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Of Deakins and Willis


Vivek Venkatraman

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So my two favourite cinematographers are Roger Deakins and Gordon Willis. [quite opposite in style]

However the internet is filled with information on Deakins and he has his own forum but I would like to know more about Willis beyond his bold lighting choices on Godfather.

I really cant seem to find much about his technique, are there any books that talk about him ? Any American Cinematographer issues ?

The one post on this forum that shared a video about him was deleted.

 

Anything to read would be nice.

 

Thanks

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There are also interviews with Willis in the documentaries 'Cinematographer Style' and 'Visions of Light.' The former was turned into two books of complete interview transcripts with the same title as well.

 

What I find most interesting about Willis is not so much the lighting technique but his thought process behind the philosophy of filmmaking. He firmly believes in planning things out, making strong choices and sticking to them, essentially editing in camera. Aesthetically he likes contrast, not just in lighting ratios but between cuts, going from a dark room to a bright sunny exterior for example. He says he basically thinks like an editor when shooting.

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Theres also an uncut version of the Wills-interview from Cinematographer Style, literally the entire takes ungraded with lots of good stuff that didn't make the film. If you can find it... believe it maybe was in one of the dvds or something like that. But don't quote me on that...

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