I love to make cinema. I love the craft; I love to use the pallete of tools and team to work the immensely complex canvas that is the cinema image. Just the richness of craft is enough for me to fall in love with, but the depth of meaning that cinema creates is a tremendous dimension beyond. I love to figure out how to serve a project's content. The process of understanding the director's vision and the script's intentions and considering how to elaborate on them with light and camera are profound for me. Being able to serve the content in a piece, through the use of my craft, is where, I believe, cinematography becomes art.
I believe in the director. A work can never be truly great, unless it is guided by vision. Sometimes that vision is the work of many, and sometimes it is the work of just one, but however many cooks are in the kitchen, the director carries the vision, and as DP, my job is nothing less than to understand, honor and realize the director's vision through collaboration. A commitment to cinematography is a commitment to the director.