Nothing is more important than the story. It’s what makes or breaks the story. I’ve always lived by this saying “You can fix bad camera work, you can hide bad acting, but you can’t fix a bad story no matter what you do”. Therefore the story is the first thing that needs to be perfected.

With the director being the central vision of the project, it is important for them to be constantly having ideas. Cinematographer Denis Lenoir once told me, a director is someone who wakes up every morning dreaming of film and goes to sleep each night still dreaming about it. For a director, there is no such thing as a break, but the good ones enjoy that.

With There are plenty of camera operators out there, but what separates a Director of Photography from them is how they see shots. A DP/Cinematographer sees shot as they affect the story, rather than just a series of pretty images. Finding ways to push the story forward using camera angles and stylistic choices can have a lasting impact on the film as a whole.