]

I believe you can even manage with one light in most scenes if you can sneak in some bounce boards and reflectors for eye light + modeling and fill light. Reflectors don't need power so they can be set more quickly

than lights although they need more careful placing (you'll get used to it and it enhances your lighting skills a lot)

 

You can at least shoot your close ups very well that way if you have a second or two to set up the reflectors (and of course you will use only these nice looking close ups for your reel, not the ugly wides ;) )

[Igor Trajkovski]

In my country (Macedonia) we have invasion of Turkish TV soap operas.
So the first thing that came to my mind as you started to elaborate about Turkish cinematography are those shows. :)

 

However, Kemalettin Sert's post reminded me that movies are also produced there,

which i am sure some of them show great cinematography.

 

Sorry for being vague about the movies, it's been ages since i watched a Turkish feature,
but i recall Turkey having prolific film production, and some of the pictures were critically acclaimed at well known festivals.

 

 

Back to the soap operas.

While i am not following them, i glance from time to time at the screen while somebody at home or in relatives or friends houses watches them.

There is a broad mix of so so almost run and gun cinematography and here and there some better work can be seen.

 

I've seen a lot camera movement for the sake of movement - as dialog runs the camera slides left to right... that might be well known "convention"

for making a talk scene "interesting" but what surprises me is the use of crane or dolly for non-stop slight up and down movement.

The same as slide shot but vertically.

People talk, the camera raises, creeps upward and then reaches the peak and starts downward at the same tempo.

No cut. It seems the instructions to the operator are "From action to cut keep moving that camera up and down" :)

 

 

Beg/Enforce the director/producer to do one scene two ways - one with simple bounce on ceiling and other according to your vision.

Show them both variants.

For time/budgetary reasons your way might not be implemented.

Try to accomplish your way faster, more resourcefully.

If noting helps, just say its entertainment and enjoy the on set learning experience of all the aspects of film making. :)

 

Or be Storaro like, walk of the set if the director wants you to shine 3 Readheads frontally at the scene.
Regardless that you have wife, child, another on its way and only 50$ in you pocket... :)
(from "Cinematographer Style". I might paraphrasing it but it shows his resolve to keep his integrity and

have his say in the visuals of the shoot)

 

 

Regards

 

 

Igor