Cinematography in Canada Since 1957

#SimonPierreGingrasCsc @spgspgspg

CHAPTER VI - CHALLENGES //
- Creativity often begins where certainty ends -

Every film begins with a plan. And every film eventually asks you to let go of it.

Preparation is one of my favorite parts of filmmaking. It’s where ideas are born, visual languages emerge and trust begins to grow between a director and the crew.

But no matter how carefully you prepare, the day will eventually ask a different question: “Now what?”

Maybe the weather changes. Maybe time disappears. Maybe the location isn’t what you imagined. Maybe the shot you’ve been thinking about for weeks suddenly becomes impossible.

On one film, we designed a scene where it called for water rippling on the characters. Instead of a complex visual-effects setup, we experimented with a simple projector, moving water footage and an ND filter to alter the projected image until the feeling was right.

On another project, an hospital sequence needed the audience to stay physically connected to a character moving quickly through chaos. We rigged the camera operator on a wheelchair directly to the stretcher. It wasn’t glamorous, but it gave us exactly what we needed: movement that felt intimate, human and alive.

Then there was a horror feature in which almost everything was written to happen at night. We simply couldn’t afford to shoot the entire film that way. During prep, we took the gamble of moving the horror into broad daylight. That limitation ended up giving the film an identity that was stronger than what we had originally imagined.

Experiences like these changed the way I think about limitations. They’re not necessarily the enemy. On the contrary, they force you to adjust, simplify, collaborate more closely and find an idea that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

Preparation matters. But so does knowing when to let the plan go and recognize a better solution when it appears.
—

Can you think of a moment when letting go of the plan led to something even better? Give me your thoughts in the comments! :D

(slide 1: director @mariloupwolfe / slide 2: director @yveschristianfournier / slide 3-4-5 directors @baz33 & @seb__lc_ )

#SimonPierreGingrasCsc @spgspgspg

CHAPTER V - A FRAME //
- Every image is a series of invisible decisions -

The images I like the most aren`t necessarily the most technically ambitious or visually spectacular. Commonly, they’re the ones where everything aligned so completely that the audience stopped noticing the cinematography and simply experienced the moment.

Memorable images often have less to do with adding than with removing.

Removing distractions. Simplifying a composition. Letting darkness speak. Giving performance space. Trusting the audience to discover what isn’t immediately visible.

Restraint can be one of the hardest choices to make. There’s always another light you could add, another camera move you could design, another idea you could bring into the frame. But sometimes the best decision is knowing when you already have enough.

A single frame is never just a photograph. It’s the final expression of countless conversations, small decisions and a shared intention between everyone on set.

When all of those elements come together, the image feels inevitable.

And that’s always the frame I’m hoping to find.

#SimonPierreGingrasCsc @spgspgspg

CHAPTER IV - THE JOURNEY //
- Throughout the years, one still at a time -

Looking back, I see a succession of lessons.

Every film, every commercial and every series has quietly reshaped the way I think about storytelling. When I first stepped onto a professional set, I was fascinated by everything. The cameras. The lights. The machinery. I wanted to understand how every piece fit together.

With time, I realized that bigger productions, larger crews and more sophisticated equipment were never the destination. The stories and the people always were.

Some projects demanded precision. Others demanded instinct. Some required weeks of meticulous preparation. Others forced us to discover the film while making it.

Along the way, I`ve photographed intimate conversations in tiny rooms, large-scale action sequences, quiet character studies, moving vehicles at impossible speeds, stylized commercial campaigns and landscapes that seemed to tell their own stories before the camera was even turned on.

Each one asked different questions and none offered the same answers.

One of the greatest gifts this profession has given me is perspective. Beautiful images are fleeting. What they leave behind lasts much longer.

Seventeen years have gone by incredibly fast.

I’m still asking questions, still searching, still believing that the next frame might teach me something I didn’t know yesterday…
—
What has your own journey taught you?

(carousel // in order, projects i shot with the following directors @mariloupwolfe @yveschristianfournier @realdanielroby @layers.mtl john l`ecuyer gabriel pelletier @jas_mozaffari anne de lean @michelinelanctot @baz33 @yo_seb_lc @jeanmalek @matcyr

#SimonPierreGingrasCsc @spgspgspg

CHAPTER III - MY CINEMATIC PHILOSOPHY //
- Every visual choice begins with the story -

People often ask about the camera, the lens or the lighting setup. The truth is, those conversations usually happen later. Every project begins with a much simpler, but more profound question:

“What is this story trying to make us feel?”

In prep, I spend a lot of time talking and asking questions. I want to understand the characters, their fears, their contradictions, the rhythm of the narrative and what the director hopes the audience will carry with them after the final frame.

Only then do the visual decisions begin to reveal themselves.

Sometimes the camera should move with confidence. Sometimes it should hesitate. Sometimes the light needs to feel comforting. Sometimes it should leave part of the truth hidden in the shadows. Every choice (lens, composition, movement, color, contrast, etc.) becomes another sentence in the language of the story.

Over the years, I`ve come to realize that cinematography isn`t about creating beautiful images; it`s truly about creating honest ones. Beauty has many forms but emotion is always what gives an image its meaning.

As cinematographers, we’re constantly helping shape how an audience experiences the story, often without them ever noticing why. The magic of our craft lies right there!

For me, the best cinematography is the kind you feel before you ever think to admire it...

(carousel: a little more to understand where my eye and mind wander...)

#SimonPierreGingrasCsc @spgspgspg

CHAPTER II - INFLUENCES //
- The images that made me -

Every cinematographer is the sum of thousands of images.

Some come from cinema. Others arrive quietly without announcing themselves...

The way morning light falls across an empty room. A photograph that refuses to leave your memory. The rhythm of a song during a late-night drive. A painting seen in a museum years ago. Fog hanging over a lake.

When I prepare a project, I don’t just revisit films. I return to everything that has shaped the way I see.

Cinema has, of course, been a constant companion. I’ve spent countless hours studying films, not to copy them, but to understand why certain images stay with us long after the credits roll.

Photography was my first visual language. It taught me to wait, to simplify and to notice the small details that often carry the greatest emotional weight.

Painting shows me to look at light differently. Architecture reminds me that space has rhythm. Music teaches me pacing and atmosphere. Literature makes me aware what remains unsaid is often the most powerful part of a story.

And nature continues to humble me.

Long before I worked on film sets, I was captivated by the natural world. That curiosity never disappeared. I still find myself watching the way clouds diffuse light, how reflections shift with the wind or how a landscape changes throughout the day. Those observations inevitably find their way into my work.

Inspiration isn’t something you simply collect... It’s something you learn to notice.

Every project becomes a conversation between the things that have shaped us. And hopefully, somewhere in that conversation, something new emerges.

(carousel // ...some of the first images & people that made me who I am and still continue to influence me...)

#SimonPierreGingrasCsc @spgspgspg

CHAPTER I - BEGINNINGS //
- How curiosity slowly became cinematography -

Hi! SPG is a short for Simon-Pierre Gingras and I`m hailing from Montreal. I speak fluent French and English.

So, when people ask me how I became a cinematographer, they often expect a straight line. It wasn’t.

In the early 2000s, I was studying Marine Biology, first in Canada and later in Australia. I was fascinated by wildlife, sharks and the endless mysteries hidden beneath the surface. Looking back, I realize I wasn’t just studying nature. I was learning how to observe.

In 2004, back in Montreal, that curiosity found a new outlet: photography. I was obsessed with light, composition, faces and the quiet moments that often say the most. A camera became my excuse to look closer. I shot everything I could from food to street photography, but I kept finding my way back to fashion and portrait…

By late 2009, moving images slowly took over. Cinema brought together everything I loved: observation, emotion, rhythm, collaboration and storytelling. It felt less like changing careers than finally finding the language I’d been searching for all along.

Today, after all those years behind a camera, I still approach every project with that same curiosity that first drew me toward the ocean.

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be taking over the CSC Instagram account reflecting on my path as a cinematographer and how we see, listen and keep learning through the craft of visual storytelling.

Thank you for following along. I hope you’ll enjoy the journey!

(carousel // artists in photographs @peterpeteroffcl @chromeo @moffattariane)

#EmmaDjwa #AssociateMemberCsc @emmadjwa

I love being a cinematographer and camera operator, I always have. I feel so privileged to be paid to do a job that lets me play pretend. (Full of whimsy as the girlies say…)

Little Emma would be stoked. With any luck, the next round of little girls can start their careers seeing women succeed as technicians and know our jobs are about skill, not gender.

I’m so grateful that @416cw invited me to share (and encouraged me to post.) Thank you all for following along.

I love the CSC. It is so valuable to have a place to celebrate Canadian talent and deep dive on cinematography. And It’s a honour to be an associate member, and be a nerd amongst some of the film industry’s best talent.

Until next time