Cinematography: Your Window, Their World
Cinematography is more than just camera movement, framing, and lighting, it’s what you choose to show. Anything outside of the window you choose to show your film through, doesn’t exist for the audience member. If you don’t show it, they don’t know it’s there. Sounds simple, but it’s critical.
“Once we get the audience to imagine that what exists within the frame extends beyond the frame, we have a new and powerful tool to create unreal realities on the screen” - Chuck Peters
Be mindful of what your pointing your camera at and for what purpose. Everything shot should have a reason attached to it. If there is no reason, especially if the viewer is supposed to be gathering an emotion or feeling from whatever they’re watching…you’ll lose them, bore them, and pull them out of whatever you were trying to build to in the first place. Very rarely is a shot left in a film because it “looks cool.” Is that 10 second epic shot really worth it if it doesn’t do something for your audience memeber? No, especially if you are working on something that depends on specifically placed and paced action, reaction, and flow. Keep all this in mind when your shooting something. What goal are you going for?
Why are you shooting your film the way you are? Why are you in a wide instead of a close up? Why are you dollying the camera (this is very overdone in films), or why are you handholding it? Examine your story and figure out a way of telling it that fits the type of story it is.
Cloverfield is a great example to use. Whether you like the film or not, the Blair Witch Project type of shooting that it entails fits the kind of story they were trying to tell. You are going through the adventure and horrific events with the main characters, running right along with them. Not only that, but almost every sequence in the film is shot in a way that shows you only little bits of things as the director saw fit. Because your watching the film from a camera that is being run (in the film) by the main characters, you have a unique experience as an audience member. Shaking of the camera, quick zooms, autofocus problems, etc. were all used to feed the audience member specific pieces of information. When the camera is having a hard time focusing on something and there is grain and some movement, your left squinting at the screen saying “what is that?” Then BOOM your hit with something you didn’t expect. It’s a great example of using a camera in the proper way, and to the full potential of the source material.
Road to Perdition - TM and © 2002 DreamWorks, LLC. All rights reserved.
Road to Perdition (one of my favorite films, and one of the greatest cinematic pieces in history) has lots of great camera work but for this article the place that came to mind was the father and son riding to Chicago. The city is revealed to the audience by the reflection in the windows, before the camera eventually ends up behind the car as it drives into downtown. There is a moment before the buildings show up where your not sure what your looking for because the windows reflections are barren, then in an instant the first building hits and the reflection is covered in windows moving by.
If you have seen those 2 films, or have other films of your own that you love for their cinematography, go pop in the DVD and find your favorite shot. What is it saying? Then write that down and figure out other ways it could have been shot to convey the same thing. It’s a good exercise, give it a try. If your a junkie for things like that (like me), then it’s something you probably think about already. Even if you aren’t a cinematographer, thinking about these things as a director can really help things along, especially if your on a low-budget film where your wearing lots of hats. There is a reason why Directors & Cinematographers have a unique bond. They’re both doing 2 different jobs with the same goal, and they need to work together to pull out the proper result. Constantly ask yourself why you are shooting what you’re shooting, before you plant your sticks, pick your lens, etc. What is your OBJECTIVE?
Objective -> Information -> Decision -> Result
If your objective is off (from the story), so will your result. Your objective determines where you go for your information and from your information you make your “informed” decisions. The same applies to life but it applies to all things.
What about your lighting? Without light all you have is darkness. What are you choosing to light and why? What kind of light are you putting on that subject? Is it the proper color? What can be done to further accent the desired mood? Do you want hard light, soft light, or a mix of both? People play with white balence all the time either on set or in post to get the effect they want. A dark alley with a suspicious man walking would probably benefit from a high contrast ratio, blue tint, and limited fill. Granted that is just an example, you could do things many different ways. I’m not here to tell you how to light or compose, I’m trying to get your juices flowing about why you do what you do.
What about camera movement? Besides all the other things involved in shooting, camera movement is a powerful way to tell your story. Something I want to touch on first though is a lack of camera movement. A static shot has just as much purpose as a tracking, handheld, or crane shot. Lets see how many different ways we can convey the same type of feeling with the same subject.
Objective: Loneliness
Place/Subject: A man at a 4 way intersection out in the middle of nowhere.
Option 1: Wide static shot of the man standing there. Showing how big the surrounding farm land is and how small the man is will convey just how alone he really is. Being static, it can make the environment feel dead and have less life to it with this one human being in the center of it all.
Option 2: Start on a closeup of the man and pull back to a wide showing the surrounding area. This would allow you to slowly reveal how alone the subject is (the same as Option 1) but choosing to reveal is slowly might have a purpose. Say your scene has the man waking up on his back at this intersection not having a clue how he got there. Pulling back slowly from him to show the entire environment allows the audience to realize where he is at the same time he does. This differs from Option 1 also because of the way you would edit it together. Cutting from a close up on an actor looking around directly to a wide would hit the audience in the face with loneliness a lot more abruptly than Option 2 where the camera movement would reveal.
Keep in mind how your shots will edit together and what cutting from one shot to another actually says. It’s not just your shots, it’s the relationship from shot to shot.
Option 3: Start on a closeup of the man and as he turns to look around, the camera dollies around him in a circle revealing the environment in 360 degrees. Normally this is done to convey confusion or worry if the character is looking for something but if done properly and at the proper speed, it can convey wonder and beauty in the environment (depends on what your looking at). If you are able, starting in a super close up of his head and zooming out slowly as you dolly around adds another dimension to the shot.
There are many other ways to shoot that kind of thing but those 3 can show you just how different you can tell your story if you think about what you want to say. None of them are wrong, but one of them might be for your intended feeling. Option 1 would have you hitting the audience in the face with the environment, Option 2 slowly reveals it (what if he woke up on the top of a mountain, wouldn’t it be more effective to slowly reveal the beautiful scenery and get that WOW factor?), and Option 3 might work to show the environment, the situation, the beauty of the environment, and the motion itself could show some confusion and worry if that is what your going for.
Never lose sight of what your shots need to say. If your not moving the camera, should you be? When your not saying anything…what are you saying? Filmmaking is decisions, one right after another. Each decision you make will either push you towards the story your trying to tell, or away from it. Don’t mess this part of the process up. A great script, with great actors, and great environments is all well and good but if you aren’t sure how to use your camera to present those elements, all that hard work by everyone else is for nothing…or takes a serious hit. The audience can only see what you show them, so make sure they see what they need to, and in the way they need to.
Kyle Prohaska
kyle@praisepictures.com
CEO, Praise Pictures
http://www.praisepictures.com
Great article Kyle. Have you ever seen the mini series “John Adams”? The Cinematography was really good.
One question I have that you don’t cover here is how to deal with time as a DP. When you run out of time, how can keep the story from suffering. This is one of the things that I had to fight with the director on because of our conflicting goals. The director wanted the performance, but I knew if we did too many takes, we would miss some of the key storytelling shots. Also you don’t always get to shoot what you plan. In a lot of cases, the actors demand freedom which is like prison to a cinematographer. While the actor is free to move around the set, the cinematographer has less room to work and a bigger challenge hiding equipment. For instance, I worked with an actor that wanted to rehearse the scene, throwing out all storyboards and plans. He determined what he wanted to do, and then I had to figure out the shots based on his blocking. This was very annoying and difficult. The only way I stayed sane through the shoot was too look at it as a challenge to my ability. (Although it was very difficult to stay positive and even have much ability to be creative while working 12-18 hour days) Any tips for speed and decisiveness as a Cinematographer?