Every Frame a Rembrandt: Art and Practice of Cinematography

by Andrew Laszlo

This book examines the art and craft of motion picture photography through a veteran professional cinematographer's personal experiences on five major motion pictures, each selected to illustrate a particular series of challenges for the photographer.

"Every Frame a Rembrandt" is an expression heard on sound stages and locations the world over. While in most cases the expression is used lightly and not infrequently with a certain amount of sarcasm, its true meaning speaks highly of most cinematographers' commitment to producing the best, most interesting, unusual and memorable images for the screen. Through the five films he selected for this book Laszlo is able to show the broad range of complexity in motion picture photography, from the relatively simple "point and shoot" in the typcal western to complex in-camera effects. In recounting his "war stories" Laszlo is able to show the day to day activities of a cinematographer before, during and after filming the project, discussing equipment, film stocks, testing, labs, unions, agents, budget requirements, and working with the director and producer. The five films discussed are Southern Comfort, The Warriors, First Blood, Streets of Fire, and Innerspace. The book is illustrated throughout with production stills from Laszlo's extensive collection (12 in a color insert).

Genres: Film, Art, Photography

253 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[Cole Ott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely leans more towards the practice of cinematography than the art—there's much more talk of how the author blocked light out of a certain shot, for instance, than why he did so.

It does contain some interesting insights, which generally stick to the theme "breaking away from conventional standards of 'good photography,' like by over-exposing shots, can sometimes yield more interesting images." I found the chapter on The Warriors to be the most interesting in the book.

Sidenote: each chapter's followed by a largely useless Q+A. I have no idea why they chose to include these Q+A's, seemingly unedited, instead of just editing the chapters for clarity! They're full of gems like (paraphrased):

interviewer:
author: I already explained that in the chapter.

interviewer: You said you had 10K lighting units. What does the K stand for there?
author: Um, K means thousand. Ya dummy.

[Sheldon Chau · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed look into DP Andrew Laszlo's experience on five separate motion pictures where he examines the strategies and hardships required in shooting the films. Insightful and interesting as it breaks down shooting strategies, obstacles, tactics, set-ups, and tricks he used to solve problems. Rambo and Southern Comfort and The Warriors were all particularly intriguing - from working with Stallone to how he understood lighting, to the dailies issue in the swamps, to the stolen bonus shots created out of necessity or rain in Warriors.

[Ryan Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book isn’t about the technical nuts and bolts of cinematography. It’s much more interesting than that. Every Frame A Rembrandt is about the mindset one should have as a cinematographer on any project. Even if you’re not a cinematographer this is still a book worth reading for the war stories of making 5 well known Hollywood films.
To me that’s much more valuable than a straight forward how to book.

[Jean Poole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable enough collection of hard-won film-making anecdotes. Sticks to a fairly limited nuts and bolts approach - but at least reminds that despite the ongoing technological changes, cinematography always needs an imaginative approach when it comes to finding solutions for the never ending quirky problems and weird circumstances a shoot can deliver.

[Sarah McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

On my new book all the people..

[Matheus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muito bom, se você é interessado em filmagem ou fotografia de qualquer forma, provavelmente vai adorar.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sldo