Cinematography

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Cinematography
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Cinematography

• cinematography "writing in movement
• Digital Cinematography and Computer-Generated
  Imagery have brought changes in Cinematography,
  which was traditionally based on
  chemical/photographic images and effects.
• However many terms and concepts in
  digital/computer-aided cinematography are based
  on, and often replicate, those of film-based
  cinematography.
• Learning about film-based cinematography is very
  helpful to understanding digital/video
  cinematography.
• Commonly, Cinematography Everything that has to
  do with cameras and lenses, with film/film stock
  (and its digital equivalents), exposure and
  processing of film/digital images.

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Cinematography vs. Mise-en-Scene

• Thus, cinematography can be contrasted to
  mise-en-scene (staging), which refers to what
  is filmed while cinematography refers to how
  it is filmed. (see Bordwell Thompson)
• Question areas?
• Visual Special Effects? Often done in
  post-production (esp. digital effects). So, is
  that Cinematography?
• Lighting? Effects exposure, lens setting, focus,
  etc., Usually under control of Cinematographer
  (Director of Photography). But Lighting, since
  it is part of what is filmed, could also be
  seen as part of a films mise-en-scene.
• For simplicitys sake, follow Bordwell
  Thompsons distinction between what is filmed
  (mise-en-scene) and how it is filmed
  (cinematography). I.e. special effects part
  of cinematography lighting part of
  mise-en-scene.

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Elements of Cinematography

• (1) Composition or Framing and Mobile Framing
• Frame shape (aspect ratios), camera distance
  (types of shots e.g., CU, Medium Shot), angle,
  level, height, mobile framing (camera movements
  and zooms), perspective, pov.
• (2) Camera, Lens, Exposure Choices Techniques
  (what used to be called photographic elements)
  
• Camera Choices (speed of motion, shutter speed),
  Lens Types (e.g., telephoto, wide angle), Lens
  Settings (focus, aperture, depth of field, etc.),
  Exposure issues.

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Framing Aspect Ratiosratio of width to height
Rules of the Game, Jean Renoir, 1939 1.331 (4 to
3) actually 1.371
Aliens, James Cameron, 1986 1.851
Rebel Without A Cause, Nicholas Ray, 1955 2.351
(Cinemascope)
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Framing aspect ratios

• Academy ratio 1.371, but often said to be
  1.331
• Note how framing affects balance, visual
  information,
• relationship of on- off-screen space

2.2 to 1
Pan Scan 1.33 to 1
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Video Transfers

• When Widescreen Films transferred to
  full-screen 43 frame (video or television)
  see pp. 87-95 AP on aspects ratios transfers.
• The controller
• The person responsible for transferring a film to
  43 video format
• Becomes default editor
• What stays within the frame, and what is cut
• Letterboxing
• blacked-out bands at the top and the bottom of a
  screen
• approximate the wider cinematic screen
• Can limit cinematographic possibilities when
  filmmaker has to shoot for the box (See also
  TV Cutoff, p. 331 AP)
• Fortunately, newer 169 Monitors are much closer
  to widescreen aspect ratios. 169 1.78 to 1.

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Widescreen vs. Pan and scan in Blade Runner,
Ridley Scott, 1982
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Aspect Ratios (when shooting digital)

• A. 43 - composition well suited for a close-up
• B. 169 - loss of focus - i.e., frame includes
  extraneous information
• C. 169 - letter boxed - face is smaller
• D. 169 - to command attention - i.e., fill-up
  the frame - face is cropped

fig. 2-16 (AP, 96)
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framingCamera Angles high angleTouch of Evil
(Orson Welles, 1958)
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framingCamera Angles straight angle straight
onRebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
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framingCamera Angles low angleBride of
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
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Height of Framingnote low framing/position, but
not low angle
Tokyo Story (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
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framinglevel of framing canted framing (a.k.a.
Dutch angle) Bride of Frankenstein (James
Whale, 1935)
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Canted Framing

• Canted framing
• Camera not level / not horizontal
• Often suggests tension, trouble, distress, etc.

Natural Born Killers, Oliver Stone, 1994
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framingCamera/Shot Distance or Type of Shot

• Bordwell Thompson
• extreme long (ELS)
• long (LS)
• medium long shot (MLS)
• medium (MS)
• medium close-up (MCU)
• close-up (CU)
• extreme close-up (ECU)

• Ascher Pincus
• long shot
• medium shot medium long
• close-up med close-up
• big close-up CU
• extreme close-up

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extreme long shot (ELS) The Conversation
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long shot (LS) Bride of Frankenstein
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Medium long shot(knees or shins to head a.k.a.
American shot or knee shot) Ascher Pincus call
Medium Shot
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medium shot (MS)The Big Heat (Fritz Lang, 1953)
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medium close-up (MCU)Touch of EvilA P call
this a CU?
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close-up (CU)Touch of Evil (A P big close-up)
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extreme close-up (ECU) Dracula (Tod Browning,
1931)
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Other "shots" that arent named for their shot
distance

• establishing shot
• master shot
• two shot
• reverse shot or reverse-angle shot
• point-of-view (POV) shot (a.k.a. subjective shot)

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Mobile Framing

1. Actual Movements of Camera
2. Zooms, where Camera doesnt move, but the frame
   changes as the lens focal length is changed Zoom
   In or Zoom Out. (Magnifies)
3. Laboratory and animated mobile framing.
4. Computer-generated shots for ex fly-bys,
   rotations. Computers, like traditional
   animation, can potentially generate any movement.
   

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Mobile FramingCamera Movements

• pans rotates horizontally, side to side (B T
  confusing camera rotates on vertical axis)
• tilts vertical pivot/rotation, up and down
• in pans tilts, camera doesnt change position,
  it pivots or rotates. Usually tripod mounted.
• dolly/tracking/traveling shots
• crane (and boom or jib) shots
• hand-held and steadicam shots

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Camera Movement

• Tilt up
• Movement up or down - vertical scan
• Pan right

Dial M for Murder, Alfred Hitchcock, 1954
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Mobile FramingCamera Movements

• Dolly, Tracking, Traveling shots all basically
  the same.
• Sometimes people use tracking shot to mean a
  following shot (one that follows an actor or
  action), wh/ may be taken from a dolly, crane,
  handheld, or steadicam.
• But name tracking shot came from the tracks
  that dollies moved on (see next slide).
• So, dolly and tracking interchangeable terms.
• Traveling shot is generally reserved for more
  expansive movements, taken from a vehicle.

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Dolly Shot, on Tracks
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Mobile FramingCamera Movements

• Crane and Boom/Jib shots
• Boom/jib shots Camera mounted on
  counterweighted boom (similar to booms for
  microphones) some booms can also telescope in or
  out. Can use for combinations of pans tilts,
  horizontal (tracking), vertical or diagonal
  moves.
• Crane shots Shots look the same as boom shot,
  but often motorized or with hydraulics for
  movement. Usually cranes have seat for operator,
  wheels. Some can be driven.
• Motion-control techniques computer programs to
  direct elaborate camera movements.

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Mobile Framing Crane Shot

• Crane Shot
• Note Difference from a tracking shot
• Movement through 3-dimensional space

Carrie, Brian De Palma, 1976
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Opening Welles' Touch of Evil 1958
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Mobile FramingCamera Movements

• Hand-held and Steadicam Shots
• Hand-held Steadicam shots can pan or tilt or
  track.
• Hand-held movement is obviously unsteady--which
  is how we know its a hand-held shot.
• Steadicam a patented device wh/ dampens
  unsteadiness, producing a relatively smooth
  movement, even when walking or running.
  Operators must be trained to use.
• Steadicam first used in Rocky (1976). Early
  prominent use in Kubricks The Shining (1980).

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Mobile Framing

• When viewing a film, mobile framing can be hard
  to spot, because we often follow what is being
  photographed, rather than how.
• And often, multiple combinations of camera
  movements
• Ex Tracking shots often include some panning.
• And combinations of camera movements can become
  quite complicated, as in some Crane Shots.
• Also, can combine camera movements with zooms.

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Mobile Framing
Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958
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Mobile Framing

• Famous shot from Jaws (1975), which uses both
  forward tracking and a zoom out.
• Reverse of Hitchcocks Vertigo shot, which zoomed
  in while tracking out. Both forms are often
  called dolly zoom shots.

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Another Track and Zoom
Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese, 1990
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Perspective Tracking vs. Zooming

• Fig. 4.3
• Left
• move the camera (track in)
• short focal length lens
• Note Relation of back/foreground, changed angles
• distortion at edges
• Right
• Camera stationary
• Change of focal length (i.e., zoom in)
• Relation of back/foreground closer (telephoto
  effect of flattening)
• No distortion at edges

fig. 4.3 (AP, 144)
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subjective shot(or point-of-view shot)

• Subjective Shot/Camera from the position/point
  of view of a character--as if seeing through
  character eyes. Also called POV shot. Cinema
  equivalent of First Person in writing.
• Some people make distinction between subjective
  shots POV shots use POV shots to include
  over-the-shoulder shots--which give a sense of
  POV without actually being from the position of
  the character.
• But easier better treat POV and Subjective as
  the same over-the-shoulder as different.

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subjective shot(or point-of-view shot)

• Subjectivity/POV is crucial to Classical
  Hollywood style shot/reverse shots eyeline
  matching are based on the idea of seeing from
  characters POV.
• But, shot/reverse shot shows both "subjective"
  and "objective" views Hwd (most cinema) mixes
  both together.
• What happens if subjectivity is taken to extreme?
  If we see only subjective shots?

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Ex 1947 Detective film The Lady in the Lakeshot
entirely from main character's point of view
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Ex 1947 Detective film The Lady in the Lakeshot
entirely from main character's point of view
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Note that moving camera often suggests someone's
subjectivity or POV. Consider use of slow track
in scene from Antonioni's L'avventura