Cinematography: Theory and Practice: Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors (Volume 1) 2nd Edition

This is a true update of a true classic performed by a true professional and teacher. The first edition has been my creative companion for several years. It has been my go-to resource for reinforcing the basics, and serves as a yardstick to measure my current level of knowledge. The first time I read it (one sitting, while waiting at LAX) I understood some stuff, but it did set my course toward cinematographer, and established the framework for the stuff I had to learn and experience in order to craft stunning images that tell compeling stories. I'm still working on that; and the worn, marked-up pages are falling out of my first edition.Second edition is not simply an update to encompass more of digital cinematography. Many of the explanations and descriptions have been refined, and do a superior job of helping one to grasp the concepts.There are a few typos and grammar gotchas and oversights bla, bla, bla. Who cares? The content is what counts, and the content is superb.No matter what the occupation (this is my fifth career), the devil IS in the details - usually boiling down to basics. We generally don't screw up the fancy stuff, it's usually overlooking something basic that causes screw-ups. Blain Brown attempts and succeeds in helping the reader build a solid foundation of basic cinematographic knowledge and toolsets. He provides the foundation, it's up to us to build the structure. It's what a good teacher does, and it's why I usually re-read cover-to-cover once a year or so.It's a good book for beginners even though it's a little advanced. It takes a lot of lighting and shooting and time in the trenches to figure all this stuff out. There will be "oh yeah" moments when you discover something and it clicks with something you read before.For the intermediate level, it's a perfect text and reference.For advanced practitioners? I guess that depends on that person's needs. To me, "advanced" is ASC members and others at that level of professional expertise. Folks at that level mostly seem to be down to earth, still learning, and solidly grounded in the basics.Yeah, I think this book is great! I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about visual storytelling at any level. Thank you, Mr. Brown, for caring enought to share, to inform, and to inspire.

Without getting into too much of a song and dance about how this book has impacted me, I feel it necessary to give a little background on myself in hopes of putting this book into better perspective for potential buyers. For the past year and a half I've decided to dedicate my life to pursuing a career in filmmaking. This has all been self-taught, reading 19 books, making multiple short films, corporate videos, working and making money in both my creative and business endeavors as a freelancer of sorts. I have read books on overall film production, directing, editing, making cinematic images, corporate videography, etc. I consider myself a Writer & Director, but I have also recently been doing work in cinematography. As a filmmaker you have to have a huge amount of respect for what goes into crafting the film image. This book gives a solid foundation for how important the cinematographer is, not only from a cinematographer perspective but also from an overall filmmaking perspective. So if you're likely in a similar position as me in trying to better yourself as a filmmaker, this book will undoubtedly be of use to you. If you're someone who wants to have a career solely as a cinematographer, you'll need this book in addition to the many more specialized books on lighting, camera operating, lenses, post-production color grading and correcting, etc to develop your abilities. So in conclusion, I highly recommend this book as a solid theory and practice-oriented look at the process of cinematography and the tools necessary to make cinematic images.

This is an excellent introductory text for students of film, and would also serve as a good point of departure for enthusiasts looking to embark on producing their own creative film content. Blain Brown gives a decent breakdown of basic cinematic principles such as structure, shooting methods, visual narrative and cinematic storytelling in the opening chapters. In subsequent chapters he hones in more particularly on the various intricacies and considerations that relate to technical specifications of production equipment and how these relate to the DP's work. The third area of focus is that of post-production techniques and tools. A chapter is also dedicated to on-set operations.This second edition sees substantial updates on the first, particularly in the content that addresses changes in production equipment and software, such as cameras, lighting and HD digital encoding.While no single text could conceivably be exhaustive in addressing the entire scope of what an aspiring cinematographer needs to know, this book gives equal attention to considerations of theory and praxis and enables readers to identify relevant further (specialised) areas of reading.One aspect which came as a constant irritation is poor editing of the text - it is littered with typographic errors and incorrect in-text references - which compromises the reading experience somewhat.