Cinematography: Writing with Motion

Cinematography – Greek root meaning writing with motion.

Cinematography is ‘the process of taking ideas, words, actions, emotional subtext, tone, and all other forms of non verbal communication and rendering them in visual terms’ (Blain, 2012, p.2) – the process of adding layers of meaning and subtext to the context of a film.

Building a visual world – create a visual world for characters to inhabit; the visual world is important to how the viewer will perceive the story, ‘how they will understand the characters and their motivations’.

The cinematographer should ask:

• How do we communicate the story through visual means?
• What are the essential elements we work with and manipulate to create this visual world?
• If cinema is a language, then we must as what is the structure of that language?
• What is the vocabulary, what are the rules of grammar, the structure of this cinematic language?
• What are the tools, the essential techniques, methods and elements that we can use to tell our story visually?

The Conceptual Tools of Cinematography:

• The Frame – direct audience attention; convey story through choice of frame size; composition, rhythm, perspective.
• The Lens – various lenses render images in different ways; ‘Every lens has a personality – a flavour and an inflection it adds to the image’ (e.g. contrast, sharpness, focal length).
• Light and Colour – powerful visual tools; special power within the art of film; touch people at an emotional level.
• Texture – manipulating the image adds visual texture; by changing colour and contrast, desaturating colour, adding filters, fog and smoke, rain, or digital manipulation.
• Movement – film is one of few art forms that employ motion and time; dynamic motion serves the storytelling process.
• Establishing – the camera reveals or conceals information; the visual equivalent of exposition – conveying important information or background to the viewer; accomplished by the choice of frame and lens; can also be achieved with lighting that reveals or conceals certain details in the scene.
• POV – the camera becomes the perception of the viewer; make the viewer more involved in the story; the viewer inhabits the character’s mind and experiences.

Visual Subtext and Visual Metaphor:

• Cinematography extends far beyond simple ‘photography’.
• It is about adding visual subtext to the scenes.
• Also about adding visual metaphor.

 

The key points for me

Cinematography is more than simple ‘photography’, it is the art of communicating a story visually, building a visual world with added layers of meaning and subtext. In order to achieve this, the cinematographer employs a range of conceptual tools.

 

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Brown, B. (2012) Cinematography: Theory and Practice New York: Focal Press