Time, Truth & the Tilted Frame: My Cinematography Manifesto

This isn’t a technical breakdown. It’s not a brand pitch. It’s a statement of how I see the world and why I shoot the way I do. If you want to understand my work, start here.

I. I Don’t Capture Time, I Carve It

I am obsessed with time. Its passage. Its elasticity.
My camera is a scalpel, not a stopwatch.
Whether stretched through a long, voyeuristic take or compressed into the frantic pulse of a city time-lapse, I use time to show truth.

Nature doesn’t care about time. Cities are consumed by it.
I shoot both, differently, intentionally.
I bend shutter speed, pace, and movement until they speak.

II. I Was Born with Faulty Colour Vision. So I Created My Own

Red-green colour blindness wasn’t a limitation, it was a challenge.
It forced me to chase feeling, not fidelity.
I gravitate toward rich saturation or desaturated noir.
It’s all about contrast, light against dark, emotion against silence.

Colour doesn’t have to be accurate to be honest.

III. Light is Sacred. Caravaggio Knew That. So Do I.

I light naturally, practically, purposefully.
There is no such thing as “standard lighting.”
Light should have weight, texture, source: meaning.
Deep shadows aren’t mistakes, they are mystery.

Chiaroscuro isn’t a look. It’s a worldview.

IV. I Frame for the Human Spirit, Not the Human Eye

I shoot wide. Because the world is wide.
I tilt up because we forget to look at the sky.
The middle of a lens kit bores me.
I shoot close or I shoot far, because intimacy and distance both have power. Everything in between is just filler.

The frame is not coverage. It’s presence.
Every shot should feel like we’re there, not just watching, but witnessing.

V. Movement is a Language. I Don’t Speak Gimbal.

Life doesn’t move like a drone commercial.
I prefer the float of a Steadicam or the humanness of handheld.
I want shots that feel grounded in our experience, not racing through it.

Cool isn’t enough. Motion has to have soul.

VI. I Don’t Shoot Coverage. I Shoot Conversation.

I don’t cut just because I can.
I don’t need shot-reverse-shot to tell you who’s talking.
Sometimes I stay wide and hold, like we’re sitting in the room, uninvited, listening.

The lens is an observer. Not an interrupter.

VII. Time-lapse is Not a Gimmick. It’s My Medium

I’ve studied it, dissected it, rebuilt it.
I use shutter speed like a painter uses brushstroke, shaping time to serve tone.
Most time-lapse is wallpaper.
Mine is a heartbeat.

Final Thought:

I don’t just want to be hired. I want to be trusted.
Trusted to see what others overlook.
Trusted to let time, light, space and silence speak.
Because in a world obsessed with noise and speed, I believe in the power of a camera that waits.