As part of a university summer project that I need to complete over the period of 4 weeks, my first task is to write my own review on a book, so I chose Masters of light: conversations with contemporary cinematographers
Book by Dennis Schaefer; Larry Salvato c1984 instead of Photography by Stephen Bull as I found the part 'conversations with contemporary cinematographers' to be quite interesting. The review must be of one chapter and 250 words:
Spanish born cinematographer Nestor Almendros was one of America’s leading cinematographers, also known for defying the labelling of him being a ‘Hollywood cameraman’ despite never having shot a film there, yet he understood the meaning. Almendros briefly moved to New York to broaden his understanding of filmmaking, but returned to Cuba after being hired to create propaganda documentaries due to the fall of the Batista dictatorship. Throughout his career, including 20 years working as a director of photography, he has assisted the production of many films, some were shot in Europe and some in America. Two were filmed in New York; Kramer vs Kramer [1978] and Still of the Night [1981], Goin South [1977] was filmed in Mexico, and Days of Heaven [1976] was filmed in Canada. He also has worked with the likes of Eric Rohmer, Truffaut, and Terrence Malick, who he speaks highly of in regards to the production of Days of Heaven. Filming was entirely dependent on the weather conditions – meaning there wasn’t a firm production schedule or many details about what would occur on a shooting day, resulting in the ‘Hollywood crew’ being unhappy. His “way of lighting and seeing is realistic” (pg. 25 line 24) , as opposed to the ‘Hollywood’ style of lighting in film productions at the time, and Almendros also states that the ‘neorealist cinematography of G.R. Aldo’ is a source of inspiration for him, with his use of soft and indirect lighting that is clearly reflected in his work.
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