cinematography

/ˈsɪnəməˌtɑgrəfi/

/sɪnɪməˈtɒgrəfi/

The art of filming a movie is cinematography. The cinematography in your first documentary might not be amazing — next time, get a real movie camera instead of filming on your smartphone.

Every year, one film wins an Academy Award for cinematography — this usually goes to a movie with gorgeous, sweeping camera shots. There's a lot that goes into cinematography, beyond simply filming the action with a camera: cinematographers carefully plan out shots, including how they're lit, the camera angles, focus, and depth of field. Cinematography comes from the now-obsolete cinematograph, "device for projecting a series of photographs in rapid succession so as to produce the illusion of movement."

Definitions of cinematography

1. noun

   the act of making a film
   synonyms: filming, motion-picture photography

   types:

   take

   the act of photographing a scene or part of a scene without interruption

   animation

   the making of animated cartoons

   retake

   a shot or scene that is photographed again

   type of:

   photography, picture taking

   the act of taking and printing photographs