Long before I moved to America, I had heard about AFI (American Film Institute) and specifically the cinematography department, how many famous cinematographers had made it and what was most important to me in terms of education was who taught there.
So when I moved to live in Los Angeles, the question of whether or not to study and where, disappeared and moved to the field of more time and opportunities. 2 years of the pandemic became a wonderful opportunity to realize my dream.
Of course, the first and most shocking difference was the difference in education processes. Especially when I graduated from Makavarzhakan’s film faculty 20 years ago, and I could not even imagine what complications I had to go through. If I put it very differently, the big differences I noted were the following.
1. The most important thing to do is to write down your thoughts and be able to present them correctly.
2. Practice shooting took the 2nd most time (at least 3 days a week).
3. Most of the filming was done on tape and after you’re done you feel more confident on that medium than on digital.
4. The professional education of a cinematographer is not grade-based. Although you have to take 3 exams each of Chemistry and Physics in a year, apart from deep professional ones.
5. The lessons of listening to and doing criticism, which directly revolutionized my consciousness, were worthy of special attention.
6. And most importantly, having and asking questions is one of the keys to success, and communicating with people and being open to new things is victory.
The attitude and vast experience of the professors should also be appreciated. Our chair was Stephen Lighthill ASC, who was also the president of ASC (The American Society of Cinematographers). It was the reason that in 2021 I was invited to participate in the ISC (International Cinematography Summit) and to represent the Armenia Cinematographers Guild (ACG), of which I was a member.
There I had the opportunity to get acquainted with the management of IMAGO (International Federation Of Cinematographers) and received an invitation to join that organization.
I just joined AFI and I hope it will open new doors for me in our arena. But one thing is clear, that education has already fundamentally changed both my scientific and why not my human qualities.
I hope that soon I will have the opportunity to use my knowledge in Armenian cinema and, what seems most important to me, to the creation of new educational programs for cinematographers. By the way, we at ACG are soon starting to deal with this issue and have recently created a committee headed by Vahagn Ter Hakobyan, our president. I think we have a difficult but important task to do, everything is still ahead.
