No attempt at real answer, but some hints from watching youtube videos on the topic: Lightning: - Edge or back lightning, if dramatic - Wraparaound (cradle)

No attempt at real answer, but some hints from watching youtube videos on the topic: Lightning: - Edge or back lightning, if dramatic - Wraparaound (cradle) lighting, if for pleasantness - Low key look for interiors (no white walls) - Artificial light needs to be motivated as much as possible Set design - Add bankers light for any money related film, normal table light for anything else Lens - Anamorphics to avoid perspective distortion typical to spherical lenses, also for the "rich depth of field" effect - Surprisingly the best lens technically don't give the most "pleasing" (at least in "hollywood" terms) image. They are even called "clinical" or too sharp. A lot of DP's like lens with a "character", altough some artifacts are regarded universally ugly (like the longitudinal chromatic aberration, which pukes green and cyan fringes around the image) Camera - High dynamic range camera, no clipping of highlights or blacks (add light, if necessary) - Must be able to retain true image details, any digital sharpening in the source footage immediately puts things off Color grading: - Good tone mapping: should look "good" in black and white, mostly solved with lighting - Pleasing color palette: color harmonies, gradients in good perceptual color space, like okmap. Mostly solved by set design, character and dress design - Even saturation: previous point should cover "nice colors", but the saturation is one of the most overlooked aspects. It can be highly or sparingly saturated, but too much variation in a single frame quickly makes for a garbage image. Also, one has to fight most software color manipulation tools, which tends to brighten up highly saturated parts, where in reality, they should go darker That's a whole package of things, for a camera control specifically, typical operator or AC wants: - Manual focus pull - Way to judge "exposure", measured in IRE - Some way to approximate highlight to shadow exposure ratio; 2:1 for "happy" look, 4:1 for dark, 5:1 or more for Batman - Highlight clipping warning (especially important on talent's skin) - Shutter angle control (typically 180 or 90 degrees), instead of the shutter time used in photography