How Much Does A Film Director Need To Know About Cinematography And Editing

How does a film director explain their vision to their cinematographer?

There are many ways a director can accomplish this. It's important to realize though that, ideally, the diector and cinematographer collaborate and the cinematographer is allowed to do his or her job and direct the cinematography themselves.In the case of collaboration, each director/cinematographer relationship will use their own language and style of communication. Like any relationship, some couples communicate better than others. This is the reason you frequently see long term relationships between a director and cinematographer. Director Wes Anderson and cinematographer Robert Yeoman have been working together for 20 years and have crafted a highly developed style together.Steven Spielberg is another great example as he consistently uses many of the same people from movie to movie.Other directors give little instruction at all to the cinematographer. The vision is there in the script and both follow that.In highly technical scenes the cinematography may be more directed by the effects department, or just the logistics of the shot.As far as directors that do want more control of their “vision,” Stanley Kubric being the obvious example, the director may direct the cinematography themselves, leaving the actual cinematographer as a glorified camera operator.Alfred Hitchcock was famous for this, using storyboards (almost like a comic strip) that laid out exactly where each person was, what was in frame, exact placement of objects, etc. He would sometimes do this frame by frame. This is almost insane when you consider the industry standard is 24 frames per second.Then there are directors that are the cinematographer. Akira Kurosawa, originally a painter, controlled the cinematography and editing himself. There was no other person between himself and his vision.Robert Rodriguez, who developed his craft with extremely low budgets, was forced to manage every detail of a shoot himself.

What is the difference between a director, DOP and cinematographer?

Whats the difference between Barry Sonnenfeld and Barry Sonnenfeld?The answer here is nothing - it's the same person.Barry Sonnenfeld started off as a director of photography on films such as Miller's Crossing (1990) and Misery (1990). He also has directed Men in Black (1997) among other films.You can see then that there is a lot of crossover in what a DP does and what a director does.This is something that people don't tend to get - that on most sets you have a bunch of people who pretty much could do each others' job if it came to it. Every DP I know knows how to record sound, how to edit, how to direct. This is probably true for a lot of the top directors as well. Most are fairly accomplished at things like editing and cinematography, it's part of their job to know about these things.Personally speaking I've shot films for other people as DP, directed films, edited them. The key thing is I don't become a different person each time I do that!I'm just Matt the filmmaker.It all boils down to storytelling at the end of the day and when you become successful at that, it translates pretty much to all other kinds of storytelling.That said, your average cinematographer would know more about cameras and shooting than your average director. They need to know the ins and outs of lighting and other equipment. They specialise in this area.The director also has specialist skills such as working with actors, and managing the team.There are individuals who can do it all to an extremely high standard. Some directors (for example Barry Sonnenfeld) are essentially their own DPs.There are some cinematographers who would probably make good directors, but can't really be bothered with that headache. You do get some directors who aren't so good with the camera. But of the top directors working today, this seems to be a small fraction, and almost all of the directors who are considered to be the greatest directors of all time are very knowledgeable about camera.DP and Cinematographer is the same thing. Really just a fancy name for a camera guy.In Photography, you don't have photographer and director of photographing, it's just "photographer".

Does a movie director need cinematography knowledge?

Certainly.How I look at this is why wouldn't they want to learn cinematography?Directing and cinematography are in many ways the same thing - in your question try replacing the term cinematography with ‘visual storytelling’`“Is it important for a director to be able to tell a story visually?”.The answer is - of course.How much should they know about cinematography?At minimum they would want to be an accomplished photographer and know all the ‘rules’ and guidelines of cinematography. What effect different lenses and shots might have if used etc.You’ll see that all top directors are also successful photographers or image makers -Photos by Wim WendersPhotos by Stanley KubrickPhotos by David LynchStills from Christopher Nolan’s first feature (on which he acted as DP) Following.Painting by Akira KurosawaPhotography by Andrei TarvovskyI would say that the more a director knows about cinematography, the better.You have to know your craft in order to define an idea. In order to take something and put it up on the screen. If you don’t have any craft you can’t do that. A lot of craft sets you free to put things together the way you want them.Gordon WillisPersonally speaking I always wanted to be able to make films really well and so it seemed fairly self-evident that I should learn as much about things like camera, lighting and editing as possible. I considered these things to be like paint and paint brush to an artist, or clay to a sculptor.Like I say, most of the top directors will have a lot of personal experience with things like editing, camera, effects, sound design before becoming professional directors.The director is like the captain of a ship - ask yourself, if you were a crew member of a ship, would you want a captain that was very knowledgeable about sailing? Or someone who was incompetent and didn’t know what port and starboard were… ;)I know which one I’d feel safer with.Cinematography and directing both have lots of crossover with editing as well, so a director will also want to know as much as possible about that.See Also: Matt Burwood's answer to If you were to start your film making career again, how would you do it?