Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video essay on the cinematography of Natasha Braier.
Even if you haven’t heard Natasha Braier‘s name, there’s a good chance you’ve seen her work. Born in Buenos Aires to two Freudian psychoanalysts (one hell of an origin story), Braier has distinguished herself as one of the most compelling and distinct voices in modern cinematography.
Over the course of her career, Braier has been able to carve out a recognizable and striking style by working with experimental collaborators with strong visual personalities. Braier’s work with directors like Alma Har’el (Honey Boy) and Nicolas Winding Refn (The Neon Demon) have given her the opportunity to commit to bold, risky, and often experimental photographic decisions from expressive lighting to dark exposure, unconventional framing, and definitive on-set creative decisions that cannot be undone in post-production.
Frequently intent on capturing feelings and thematic heartbeats at the expense of unambiguous narrative explanations, Braier is a cinematographer well-worth knowing. And in that spirit, the video essay below offers an introduction to Brairer’s artistic philosophy, preferred gear, and what sets her apart from her peers.
As with most roles behind the camera, Hollywood has a long history of diminishing the importance of female artists. And being able to recognize and identify remarkable artists like Braier is one way viewers can challenge away the Hollywood gender gap.
Watch “Cinematography Style: Natasha Braier”:
Who made this?
This video essay on Natasha Braier’s cinematography is by In Depth Cine, a YouTube account dedicated to providing its audience with practical rundowns and explainers on some of the more technical aspects of movie-making. Gray Kotzé, a documentary DP based in South Africa, is the man behind the channel. You can check out Kotzé’s portfolio on their website here. And you can check out In Depth Cine on YouTube here.
More videos like this
- Here’s another sample of In Depth Cine’s work: how Quentin Tarantino shoots a film at three different price levels.
- And here’s another, about how to tell the difference between anamorphic versus spherical camera lenses.
- And here’s In Depth Cine’s breakdown of a bunch of cinematography-related questions, including how they collaborate with colorists.
- The video on Natasha Braier’s cinematography is part of a larger series that highlights the creative style of different folks. You can click here to check out the series’ playlist which includes a look at the work of the likes of Ellen Kuras, Gordon Willis, and Bradford Young.
Related Topics: Cinematography, Natasha Braier, The Queue