Understanding Cinematography: Roles, Shots, Lighting, and Framing, Study notes of The Avant Garde in Literature and Cinema

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Cinematography

Film Study 1 – Ms. Jones From Looking at Movies by Barsam and Monahan

What is cinematography?

• Cinematography is the process of capturing moving images on film or a digital storage device.
• The word comes to us from three Greek roots— kinesis , meaning “movement”; photo , meaning “light”; and graphia , meaning “writing”—but the word was coined only after motion pictures themselves were invented.

Shot, Take, Setup

• The three key terms used in shooting a movie are shot, take, and setup.
  • Shot – one uninterrupted run of the camera
  • Take – refers to the number of times a particular shot is taken
  • Setup – one camera position and everything associated with it

Production Process

• The cinematographer’s responsibilities for each shot and setup (as well as for each take) fall into four broad categories: - Cinemagraphic properties of the shot (film stock, lighting, lenses) - Framing the shot (proximity to the camera, depth, camera angle and height, scale, camera movement) - Speed and length of the shot - Special effects

Back Light picks out subject from its background Fill Light from the opposite side ensures the key light only casts faint shadows Key Light highlights the object

Lenses

• Short-focal-length lens (aka wide-angle lens, starting at 12.5mm)
  • Makes objects look further away than they actually are
  • Movement from background to foreground may appear faster
• Long-focal-length lens (aka telephoto lens, range from 85mm-500mm)
  • Makes objects look closer (or flatter) than they actually are
• Middle-focal-length lens (aka normal lens, range from 35mm-50mm)
• Zoom Lens (aka variable focal-length lens)

Lenses

• Depth of Field
  • Cinematography must decide what planes or areas of the image will be in focus
  • Short-focal-length lens permit many or all planes to be in focus
• Rack Focus (shift focus, select focus, pull focus)
  • Shifting focus from one plane to another
  • https://youtu.be/NRMUbjI3grY

Framing the Shot

• Aspect Ratios
  • 1.33:1 Academy (35mm flat)
  • 1.85 American Widescreen (35mm flat)
  • 2.2: Superpanovision (70mm flat)
  • 2.35:1 Panavision and CinemaScope (35mm anamorphic)
  • 2.75:1 Ultra Panavision (70mm anamorphic)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CgrMsjGk7k

Extreme Long Shot Long Shot Medium Long Shot Medium Shot

Medium Close-Up Close-Up Extreme Close-Up

Rule of Thirds

180 Degree Rule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bba7raSvvRo