“

For me, photography really means "written in light".It expresses my inner thoughts in a sense.I try to express my true self in my feelings, my structure, my cultural background.Try to narrate the story of the movie through light, try to create a narrative method that is parallel to the story, so through light, shadow and colorColor, the audience can consciously or subconsciously feel and understand what the story is saying.”

——Storalo

”

Vittorio Stolaro

Italian photographer Vitorio· Storalo1940Born in Rome in 2008, his father was a projectionist at the Italian Cinema Light.

11When he was 2018, he was sent by his father to study at the Deaosta Academy of Photography Technology.At the age of 16, he went to the Italian Film Training Center for further study.In 1958, he was admitted to the Italian National Film Academy, completed a two-year cinema photography education and obtained a master's degree in photography.

20At the age of 20, Vittorio Storaro became an assistant to photographer Odo Savada.When he was 21 years old, photographer Marco Saperi invited him to the crew to shoot, making him the youngest handheld in Italy.However, the entire Italian film industry entered a period of depression at that time, and he had not found a suitable job, which made his career stagnant.

《People who go with the flow

It was not until 1963 that he returned to his position as a photography assistant and participated in the filming of director Benaldo Betoruc's debut work "On the Eve of the Revolution".Storalo did not waste this free time without work, but instead used this free time to study various artistic expressions, which had a profound impact on his future photography creations.

1969In 2019, while filming director Frake Rossi's film "The March of Youth", Vittorio Storaro officially qualified as a photographer.In the same year, Benaldo Betoruc invited him to serve as a photographer in his film "The Strategy of the Spider".From then on, the two began a long cooperative career.They followed up with the film "The Driving Man", which later had a huge impact.

《Apocalypse of the Modern

1978In 2019, he collaborated with another close-knit director, Francis Ford Coppola, to film the classic blockbuster "Apocalypse Modern".Vittorio Storaro won the Academy Award for Best Photography three times for his films "Apocalypse Modern", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and "The Last Emperor".

If you dream, if you love, if you believe, then what you dream of will happen sooner or later.

“ Participate in narrative and expression with light” is StolaOne of the most basic concepts of Luo's photography art, this is hisMany works are clearly and fully reflected.heIt is believed that cinematography is "writing with light" on film,It is "literary written in light", and the cinematographer isUsing light and shadow,tone,Color and reconcile him personallyExperience、Sensuality、Wisdom and emotion to create writers.

“ The core of writing with light is to use images created with light to "tell" the story of the movie, expressing time and space, emotions, characters' personalities, themes, rhythms or other things that cannot be expressed in words.

Vittorio Storaro talks about his life in light and shadow

Movies are a language about images, with their own vocabulary and rhythm.We can understand it from 3 aspects.

《Supreme Detective

Cooperation with Bettorucci

When people say I am a painter who paints with light, I deny that view.Because the painter only expresses himself in the form of still images, this is somewhat similar to a picture photographer, but I am a cinematographer.I think as a photographer, you have to participate in storytelling, design how the story begins, and how it ends after what kind of events.This is why I regard photography as writing with utmost importance.Cinematographers need to know three aspects: literature, music and painting.What I mean is not that you have to become a writer, composer, architect or philosopher, and you don’t have to be so in-depth, but you have to understand the knowledge of these three types of fields. Only by understanding them can you do film photography work more freely.When you and the director or yourself are shooting, you need to choose a camera position or want to compose a picture in a special way, we cannot be too casual. We must determine the shooting form for the sake of narrative, and we must make a choice to convey certain themes to the audience.

Storalo work photos

If two actors are placed in one picture, one of them is in the light area and the other is in the shadow, then through different light shapes, the relationship between the two people can be shown through the picture, whether they live in harmony or in oppositional struggle.If the actors are clothed with warm light, the audience will not feel warm through their eyes, but will feel this warm atmosphere through their bodies.The audience must be able to feel this emotion, so, there is no doubt that if you use the language of light and shadow properly, you can tell stories with light.

《People who go with the flow

Later, when I was filming the movie "The Driving Man", I began to have ideas about permeating visual language into the story.The first part of this movie takes place during the period of fascist dictatorship. It tells the story of the protagonist who shot and killed a man who was flirting with him at the age of 12, and since then he felt that he was an alien.On the surface, he felt that he was a killer, but deep down he knew that he was a homosexual. He chose to hide his true feelings and live with a hypocritical mask like everyone else, and be a person who goes with the flow.Regarding this story, my idea is to process the light on him into a completely separate light and dark area, clearly separated, so as to emphasize the inner conflicts and conflicts of the protagonist in the story.

As the plot of the film develops, I slowly merge the light area and dark area in the picture.When the protagonist arrived in France, I removed all the shadows in the picture and illuminated all areas, because at that time, for an Italian, France meant a place of freedom.Leonardo da Vinci said that the combination of light and shadow creates color, so I feel that in the Paris part of the film "The Driving Man" the picture should be treated as blue, because blue represents freedom.

《The Last Tango in Paris

Two years later, when I went to Paris to shoot the movie "The Last Tango in Paris" again, I was fascinated by the warm light every morning.It was winter, and this light was composed of artificial warm light indoors and cool outdoor natural light.So, I applied this treatment to the story and used this tone to express Ma Long •Brando's character is in the life stage and uses orange to represent the sunset.At that time, I always used similar graphic language to help narrate and shape characters, but to be honest, I couldn't tell too much truth, and I didn't know why I did this, but I just felt that it was appropriate to do it based on my intuition.

Coppola to film Apocalypse Modern

Until I was filming Apocalypse Modern, I began to be able to really use colors to create conflicts.For example, use the original colors of nature to represent Vietnamese culture, and use some artificial colors to represent American culture.I also use soft natural light in the jungle play at dusk and strong direct light in the night play to create visual conflict.

《Apocalypse of the Modern Movie

When I was filming the last scene for Marlon Brando, I felt that I was completely understanding what I was doing, and I was consciously using light and shadow to participate in the narrative.The character of Kurtz in the film is a symbolic element. He is not only a character in the film, but also represents the inner fear of war among some uneasy Americans.So, whenever this character appears in the picture, I let him be completely shrouded in darkness.

《Apocalypse of the Modern

After filming "Apocalypse Modern", I decided to pause my work and spend a year charging and learning. Only in this way can I more consciously discover the inner meaning of light, rather than just using the light and dark parts.From then on, I discovered a world of colors.

I began to study painting, literature and architecture to further understand the meaning of images consciously.For the same purpose, I also took a lot of photos.

After spending a year at home, I feel like I am ready to bring my research on color to the film."It's hard to make up for the sunny day" is the first film I filmed after my comeback. If I want to find a representative color for this movie, it is black, because black represents the anxiety of the heroine in the film when she is in crisis.

In fact, if I could give an example of my career, the first stage of my photography style could be said to be that there are only three contents in the dark, bright and transitional parts in the picture;The second stage of my photography started with the film "Difficult to Make Up for the Sunny Day", which is a full-chromatographic period from black to white.

My real start to use colors for visual expression in the film started with the film "The Moon".I remember when I was reading Benardo's script, I noticed that the director named a mother's story "Moon God".It was not until my wife reminded me that the moon was a symbol of my mother that I realized more clearly that Benaldo was going to express it in a symbolic way.So I began to learn some of Freud's theories to understand what colors will children represent in their feelings when they come into contact with their parents.From that study, I learned that color represents harmony and conflict, and everyone feels different emotions through color subconsciously.So starting from the movie "Moon God", I consciously expressed colors as visual symbols.

《People who go with the flow

Fortunately, director Benardo and I realized this during the same period and reached a consensus.When he found a unique way to express himself, I also found my own way to express himself.When filming the movie "The Driving Man", we worked together tacitly in a natural state.I know I have a lot of freedom in dealing with photography, and as long as it is helpful to the narrative, I use light and shadow to convey the lens movement and composition imagined in the director's mind.The most impressive example is a scene in "The Driving Man".In the play, the hero arrives in Paris to visit his old teacher, who explains Plato's theory of caves.Benardo told me at the time that he needed to rethink philosophical thoughts about life like a student.I immediately understood that all I had to do was to create a "cave" feeling in the picture, turn on only one light, and turn off the rest.

During the filming process, we suddenly realize that Plato's theory of caves is also a wonderful metaphor for the film itself: the audience is like a bound prisoner;The sun and flame outside the cave are like projected beams;People who use projections to create hallucinations outside the low walls are like actors in the movie;That low wall is like a screen.I remember that the director and I were particularly excited when we filmed this scene because although we didn't say much to each other, we knew that we were rebuilding the projected illusion world that Leonardo da Vinci had built.

《The Last Emperor's Movie Snippet

When I first read two books written by Puyi about the life experience of the last emperor, I was curious about how to express this special character.This is the story of a child who grew up in jail. His world is extremely closed and he doesn't even know that he is no longer an emperor.Therefore, since light represents knowledge and consciousness and is composed of 7 colors, I wonder if we can use different colors to interpret different stages of Puyi's life based on Newton's color spectrum theory?Take my own life experience as an example. A certain stage in my memory is always associated with a special color.After thinking about it, I told Benaldo all my original creative ideas for this film.

My idea for this movie is to connect life with light and use different colors to correspond to different emotions.In order to visualize the protagonist's inner psychological process step by step, I also made a color ladder design within the chromatographic range.So, when Puyi recalled that he was born as the emperor, I used red tones.Red is a symbol of birth and life, which is why we arrange a lot of night scenes, because in the night scene I can design torches in the play, and the fire of the torches will bring warm tones.I chose orange for the second color, and used it to represent that Puyi felt his mother and home when he was living in the Forbidden City.I chose yellow for the third color, and used yellow when Puyi ascended the throne to represent the awakening of consciousness.Green represents knowledge. When I used green when Puyi's English tutor moved into the Forbidden City, I let Puyi understand the true face of the world through education.In the video, the English tutor enters the palace in a green car and gives Puyi a green bicycle. There are many similar details in the film.

We use complete color symbols to represent Puyi's life.

However, when Benaldo accepted the design of this color and handed over the scheme to costume designer James Acheson and art director Ferdinando Scalfiotti, James was surprised because he was planning to use all the colors as much as possible in the opening scene.

I told him that there is no need to use all the colors, just use some main ones.Ferdinando began to hesitate about this, but when he finally took a photo, he built the palace in Manzhouli with purple and indigo tones, he felt that the plan was very good and all the colors were matched just right.

《Love of the Red Flame of the War"

The first stage of my life is associated with Betorucci, the second stage is Coppola, and the third stage is Warren Betty.When I was invited by Warren Beatty to film his first independently directed film: the epic blockbuster "The Love of the Fire of the Fire", it didn't start well because I've never worked with an actor-born director, and we have a completely different working perspective.I am used to looking at each scene from an external perspective and the grammar of the movie. For me, the setting of the camera, the selection of equipment, or the movement of the fuselage are all manifestations of audio-visual language.

Work with Carlos Shaula

1995In 2018, I met Carlos Shola, who invited me to film "The Legend of Flamingo" with him, and from then on I began to learn about Spanish culture and the world of flamenco.Carlos was originally a photographer in the era of black and white films. When he was shooting color films, he did not pay attention to the role of color in the film.He once told me that it was me who brought him into a brand new kingdom of color.

《Legend of Flamingo

Like Bettorucci, Carlos likes his handheld machine, and takes his hand to the machine and controls space scheduling in some special way.When I added the symbolic meaning of color to his picture, he was particularly shocked at first and refused to accept it.Later I felt that I shouldn't just say it, I had to take a picture for him.Before the filming of the movie "The Legend of Flamingo", we rehearsed the dance once.During the rehearsal, he told me what kind of camera movement he wanted, so I started preparing to light up. At this time, I didn't tell him how to do it.Starting from the dark scene, I operated my commonly used lighting control panel to demonstrate the lighting levels of the whole scene to him.During the rehearsal, I tried to shoot various effects and showed it to him directly, and Carlos gradually began to appreciate my thoughts.From then on, he accepted my visual thinking.

In the movie "The Legend of Flamingo", I mainly use the symbols of the sun and the moon.When we filmed "The Last Tango in Paris", Bettorucci wanted to use tango to express his thoughts on life.Therefore, each independent paragraph has a different color to represent an experience, step by step, penetrate into his subconscious and touching his childhood heart.When filming "Bordeaux Paradise", I felt that I needed to use a lot of pictures in the picture.With the assistance of the production designer, we printed pictures of the interior and placed them around the actors in the picture.Except for the chairs where the actors sit, the sofas and other furniture are real objects, the rest of the things in the picture are not real objects, they are just images printed on plastic paper.We will use a certain color to highlight them from a certain angle.

This will give the audience a feeling that the character played by the actor has always lived in it, or a feeling of emptiness, because Goya is a fantasy and an incredible painter, and he himself will give people a feeling of emptiness.In addition, Carlos's writing this story is also a review of his own youth.You know, when we are young and old, there will always be some of the same images that will appear before us and cannot be removed.

《Caravaggio, a generation of painters

The late British cinematographer and Oscar winner John Alcott once said that the film "Red Molecule" produced by Vittorio Stolaro in 1981 is "the most beautifully structured masterpiece of all films ever."

Haskel Weixler, who has won many Oscars for cinematography, said that Storaro's "Ayingsa" filmed in 1978 "is a brilliant film and a peak that can be achieved in the creation of light."

《American Photographer also said when commenting on Storaro: "He is a living milestone in the art of photography."In addition, the International Film Photography Festival held in Torun, Poland last year awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award to Storalo, who was only 54 years old.

The spirit that each of us possesses can be immortalized through art.

‍2001In 2019, American Academy of Cinematographers (American SocietyofCinematographers)The Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Storaro, 60, for his outstanding contribution to the art of cinematography.He is by far the youngest winner of the award, and his artistic view has influenced the creation of many photographers and is a milestone in the art of photography.

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In May 2015, Mr. Storalo came to China and held a three-day squad.Storalo Photography Master Class

The new studio academy will launch a master classRecorded video course

Let's explore togetherStoralo's Photography Art！

Masterclass course schedule

Day 1

Creation with light and shadow color elements

Semiotics

The drama and psychology of light and shadow color

Film Screening and Analysis: Apocalypse Modern (Director: Francis Coppola)

Apocalypse Now - Redux (dir.Francis FordCoppola)

the next day

The Art of Cinematography—A Journey Through the Centennial Movie

Examining the evolution of cinematography in style and form from the early 20th century to modern times

The master personally introduced the masterpieces of films that accompanied him and had a profound influence on him.

Film Screening and Analysis: "The Red Molecule" (Director: Warren Beatty)

Reds (dir. Warren Beatty)

Day 3

Light and shadow in Caravaggio's paintings

Use the relationship between light and shadow to show life

Film Screening and Analysis: "The Last Emperor" (Director: Benardo Betorucci)

TheLast Emperor (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci)