From Colombia, Ana M Amortegui got her start studying electrical engineering and dancing professionally; she discovered cinematography while transitioning from stage performance to television choreography. She told Voyage LA, “I started sitting next to the Director of Photography and I started learning about camera angles, shot sizes, about lighting. I fell in love with cinematography right there, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”
Since then she’s graduated from The Art Institute of California, was accepted into Film Independent’s Project Involve, which helps emerging marginalized filmmakers, and has worked on several sets during the past decade. Amortegui has worked on short films, features, documentaries, and several different television shows from “Twenties” (2020) to “BET Her Presents: The Waiting Room” (2019), as well as web series like “Gentefied: The Digital Series” (2017).
In December 2020, Amortegui made International Cinematographers Guild Magazine’s Generation Next list of Latinx crew members on the rise. In her feature, she explained that for her, “A cinematographer has to be a leader with great communication skills to be able to work with his/her crew and develop good relationships with everybody on set.” She highlights the fact that cinematography is just as much about storytelling as the script and her role is to capture emotion through moving images.
Amortegui spoke on the Director of Photography panel for the Cinepod podcast in September and explained how her methods behind the camera are strongly influenced by her background in choreography and her time as an engineer. Her style combines the fluidity and imagery stemming from dance with the technical and analytical form of understanding machinery through engineering. Amortegui focuses on the motions of the body and moving the camera with the bodies on screen, as well as utilizes lighting to symbolize different characters or moods. In her work, there is a noticeable attention to light and shadows to emphasize the character’s journey or the conflict within a scene.
For each new project, her creative method starts with a collaborative look book with her director or show creator to map the arc of each character and identify their visual characteristics through the camera — if they feel hopeless or lost, they can be seen confined within a space, or, to symbolize the feeling of being trapped, the characters will be up against the wall; meanwhile, the lighting will focus on shadows or hues of melancholic cool toned colors.
“Black Lightning”: Amortegui
Her use of color and character driven camera angles can be seen in her work on the newest season of the CW show “Black Lightning.” Amortegui explained to Cinepod that she used blue for the protagonist through the beginning of the new season to signify his weakened power against the villain. As the season continues, their colors begin to alter to reflect the evolving power dynamic. She utilizes spacing through the lens to signify a power play as well to capture the protagonist’s weakness — he is shown smaller in comparison to others or his surroundings, or in the lower thirds of the camera angle.
Amortegui’s goal centers around collaborating with the director in order to best capture the visual story. As the Director of Photography, she is in charge of finding the tone of the film from lighting and color to shot composition and camera movement. Her job is about taking the visual lead and making these key decisions. Throughout the process, Amortegui prioritizes positive dynamics and balanced communication with the rest of the crew in order to help everyone on set thrive.
The CW’s “Black Lightning” Season 4 is available to stream on Netflix, and new episodes of “Twenties” air Wednesdays on BET. Check out Amortegui’s 2020 cinematography reel below:
