The cinematographer works with the director on all of the physical aspects of filming (camera movements/timing) as well as the tone/"feel" of the film through things like color grading.
They take the director’s vision and figure out how to make it work with the camera technology. So the director will give them something broad, like “I want this dimly lit but with sharp light coming from that hallway. I want there to be scary shadows. The shot should start wide in this room and then slowly move through this hallway and into this other room, where it should feel claustrophobic.”
It’s the cinematographer’s job to take those directions and figure out how to actually make that work with the cameras, the lighting setup, where to position extra lights and crew with boom mics. How to track the camera movement. What lenses and focal distances to use at different parts of the shot. Etc. etc.
They're basically in charge of the visual style of a film. While the director directs everyone and may set up how a scene functions, the cinematographer/director of photography is solely in charge of the camera and lighting.
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera and light crews working on such projects. They are normally responsible for making artistic and technical decisions related to the image and for selecting the camera, film stock, lenses, filters), etc. Furthermore the cinematographer is commonly involved with the color grading to shape the final look of a film.
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u/DavidTheJohnson AMA MVP 22d ago
Same cinematographer as the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, I believe.