As revealed by my admission that the first laserdisc (RIP) I ever purchased was the documentary Visions of Light, anyone who reads this blog knows that I’m a nerd for the art of cinematography.

Cinema is, of course, a visual medium. What, then, could be more important than the information captured on celluloid or, in the digital age, an electronic image sensor?

That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.

The other day Vanity Fair magazine released a video interview with cinematographer Lawrence Sher, the talented director of photography of the recently released (and very polarizing) Joker.

Whether or not you care for that particular film, it’s a fascinating watch if you have the slightest interest in how a cinematographer (working with the director) helps tell the story and evoke certain emotions through framing, aspect ratio, exposure, color, shadow, contrast, etc.

Sher keeps it fun and not too overwhelming for a layman. (As he notes, he was a business major in college—all the technical stuff is a bit over his head, too.)

Switching gears to yet another critical (if under-celebrated) aspect of the filmmaking art—editing—Paul Hirsch just released a behind-the-scenes book focussing on his long, illustrious career (he won an Oscar for Star Wars) entitled—deep breath—A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away: My Fifty Years Editing Hollywood Hits—Star Wars, Carrie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Mission: Impossible, and More.

So put that crap down you’re reading and order a copy. As Brian DePalma, a long-time Hirsch collaborator, says in the blurb on the front cover, “If you want to know how the sausage is cut, this is the book for you.”