1 “Writing with Movement”Cinematography
2 What is Cinematography?Translated as “Writing with Motion” (similar to “photography”: Writing with Light). It is “the art of making film” The methods, technology and unique systems of framing images differentiate cinematography from the still images of photography. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXAr2yiYCV4
3 What is a “shot,” a “take” and a “setup”?A “Shot” is one uninterrupted run of the camera. It is the basic building block of the film. A “Take” indicates the number of times a particular shot is taken. A “Setup” is one camera position and everything associated with it. It is the basic component of a film’s production.
4 Cinematographic Job ResponsibilitiesA clapper / loader is the person responsible for slating the shots with the clapperboard and loading the film containers into the camera. A clapper board (or clapboard or clapstick board) is two short wooden boards, hinged together with essential information for each take. The sound it makes when clapped together, matches the sound track to the film images for later editing.
5 Cinematographic Job ResponsibilitiesA “Gaffer” is the chief electrician on a set. A “Best Boy” is the first assistant electrician. A “Grip” is an all-around handy person who works with the camera and electrical crew.
6 Cinematographic Job ResponsibilitiesA “Director of Photography” (or “Cinematographer”) is responsible for composing, lighting, and shooting the film and for translating the director’s ideas into the look and atmosphere of the film.
7 Cinematographic Job ResponsibilitiesThe Director of Photography or Cinematographer is responsible for: Cinematographic properties of the shot (film stock, lighting, lenses) Framing of the shot (visualization and composition, types of shots, depth, camera angle and height, scale, camera movement). Speed and length of the shot Special effects cinematography
8 Film Stock There are two basic types of film stock (plus digital imagery which isn’t technically on “film”): Black and White (was the standard at one point due to limited technology. Ex: Silent Film… which also didn’t have sound technology) Color
9 Film Stock Film stock is manufactured in several standard gauges, or widths measured in millimeters, including: 8mm – amateur “home movies” Super 8mm – amateur “home movies” 16mm – low budget or student film 35mm – Standard film 65mm 70mm – Standard film Film also comes in “Speeds”
10 Black and White Film Current films do not use black and white film generally, except for artistic effect. If used it offers compositional possibilities and cinematographic effects that are impossible with color film. It can use distinct contrasts and hard edges to express an abstract world such as in early science fiction, westerns, film noirs and gangster films. Example: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFBId1b8U0
11 Color Film Early film was hand colored such as The Great Train Robbery, where 9,600 frames were hand painted!
12 Color Film Tinting was printing black and white negatives on specially colored film stock – It was very limited in terms of color. Toning used chemicals to alter the black and white image to a crude version of color.
13 Color Film: TechnicolorTwo-Color Process: (1920’s) A Technicolor “additive” process to create color that could reproduce a specific color by adding and mixing combinations of the three primary colors (red, green and blue) in their required proportions. Example: 1923 Cecile B. DeMille film; The Ten Commandments https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MUPPfbfHg
14 Color Film: TechnicolorThree-color process: (1930’s) A Technicolor “subtractive” process that involved three strips of film and a great deal of light to create a color image. A black-and-white negative was made through the light filters, each representing a primary color. These three “color-separation” negatives are then superimposed and printed as a positive in natural color. Example: Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies - “Flowers and Trees” and “The Three Little Pigs” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEaW0NX7rvc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=consjx_RKyA
15 Color Film: TechnicolorThe Wizard of Oz (1939) is an early U.S. film that notoriously starts off in a black-and-white format but which later transitions dramatically to a world of color to indicate she has exited the “normal” world and is now in a fantasy world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8PAGelN8
16 Color Film: TechnicolorGone With the Wind (1939) - One of the early films in the U.S. that successfully made use of new color technologies to impress movie-going audiences in 1939. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mM8iNarcRc
17 Color Film: TechnicolorMonopack was introduced (1941) – It was a multilayered film stock that could be used in a conventional camera. This made for less bulky cameras and the ability to shoot film outside rather than being limited to a studio. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dR3h2HdnBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5i9k7s9X_A
18 Colorization In the 1970’s and 1980’s, some television moguls tried to “improve” the “old” movies they were showing on television with the process of Colorization. Using early digital technology in a process like hand-tinting, they “painted” colors on great movies meant by their creators to be seen in black and white. Generally, this process is currently frowned upon, as it seems to trample on the original artist’s vision when they made the original film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKtRvBZx28c
19 Lighting: 2 Primary TypesNatural Light: Daylight is a convenient and economical source of this type of lighting for a film. Example: The Revenant Artificial Light: Produced by “instruments,” this type of lighting compensates in part for the fact that natural light is not always available or cooperative during a film production. Example: Spielberg films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind
20 Natural Light https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUydZt7Is8
21 Artificial Light https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS7pT2WBHGw
22 Artificial Light: 2 Main VarietiesHard lighting (Specular) – Direct sunlight is specular; it creates harsh, well-defined shadows. It may “wash out” shadows in some areas based on the direction of the light source. Soft Lighting (Diffuse) – Sunlight through clouds; it becomes diffuse and “softer” on the subject. It generally gives the subject a more gentle, ethereal image. (Lighting) Quality: (as applied to lighting and not sound) It is the level or intensity of the illumination which can be either hard or soft.
23 Artificial Light: 2 Primary DevicesFocusable Spots – These can produce either a hard, direct spotlight beam or a more indirect floodlight beam. “Barn Doors” (black metal sheets or doors near the light’s lens) can cut, direct and shape the light. Floodlights – These can produce diffuse, indirect light with very little or no shadows. A “Softlight” version of this creates very soft, diffuse, almost shadowless light.
24 More Lighting EquipmentReflector Board – Not really lighting equipment, as it does not produce its own light. It is a double-sided board that pivots in a U-shaped holder. One side is a hard, smooth surface that reflects hard light; the other is a soft textured surface that provides softer fill light.
25 More Lighting EquipmentFilters: These are pieces of plastic or glass placed in front of the lens of the camera. Films / Gels: These are sheets of plastic or glass placed in front of the light source.
26 Direction of Light Key Light (also known as Source Light): is the brightest light falling on the subject. Positioned to one side of the camera, it creates hard shadows High-Key Lighting: Produces very little contrast between the darks and the lights. It is used extensively in dramas, musicals, comedies and adventure films, and its even, flat illumination does not call particular attention to the subject being photographed.
27 Direction of Light Low-Key Lighting: creates stronger contrasts; sharper, darker shadows; and an overall gloomy atmosphere. It is used in horror films, mysteries, psychological dramas, crime stories, and film noirs, and its contrasts between light and dark often imply ethical judgement.
28 Direction of Light Fill Light: Positioned at the opposite side of the camera from the key light, can fill in the shadows created by the brighter key light. Fill light might also come from a reflector.
29 Direction of Light Backlight: usually positioned behind and in line with the subject and the camera, is used to crate high-lights on the subject as a means of separating it from the background and increasing its appearance of three-dimensionality. In studio lighting, the backlight is usually a spotlight positioned above and behind the subject. In exterior shooting, the sun is often used as a backlight
30 Direction of Light 3 Point Lighting
31 Lighting: Rebecca, Citizen Kane, The Grapes of Wrath were early films that used lighting to express a character’s fear, convey the distance between characters and to establish a moral climate within a film.
32 Lenses Focal Length: is the distance from the optical center of a lens to the focal point (the film plane – foreground, middle ground, or background – that the camera person wants to keep in focus) Depth of Field: is the distance in front of a camera and its lens in which objects are in apparent sharp focus
33 Four Major Types of LensesShort-Focal Length (Wide-Angle Lens): Creates the illusion of depth within the frame, albeit with some distortions at the edges of the frame. Middle-focal-length lens (the “normal” lens): Does not distort perspectival relations Long-focal-length lens (the telephoto lens): Flattens the space and depth and thus distorts perspectival relations Zoom Lens: which is moved towards and away from the subject being photographed. An assistant camera operator responsible for following and maintaining focus during shots is called the Focus Puller.
34 Quality of CinematographyThe overall style of a film is determined by its production value, or the amount of human and physical resources devoted to the image and that includes the style of its lighting.
35 What is Cinematography?Quiz on Monday (after watching documentary)
36 Part II
37 Visualization and CompositionFilms limit the “vision” of the viewer, turning the infinite sight of the human eye into finite movie images. It turns an unlimited view into a limited view. Due to tradition and technology (such as standardization of equipment) the accepted “shape” of a film (and television for that matter) is a RECTANGLE… which can be limiting in a number of ways.
38 Masks Early films tried to experiment with variations on the rectangle. They would use a Mask – an opaque sheet of metal, paper or plastic with a cutout that is placed in front of a camera and admits light in certain areas to create a frame within the frame. People and objects sometimes can be used to block the viewer’s sight in a fashion similar to a mask. A round version of a mask is called an Iris (like the membrane in your eye that dilates and shrinks to emit light). Irises were often built into older cameras.
39 Masks
40 Aspect Ratio The relationship between the frame’s two dimensions is called the Aspect Ratio. Flat or Anamorphic Lenses squeeze an image in one direction, usually horizontally.
41 Aspect Ratio Generally speaking, the image is 33% wider than tall, which doesn’t work as well on television. Often there are “letterbox” versions of films so that the ratio is maintained even on a small screen.
42 Types of Shots Overview of Lighting and shots (more specific notes to follow)… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4316BUEVYkE
43 Types of Shots Long Shot – Shows the full human body, usually filling the frame, and some of its surroundings.
44 Types of Shots Extreme Long Shot – Where the human figure is placed far away from the camera.
45 Types of Shots Medium shot – Shows the human body, usually from the waist up.
46 Types of Shots Medium Long Shot (Also known as the American Shot) – Shot is taken from the knees up and includes most of a person’s body.
47 Types of Shots Two Shot – Medium long shot with one character / subject shot from the thighs up and one from the waist up.
48 Types of Shots Close up – often shows part of the body filling the frame, traditionally a face.
49 Types of Shots Close ups usually convey a feeling of intimacy and older films relied heavily on these as they wanted to emphasize a famous actor’s face. Not all close ups are faces, however…
50 Types of Shots Extreme Close up – A very close shot of some detail, such as a person’s eye, a ring on a finger, of a watch face.
51 Depth This is making a two-dimensional space (the flat screen of the movie theater or television) appear as if it has depth. Many filmmakers take their cues from earlier art forms such as painting and photography.
52 Depth: Examples from ArtClassical Art - Painting
53 Depth: Examples from ArtModern Art – Printing (M.C. Escher)
54 Depth: Examples from Art
55 Depth: Examples from Photography
56 Depth: Examples from Photography
57 Depth (2 related techniques)Deep-Space Composition – total visual composition that occupies all 3 planes of the frame and creates an ILLUSION of depth
58 Depth ( 2 related techniques)Deep-focus cinematography - uses a short focal length lens to capture deep space composition and the illusion of depth
59 Depth: Rule of Thirds Rule of Thirds: A grid pattern that, when superimposed on the image, divides it into horizontal thirds representing the foreground, middle ground and background planes and into vertical thirds that break up those planes into further elements. This mimics the process of how our eyes perceive depth and is also used in art / photography.
60 Depth: Rule of Thirds Examples from art / photography:
61 Depth: Rule of Thirds Examples from film:
62 Depth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTCPH5lj3kY
63
64 Camera Angle and HeightShooting Angle – the level and height of the camera in relation to the subject being photographed. This is one of many framing elements allowing for creative representation of images on film.
65 Camera Level and HeightEye-level shot – A shot made from the observer’s (presumed) eye-level and usually implies that the camera’s attitude towards the subject being filmed is neutral (tone)
66 Camera Angle and HeightHigh-Angle Shot – A shot made with the camera above the action and typically implies the observer’s sense of superiority to the subject being photographed.
67 Camera Level and HeightLow Angle Shot – A shot made with the camera below the action and typically places the observer in the position of feeling helpless in the presence of an obviously superior force.
68 Camera Level and HeightDutch-Angle Shot – A shot where the camera is tilted from its normal horizontal and vertical position so that it is no longer straight, giving the viewer the impression that the world in the frame is out of balance.
69 Camera Level and HeightEx: Dutch Angle
70 Camera Level and HeightPoint of View shot – This is the physical position from which the camera shoots.
71 Camera Level and HeightTypes of POV Shots: Omniscient (3rd Person) POV – Camera sees “everything” often from a high angle Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLOjzZ2Y5iw
72 Camera Level and HeightTypes of POV Shots: Single character’s (1st Person) POV – the shot is made close to the line of sight of a character (or animal or surveillance camera) showing what that character would see of the action. (The camera view is the viewer’s eye-line view). Example with a shot / reverse shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UE3jz_O_EM
73 Camera Level and HeightTypes of POV Shots: Group (2nd person) POV shot – the shot is what a group of characters would see from their level, not from the much higher omniscient point of view Establishing shot (of group) followed by… Camera view of what they see
74 Camera Level and HeightAerial-View Shot – an extreme point-of-view shot, taken from an aircraft or very high crane implying observer’s omniscience.
75 Camera Level and HeightExamples of aerial views:
76 Camera Level and HeightExample: Aerial POV What is being suggested by the POV change in this clip? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6klufTgqeY
77 Scale Scale is the size and placement of a particular object or part of a scene in relation to the rest, a relationship determined by the type of shot used and the position of the camera. Scale can change from shot to shot. Ex: Jurassic Park https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVYj4hFImEM
78 Camera Movement The Lumiere Brothers originally used limited movement of the camera, but in 1897, they placed a camera on a balloon gondola to give a dynamic aerial view of the city of Venice. Since its invention, people have tried to use the camera in dynamic ways.
79 Camera Movement Pan Shots – A horizontal movement of a camera mounted on the gyroscopic head of a stationary tripod. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBL6vu9NQtw
80 Camera Movement Tilt Shot – A vertical movement of a camera mounted on the gyroscopic head of a stationary tripod. Ex: (Pan AND Tilt Shots) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slu6Leds5IA
81 Camera Movement Tracking Shot – A tracking shot moves smoothly with the action (alongside, above, beneath, behind or ahead of it) when the camera is mounted on a set of tracks, a dolly, a crane, or an aerial device such as an airplane, helicopter, drone or balloon. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLuEskAhRGE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbqv1kbsNUY
82 Camera Movement Crane Shot – A shot is made from a camera mounted on an elevating arm that, in turn, is mounted on a vehicle capable of moving on its own power. The camera might also be mounted on a vehicle that can be pushed along tracks. The arm can be raised or lowered to the degree that the particular crane permits. It allows for complete horizontal and vertical movement. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg8MqjoFvy4
83 Camera Movement Steadicam – A camera worn by the cameraman (so it is not “handheld”), which removes the jumpiness of a hand-held camera and is smooth, fast and intimate in terms of camera movement. Example from Hugo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzZun53Lefg
84 Camera Movement Zoom Lens – Not really a camera movement, zoom lenses provide the illusion of motion. The zoom lens can move by itself without having the camera move, move with the camera or move against the camera/s movements. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKJeTaIEldM
85 Speed and Length of ShotSlow motion – decelerates action by photographing it at a rate greater than the normal 24fps , so that it takes place in cinematic time less rapidly than the real action that took place before the camera. Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsN_zgcyjrU
86 Speed and Length of ShotFast Motion – accelerates action by photographing it at less than the normal filming rate, then projecting it at normal speed, so it takes place cinematically more rapidly. Can be replicated through other means (animation or digitally, for example) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFF-MaKxarM
87 Speed and Length of ShotLong Take – can run anywhere from one to ten minutes (an ordinary roll of film runs for ten minutes, but specially fitted cameras can accommodate longer rolls of film that might allow for minutes) Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17UQz7ANv-o
88 Special Effects CinematographyIn-Camera Effects – created in the production camera (the regular camera used for shooting the rest of the film) Includes fades, wipes, dissolves, montage, split screen, superimposition, models and miniatures, glass shots, matte paintings, in-camera matte shots and process shots Process shots (in-camera effect) include such things as rear or front projection, for example to simulate a car ride. This is now often done with green screen and digital effects.
89 Laboratory Effects – Created on a fresh piece of film stock.Includes processes such as contact printing and bi-pack as well as blow-ups, cropping, pan and scan, flip shots, split-screen shots and day-for-night shooting. Computer-Generated Effects – created by digital technology (becoming very common). May not even involve a camera, and instead images are “drawn” digitally. Often referred to as “CGI” (Computer Generated Imagery).