Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera (1929). This isn’t just some dusty historical artifact you study in film school and forget. It’s a living, breathing masterclass in visual language that still feels more audacious than most of what hits theaters today.… Read More »Man with a Movie Camera (1929) – Cinematography Analysis & Stills
Usually, when someone tells you the best thing they’ve seen lately is an HBO movie about an autistic woman designing cattle chutes, you don’t immediately think “cinematic masterpiece.” But Temple Grandin (2010) is exactly that. It’s a masterclass in how to translate… Read More »Temple Grandin (2010) – Cinematography Analysis
When I sat down to re-watch Ava DuVernay’s 13th, I wasn’t just watching a documentary; I was dissecting a visual argument. I wanted to see how the lens choices, the lighting, and the final look in the suite worked together to… Read More »13th (2016) – Cinematography Analysis & Stills
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 & Stills
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 & Stills
Throne of Blood. Or, if you want to get specific, Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 masterpiece Spider Web Castle. I’m constantly looking at how a director manages to weave intent into the very grain of the image, and Kurosawa’s work here is as… Read More »Throne of Blood (1957) – Cinematography Analysis & Stills
It’s never just about a “look”; it’s about the emotional logic and the subtle grammar of light and shadow that forces an audience to feel something they can’t quite name. So, when I first saw Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (2008), it… Read More »Waltz with Bashir (2008) – Cinematography Analysis & Stills