By Vishnu Satya

Recent years cinematography has been taken to a new directions. This Blog covers some of the latest techniques that are used in recent movies

Shot Sizes for Camera Dynamismx

• Where is our eye attracted first? Why?
• The dominant contrast can be created by any number of techniques. The size of an object may draw our attention to it. In black and white movies, the dominant contrast is generally achieved through a juxtaposition of lights and darks. In color films, the dominant is often achieved by having one color stand out from the others. Placing one object in sharper focus than the rest of the shot can also create a dominant.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

starting off …

Shooting a film is always challenging. As a film student I found that there are always some issue or other that crop up in film shoots. Initially, doing short student films there were challenges dealing with forming a crew, battery not being charged or not having enough batteries to sustain the shoot, actors not showing up, tripods release latch not working properly, audio recorder too complex for students to understand resulting in recorded audio problems, etc. Some time even though the story is good the quality gets compromised for lack of production value due to these problems. Felt it is important to cultivate good shooting habits to avoid such problems early on by paying close attentions to pre-production.
It makes you feel awful that you could not get the shots properly making editing difficult. To start with, not getting enough coverage is itself a problem but to be able to not get quality shots tremendously handicaps you. On the student films you are often paying attention to completing the project on time and to present it in the class as a finished film, which in my opinion is a test in itself.
Film projects, student or otherwise, are always under pressure, as a filmmaker you are constantly under the gun to complete them on time. As a producer you are committed to production stakeholder. To guarantee required revenues, it is crucial to complete film projects on time. There is a danger for dwindling revenues if the project does not complete on time. This could result from another project coming along with the same genre/theme or the project itself could miss the market window.
I felt even if the projects are half cooked they are still an experience to gain from. The completed film projects puts you in a frame of mind that looks at completion as an important criterion for every project worked on.Posted About Me

Lighting

1. Lighting Key
   • High key? Low key? High contrast? Some combination of these?
   • High key lighting –features bright, even illumination and few conspicuous shadows. This lighting key is often used in musicals and comedies.
   • Low key lighting –features diffused shadows and atmospheric pools of light. This lighting key is often used in mysteries and thrillers.
   • High contrast lighting –features harsh shafts of lights and dramatic streaks of blackness. This type of lighting is often used in tragedies and melodramas.
   • The lighting key in this shot is moderate. The scene is not brightly lit, but there isn’t a lot of shadows either. Also, there isn’t a great contrast between lights and darks in the shot. Moderate lighting fits the genre, a character-based comedy/drama. It’s not as bright as a light comedy, as dark as a thriller, or as dramatic as a tragedy or melodrama.

Camera Positioning and Angles

1. Camera Angle
   • Are we (and the camera) looking up or down on the subject? Or is the camera neutral (eye level)?
   • There are five basic angles in film.
   • Bird’s-eye view –the shot is photographed directly from above. This type of shot can be disorienting, and the people photographed seem insignificant.
   • High angle –this angle reduces the size of the objects photographed. A person photographed from this angle seems harmless and insignificant, but to a lesser extent than with the bird’s-eye view.
   • Eye-level shot –the clearest view of an object, but seldom intrinsically dramatic, because it tends to be the norm.
   • Low angle –this angle increases high and a sense of verticality, heightening the importance of the object photographed. A person shot from this angle is given a sense of power and respect.
   • Oblique angle –for this angle, the camera is tilted laterally, giving the image a slanted appearance. Oblique angles suggest tension, transition, a impending movement. They are also called canted or dutch angles.
2. • This shot is eye-level scene is not highly dramatic.
   • Signified : no power relationship is being suggested between the two characters

Mise En Scene

Another example of Mise En Scene

Mise en scene

Examples of Mise en scene