The Cinematography of Avatar

A really fascinating article that examines the challenges facing modern cinematographers through Mauro Fiore’s experience as the DP on Avatar. Some of the solutions his team devised for dealing with the large amount of green screen components are brilliant. Most interesting to me was how Fiore dealt with the limitations of smaller sensor sizes and thus decreased depth of field on the Sony HDCAM gear he used to shoot the live action sequences.

“Instead of working with circles-of-confusion, I had to create depth-of-field through contrast and lighting levels, which was a really fun challenge.”

As someone who has to deal with these sorts of limitations on a regular basis, it was yet another poignant reminder that it’s not the gear that matters, but the person behind it all.