By Helene Siegel, AFI Communications

: Scene from THE FOUNTAIN, directed by AFI alum Darren Aronofsky, with cinematography by AFI alum Matthew Libatique, screening as a Centerpiece Gala, November 11, 7:00 PM, at AFI FEST 2006.

"You have to do it to learn it. You only get good if you shoot a lot," explains Stephen Lighthill (ASC), Senior Filmmaker-in-Residence, regarding the high success rate of graduates of AFI's hands-on cinematography department, the only significant program of its kind in the country.

Each year an "amazing faculty" transforms 28 aspiring artists into "whole cinematographers," people who can prepare a shot list, read a blueprint with a designer, hire and manage a crew, collaborate with a director and consistently shoot the visuals that transmit the director's vision.

Cinematography Fellows attend classes on technique and seminars with renowned cinematographers like AFI alums Janusz Kaminski (C '87), Robert Richardson (C '79) and Robert Elswit (C '77). They visit production and processing labs around town and attend demos of the latest equipment.

And in the second year they get to learn their craft by working alongside a mentor in a simulated re-shoot once a week.

When Jack Green, Clint Eastwood's cinematographer, mentored recently, he chose a scene from UNFORGIVEN, shooting it on AFI's campus with cinematography Fellows as his crew.

"AFI is unique," says Matthew Libatique (C '92). "It forces you to think, talk and have relationships all about filmmaking for two years.

"On the real playing field, the pace is a lot faster," says the cinematographer of INSIDE MAN, PHONE BOOTH, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, who moved from AFI to music videos to feature films in a few short years.

"My success grew from my collaborations at AFI," he says, referring to his relationship with director Darren Aronofsky (D '92), to whom he gravitated as a Fellow because of their similar tastes and style.

Their new movie, THE FOUNTAIN, is a Centerpiece Gala Presentation at AFI FEST 2006 presented by Audi, screening November 11, 7:00 PM, at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Oscar-nominated cinematographer Wally Pfister (C '88) (BATMAN BEGINS, MEMENTO) worked as a news and documentary cameraman for eight years, before he came to the Conservatory to make the jump to fiction.

"I was yearning to explore dramatic lighting, to be more creative in my work," says Pfister.

The respect for storytelling he learned at the Conservatory helped him make the jump he feels marked the turning point in his feature film career, his work on MEMENTO.

"Other people had turned it down," remembers Pfister. "I saw what was unique about it, why it was interesting. I knew I wanted to be involved at any cost."

No matter how much the content and technology may change, "in the end it still comes down to storytelling on screen," says Pfister.

Since 1969, AFI Cinematography graduates have won four Academy Awards and 11 nominations. Seventeen alumni have been invited into the prestigious American Society of Cinematographers.

In 2005, Robert Elswit, ASC (C '77) and Wally Pfister, ASC (C '88) were honored for their outstanding achievements with nominations by both the Academy and the American Society of Cinematographers for GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK and BATMAN BEGINS, respectively.

And Fellow Brian Burgoyne (C '05) won the ASC's Jordan Cronenweth Student Heritage Award for his thesis film, THE RED VEIL.