Undoubtedly, the director deserves full credit for the overall vision of a film, but the painstaking work behind the scenes to transform script and concept art into cinematic reality is the interdependent craft of cinematography, where narrative and imagery are further shaped by necessity, planning, and chance.
Cinematographers use unique technological tools and artistic understanding, but ultimately they all have the same goal: to improve storytelling and the cinematic experience. In recent years, more and more filmmakers have started using Unreal Engine 5 for previsualization and filmmaking. (Read our in-depth report on how UE5 was used on Amazon’s Fallout TV series.)
While filming All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, Jomo Fray worked with filmmaker Raven Jackson to develop a 12-point manifesto with the goal of creating poetic images that evoke the desired emotional response, rather than just being technically correct.
The art of photography is in the imperfections that make the subconscious react and stimulate the viewer’s imagination in a way that seems organic rather than manipulated. It’s all part of what Jomo calls “experimental storytelling,” which allows him to combine his background in visual aesthetics and philosophy, and which earned him being listed as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine in 2018 and named a Rising Star by American Cinematographer four years later.
Jomo analyzes the various elements of cinematography, highlighting a cult classic, frequent director-cinematographer collaborations, an indie darling, and an acclaimed blockbuster. Below are Jomo’s inspirational recommendations.
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Best Lighting: Blade Runner (1982)
The future did not look bright for the adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, as Ridley Scott was unable to match the critical and box office success he achieved with Alien following the release of Blade Runner. The production was problematic from the start, as the lead cast and crew clashed with the filmmaker, but his visual sense prevailed.
The film has since achieved cult status by setting the gold standard for the retrofuture aesthetic that continues to be copied and of which seven different versions are in circulation. The initial dismissive attitude was broken by the contributions of Jordan Cronenweth, who won Best Cinematography at the BAFTA Awards and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards by transforming neon signs and wet surfaces into signature light sources.
“It’s impossible for me to pick a film with the best lighting, but one film I watch over and over again is Blade Runner,” notes Jomo Fray. “Jordan Cronenweth’s work on that film is truly extraordinary. The lighting is equal parts theatrical, emotionally evocative, sensual, and grounded in the world they created. It draws me into the film every time I see it.”
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Best Framing and Composition: Fallen Angles (1995)
Originally from Sydney, Australia, Christopher Doyle has been the go-to cinematographer for Asian cinema since the early 1980s, particularly for legendary Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, resulting in seven collaborations including Chungking Express, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love and 2046.
Doyle is not afraid of asymmetrical compositions, because the goal is not to create beautiful images, but to highlight the human condition through the highly stylized use of slow motion, motion blur and color filters.
“I love the framing in Wong Kar Wai’s Fallen Angels. Christopher Doyle’s framing is bold, exciting and utterly captivating,” says Jomo. “His use of ultra-wide angle lenses reminds us that there are no rules in filmmaking. In the hands of a master, anything and everything can be striking and explosive! It’s the kind of film that inspires me after the second viewing.”
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Best Cinematography: American Honey (2016)
Considered a mentor and good friend of Jomo Fray, Robbie Ryan has made a habit of working with directors on more than one occasion and one of them is Andrea Arnold. The need to be in the moment and have mostly non-professional actors, with the exception of Shia LaBeouf and Riley Keough, meant that the documentary approach was chosen, as American Honey is essentially a road trip for the cast, crew and audience.
“One piece of cinematography I love is the handheld camerawork in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey. Robbie Ryan has a way of moving the camera in a very intuitive way,” notes Jomo. “It almost feels like you, as a viewer, are being transported into the spaces of the film. The moment your gaze intuitively moves to another subject, the camera follows that exact tempo. There is something deeply natural about the use of movement in film that is difficult to achieve.”
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Best combination of live action and virtual cameras: Dune: Part 1 (2021)
Greig Fraser, who won an Oscar for the sci-fi epic Dune: Part 1, is a staunch advocate of the need for cinematographers to learn and experiment with the Unreal Engine. The enormous logistics, tight timeframe and desired scale of the production could only be achieved efficiently and effectively through pre-visualization and digital augmentation of the final image.
“I consider Dune: Part 1 to be a masterpiece of the artful fusion of practical photography and visual effects,” notes Jomo. “The seamless way the effects integrate the lighting and composition is exquisite, making the film incredibly immersive. While each shot is immaculately composed, they also have imperfections that only add to their perfection – for example, a spaceship in the sky that is not perfectly composed or clearly visible.”
Jomo adds: “The images almost have the quality of shots you find on the set. The optimal combination of these elements does not impress us with spectacular scenes, but gives us the opportunity to delve even deeper into the world of the filmmakers.”
