The prospect of being able to shoot in 35 millimeter is a dream for every film student. No matter how much you read and research about it, actually making films the way the masters did it is the goal of anyone interested in making movies. We are all aware of the importance of this opportunity, and the school is able to guide us throughout the process with the help of one of the best cinematographers in the Philippines today.

It is no question that Dir. Lee Meily is the perfect mentor in the photography process of filmmaking. In her first class with us, she first asked us the question, “What does a cinematographer really do?” which she later answers, “Visual translation of the script as envisioned by the director through collaboration from the whole team.” This is important because she focused on important words in the answer, “Visual Translation, Script, Vision, Director and collaboration.” This gives us a very specific way of looking at a Cinematographer’s job, with the collaboration of the script, the director and the whole team. Then she showed us different masters of cinematography, explaining that cinematography is a way of life, and that a good cinematographer actually has two important qualities which consists of, the 10 percent plastics (all the technical stuff), and the 90 percent solid cultural background, which cannot be actually taught inside a classroom. This makes us research on life experiences and teaches us to be more observant in the way light actually falls on its subjects. It also makes us observe how certain ways in lighting make us feel in making a scene work. This concept makes the process of cinematography more personal and more appealing to us students, because we are made to feel that we could put in our individual personality and background in lighting a scene. We are introduced to masters like Nestor Almendros, Gordon Willis and Conrad Hall, and their different styles in making movies, showing us more ways of telling stories with the use of lighting and camera work.


Mico as 1st Assistant Cameraman

On our next class, we were taught how to light scenes with the help of a full camera team. This is the closest most of us have gone to being in an actual professional set. We were made to switch roles in the camera department, from being the director of photography to camera operator, first assistant cameraman and second assistant cameraman. We were able to witness first hand how director Lee Meily works in a set, and it was the best experience for us who wants to be in the same caliber as her in the future. She was very courteous in sharing her knowledge with us, even willingly answering all the questions, no matter how seemingly stupid or silly. She taught us how to balance the color temperature of light with gels and how to make a shot seem more beautiful with angles and exposure, how to achieve different times of days with the placement of lights and the proper camera settings. She taught us how to be the focus puller, and how to use the meters and marks. She taught us how to use different camera and lighting equipment, what specific things the camera department focuses on and a whole lot more. The whole day was a very important day for us, especially because our next session will be the actual shooting in 35 millimeter film.

We are all aware of the grandness of the opportunity being given to us, and that we are now closest to our dream of becoming full pledged filmmakers now more than ever. This opportunity is once in a lifetime and we, as students, are aware of the importance and the privilege as well as the responsibility of exposing the film stock. We all know that every second of exposed film is expensive, and the proper training given to us with the cinematography classes is, I think, enough to give producers the confidence in giving us more film stocks in the future.

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*The 35mm cinematography exercises was done in partnership with Kodak