Definition Magazine

Definition Magazine is a British film and television production magazine published by Bright Publishing in Cambridge, England. It covers cinematography, post-production and broadcast technology for professional filmmakers, through in-depth features in which directors of photography and their collaborators explain how particular productions were photographed and finished. Its articles go inside individual films and television series in unusual detail, examining camera and lens choices, lighting approaches, colour and workflow, and the creative reasoning behind them. Published in print editions and online, Definition serves the professional production community from a Cambridge base, within Bright Publishing's portfolio of specialist magazines.

Publisher and Cambridge base

Definition is published by Bright Publishing, a Cambridge-based specialist publisher whose titles serve professional and enthusiast communities, and whose digital editions platform hosts the magazine's issues for online reading. Individual features note their original appearance in a dated print edition of Definition, such as the May 2022 edition, before being published on the magazine's website. That print-plus-digital pattern places Definition in the modern British trade magazine model: a curated periodical edition for subscribers, extended by a website carrying features, news and archive material to readers between issues and around the world.

Editorial focus

The magazine's focus is the craft and technology of moving-image production, with cinematography at its centre. Its features are built around conversations with the people who photographed and finished a production: directors of photography, colourists, camera and lighting collaborators, costume and production designers whose work interacts with the image. Rather than reviewing films as entertainment alone, Definition examines how they look the way they look. A reader finishes a feature knowing which cameras and lenses were chosen, how lighting was designed for particular periods or moods, how a look was built in the grade, and why those decisions served the story being told.

Inside the cinematography of a production

Definition's signature features demonstrate its depth. A feature on the Netflix series You explored how cinematographers used rare Todd-AO anamorphic lenses, whose vignetting, blurring and edge distortion created a subconscious sense of unease suited to the story, and how action was deliberately composed toward the centre of the frame. A feature on Russian Doll examined how distinct lighting approaches separated storylines set in the 1940s, 1960s and 1980s, emulating period film stocks and lighting with modern LED tools, vintage lenses and colourists' look-up tables used as a guiding compass. Such pieces treat cinematography as storytelling, not decoration.

Film and television coverage

Coverage spans cinema and high-end television alike. The magazine examined how Nicolas Karakatsanis photographed Disney's Cruella, using two different sensors for the origin story, in his first role on a major studio film after working with the same director on I, Tonya. It explored the cinematography of Behind Her Eyes, including voyeuristic high-angle camera movement and nightmare sequences built from lighting, slow-motion photography and set design. Features on series such as Pam & Tommy considered the ethics and methods of depicting sensitive real-life stories. This range, from studio features to streaming drama, reflects where professional cinematographers actually work in the modern industry.

Lenses, cameras and the image-making pipeline

Equipment coverage in Definition is always tied to use. Features discuss specific tools in the hands of named practitioners: Sony Venice cameras and their high-resolution capabilities, Leitz and Zeiss lenses chosen for reliability and rendering, vintage Cooke lenses selected for a distinctive softness and flare, and rehoused classic glass discovered to have its own unique character. Lighting technology receives the same treatment, from LED softness in contemporary scenes to emulations of tungsten and fluorescent sources for period work. Post-production, especially colour grading and the creation of LUTs during preparation, is covered as an integral stage of cinematography rather than an afterthought.

Live and multi-camera production

Although best known for drama and film features, Definition also covers live and multi-camera production. One feature documented the filming of a large community performance in a cathedral and its ruins, where a six-person camera crew deployed ten cameras, enormous quantities of fibre cabling and lenses chosen to work in near-darkness, for a performance watched by 800 people and prepared for streamed and edited broadcast. Such coverage widens the magazine's definition of cinematography to include outside broadcast, event capture and performance documentation, fields in which many camera professionals build their careers and in which planning and reliability matter as much as artistry.

Voices of practitioners

The magazine's authority comes from letting practitioners speak at length. Its pages quote cinematographers explaining, in their own words, how they protect actors' performances by avoiding surprises from their lenses, how they use pressure and preparation, how they collaborate across episodes with other cinematographers to maintain a consistent tone, and how costume, production design and locations contribute to the image. Directors, including women directors shaping productions in both acting and directing careers, discuss the intentions behind visual choices. For younger camera department members, these extended interviews function as informal masterclasses in professional judgement.

Readership

Definition is read by professional filmmakers and those preparing to join them: directors of photography, camera operators and assistants, gaffers and lighting crews, colourists and post-production staff, producers, and students of cinematography. Its features assume a knowledgeable reader, comfortable with lenses, formats, lighting units and grading workflows, yet they remain readable for film enthusiasts who want to understand how celebrated images were made. That professional readership is the same community served by manufacturers, rental houses, post-production facilities and training providers, making the magazine a meeting point between craft practice and the industry that equips it.

Digital presence and archive

Definition's website organises its features online, where articles first published in print editions are presented with credits and original edition references, building a searchable archive of production case studies. Bright Publishing's online editions platform presents complete issues in digital form for readers who prefer to browse the magazine as published. Individual stories, such as its cinematography features on major series, remain accessible long after broadcast, when students and practitioners revisit a production to understand its techniques. In an industry where knowledge is often passed informally on set, that permanent, public archive of explained practice is a substantial part of the magazine's contribution.

Place in British production publishing

Britain has a small but durable tradition of magazines serving film and television craft, and Definition belongs to it alongside longer-established cinematography and broadcast titles. Its particular contribution is the long, production-specific feature: not a news item or a product announcement, but a detailed reconstruction of how a film or series achieved its look, told by the people responsible. Based in Cambridge rather than London, it also demonstrates that specialist production publishing in Britain is not confined to the capital, even though the productions it covers are made in studios and on locations across the United Kingdom and internationally.

Significance

Definition Magazine matters because it preserves and explains professional knowledge that would otherwise vanish when a production wraps. Cameras are returned, sets struck and grades archived, but Definition's interviews record why a lens was chosen, how a period was lit without period equipment, or how a colourist's LUT guided an entire series. For working cinematographers it is a professional journal; for students, a textbook of real decisions; and for the wider film culture, evidence that the look of a film or programme is the result of deliberate, discussable craft. That explanatory mission defines the magazine and gives its archive lasting value.