Alkisti Terzi, MFA Advanced Film Practice – Cinematography as a collaborative process on Chameleon
Chameleon is a film that evolved as it was being filmed. As a director of photography on Chameleon I had been to the location scout, discussed the script again and again, watched and read the references my director gave me, tried to feel its tone by analyzing its symbolism in real life to prepare my lighting and camera plans, but Chameleon on set would evolve from a shot list and a detailed plan to an organic body of work we all collaborated on.
My main sources of inspiration for the film was the cinematography of Thimios Bakatakis in Makridi’s film L but I also used Giorgos Iliopoulos’ (the director of Chameleon) stills as a reference to explain the alienating feeling we were trying to capture from the framing and the stillness of the shots. Before he switched to directing Giorgos worked as a cinematographer so his idea of the image was a very accurate one and he could easily express it to me whenever we talked about it.
The film industry is a competitive environment but bringing the stress of that into our work can take away from the filmmaking process. The way the film industry works in comparison to the filmmaking process needs to be considered separately, especially for new filmmakers specialized in craft roles. The reputation each film might bring to a crew member is dependent on the overall outcome of a film and not the other way around. I discovered this working on Chameleon which I found made my work better and the filmmaking process much more inspiring and enjoyable.
Alkisti’s Vimeo page: https://vimeo.com/alkistiterzi
Chameleon Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Chameleonsshortfilm
Alikiti Terzi is a graduate of the Edinburgh Napier BA Photography & Film course and is currently studying on the MFA Advanced Film Practice at Screen Academy Scotland, Edinburgh Napier.