Month: June 2017

Exercise: Experiment with lighting

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The aim of this design was to create a low key shot, in which the background was in shadow and the face was ‘lit’.

I took three photographs of the same subject:

  • one exposed correctly
  • one under-exposed by 3 stops
  • one over-exposed by 2 stops

I put the three photographs together in Photoshop in Layers:

  • darkest image on the top
  • correctly exposed image in the middle
  • brightest image at the bottom

Using a Layer Mask on the top (dark) layer, I applied the Brush tool (at 50% opacity) to ‘rub out’ the dark layer in the subject’s face. I finished by reducing the opacity of the top (dark) layer to 80%, to bring back more ‘ambient’ light from the middle layer.

 

Exercise: Depth

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Camera: Sony PXW-FS7
Lens: Sony 28-135mm f4

Task:

  1. Frame a shot containing a close and distant object.
  2. Zoom in close on the close object.
  3. Slowly zoom out, keeping both objects in frame.

This task demonstrates the perception of depth within a frame.

The shot begins with a long focal length of 135mm. This produces a shallow depth of field, in which the squeaky toy in the foreground is in focus, while the dog in the background is out of focus. Resulting in a shallow focus shot.

The camera zooms out to a short focal length of 28mm. This produces a deep depth of field, in which both the squeaky toy and the dog are now in focus. Resulting in a deep focus shot.

The perception of depth is created by composition. The viewer of a moving image looks at a 2D canvas and perceives a 3D space. This perception of depth is achieved through the creation of perspective. Placing an object close up to the lens, such as the toy in this exercise film, and other objects further way, such as the dog, gives a perception of increased depth.

Perspective within a composition can also be emphasised by:

  • placing a character in the foreground, which helps to increase their size in relation to the background
  • or using a wide-angle lens to exaggerate the sense of depth within the frame.

The perception of depth can also be achieved through the manipulation of the depth of field within the image. Altering the amount of detail in the background by reducing the depth of field.

Exercise: Blocking diagrams

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I like the idea of using longer shots with camera movement in a moving image.

In a long take the composition can change, making use of different framings and angles as the camera moves through the scene. Blocking the actors positions and camera movements within a shot like this is a good way of controlling the composition.

It also helps create a shot that does not require cutting in post-production.

I experimented with a few blocking diagrams using Shot Designer to sketch out actors positions and camera movements.

 

INT. CAFE – DAY Character A is sitting at a table beside the window. Character B walks past the window, enters the cafe and walks down to the table. She sits at the table opposite him.

 

 

The camera starts on a Wide Shot of Character A at the table. Character B enters shot outside the window.

The camera tracks to the right, while following Character B as she walks past the window, through the cafe door and down the aisle towards the table.

As Character B sits at the table the camera tracks back to the left and ends on a two shot of both characters sitting at the table.

 

 

Reading: Composition – The Rule of Thirds

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This task required me to look for examples of frames composed according to the rule of thirds, composition balanced between shots, the rule of thirds being broken, tension created by upsetting the balance and other distinct meanings suggested through visual balance.

I printed out screenshots, drew grids lines on the images and made notes on how the rules of composition and balance have been applied in the following films:

  • Breathless (1960)
  • Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972)
  • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2014)
  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2011)
  • Amelie (2001)
  • Manhattan (1979)
  • 12 Years A Slave (2014)

Logbook 2, pages 23-24

 

Logbook 2, pages 25-26

 

Logbook 2, pages 27-28

 

Logbook 2, pages 29-30

 

Logbook 2, pages 35-36

 

Logbook 2, pages 39-40

 

Logbook 2, pages 41-42

 

This was a fascinating exercise.  What was particularly revealing was how the apparently simple idea of dividing the frame into a grid can have such a profound effect upon the way in which I looked at the various shots. We take moving images so much for granted and are unaware of the principles underlying what we are looking at. But when viewed as canvases, divided into sections, their hidden beauty suddenly becomes evident.

Placing the shots from ‘Breathless’ alongside the shots from ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ and ‘Manhattan’, for instance, was quite revealing. The differences in composition became so much more apparent when seen collectively than when looking at them in isolation.

This task has shown me that watching and re-watching films is a task that pays dividends in revealing how cinematographers go about composing their shots, and that looking at the way in which cinematographers use the rules of composition within their work is a vital part of my work as moving image practitioner.

Composition and balance help infuse an image with beauty. For me, this is an important element in making a moving image. However, I have often felt that the ‘beauty’ of a shot has eluded me. This exercise has gone some way in helping me solve that problem in my own practice. It has also shown me that most shots within a film are composed according to the rule of thirds, while others vary slightly from the rules, or break quite strikingly from the rules for more pronounced effects.

One particularly interesting example was composition balanced between shots. Maintaining the continuity of composition between shots in a dialogue scene is key to drawing the viewer into the scene and can add considerably to the intimacy of such scenes.

Coming from a documentary background, where there is often little or no time to consider the composition or balance of a shot before capturing footage of an event, I feel much more informed in how cinematographers compose their images so that significant objects, divisions and units of space correspond to the grid lines identified by the rule of thirds.

Composition and balance are important tools in the cinematographer’s toolbox. I shall be using what I have learnt here to plan new learning experiences, by incorporating the analysis of composition and balance into the planning of future moving images and by making study films with specific goals in mind for exploring specific techniques. For example, by making study films that practice basic techniques of composition and balance; by making study films that attempt to break the rules; and by attempting to replicate shots that inspire or intrigue me in the work of other practitioners.

Reading: The long take

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‘The only great problem in cinema seems to me, more and more with each film, when and why to start a shot and when and why to end it.’ Jean-Luc Goddard (Bordwell 2017, p.211).

What guides a director in deciding how long to let a shot last?

Functions of the Long Take

In the films of Jean Renoir, Kenji Mizoguchi, Orson Welles, Carl Dreyer, Miklos Jancso, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Bela Tarr – shots may last for several minutes. One shot in Andy Warhol’s My Hustler lasts for 30 minutes.

‘It would be impossible to appreciate the artistry of these films without considering what the long take contributes to form and style’ (Bordwell 2017, p.211).

A long take – a protracted shot; an alternative to a series of shots.

Directors can choose between presenting a scene in long takes or a series of shots.

Most films are rendered in a mix of edited scenes and long takes – ‘This allows the filmmaker to bring out specific values in particular scenes, or to associate certain aspects of the narrative or non narrative form with the different stylistic options’ (Bordwell, p.211).

Hunger (2008) dir. Steve McQueen – Most of the scenes, including violent confrontations between prisoners and guards, consist of several shots. A vivid instance of the long take occurs halfway through the film, when the plot starts to focus on Bobby Sands and we begin to understand his motives and plans. The key scene begins with a shot lasting 18 minutes, a balanced view of Sands and an old friend who visits him. There is no camera movement in the shot. The effect is to rivet the viewer on the character’s dialogue during the turning point in the action.

Editing can have great force in a long-take movie – ‘after a seven- or eight-minute shot, an elliptical cut can prove quite disorientating’ (Bordwell, p.211).

Elephant (2003) dir. Gus van Sant – traces events around a high school shooting rampage; presents most scenes in long takes following students through the hallways; plot does not present events in chronological order; narration flashes back to show other school days, the boy’s lives at home and their preparations for the killings – ‘When a cut interrupts a long take, the audience must reflect for a moment to determine how the new shot fits into story chronology. The effect of the editing is usually harsh, because the cuts tend to break the smooth rhythm of the sustained traveling shots’ (p. 211).

Digital technology has made full length films consisting of one long take possible.

Russian Ark (2002) dir. Aleksander Sokurov – an experimental historical drama consisting of a single shot nearly 90 minutes long, as the camera follows over 2,000 actors in period costume through St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace; takes us through several eras of Russian history, culminating in an immense ballroom dance and a crowd drifting off into the wintry night.

Birdman; Or, The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (2014) dir. Alejandro G. Inarritu – software blends shots undetectably; presents an apparently continuous shot that lasts the full length of the 100 minute film.

The Long Take and the Mobile Frame

The static long take in Hunger is unusual – most long takes rely on camera movement – ‘Panning, tracking, craning, zooming can be used to present continually changing vantage points that are comparable in some ways to the shifts of view supplied by editing’ (Bordwell, p.212).

Frame mobility breaks the long-take into smaller units.

Sister’s of Gion (1936) dir. Kenji Mizoguchi – one long take shows a young woman luring a businessman into becoming her patron; there is no cutting; the camera and figure movements demarcate important stages of the scene’s action.

Long takes tend to be framed in long or medium shots rather than close-ups – the viewer has more opportunity to scan the shot for particular points of interest.

Steven Spielberg – ‘I’d love to see directors start trusting the audience to be the film editor with their eyes, the way you are sometimes with a stage play, where the audience selects who they would choose to look at while a scene is being played’ (Bordwell, p.213).

Another important feature of the long take – the shot reveals a complete internal logic – a beginning, middle and end.

‘The long take can have its own formal pattern, its own development, its own trajectory and shape. Suspense may develop; we start to ask how the shot will continue and when it will end’ (Bordwell, p.213).

Touch of Evil (1958) dir. Orson Welles – example of how the long take can constitute a formal pattern in its own right in the opening sequence; offers an alternative to building the sequence out of many shots; stresses the cut that finally comes, occurring at the sound of the explosion of the car; we expect the bomb shown at the beginning will explode at some time and we wait for that explosion through the long take; the shot establishes the geography of the scene, the border between Mexico and the US; the camera movement weaves together two lines of narrative cause and effect that intersect at the border station; Vargas and Susan are drawn into the action involving the bombing; our expectation is fulfilled when the shot coincides with the offscreen explosion of the bomb; the shot has guided our attention by taking us through a suspenseful development.

The long take can present a complex pattern of events moving toward a goal in a single chunk of time.

 

List of references

Bordwell, D. (2017) Film Art New York: McGraw Hill