How important is photography in filmmaking?

Think of it this way - photography, is usually taking one picture of a scene that is either static (nothing moving) or dynamic (you stop the motion)...

Film making - that's photographing usually dynamic scene at a rate of 30 photographs per second, wheres things keep on moving, and often the camera too is moving. You have to keep the composition and lightning and exposure and focus properly adjusted in real time. So yeah - it is important! If you can't take a single photograph properly, how can you cope with continuous shooting in dynamically changing conditions?

A long time ago someone I know told me that when he went to college for a movie cameraman degree - the entire first year of study they devoted to photography. No motion pictures (that was before the digital age). Just plain SLR cameras and lots of photography.... Then when they were comfortable with that - they were allowed to move to the motion picture equipment.

LEM.

Just look how Alfred Hitchcock framed his shots in all his films, and the answer is self evident. If you want to study good composition look at some of the early silent movies, in this era they were photographers first who took on this new fangled movie thing. Thats where Alfred Hitchcock (and others) got their inspiration from, particularly early German and European cinematographers.

Chris

Very. The cinematographer is responsible for bringing the director's vision to the screen. The cinematography can make or break a film and an experienced cinematographer can save a novice director. American Beauty is a good example of this.

Screwdriver and LEM are 100% correct

It is all about lighting, camera angle and lens selection. Pretty much what still and motion picture photography is all about.