The Cinematographer's Voice

A unique exploration of contemporary filmmaking from cinema's ultimate insiders.

The Cinematographer's Voice is a unique exploration of contemporary filmmaking and cinematography. The distillation of more than one-hundred interviews with cinematographers from around the world, and the product of a decade's worth of scholarship, the book is not only a collection of interviews with some of the world's leading cinematographers, but also a panoramic sweep of what image-making means in the era of digital cinema. Frequently, cinematography may seem intimidating as a discipline, the preserve solely of practitioners who have learned, through years of exposure to photographic technology, both the required jargon and background knowledge to comfortably engage with an often-technical field. In our present era of film studies, this is no longer the case. The interviews collected here are informative not only on matters of technique, but also on the ways in which practitioners formulate their methodologies, work with directors, and engage with the many logistical hurdles of visual storytelling. The result is an oral history of the past forty years of filmmaking and the cinematography it has produced.

Lindsay Coleman is a Senior Instructor for Manhattan Review. His books include Contemporary Film Music: Investigating Cinema Narratives and Composition (coedited with Joakim Tillman). Roberto Schaefer is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and Autori Italiani Cinematografia.

"…this book needs to be in the hands of everyone interested in filmmaking. There's plenty of practical information to be devoured, but just as interesting are the issues of taste, philosophy and art which are also drawn out in great detail." — Normal Exposure

"There is something truly special about hearing expert craftspeople discuss their methods, inspirations, and difficulties. The Cinematographer's Voice offers the opportunity to hear these insights from many of the major names in cinematography." — The Film Stage