The document discusses applying the auteur theory to cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel. It examines Sigel's career and body of work to determine if he has a recognizable style or approach. It analyzes his use of different cameras over time, as well as his work on the film "Cherry." Specifically, it looks at how Sigel used lenses, lighting, and camera movements to achieve a "magic realism" effect in the first chapter. While Sigel adapts his approach to each project, the document argues the auteur theory can still be relevant to him through his focus on authentic storytelling based on his own interpretation of the script.

1. How is the auteur theory relevant when analysing the work of cinematographer, Newton Thomas
Sigel?
The idea of the auteur theory explores the idea that the director is the author of their film. I want to
see if the auteur theory is applied to cinematographer, Newton Thomas Sigel work and if its relevant
or effects his work when performing. I am going to be doing this by doing a macro analysis on
Newton himself, where we will look at his work as a whole and his background on getting where he
is today, as well as a micro analysis on a chapter of the film Cherry where he collaborated with Joe
and Anthony Russo as a DoP (Director Of Photography).
The Auteur theory is traced back to the 1920s by a French film critic, Andre Bazin. It is a type of way
of looking at films that insinuates that the creator is the author of a film. It argues that a film is the
direct reflection of the creator’s artistic vision, so they would have recognisable characteristics,
recuring visuals or themes that you can see consistency throughout the creators work which will
show their artistic identity. A good way of putting it is that the relationship between a moving image
and reality can only be described in Newtons own interpretation of reality. Errol Morris (an American
film director) said that “I believe we have two ideas about how movies are made in our heads.
Idealizations. Platonic ideals. One of them is of a movie that is completely uncontrolled, and another
is a movie that is completely controlled. The auteur theory vs. cinema verité." This a great way of
describing that your version of reality is completely uncontrolled and is nature to you. Even though
this theory is a popular type of way at looking at films, it does have some criticism. The theory has
been criticized for downplaying the contribution of people beyond the director. Billy Wilder once
said that "Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product
that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the
film. But what does the director shoot-the telephone book? Writers became much more important
when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.". I am
exploring the auteur theory on a cinematographer, not a director, which are stereotypically are said
to have less creative freedom.
Newton Thomas Sigel has been working in cinematography for 40 years. He started his career
working as a camera operator with experimental filmmaker Kenneth Anger, and then moved onto
documentary. Since very early on in his cinematography career, he caught people’s attention and
earned a powerful position within visual story tellers which lead him on to work with director, Bryan
Singer. He then collaborated on nine more films with Bryan, including Superman Returns, X-Men
movies and Valkyrie. In recent year he has collaborated with a range of directors to create films like
Drive (2011), Cherry (2021) , Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), Da 5 Bloods (2020) etc.
I think there are a few reasons why I chose Newton out of many different cinematographers. The
thing that intrigued me most about Newton is that throughout all his projects, he doesn’t have a
certain aesthetic, technique, or signature. I like that he focuses on that specific story that he wants
to tell authentically and that he adapts his knowledge to work with the intentions of the film. If you
compare two of his projects, their do not follow the same conventions as each other. In an interview
by Andrew Zuckerman, he writes that Thomas “desire to pursue these projects of various genres and
all stem from the same goal: to delve into what makes humans human”. However, I think the first
thing that I notice about him is his ability to switch from film to digital, and then later completely
adoring digital. I think it’s important to look at a cinematographer’s history with camera, and which
camera can create different stories. It tells the history and evolution of the cinematographer’s story
telling skills. After reading many endless discussions about film versus digital when I first got into
film, it was strange to read about how many directors and cinematographers initially wanted to stay
with film and not switch. I remember reading about Newton being open to working with digital after

2. working with the Genesis camera on Superman Returns and enjoying learning about digital
cinematography. However, after later research, I have learned that even though newton liked
working with Genesis, his next four films are still done in film. That was until the Arri Alexa came out
which Newton tested before officially working on the film Drive, which blew him away so therefore
lead him onto using it for the film. That camera was what made him less dedicated to celluloid and
more open to using digital. The other camera that Newton became familiar with is the Sony VENICE
which he used for “Cherry”. As digital cameras have evolved, we now know that the Alexa is typically
more dependable for digital media projects like music videos or commercials, and the Sony Venice 2
is a camera for narrative projects.
Thomas collaborated on the film “Cherry” with the Anthony Russo and Joe Russo which stars Tom
Holland and Ciara Bravo. The film is about Cherry dropping out of college to become an army medic
in Iraq anchored by a miscommunication from his love interest Emily. He then returns to the war
with PTSD, and we watch as his life spirals into drug and crime to represent the lack of facilities for
past veterans. The film is split into 7 chapters. The chapters are broken up into Prologue, I Saw You,
Basic, Cherry, Home, Dope Life and Epilogue. For each chapter, Newton uses different lens, lighting,
camera movements and ratios to create different looks in the film to represent the story taking place
over 18 years. It was important for the Russo brothers to focus on cherry’s life off decades, so they
tried to convey the story cinematically. The go creative show host, Ben Consoli describes the films
structural breakdown as “one of the most ambitious films cinematically wise I have seen in a while”
due to the different sections of the film, and newtons need to make every chapter to look different.
Despite getting Newton getting praised for his work on Cherry, the film overall was harshly criticised
by many film critics for being unrealistic and overlong. They struggled to understand the decisions
made in the film, and critics that read the original novel that it’s based on, felt like it stirred away
from the original plot in some areas.
What I find surprising is that even though critics felt like it stirred away from the novel, Newton has
said in a Studio Binder interview that “You’re supposed to say that when you read a script, visualise
it, you see it all in your mind. The first time I go through a script, I’m really reading a story. Following
a thread of character, suspense, drama, conflict. And how real it feels to me. And then its
formulation how to translate that into.” Though I do agree with some critics about the length of the
film, I felt like the story telling throughout the film didn’t glamorise anything, which I think is what
we have been seen done before in several different films. In the quote it specifically says “how real it
feels to me” making the way Newton views on a story personal and natural to him individually. As a
cinematography, he is always going to try creating the story visually the way he imagines it when
reading the scripts. Newton said himself in an Andrew Zuckerman interview “I think what you find,
as you get older and have done more work, is that you do more of style than you realize, because
you have instincts. At one point or another, no matter how much you prep and plan, you are going
to follow your instincts. And your instincts will have a voice, for the better or worse.” All of this is
Newton linking back to the auteur theory, the theory that its relationship between a moving image
and reality can only be described in Newtons own interpretation of reality.
One of the most interesting parts about hearing Newton working on Cherry is that the story seems
so structured, but Newton didn’t story board any of the film. Him and the Russo brothers talked
about the look of the film a fair amount. They looked at images and references thematically and
aesthetically what they wanted to achieve; which is what drove the definition of the look of the film.
When I looked at the first chapter of the film “I saw you”, it was always talked about with Newton
and the Russo brothers as magic realism. Oxford language describes magic realism to be an artistic
genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic techniques are combined with surreal elements of

3. dream and fantasy. The chapter is a very soft part of the film, and follows neutral colours, golden
lighting, lots of long slow-motion clips to replicate the slowing of time and keeps the focus on
characters faces while having a blurry background. To get this dream state look, Newton used the
Todd AO Anamorphic lenses which he described as a “very soft lens, optical imperfections but it has
a very creamy-dreamy kind of quality to it”. The lens blurs and almost distorts the background of the
characters making them the main subject allowing the audience to listen to the characters dialogue.
During the close-up shots of the love interest Emily, Newton switches the camera to the Petzval lens
to make an extreme circle type of swirling around the edge of the frame to get even more of a
dreamy type of effect. This whole part of meeting Emily is supposed to be romantic which is what I
feel like Newtons has created in a different way to other films. For example, Damien Chazelle (the
director of La La Land) wanted to create a magical love story, and he did this by focusing on colour
and trying to find the balance between heightened reality and realistic material. Newton allows the
audience to see the actor portray that love, as he focuses on the specific shots he wants to capture
with his lighting and lens choices.
In my own FMP this year, I want to be able to focus on lighting and lenses to try create depth and
feelings. I think that the composition, the lighting choices, and the motion of the shots in the first
chapter of Cherry is something that I would love to use as inspiration to create a love story in a short
film for my FMP project. The idea of creating my own interpretation of magical realism but doing it
with the equipment available to me is something that excited me. I also want to be able to work with
different screen ratios but have always been apprehensive to do. Newton has shown me a project
where you can use a different range of ratios and make it work within the story line.
In this study, I have tried to look at Newton Thomas Sigel work to see if the auteur theory applies to
him as a cinematographer. I covered the battle of if newton has a certain style, technique, and genre
or if he just uses instinct and authenticity to tell a story. I have done that by looking at his history of
cameras, more specifically his transition between film to digital cameras. I discovered the concept of
magically realism and how Newton used specific lenses to create that effect in a micro analysis of a
chapter of Cherry. In addition, I looked into Newtons ability to look into a script and how he visually
portrays it to a camera.
I think that if you look into newtons work, you will read and listen to how much he uses his initial
instincts to try creating a story authentically. He uses his own relationship of his vision when reading
scripts and story and tries to create them with different camera, lenses, lighting, motion, and ratios.
That undeniably becomes significantly relevant when thinking about the concept of the auteur
theory. However, the director ultimately gets to decide of final cuts of the film scenes and how its
present. I think you could apply the auteur theory to any member apart of the crew, but I think
critics and the audience don’t think as far as the director and actors to do that.

4. Bibliography
Culture.org. (2004). An Interview with Errol Morris. [Online]. https://culture.org/. Last Updated: 1st April 2004.
Available at: https://culture.org/an-interview-with-errol-morris/ [Accessed 9 November 2022].
Time Sensitive. (unknown). From “The Usual Suspects” to “Bohemian Rhapsody”: Cinematographer Newton
Thomas Sigel. [Online]. timesensitive.fm. Last Updated: unknown. Available at:
https://timesensitive.fm/episode/usual-suspects-bohemian-rhapsody-cinematographer-newton-thomas-sige
[Accessed 9 November 2023].
variety. (2016). How Damien Chazelle & His ‘La La Land’ Team Created the ‘Magical’ Romance. [Online].
variety.com. Last Updated: 14 December 2016. Available at: https://variety.com/2016/film/news/damien-chazelle-
la-la-land-team-magic-1201941178/ [Accessed 9 November 2022].
Cooke Optics. (2021). Newton Thomas Sigel on the Making of Drive. [Online]. http://www.cookeoptics.com. Last
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https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbjRzaDRQT1BKc2NPMWE
0UUY [Accessed 9 November 2022].
Studio Binder. (2022). Newton Thomas Sigel on the Making of Drive. [Online]. www.studiobinder.com. Last
Updated: 14 March 2022. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73x8-TXVd5Y [Accessed 9 November
2022].
Jeremy Walton. (2022). The Cinematography of CHERRY. [Online]. www.youtube.com/@JeremyWalton. Last
Updated: 28 March 2022. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmOhjwYRH14 [Accessed 9
November 2022].
STREAM WARS. (2021). Making Of CHERRY - Best Of Behind The Scenes with Tom Holland, Ciara Bravo &
Joe Russo | AppleTV+. [Online]. https://www.youtube.com/c/streamwars. Last Updated: 15 March 2021.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI902oJxHfY [Accessed 9 November 2022].
GoCreativeShow. (2021). Cherry Cinematography (with Newton Thomas Sigel ASC). [Online].
www.gocreativeshow.com. Last Updated: March 9 2021. Available at: https://gocreativeshow.com/cherry-
cinematography-with-newton-thomas-sigel-asc/ [Accessed 9 November 2022].