Laela Kilbourn is patient. Behind her lens, she waits to capture what is withheld, the gap between the spoken and the unspoken. The existential attentiveness is necessary for Kilbourn’s work as a cinematographer, a job that creates space for the subject, the actor and the scene to reveal its truest self.
“You have to understand what your subject needs,” she said. “It comes down to really listening, to hear what they say and don’t say, to listen to the quiet, and respond to that.”
Kilbourn will be at the Lake Placid Film Festival on Saturday on Nov. 1, giving a workshop on cinematography from 1 to 2 p.m. Alongside Anthony Pierce Clark, John Maher and Justyn T. Davis, Kilbourn’s contribution to the festival is part of an effort to encourage local work in the film industry, a project led by Gary Smith, chair of the Lake Placid Film Festival.
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The Observer’s Paradox
Cinematography is the art of making motion pictures. The work involves artistic elements such as framing, composition and camera angles, as well as technical components such as lens choices, exposure and camera selection. Or, as Kilbourn concisely put it, “good cinematography is about knowing when to shoot and when not to shoot.”