Introduction

Gary Elmer

Director of Photography / Cinematographer

The Cinematographer is the directors right hand,  riding the light, surfing the angles and shaping the technology to deliver the Directors vision to the screen.   This must not be a laborious process, the location shooting must be a creative effort.  As in a band, all parts must be in sync.  A fun professional shooting environment will almost always deliver a higher quality output than a heavy location.   This is created in large part by how effortless the cinematographer can make the process seem. 

There are dozens of factors in play on every shoot.   It is the cinematographers job to cut through the cumbersome infrastructure and deliver high quality consistant excellence.  Creativity and and experience can offer thousands of shortcuts that can save time, money, hassle so that the creative effort can be put into things that really make the production shine.  All productions of any size are exercises in time management, putting as much effort as possible into things that show up on screen and effeciently and quickly dispatching the rest.

It's all about the story.  What the viewer sees and feels, and how they percieve it is based on what they see and what they hear.  Although viewers may not be conciously aware of exactly why they like or don't like something, every single person can spot quality.