Cinematography - Friday 25th September

Cinematography relates to the decisions made on lighting and camera when recording a film. A cinematographer is the person who directs the positioning of the camera and lighting for each shot, this role may also be referred to as the director of photography. In some cases the cinematographer can also be the camera operator, but this isn't always true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMRB5cCrzY&feature=related

In the above interview with Christopher Doyle he explains how he uses lighting and camera work in his own films. He mentions that space can be created by light, which can be something that we interperet in our own work if we need to create a spacious shot we can now understand that specific lighting will help to do this. An example from Doyle's own work is when he says that the actors casted shadows in a location that they chose to film and initially they didn't intend on creating this effect however the space and lighting that they discovered on set meant they could, creating a more effective shot for them. He also speaks about the camera and how that is used, he mentions the idea of dancing and that the better you can 'dance' the more interesting camera shots. I suppose he is suggesting that the more free you are with the camera the more you can do with it, as in capture a variety of shots and viewpoints in an effective way. (I.e. when he was taking shots of what looked like the aftermath of perhaps a fight?, he moved around freely capturing shots that made the scene look very effective.)




Cinematography - YouTube



After watching Christopher Doyle's lesson on cinematography it allowed me to see that there is more to making a film than simply putting actors infront of a camera and saying, Act!. Therefore i researched into some more clips on cinematography to widen my knowledge of how to make lighting improve the effectiveness of my film. This clip from YouTube shows various directors speaking about lighting and how different lighting creates certain effects and moods within a film. One person from the clip said 'Light can either be flat, or not flat' which suggests it's not just about any lighting, the lighting has to be done right to look effective. The clip makes clear that lighting has a significant role to play in film and ensuring that your film has the right lighting will help to tell the story perhaps, make it look right etc... Since watching these clips on cinematography it has enabled me to take note of what will make the film look good, and lighting is a key element for doing this.


In the directors commentary with Krzysztof Kieślowski he also provided ideas on how to use camera to tell parts of the story. He explained how the shot of the sugar cube being soaked in coffee was an effective way of showing something about the heroine of the story. He explained that the use of the close up gave the audience an insight as to what the girl was concerned about during the scene, she had no interest in the man telling her he loved her and she had no interest in the man outside playing the flute, her attention was on the sugar cube and Kieślowski showed this through the camera with use of close ups.