Return to Intro to Film syllabus
Updated 18 October 2006
ENGLISH 114: INTRODUCTION TO FILM, Fall 2006
Section 3: Thursday, 6:00-9:30 p.m., Professor Larsson
Week 7, October 12
6:00-6:10
Review of Quiz 3
Backgrounds on North by Northwest
6:10-7:40
Cinematography basics
7:40-7:50
Break
7:50-9:30
More on cinematography
Note: Next week, Graduate Assistant Antoinette Cole will be the guest lecturer for the class, viewing and discussing Touch of Evil, and Quiz 4
Cinematography (“Writing in Motion”)
Depends on the physical properties of the recording medium
§ Type of film stock (or use of digital recording)
§ Lighting (also a property of mise-en-scene)
§ Camera lens
Composition in the frame
§ Aspect ratio
§ Depth of space and depth of focus
§ Camera placement and movement
Motion (in addition to movement in the mise-en-scene)
§ Speed of motion (camera speed)
§ Length of shot
Special effects
§ In-camera
§ Process shots: studio and lab
§ Digital/Computer-generated imagery (CGI)
Key Terms:
Shot: an uninterrupted run of the camera (1 frame to the total run of the film)
Take: one version of a particular shot
Setup: Camera position, lighting, blocking of character movement,
etc.
Cinematographer (or Director of Photography/DP):
The person responsible for supervising all aspects of
cinematography during shooting
Excerpts from Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography
§ Film Noir
§ Color
§ Chinatown
Film Stock (type of film being used):
Black-and-white or Color?
Gauge
§ 35 mm: standard for most commercial films
§ 16 mm: often used in documentary, experimental films and by amateur and student filmmakers
§ 8 and super-8 mm: largely replaced by video
§ 70 mm: usually reserved for films wishing to emphasize wide-screen cinematography
§ Imax: 70 mm. film, runs horizontally through camera at faster speed, allowing much larger projection area
Camera Lens Aperture:
Iris in lens allows control over how much light passes thorugh lens to film (similar to role of the iris in the human eye)
Film Stock and Lens Aperture (and lighting) affect tonality of the image
§ Graininess vs. “smoothness”
§ High contrast (more extremes of black/white, few tones of gray or shades of color)
§ Low contrast (wider ranges of grays, shades of color
Film “Speed” (sensitivity to light): ISO (formerly ASA) ratings
ISO ratings indicate how sensitive the film stock is to light
§ Higher numbers are more sensitive, need less light to record image
§ Lower numbers are less sensitive, need more light to record image
But
§ Higher numbers also tend to give a rougher, grainier look
§ Lower numbers tend to give a more “polished,” “smooth” look to the image
Compensate for film speed by
§ Increasing or decreasing the intensity of the light
§ Widen or narrow the lens aperture
§ (Shutter speed is usually constant: 1/24 second per frame)
§ Film processing (time, chemicals used to develop image)
Digital filmmaking allows more chances to rework the image in various ways
Examples of tonality: Schindler’s List
Modeled in part on photography of Roman Vishniac:
http://museum.icp.org/emuseum (scroll down and click on “Roman Vishniac”)
Lighting:
§ Source
§ Quality
§ Direction
Types of light
§ Key Light
§ Fill Light
§ Back Light
All 3 = “Three-point Lighting”
Lens Length:
§ Short/Wide-angle
§ Middle/Normal
§ Long/Telephoto
§ Zoom
Types of Shots (apparent camera position)
§ Extreme Long Shot
§ Long Shot
§ Medium Long Shot (plan americain)
§ Medium Shot
§ Medum Close-up
§ Close-up
§ Extreme Close-up
Depth of Field: Amount of depth in a scene that is in sharp focus
§ Shallow focus
§ Deep focus
§ Racking focus
Camera Angle:
§ High
§ Low
§ Eye-level (or straight-on)
Dutch Angle (Canted/Oblique Angle)
Aerial view/bird’s-eye view
Camera Movement
§ Pan
§ Tilt
§ Tracking Shot
§ Crane Shot
Examples:
1. A Closer Look at North by Northwest
2. Camera Movement and Deep Focus: Citizen Kane
3. Framing, Canted Frames, and Lighting: The Third Man
4. Playing with Framing and Mise-en-Scene: Duck Amuck