Artistic Approach

Andy Cline, Documentary Director and Cinematographer

Artistic Approach: Capturing Decisive Moments to Build a Narrative 

My artistic approach is informed by the documentary still photography of the mid 20th century and its related expression in film: direct cinema. The documentary photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson said “photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression.” This is Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment” — a sublime combination of the subject’s way of being combined with a visual organization that captures and comments on that way of being. Translated to documentary digital cinema, it is to me the simultaneous recognition, sustained over time, of the significance of a story as well as of an unfolding organization of forms which give that story its proper expression.

My goal is to tell a story and discover its forms within the frame moment by moment. I reject imposing form on the frame artificially — distracting and entertaining an audience with technologically-imposed eye-candy. I would rather the camera move with me as I discover the story and its forms. The audience should be able to let itself become a witness to the story of a documentary film through a camera that moves as they might move and casts its attention where they might cast their attention.

A documentary story is best discovered and told through the classic film sequence where the body (of photographer and audience) moves freely among wide, medium, and detailed views of the action just as a curious person would do trying to discover something new. Capturing the decisive moments within the sequence is both an act of cinematography and editing. These moments, crafted into sequences, tell the visual story.