cinematography
Foundations of Cinematography FTV 122E: Digital Cinematography
Professor Sélène
What is Cinematography?
What is Cinematography?
• The camera work that records the mise-en-scène between edits • The specifics of the way a shot/scene is composed/constructed • It composes a specific perspective of the world for viewers
What is Cinematography?
• The art of selection • An environment can be depicted in a infinite number of ways (choices of angle, lighting,
distance, etc.) • The filmmaker chooses to depict an environment in a specific way so as to create a
particular experience for the viewer
What is Cinematography?
• The art of selection
CLIPS: Scenes on an Airplane…
What is Cinematography?
What are the elements of cinematography?
What is Cinematography?
What are the elements of cinematography? • Camera distance and screen space • Angles, point of view • Lens aesthetics (representation of space and perspective, depth of field) • Framing & Composition • Camera movement • Lighting (also considered part of mise-en-scène) • Color
Foundations of Cinematography
Foundations of Cinematography
• A human need to represent the world • as are cave paintings, music, literature, art, architecture, photography, social networking
websites
Foundations of Cinematography
• Technological history intimately connected to aesthetics • Artists must work with the materials and technology of their time and culture/society.
Modes of viewing and representation change over time. • Each generation expresses and represents itself through the means available at the time
(from plant dyes to visual “toys” to digital tech)
• Visual technologies developed by inventors and tinkerers
Camera Obscura
Camerae obscurae with a lens in the opening have been used since the second half of the 16th century and became popular as an aid for drawing and painting. The camera obscura box was developed further into the photographic camera in the first half of the 19th century when camera obscura boxes were used to expose light-sensitive materials to the projected image.
Phenakistiscope (Joseph Plateau, 1832)
The phénakistoscope was the first widespread animation device that created a fluent illusion of motion. The phenakistiscope is regarded as one of the first forms of moving media entertainment that paved the way for the future motion picture and film industry. It is sometimes compared to GIF animation since both show a short continuous loop.
Zoetrope (William George Horner, 1833)
Developed in Antiquity, but gained modern popularity in the 19th century.
A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion.
Magic Lantern
Developed in 16th century. Evolved into phantasmagoria in the18th century.
The magic lantern is an early type of image projector employing pictures on sheets of glass (originally painted, but later also printed or as photographic plates), a lens, and a bright light source.
Chronophotography
• An example of chronophotography. Woman Walking Down Stairs, late 19th century. Photographed by Eadweard Muybridge.
Chronophotography
Chronophotography is defined as "a set of photographs of a moving object, taken for the purpose of recording and exhibiting successive phases of motion”. The term was coined by French physiologist Étienne-Jules Marey to describe photographs of movement from which measurements could be taken and motion could be studied. It is derived from the Greek word chrónos ("time") combined with photography.
Chronophotography is a predecessor to cinematography and moving film, involving a series of different cameras, originally created and used for the scientific study of movement.
Eadweard Muybridge (1872)
In 1872, Leland Stanford, former governor of California and horse enthusiast, hired Eadweard Muybridge to provide photographic proof that at some instants a galloping horse has all four hooves off the ground.
Eadweard Muybridge
Medicalization of the body
Later, in 1878, Albert Londe was hired as a medical photographer by neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot. Londe used a camera with nine lenses and intricate timing system to study the physical and muscular movements of patients.
Etienne-Jules Marey Chronophotography (1882)
Physicist Étienne-Jules Marey began using the technique to more closely study movement, flight, and exercise. He soon discovered that by overlapping celluloid prints on top of one another, he was able to see phases of movement and study their relations to each other in a single frame.
Etienne-Jules Marey Chronophotography (1882)
Chronophotographic gun.
Interested in studying movement. Gun could take 12 consecutive frames per second; printed all images on same picture.
Etienne-Jules Marey Chronophotography (1882)
Etienne-Jules Marey Chronophotography (1882)
Foundations of Cinematography
• Photography invented by Joseph Nicephore Niepce in 1826; improved by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in 1839.
• Initial exposure times were long—8 hours.
• 1878—split second exposure times.
• After its invention, photography improved quickly, leading eventually to moving picture cameras.
Foundations of Cinematography
• 1895 is considered the “official” birthday of motion pictures • The Lumiere brothers developed the means to record and project movies publicly. • Though Edison patented a motion picture camera in 1891—the Kinetoscope (it didn’t
project movies, you had to view them in the machine)
Kinetoscope (Peephole Viewer)
Kinetoscope Parlor
THE EARLY YEARS
Lumière Brothers – 1895 first film screening in basement of Grand Café in Paris. They were essentially animated photographs. One continuous shot with no camera movement, and no cutting.
Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEQeIRLxaM4
A French professional magician and theater operator. Attended Lumière Brothers screening and saw the potential to do more with film. He experimented with editing in camera, creating special effects such as disappearing and reappearing effects, or “stop trick” technique (what we can call a “jump cut”). This he discovered accidentally when his camera jammed during a shot.
Through his experimentation, Méliès began to push film from single action shots into a narrative storytelling vehicle. He Introduced editing devices such as: • Fade In & Fade Out • Overlapping Dissolves • Stop Motion Photography
Méliès created 500 or so films, most lost today. Martin Scorsese’s film, Hugo (2011), paid tribute to the work of Georges Méliès.
GEORGES MÉLIÈS
GEORGES MÉLIÈS Méliès was grounded in theater mode of thinking, his narratives were comprised of tableaus, shot from the same perspective – a proscenium stage. He never moved the camera.
The Magician (Méliès, 1898) A Trip To The Moon (Méliès, 1902) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRKcoD-th0Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrdVdKlxUk
BEYOND THE TABLEAU EDWIN S. PORTER AND THE BIRTH OF THE EDIT Edwin S. Porter – A projectionist influenced by Méliès. Set up first Edison projector in 1896. Joined Edison manufacturing company and became the head of production studio, serving as director and cameraman.
Life of an American Fireman (1903) • Took stock footage from Edison library and spliced it with staged scenes to create fictional narrative.
But was still working in tableau mentality, constructing each shot as a complete scene • Editing techniques - Temporal overlap, shots with overlapping action • WATCH: “The Life of an American Fireman (1903) - Editing Analysis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq2z2bIjy2A
The Great Train Robbery (1903) • First film that cut between scenes without fades and dissolves, and without letting scene realize
its logical end. Editing to compress time, in favor of impact over reality. • WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuto7qWrplc
Porter started to define the most basic form of cinema is the shot, not the scene. Meaning comes from the way the shots are arranged in time.
THE INVENTION OF CONTINUITY EDITING D.W. GRIFFITH D. W. Griffith, the son of a confederate army general, came to film as an actor. Hired by Edwin S. Porter, and eventually came under contract of Biograph Company as a director.
Credited with inventing • The Cut In • Continuity Editing • Parallel Editing (cross cutting)
- First invention was the Cut In, used in Greaser’s Gauntlet (1908). Cut from a medium long shot, to a full shot in the middle of the scene to emphasize the emotional impact.
- Through varying the spatial distance through long, medium, and close up shots and temporal length of the shot, Griffith began to establish the tenets of Classic Hollywood Continuity Editing.
- He continued to experiment with alternating shot lengths, using multiple camera setups to create a scene using “Continuity Editing” – cutting between shots to maintain a sense of continuous space and time. 180 degree rule evolved.
THE INVENTION OF CONTINUITY EDITING D.W. GRIFFITH Parallel editing (cross cutting) is the technique of alternating two or more scenes that often happen simultaneously but in different locations. If the scenes are simultaneous, they occasionally culminate in a single place, where the relevant parties confront each other. Cutting between different scenes in parallel action is often used to heighten tension and suspense or create a relationship between the two scenes.
First used in After Many Years (1908), about a shipwrecked man and the woman he left at home. Biograph Company thought it was dangerous and would confuse the audience.
The Lonely Villa (1909) – cross cut between three parallel actions, continually building up the tempo of the cuts faster and faster to build tension to an ultimate climax. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7vbLTDV57E