Shooting From the Heart: Cinematographers and Their Medium

“Shooting from the Heart – Cinematographers and Their Medium” constitutes the academic core of 'Making Pictures',a significant work of reference in the field under the auspices of IMAGO (the Association of European Cinematographers). Other contributors include director Bernardo Bertolucci, actor Marcello Mastroianni and cinematographers Sven Nykvist, Jack Cardiff and Guiseppe Rotunno.

The chapter by the researcher positions cinematography as a distinct medium and this argument is substantiated through the analysis of both historical and contemporary exemplars of achievement in lighting, composition and camera movement. It uses as primary source material several interviews conducted by Greenhalgh which, in their turn, enable a comparative perspective on cinematographic practice to emerge. The chapter seeks to establish clear boundaries around the professional role while simultaneously exploring the complex dimensions of collaborative partnerships with directors. The chapter provides a comprehensive foundation for constructing academic inquiry into cinematography and production practice in media theory.

Cathy is a Principal Lecturer and a Course Director of MA Investigating Film Practice (due to begin now 2010/11), and BA Film and Video (now BA Film and Television) for several years. She teaches practice classes in cinematography for fiction, television and documentary and co-teaches with directing and production design staff.

Cathy also delivers lectures on e.g.: Wildlife Filmmaking, Presence and Space, Documentary Ethics and Performance, Film and Landscape, Interactive Storytelling, Dance on Film, Practice as Research and writes about cinematographers and filmmaking practices, performance and narrative, creative collaboration and practice language, film aesthetics and cinematographic phenomena. This work is influenced by ethnographic work with feature film cinematographers undertaken over ten years and various projects with students, including CLIPCETL studies of creative collaboration and how students learn on the film set.

Cathy is co-founder with Sal Anderson of UAL's Film and Phenomena Creative Laboratory which promotes discussion and collaborative film works with scientists. She originally trained at the National Film and Television School and worked as a cinematographer for years in the British film industry.

Cathy directs films which incorporate choreography, documentary and animation elements, using a combination of media for film/gallery spaces. Her last film, 'Aftermath' (2006) a collaboration with choreographer Rosemary Butcher and acoustic composer Cathy Lane was screened at many festivals in Europe and beyond. Cathy is currently working on two films, 'Switch - Luminous Blackpool', about natural and artificial light and 'Cottonopolis', which explores similarities in the experiences of elderly cotton mill workers and their descendants in Manchester, Lodz (Poland), Ahmedabad (India) and Shanghai.

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