The Death & Rebirth of Cinema: MASTERING THE ART OF CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THE DIGITAL CINEMA AGE Paperback – December 15, 2015

...not until passing on to others becomes more important than making images yourself.” — From the Preface.Harry Mathias’ book The Death & Rebirth Of Cinema is the culmination of a lifetime of work in the filmmaking industry as a professional cinematographer. Harry Mathias KNOWS the craft of cinematography. From the writing in his book, and the subjects he covers, I knew that I was reading not just a masterful book, but something far better. Something secret, esoteric. In this day and age, we are quickly losing (if not already lost) the time-tested older ways of the master and apprentice art of teaching and learning. This is how Harry Mathias learned his art. And this is how he teaches the reader in his book.In the book, Harry explains the ways filmmaking has changed over the years, since he started. Hence the title of the book, The Death And Rebirth Of Cinema. He briefly covers the current group of mainstream digital cameras, but doesn’t go into too much detail on them, as he says in his book that technology is always changing and updating. He does give a cursory overview of what good director’s do, the many positions on a film crew/set, and covers the positions on a camera team. What he covers in detail instead, is the tools and techniques that have been used in filmmaking from years past, and will be (hopefully) used in the years ahead, something that the current crop of young filmmakers are NOT utilizing. I agree with what Harry says repeatedly in his book, in that filmmaking is losing the beauty that it used to have. Theatrical films are looking more and more like television, instead of looking like films. People are not using (or correctly using) the old-school (best school) ways of filmmaking, and instead rely too much on the ’technology’ and ‘we’ll fix it in post’ work that is common nowadays. Which means that films are losing the beauty and artistic integrity they used to have.Camera imagers, pixels, photo sites, and all manner of inside and outside components of digital cinema cameras are covered. I particularly LOVED the sections talking about Ansel Adams and his ‘Zone’ system. It is clear that Harry has derived much of his art of cinematography from Ansel Adams, and now I have an interest in it as well. Also covered are light meters, camera stops, skin tones, camera testing and calibration (he gives steps to follow to test a camera for filmmaking purposes), waveform monitors (and how useful they are on-set), lenses (in great detail, as well as HOW a lens work), lighting the actual film image, image size and composition, and more. Too much to discuss in a review, and I barely do justice to how well it is covered in detail. That’s why I got the book.This book goes into such great detail, it’s almost overwhelming. But it’s not. The detail is phenomenal, breaking down how EVERYTHING in cinematography works. Not only does Harry explain his art, but it’s clear he has a LOVE of film and his art. His writing is at times very humorous, and when reading it’s more like your best friend is right next to you, telling you all this. His writing makes you feel comfortable, like this is something you can learn if you put effort into it. I literally laughed out loud many times, because he has a great sense of humor in his writing that makes it that much more enjoyable.This book is what the newer generation of filmmakers needs to read. We don’t want films and filmmaking to suffer as a result of reliance just on newer technology. We need to use newer technology in conjunction with the time-tested ways of filmmaking. Harry Mathias is definitely a Master in cinematography, and this book is his legacy. It’s time for us to learn. The Master Class is in session.

“The death of the film need not be the death of the cinema.”Harry Mathias is clearly a genius when it comes to teaching the art of cinematography. Clearly he knows his subject distinctively helping cinematographers to make that clear transition from film to digital proving that cinematography is very much alive and necessary in the world of today’s advance film-making. I greatly enjoyed the historical aspect of this outstanding book; nevertheless it is more than that which was a great surprise. Covering such subjects as the current challenges, how to create compelling images, light meters and so much more. Informative and comprehensive this is a great resource to return to again and again. Fantastically written, definitely a must read for cinematographers everywhere, whether amateur or professional this is the must go to guide to learning the necessary skills in today’s digital world of film-making.“Modern art is creative and interesting, but it doesn’t hold as many lessons for cinematographers as the old masters do – they were doing what we do, they were painting with light.”

The title is a shade misleading, as what the book really is is advice to young cinematographers. If that is you, the book is essentially a bible, or at least an extremely important refresher. If you are anybody else, it will be hard going, because it is largely devoted to detailed discussions of equipment, and if you are anybody else, the chances of your ever coming across any of this specialist equipment is rather slight. The death is presumably that of film. At the end, it mentions that Eastman Kodak is terminating film production, so while he states that digital is a solution looking for a problem, it will soon be the only way to make movies. The birth is of digital technology, and much of the book involves the showing of how the two are different, and the complications that are arising through the switch to digital. The early part of the book discusses in great detail equipment and how to use it, then later, ancillary equipment. I assume that this is authoritative, but the equipment part is also likely to date, and some will already have become redundant. He gives a discussion of light and lenses, and this is plainly given, and accurate. For the ordinary photographer, about a third of the book discusses light, and how to light subjects, and this will be worth the price of the book on its own. The writing is clear, although I was irritated at one point by an equation, of the form a = b/c. Simple! So why use something like LaTeX? There are a number of very interesting and useful examples of images to show the points, and some tables, some of these being somewhat difficult to read on a kindle.My grading is set by precedent; as I have explained previously, I have written a number of such reviews and early on I made a principle that I would never give more than four stars to a book with a very limited audience.

Cinematography is a truly amazing subject, and one that I have had a great deal of interest in. I studied a bit of it in high school through information technology studies and thoroughly enjoyed it. This book, is written in such a way that it should be a text book, but it is coming from a writer with an obvious love for the industry. It is both insightful and eye opening. The author, Harry Mathias, focuses on the modern age of cinematography. He gives a lot of insight into the industry past and present and gives some predictions into the future of cinematography. I used to love watching movies just to kill time and relax, but since reading this book I have a greater knowledge and appreciation for the work that goes into each and every frame. The author has a background in the industry and has even taught classes. He is very detailed and his book was very entertaining and kept my interest from page one all the way to the end. I highly recommend this book, especially those who are in the field or who are thinking about entering the field, or those like me, who want to learn more.