The "Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía" as the birthplace of masters: Juan Julio Baena, Luis Enrique Torán and Luis Cuadrado

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to show how the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Ciematográficas (IIEC) became from the late forties to the mid fifties, instrumental in the creation of a school of masters of light and how the new lighting methods they taught crossed the classroom threshold and marked the start of the New Spanish Cinema. With this in mind, we have reviewed the main bibliographical sources regarding those we consider to be IIEC’s first masters of cinematography: Juan Julio Baena, Luis Enrique Torán and Luis Cuadrado. We have analyzed the first film piece by each one of them where there is aesthetic change and renovation and where they begin to apply realistic cinematography techniques. We have also studied how this new way of teaching cinematography was assumed by others who also became masters even though they didn’t study at IIEC. In other words, it became a school that produced cinematography masters both within and without its walls.