Great cinematography can elevate an average video far beyond its radio, and conversely, poor cinematography can ruin an otherwise great picture. In this video, Mark Bone presents the six most important rules he believes every Cinematographer and Director of Photography should know.
I have little valuable hands-on experience in cinematography and even less as a Director of Photography. However, many of these tips are common to all camera goals. In fact, the first tip Bone gave me is the one that works for me in almost everything I do. I would simplify it to: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
As your arsenal of techniques and tricks grows as a photographer, you’ll be tempted to use them more often. It can get to the stage where you complicate everything you can just to use what you’ve learned. This can lead to cluttered and confusing images, greatly detracting from your original intent. In this video, Bone uses the example of moving the camera while shooting just because you own the gimbal. One of the best examples of this in photography is always shooting at your widest aperture, just because you have a fast lens. That is, take every photo at f/1.4 because you have a shooting lens there. Instead, you should consider what you want to achieve with the shot and how much footage is needed for it.
