Last week in my Color Design class we watched the documentary Cameraman, a movie that goes inside the works of a cinematographer, Jack Cardiff. He was the first director of photography in the history of Academy Awards to receive an Honorary Oscar in 2001. The documentary zooms in on Jack’s becoming of age and the development of color films using the effects of Technicolor. Jack was a specialist in Technicolor and was considered the only person to truly understand how it works and how to use it to its advantage. The film breaks down his work on the many classic films like “Matter of Life and Death,” “Black Narcissus,” “The Red Shoes,” “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” and many many more.
Jack Cardiff greatly influenced the film industry and was hugely wanted for his skill. He was not just a cinematographer, but was a consummate painter, photographer and photo “collector.” In everything he did, he did it with greatness and as the documentary claims, he was the fastest and the best.
This movie greatly opened my eyes to the art of filmmaking and the art of color. It is to Jack that we, the audience, owe about 90% of the history of cinema to. Literally; pretty much all films made today are done in color. Because of Jack the art of color films flourished and people knew the potential of using color.
Jack lived to be 94 (died in 2009), dedicating 89 of those years to his work in films, and lived to make a name for himself. His work significantly influenced filmmaking in the 21st century and his work lives on to this day and shows the growth of cinema.
Films are a huge part of the entertainment industry today that has actually lost much of its authenticity and ability to be a true form of art. Computers override the need for people like Jack. In many cases he manually had to invent ways to make a scene work visually; today the computer takes care of all of that. In one specific case cited in Cameraman was that the director of a film wanted a scene to start off blank and fade into the scene as if it was fog, but they did not yet have filters or program effects to do that. So, Jack himself came up with breathing on the lens of the camera to generate this effect. Yes, computers can do that today but it all started with man himself. Filmmaking was literally an art and much of that art is dedicated to Jack Cardiff.
Growing Old is Getting Old 