I’ve spent thousands of hours in grading suites, but nothing quite prepared me for the cognitive dissonance of The Act of Killing. But Joshua Oppenheimer’s film throws all those standard rules out the window. It’s a total head-trip that forced me… Read More »The Act of Killing (2012) – Cinematography Analysis
When I sat down to watch What Is a Woman? (2022), I had to tune out the massive political storm surrounding it. As a filmmaker, I’m interested in the “how.” How did the crew handle a global shoot? How did they keep… Read More »What Is a Woman? (2022) – Cinematography Analysis
I first picked up To Be or Not to Be because of its reputation for being “too soon” for 1942 audiences. But as I sat with it, I stopped thinking about the controversy and started obsessing over how Rudolf Maté managed to… Read More »To Be or Not to Be (1942) – Cinematography Analysis
Moustapha Akkad’s The Message is a different beast entirely. It’s a film that shouldn’t work. You’ve got a massive, three-hour historical epic where the main character is never seen, never heard, and never even directly quoted. For many, this film was a… Read More »The Message (1976) – Cinematography Analysis
Mamoru Hosoda’s Wolf Children hits my monitor and reminds me why I got into this business. It’s a beautiful piece of work, but more importantly, it’s a case study in how visual language can carry the heavy lifting of a narrative. It… Read More »Wolf Children (2012) – Cinematography Analysis
I want to go back to 1927 to talk about the “Big Bang” of our craft: F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. These guys were inventing the grammar of cinema as they went along. Sunrise isn’t just a silent movie; it’s… Read More »Sunrise (1927) – Cinematography Analysis
Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show. It’s a 1971 classic that serves as a cold, hard reminder of why I got into this craft. It isn’t just a movie; it’s a deep dive into the soul of visual storytelling. It’s raw.… Read More »The Last Picture Show (1971) – Cinematography Analysis