Download Part I Basic terminology

“Writing with Movement”
What is Cinematography?
Translated as “Writing with Motion”
(similar to “photography”: Writing with
Light). It is “the art of making film”
 The methods, technology and unique
systems of framing images differentiate
cinematography from the still images of
photography.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXAr
2yiYCV4

What is a “shot,” a “take” and a
“setup”?
A “Shot” is one uninterrupted run of the
camera. It is the basic building block of
the film.
 A “Take” indicates the number of times a
particular shot is taken.
 A “Setup” is one camera position and
everything associated with it. It is the
basic component of a film’s production.
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Cinematographic Job
Responsibilities
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A clapper / loader is the person responsible for slating the
shots with the clapperboard and loading the film containers
into the camera.
A clapper board (or clapboard or clapstick board) is two short
wooden boards, hinged together with essential information
for each take. The sound it makes when clapped together,
matches the sound track to the film images for later editing.
Cinematographic Job
Responsibilities
A “Gaffer” is the chief
electrician on a set.
 A “Best Boy” is the first
assistant electrician.
 A “Grip” is an all-around
handy person who works
with the camera and
electrical crew.

Cinematographic Job
Responsibilities

A “Director of
Photography” (or
“Cinematographer”)
is responsible for
composing, lighting,
and shooting the film
and for translating
the director’s ideas
into the look and
atmosphere of the
film.
Cinematographic Job
Responsibilities

The Director of Photography or
Cinematographer is responsible for:
1. Cinematographic properties of the shot
(film stock, lighting, lenses)
2. Framing of the shot (visualization and
composition, types of shots, depth, camera
angle and height, scale, camera
movement).
3. Speed and length of the shot
4. Special effects cinematography
Film Stock

There are two basic types of film stock
(plus digital imagery which isn’t
technically on “film”):
 Black and White (was the standard at one
point due to limited technology. Ex: Silent
Film… which also didn’t have sound
technology)
 Color
Film Stock

Film stock is manufactured in several
standard gauges, or widths measured in
millimeters, including:
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8mm – amateur “home movies”
Super 8mm – amateur “home movies”
16mm – low budget or student film
35mm – Standard film
65mm
70mm – Standard film
Film also comes in “Speeds”
Black and White Film

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Current films do not use black and white film
generally, except for artistic effect.
If used it offers compositional possibilities and
cinematographic effects that are impossible
with color film.
It can use distinct contrasts and hard edges to
express an abstract world such as in early
science fiction, westerns, film noirs and
gangster films.
Example: Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrFBId1b8
U0
Color Film

Early film was hand
colored such as The
Great Train
Robbery, where
9,600 frames were
hand painted!
Color Film
Tinting was printing black
and white negatives on
specially colored film stock
– It was very limited in
terms of color.
Toning used chemicals to
alter the black and white
image to a crude version of
color.
Color Film: Technicolor
Two-Color Process: (1920’s) A Technicolor
“additive” process to create color that could
reproduce a specific color by adding and
mixing combinations of the three primary
colors (red, green and blue) in their
required proportions.
 Example: 1923 Cecile B. DeMille film; The
Ten Commandments
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2MUP
PfbfHg

Color Film: Technicolor
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Three-color process: (1930’s) A Technicolor
“subtractive” process that involved three strips of film
and a great deal of light to create a color image. A
black-and-white negative was made through the light
filters, each representing a primary color. These
three “color-separation” negatives are then
superimposed and printed as a positive in natural
color.
Example: Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies - “Flowers
and Trees” and “The Three Little Pigs”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEaW0NX7rvc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=consjx_RKyA
Color Film: Technicolor
The Wizard of Oz (1939) is an early U.S.
film that notoriously starts off in a blackand-white format but which later
transitions dramatically to a world of
color to indicate she has exited the
“normal” world and is now in a fantasy
world.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6D8
PAGelN8

Color Film: Technicolor
Gone With the Wind (1939) - One of the
early films in the U.S. that successfully
made use of new color technologies to
impress movie-going audiences in 1939.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mM
8iNarcRc

Color Film: Technicolor
Monopack was introduced (1941) – It
was a multilayered film stock that could
be used in a conventional camera. This
made for less bulky cameras and the
ability to shoot film outside rather than
being limited to a studio.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dR
3h2HdnBQ
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5i9
k7s9X_A
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Colorization
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In the 1970’s and 1980’s, some television
moguls tried to “improve” the “old” movies they
were showing on television with the process of
Colorization. Using early digital technology in a
process like hand-tinting, they “painted” colors
on great movies meant by their creators to be
seen in black and white.
Generally, this process is currently frowned
upon, as it seems to trample on the original
artist’s vision when they made the original film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKtRvBZx2
8c
Lighting: 2 Primary Types
Natural Light: Daylight is a convenient and
economical source of this type of lighting
for a film. Example: The Revenant
 Artificial Light: Produced by “instruments,”
this type of lighting compensates in part for
the fact that natural light is not always
available or cooperative during a film
production. Example: Spielberg films such
as Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Natural Light
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkUydZ
t7Is8
Artificial Light

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS7
pT2WBHGw
Artificial Light: 2 Main Varieties
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Hard lighting (Specular) – Direct sunlight is
specular; it creates harsh, well-defined
shadows. It may “wash out” shadows in some
areas based on the direction of the light
source.
Soft Lighting (Diffuse) – Sunlight through
clouds; it becomes diffuse and “softer” on the
subject. It generally gives the subject a more
gentle, ethereal image.
(Lighting) Quality: (as applied to lighting and
not sound) It is the level or intensity of the
illumination which can be either hard or soft.
Artificial Light: 2 Primary Devices
Focusable Spots – These can produce
either a hard, direct spotlight beam or a
more indirect floodlight beam. “Barn Doors”
(black metal sheets or doors near the
light’s lens) can cut, direct and shape the
light.
 Floodlights – These can produce diffuse,
indirect light with very little or no shadows.
A “Softlight” version of this creates very
soft, diffuse, almost shadowless light.
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More Lighting Equipment
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Reflector Board – Not really lighting
equipment, as it does not produce its
own light. It is a double-sided board that
pivots in a U-shaped holder. One side is
a hard, smooth surface that reflects hard
light; the other is a soft textured surface
that provides softer fill light.
More Lighting Equipment
Filters: These are pieces of plastic or
glass placed in front of the lens of the
camera.
 Films / Gels: These are sheets of plastic
or glass placed in front of the light
source.

Direction of Light
Key Light (also known as Source Light): is
the brightest light falling on the subject.
Positioned to one side of the camera, it
creates hard shadows
 High-Key Lighting: Produces very little
contrast between the darks and the lights.
It is used extensively in dramas, musicals,
comedies and adventure films, and its
even, flat illumination does not call
particular attention to the subject being
photographed.

Direction of Light
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Low-Key Lighting: creates stronger
contrasts; sharper, darker shadows; and
an overall gloomy atmosphere. It is used
in horror films, mysteries, psychological
dramas, crime stories, and film noirs,
and its contrasts between light and dark
often imply ethical judgement.
Direction of Light

Fill Light: Positioned at the opposite side
of the camera from the key light, can fill
in the shadows created by the brighter
key light. Fill light might also come from
a reflector.
Direction of Light
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Backlight: usually positioned behind and
in line with the subject and the camera,
is used to crate high-lights on the
subject as a means of separating it from
the background and increasing its
appearance of three-dimensionality. In
studio lighting, the backlight is usually a
spotlight positioned above and behind
the subject. In exterior shooting, the sun
is often used as a backlight
Direction of Light

3 Point
Lighting
Lighting:

Rebecca, Citizen Kane, The Grapes of
Wrath were early films that used lighting
to express a character’s fear, convey the
distance between characters and to
establish a moral climate within a film.
Lenses
Focal Length: is the distance from the
optical center of a lens to the focal point
(the film plane – foreground, middle
ground, or background – that the
camera person wants to keep in focus)
 Depth of Field: is the distance in front of
a camera and its lens in which objects
are in apparent sharp focus
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Four Major Types of Lenses
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Short-Focal Length (Wide-Angle Lens): Creates the
illusion of depth within the frame, albeit with some
distortions at the edges of the frame.
Middle-focal-length lens (the “normal” lens): Does
not distort perspectival relations
Long-focal-length lens (the telephoto lens): Flattens
the space and depth and thus distorts perspectival
relations
Zoom Lens: which is moved towards and away from
the subject being photographed.
An assistant camera operator responsible for
following and maintaining focus during shots is called
the Focus Puller.
Quality of Cinematography

The overall style of a film is determined
by its production value, or the amount of
human and physical resources devoted
to the image and that includes the style
of its lighting.
What is Cinematography?
Quiz on Monday (after watching
documentary)