Make it Count - an incredible adventure travel montage

Why it works:

• Fast-paced editing to set the pulse.
• Montages with the filmmaker running across the frame in different countries.
• Makes you want to see more by this filmmaker. 
• Music doesn't overpower the message or the visuals.
• The variety

The Best Cinematographers in the Last 25 Years

Roger Deakins - IMDb
The Cohen brothers' man of choice.

Skyfall
True Grit
Doubt
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
No Country for Old Men
A Beautiful Mind
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Big Lebowski
Kundun
Courage Under Fire
The Shawshank Redemption

Janusz Kaminski - IMDb
Spielberg's cinematographer

War Horse
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The Terminal
Catch Me if You Can
Minority Report
Saving Private Ryan
Amistad
Schindler's List

Things usually work out better than you plan. When you're shooting a film you're so close to it, it rarely lives up to your expectations while you're there. You always want it to be better, more perfect. When you see a cut, maybe two or three months later, you come to it fresh. It's generally much better than you thought it would be.

Someone said to me, early on in film school... if you can photograph the human face you can photograph anything, because that is the most difficult and most interesting thing to photograph. If you can light and photograph the human face to bring out what's within that human face you can do anything.

The prep period is especially important. Joel and Ethan Coen and I really enjoy it. By the time we're on the set, we're discussing not what we're doing that day but rather something we're doing later that may be a problem.

Emmanuel Lubezki - IMDb
Alfonso Cuarón's go-to cinematographer
Birdman
Gravity
The Tree of Life
Burn After Reading
Children of Men
The New World
Meet Joe Black
A Walk in the Clouds
A Little Princess

Jeff Cronenweth - IMDb
David Fincher's favorite master of light.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Social Network
Fight Club
Hitchcock

Wally Pfister - IMDb
Christopher Nolan's right hand man.

The Dark Knight Rises
Inception
Intersellar
The Dark Knight
The Prestige
Batman Begins
Memento

"Sadly, some people think of good cinematography as a beautiful sunset or a spectacular vista. I believe we affect the audience in a much more subtle way. We're manipulating them emotionally with light, darkness, colors, contrast and composition. I know the Dogme 95 theories, but I believe actors respond to light. Just look at a Rembrandt or Caraveggio painting or any of the Dutch masters, and tell me light isn't important. The pictures have to be true to the narrative, but I like to test the boundaries and see how far I can go."

"Film has an enormous amount of exposure latitude and dynamic range, which gives us infinite creative ability in creating images. I can underexpose it by 3 stops and overexpose it by 5 stops within the same frame and see the entire spectrum on the screen. That's simply not possible in any digital format I've seen. Every digital camera is trying hard to emulate 35mm film, and there's a reason for that."

 
Robert Richardson - IMDb
Django Unchained
Hugo
Shutter Island
Inglourious Basterds
The Aviator
Snow Fall on Cedars
The Horse Whisperer
Casino
JFK
Born on the Fourth of July
Platoon

Bruno Delbonnel - IMDb
Inside Llewyn Davis
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
A Very Long Engagement
Amelie

John Toll - IMDb
Braveheart
Last Samurai
The Thin Red Line
Legends of the Fall
Cloud Atlas
Gone Baby Gone

Eduardo Serra - IMDb
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and II
Defiance
Blood Diamond
Girl With a Pearl Earring (Oscar nominee)
Unbreakable
What Dreams May Come
The Wings of the Dove (Oscar nominee)


Caleb Deschanel - IMDb
Passion of the Christ
The Patriot
Anna and the King
The Natural
Jack Reacher
Fly Away Home

Matthew Libatique - IMDb
Cinematographer for Darren Aronofsky (4 of his last 5 movies as of 2014)
Black Swan
Iron Man 2
Iron Man
The Fountain
Everything is Illuminated
Requiem for a Dream

Andrew Lesnie - IMDb
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Hobbit Part 1 & 2
King Kong

Michael Seresin - IMDb
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Directed by Alfonso Cuarón)

Newton Thomas Sigel - IMDb
Drive
Three Kings
X-Men
X-Men 2


Danny Cohen - IMDb
Les Misérables
The King's Speech

Bill Pope - IMDb


The Matrix

John Mathieson - IMDb


Discover more cinematographers

IMDb: Masters of Cinematography - a list by TarquinMcLusky

Raphael Rogers | inspiration of the week

Acting as a one man band, filmmaker and writer Raphael Rogers wrote, filmed, and edited his 8 minute Sci-Fi short film "Beyond".  The film boasts impressive visual effects layered on practical shooting locations, all in California.

Rogers shot "Beyond" with a shoestring budget using a Canon C100 camera when a RED camera was not available.  He filmed in three days in March 2013 and posted it to Youtube on August 21, 2013.

"Universal Pictures’ Syfy Films division has optioned the rights to the sci-fi short Beyond, with the short’s director on board to produce and helm the big-screen translation."

As of January 2015, the film has an "announced" status on IMDB, so it may be filmed in 2015 and released in 2016.

In November 2011 Rogers posted a 1 min, 20 second teaser video that utilized some slick editing and post-production work to create a Hollywood-style action/thriller feel.

Freeze frames from the film:

Read more:

Syfy Films Picks Up Sci-Fi Short 'Beyond' (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter

Interview with Raphael Rogers - the director of Beyond | One Small Window

Beyond (2015) - IMDb

Filmmaker's Spotlight - A One Man Band | Hurlbut Visuals
(March 2014)