Show, don't tell.
If there's one fundamental maxim of great screenwriting, it's that. And yet, as obvious as it sounds, it's a skill that's difficult to master. Watching great cinema helps – especially films with great cinematogrpahy.
After all, the art of cinematography is more than just mood and atmosphere. In the hands of the right director of photography, any given shot can be used to convey subtext, explore theme, or convey details about a characters inner life. Learn to think like a cinematographer, and you might soon find yourself saying less with more in your own writing.
So, in celebration of great cinematography, we thought it might be fun to track down ten of the most prolific cinematographers on Instagram. All ten of these accounts are worth following – if only to catch a brief, inspirational glimpse of our world through their lens.
Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity, The Revanant)
Reed Morano (Kill Your Darlings)
Benoit Delhomme (The Theory of Everything, A Most Wanted Man)
Andrew Dunn (Perks of Being a Wallflower, Precious)
Wally Pfister (The Dark Knight, Inception)
Rob Hardy (Ex Machina, Testament of Youth)
Eric Steelberg (Juno, (500) Days of Summer)
Rachel Morrison (Dope, Fruitvale Station)
Matthew Libatique (Black Swan, Reqiuem For a Dream)
Rodrigo Prieto (The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence)
