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Greatest Cinematographers ever


Guest Daniel J. Ashley-Smith

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So Tim, exactly when do all of those posts get deleted...?

Crazy, I remember reading this. I see Max was back pushing Tarkovsky, greatly appreciated Max, I never would have found him otherwise, now he's my favorite director hands-down. And like you said 2 years ago, amazing visuals. Though my favorites visually would probably be The Mirror by Georgi Rerberg or The Sacrifice by Nykvist.

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The framing of the early scenes in Deschanel's (Ballard's) "The Black Stallion" is beautiful. I'm thinking of the boat sequence before the fire. There's the opener with the screen bisected by water and hull. And all the subsequent footage of Alec running around the decks, with the sea pitching in the background. A very limited palette, but such gorgeous, plaintive shots.

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Agreed. The Black Stallion was a beautifully photographed film. I liked the close up of the stallion carving held in the boy's hand with the real horse running along the hillside in the distant background, among many other shots. The escape from the burning ship was certainly dramatic. I was fortunate to see that film at the cinema.

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  • 1 month later...
After watching Citizen kane again this evening, I have to give it to Gregg Toland. He did some pretty impressive things in that movie, namely the reflections. When Kane is dancing at the party celebrating his acquisition of the great newspaper writers, I'm really impressed in the shots where Kane is reflected in the window. It must have been extremely difficult to get the exposure balanced for both the reflection, and the actors conversing.

 

Does anyone know what filmstock and format he shot that on? I'm curious as to the lengths they had to go to achieve that depth of field. Some of those shots had to have been done at an F16 or F22, and with the (I assume) slower film stocks of the day, eep! :blink:

 

As far as Toland's great depth of field (I don't think I saw it mentioned here) they also did some amazing double-exposure work that put foreground subjects very close to the camera so that prominent background subjects would also be razor sharp. Shot when the nurse enters room comes to mind.

 

Lately I've been really impressed with what John Alcott did with "Barry Lyndon." Good old fashioned work when cinematographers got their hands dirty instead of relying on computers. Sure, modern films look great-- in fact they all look great. But films done 15 and more years ago before computers took over you know you're seeing the work.

 

Take a look at Barry Lyndon, you'll see a cinematographers fingerprints.

 

Right-handed.

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David Watkin for me he changed the way movies looked in the60s/70s and they look the way they do today mostly because of him, i worked on his crew in Spain on Robin and Marion and learnt so much. john holland.

 

Wow, John. I love that film. What exactly did you do on it? :)

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Its a long story really , but went to Spain with Mr Watkin to do stock tests . 5274 [ your favorite stock ?] the film was shot in forests in the north of Spain , mainly because Connery was a tax excile from Uk and lived most of time in that country .Anyway at that time the stock was serious poop .Magenta flesh tones , and horrible green shadow detail as most of movie was going be to shot under green heavy leafed forest was a nightmare , never got it right . Havent seen the film for years , if its on DVD now colour may have been corrected . But release prints looked awful .Loads more i could say but perhaps shouldnt .

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  • 2 weeks later...

My knowledge of great cinematographers is pretty shallow, but I'd say:

 

John Toll

Vittorio Storaro

Conrad Hall

Nestor Almendros

 

guys who are pretty active now:

 

Emmanuel Lubezki

Chris Doyle

Lee Ping-bin

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  • 4 weeks later...
In my opinion Roger Deakins is one of the greatest modern cinematographers. He was the DP behind some of the most visually beautiful films. He shot A Beautiful Mind, The Village, and The Shawshank Redemption just to name a few.

 

only to be seen on the screen "Secret Garden"

A childrens film

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Inventive how too light a set thats Mirror floor, All walls are mirrors, and the ceilings are mirrors. + 150 extras on set then 3 people on set.

 

Think David Watkin should be in there somewhere.( mind you he has Oscar but not for this)

 

"Return to Oz"

 

Nothing was moved?

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In my opinion Roger Deakins is one of the greatest modern cinematographers. He was the DP behind some of the most visually beautiful films. He shot A Beautiful Mind, The Village, and The Shawshank Redemption just to name a few.

 

can't agree with you more, and deakins took risks in cinematography like the bleach bypass for 1984, correct me if i'm wrong, and maybe the first DI for a feature film in O brother where art thou

 

Pablo

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Silly question, but:

(In no particular order)

James Wong Howe, Gregg Toland, Stanley Cortez, John Alcott , Robert Flaherty, Karl Fruend, Storarro, Giuseppe Rotunno, Gordon Willis, Michael Chapman, Tonino Delli Colli ...

this topic would be a good way to kill an afternoon. Would you include DW Griffith's camera-man?

 

 

Nice to read: Delli Colli hasn`t been named so much in the past while discussing the great DPs.

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  • 10 months later...

I agree with Dan and NOT rating some cinematographers over others, especially when they come from different time periods and have aimed to achieve different objectives.

Right now I'm into Sergei Urusevsky, for films such as Soy Cuba & The Cranes are Flying which has some really crafty B&W shots that after review are tricky to explain how it was actually shot. For example, in Soy Cuba towards the start of the film there is a rediculious long take starting on the roof of a hotel during a tropical modeling show/fiesta (seems like hand-held) as we are taken through the party than reaching the roof's edge the camera is lowered the entire hight of the building down to the pool deck. The camera continues to walk among the crowd and finally follows a hot babe into a large pool to end the shot with underwater photography. Absolutely amazing planning and they must have had intense rehersals with all of the actors and extras.

 

If you haven't seen either of these films I strongly suggest you check them out!!

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No mention of Chris Menges.... a fore runner in his day... and Barry Ackroyd now... United 93 , and all the recent Ken Loach films.

 

 

 

 

I agree with Dan and NOT rating some cinematographers over others, especially when they come from different time periods and have aimed to achieve different objectives.

Right now I'm into Sergei Urusevsky, for films such as Soy Cuba & The Cranes are Flying which has some really crafty B&W shots that after review are tricky to explain how it was actually shot. For example, in Soy Cuba towards the start of the film there is a rediculious long take starting on the roof of a hotel during a tropical modeling show/fiesta (seems like hand-held) as we are taken through the party than reaching the roof's edge the camera is lowered the entire hight of the building down to the pool deck. The camera continues to walk among the crowd and finally follows a hot babe into a large pool to end the shot with underwater photography. Absolutely amazing planning and they must have had intense rehersals with all of the actors and extras.

 

If you haven't seen either of these films I strongly suggest you check them out!!

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These threads regarding "greatest" are really funny considering the subjective nature of it all. What you bring to a viewing helps determine what you take from it. But they are fun...

 

Vasim Yusov, Fritz Arno Wagner, Bedrich Batka, Azakazu Nakai, and Lucien Hayer are all on my list.

 

I wonder what this thread would look like if it were posted on an Italian website? Surely Raoul Coutard or would be mentioned more than once on a French thread?

 

-Jonnie

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How about honorable mention for Barry Sonnenfeld? "Raising Arizona" still stands as a tour de force of kinetic camera work. All it took was an Arri 2C, and a lot of imagination... no CGI, no post tricks or computers involved... everything pretty much done on set and in camera.

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