TENOLIAN R. BELL, JR
AREA : Director of Photography
CAREER GOAL: To exercise storytelling through the medium of film.
EDUCATION:
Post Graduate The City University of New York; New York, New York (2001)
Master of Fine Arts: Media Communication Arts
UndergraduateClark Atlanta University; Atlanta, Georgia (1997)
Bachelor of Arts: Mass Media Arts / Radio, Television, Film
I became attracted to storytelling through books my parents purchased for me when I was young. As a child, reading these stories allowed me to travel off to mythical places. The act of traveling into my imagination became very important to me. My parents fueled my addiction with more books, until it got to a point where I would rather read books than pay attention to the teacher standing before me in class.
As I became older, my interest shifted to visual interpretations of stories through comic books, Dungeons and Dragons role playing, and Japanese anime. These mediums lead me to exercise my imagination and develop my love of visual story telling. The use of my imagination and love of storytelling brought my interest to the most powerful and influential storytelling medium of them all: filmmaking.
I entered college at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta Georgia and immediately enrolled in my beginning film classes. Just like everyone else, I wanted to be a Director. However, as we began to learn about the art of cinematography: F-stops, foot-candles, depth of field and films stocks my interest shifted. I was fascinated by these technical details of the camera. I began shooting films for my classmates and switched my interest to Director of Photography. I immersed myself in research and began studying master cinematographers. Reading about the why's and how's of applying cinematography from the technical to the artistic became my focus.
I studied Gordon Willis and his extreme but soft shadows in the "Godfather" trilogy. Vittorio Storaro and his theories of color and consciousness. Robert Richardson and his use of glowing angelic highlights. I also studied cinematographers such as Darius Khonji and his amazing use of the bleach retention process on "Seven." Finally, Janusz Kaminski who is able to take combinations of styles that others have pioneered and invent his own unique vision.
I internalized all of this information, which has profoundly influenced my own cinematography and I came up with exciting and new ideas to make it better. My classmates began to notice how much better my work looked as compared to other student cinematographers. Most of the Directors in my class wanted me to shoot their films.
After graduating from college ,I decided I wanted to go into a larger film market where I would continue to be challenged and grow. I was accepted to graduate school at The City University of New York.
Currently I travel from New York to Los Angeles working with many Directors and lensing various projects.
From independent feature films, short films, music videos, documentaries, and video content for the web.
