...Cinematography The way in which the camera moves and functions is critical to the way the director attempts to present their motion picture. Items framed and presented in front of the audience are often times more vivid and memorable if it is done in an interesting way. In Robert Altman’s The Player, the positioning and movement of the camera in the eight-minute-long opening scene displays a unique usage of the sequence shot, as well as other film techniques. Made popular in Orsen Welles’ Touch of Evil, the opening scene of The Player follows a variety of characters on a film set, using one sequence for an extended period of time just as Welles did in the opening scene of his 1958 classic. Throughout the opening sequence of The Player, the camera follows various characters in one swift motion. Without cutting or using multiple shots, Altman positions the camera in various places to frame the character. It starts off with a high angle as a car drives through the parking lot, before shifting from the car to a walking pair of characters. Reframing is used from here on out; as the camera moves from character to character, the camera moves in order to keep moving persons or objects centered in the frame. While a character walks from one place to another, the camera moves with them as well from either the front or the side, giving the impression that the camera is walking at the same pace from a close proximity. Altman explores a limited yet open space in the scene, as everything...
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...undergarment, the dog’s leash tied to the lamppost, and the woman with a pet bird. Then back to the L.B. Jefferies. At that moment, the viewer can see him taking a nap in his pajamas, in a wheelchair, his leg in a cast with his name on it, his broken camera, his black and white pictures, and a magazine of a woman. Overall, Alfred Hitchcock filmed this scene to deliver the audience the idea of what the neighborhood looks like, who are the people in the neighborhood, and what they do in their everyday life. Not only about the neighborhood but also the protagonist. He also wants to show what kind of a person L.B. Jefferies is and why is the protagonist of the story. In general, Alfred Hitchcock delivered his beautiful art of mise-en-scene and cinematography to convey this scene. In terms of mise-en-scene, the most noticeable elements observed in the scene were the production design and acting. For the production design, the 1950’s feel of the movie was effective because of the set design, prop, and lighting. First, the set design helps the viewer understand what the scene is all about and gives the feeling of what era they are in. Next, some of the props revealed something about L.B. Jefferies, like for example the broken camera, it suggested that he is a photographer and that he has been into an accident that cause him to have a cast on his leg and...
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...Though the film seems most obviously about a child's nightmare in an unrelenting world of pain, violence, and death, Pan's Labarinth joined realism and fantasy through cinematogrsphy. One aspect that made this film different was that one side of the story, the realism, was violent, fierce, and forceful, while the other followed the main protagonist through her mystical quest to become queen of a distant world. With the use of cinematography in Pan's Labrinth, through dolly shots, over the shoulder shots and pans it connects the fantasy with the reality. Ofelia, enters the fantasy relm where the thin, pale man lives. She must retreave the daggar from one of the three locked compartments in the wall. She is introduced as a camera is following her through the use of a dolly shot the audience is seeing what Ofelia sees, the table displayed with lavish foods, in a time when food in reality is being rationed, so as the camera is following her it creates this sense of forbidden atmosphere, The thin man is at the head of the table as though he were guarding it. Ofelia knows she must not eat but through this technique, tension arises because the audience knows that she might not be able to resist. More tension and anxiety is generated when Ofelia is face to face with this grotesque creature. With the use of this over the shoulder shot of Ofelia looking at the thin man, because she is out of focus the audience can observe the crese and folds that the pale man has, but...
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...Philip Lee Joor Baruah Monday- 11:15-12:30 Film 20A 30 October 2014 Citizen Kane Sequence Analysis Essay Mise-en-scene, cinematography and editing are visual elements in film that create meaning in the shots/sequences of the film. Ultimately it is these factors that can establish narrative agents and their relations, drive the narrative and place the view in a certain point of view of the narrative. Orson Welle’s 1941 film, Citizen Kane, is considered significant for its technical innovations with its use of deep focus lenses, low angles, high contrast lighting, long takes and dissolves. In my essay I will be analyzing the sequence depicting Kane’s “Declaration of Principles.” I will show how the elements of mise-en-scene, the cinematography and editing choices help to visually depict Kane as a powerful subject, establish narrative conflict and create perspective within the sequence. Through sequence of Kane’s “Declaration of Principles” Kane is depicted as a powerful narrative agent through social blocking in the sequence’s mise-en- scene. Throughout the long third shot, Kane is placed centrally and stands the tallest compared to Leland and Bernstein. Through the cinematic use of deep focus lenses that manages to capture Leland, Kane and Bernstein positioned in the background, mid ground and foreground all in focus at the same time. This allows for Kane to dominate the mise-en-scene in spatial relations to his friends. His physical relations to his friends and the surrounding...
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...Cinematography today is one of the most popular types of contemporary art. The latter is the brightest expression of the human soul! What are the reasons for this? History of art shows us two basic reasons for its existence. One of them can be roughly called “art for art” and the second one is rooted in the necessity of human beings to solve vital social problems. Because these rapidly expanding problems interfere with the private life of everyone; we can witness predominance of the “second” type of art. As an example we can quote M. Moore’s movie, titled “ F 9/11”. Analyzing any work (piece) of art, we must take into consideration that every artist aims to make us think about a problem through his own vision. The question is whether he can pull it off or not? It is no secret, that there are various kinds of techniques to influence the audience. M. Moore brilliantly selects and perfectly times the succession of the episodes which makes him absolutely convictive. But we must tell the difference between the opinion of one single man and the reality. M. Moore, a talented journalist, uses the well-known mass media techniques, for example, he only chooses that footage, which goes along well with his understanding of a problem. The frames we are watching: the harrows of war, ruined and burning houses, soldiers, who are killing people and listening to a Bloodhound gang song, children playing in the streets before the war, determine our reaction (attitude) to the problem...
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...How you got interested in film making? When I was ten years old and i have been youngest of five. I got interested in the activities they were doing and I eventually noticed that I am capturing their moment on my camera and viewing it externally. I was making scripts for my friends and brothers and we were playing this game and I would divide the members based on their characters and would make them understand their role. It was very interesting and at the same time very fun to do so. Then I begin to write scripts stories about different events about Afghanistan. How do you describe your experience so far? The best thing is about been the variety of work and 21 years in studio doing TV shows for Tolo and I direct TV shows for them. Film directors work full time, often with long hours on evening,weekends and holidays traveling to various locations for shoots. I have 21 years of experience in this field and I have also been closely working with cinematographer and actors. The nature of the film requires one to understand the knowledge of the film production process. Working in Afghanistan is very challenging with shooting and security because we cannot travel to provinces and beautiful cities in Afghanistan. So far It has been an exciting journey and I enjoy working in this field. What does the future look like for this profession? It has really bright future in Afghanistan, since its newly established and there is a lot of room for improvements. Youth have shown much...
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...have longer takes, pans, and medium shots. I would only use close-ups only when it was necessary. I always felt that having too much cutting in a film, jump cuts, and too many close-ups took away from the viewer. I felt that it wouldn’t leave any room for development and give the audience an unsatisfied understanding of the characters’ development. Too much cutting would still allow you to watch the whole story, however it would not let you question any motives or even allow you breathing space to compile all the things you just saw. I can’t and don’t like that at all. It hurt my head and eyes. I need to think and question. Between 1967 and 1971, a man named André Bazin created “What is Cinema?” in which he focused on editing and cinematography. André Bazin is a Realist and he argued that what he saw in film what he called “objective reality". He saw neo-realism and other genres later on become more realistic looking. These directors would become known as invisible. You “look through” not at the film. André Bazin admired “Orson Welles,” who used deep focus in “Citizen Kane”. Myself and Bazin both advocate the use of deep focus, wide shots and shot-in-depth. Bazin referred to those three as "true continuity" through mise-en-scène. I love seeing everything in the frame. As film progressed through experimental trial and error, the editing and visual effects became better and better by film process and technology. But before then, films that came out in the 1920s and 1930s were...
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...beautifully shot documentary by David Gelb that captures everything you would want to know about Jiro’s three Michelin star restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro. It shows the journey that Jiro had to go through to get to where he is now and that is making perfectly delicious sushi with his apprentices and eldest son Yoshikazu that will soon take over his father’s business in the future. It will be challenging succeeding his father’s position because as Yamamoto said in the documentary no matter how talented Yoshikazu is, he will need to be even more talented than his father in order to achieve the same levels of success. II. Highlights David Gelb uses a variety of angles and framing to capture Jiro’s world. Throughout the film the cinematography of the film varies. In shots of interviews it is usually a medium close-up shot that frames the subject from just below the shoulders to the top of the head. We can see this highlighted when Jiro is being interviewed about his passion for sushi in the beginning of the film. A series of extreme long shots can be seen combined with...
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...4 Cinematography We are affected and defined by light. Light is the most important tool we have to work with, not only as cinematographers, but as people. —Laszlo Kovacs Courtesy Everett Collection Section 4.1 The “Look” of a Scene CHAPTER 4 Chapter Objectives After reading this chapter, students should: • Have a working knowledge of the cinematographer’s job • Understand the difference between cinematography and mise en scène and recognize the importance of each • Understand the importance of color and lighting and how they affect the tone and feel of a film • Be familiar with different methods of photographing a film, and with terms such as panning, tilting, tracking shots, deep focus, and aspect ratios • Understand how different focal length lenses affect the look of a shot • Recognize what special effects can do for a movie—and what they can’t do 4.1 The “Look” of a Scene W hen we are first introduced to Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, played by Marlon Brando, the Mafia boss is sitting in the study of his home. Along with his consigliore, or adviser, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), Corleone is listening to a line of people requesting favors on the day of his daughter’s wedding. Corleone is immensely powerful, as we learn by the scope of the favors he is asked to grant, which in one case includes the desire of a singer to be cast in a film to revive his musical career, and Corleone’s ability to grant them. However, it is not just what...
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...it becomes obvious that the Barzinia family wants the power of the Corleone’s …though this scene cross cuts to show who is really in charge. The scene is called “Baptism and Murder” because while at the same time that Corleone’s enemies are killed during the Baptism of his nephew, after the funeral, the editors persist that the Baptism scene continue to show who the leader in charge of the family is. The camera remains still on the close up on the emotional importance precisely towards the baby or Michael, the Godfather. Panning the close shots inside and outside of the church. The author’s goal is to expose the complicated circumstance in the characters using cross-cutting joining the scenes that relate to many other missions. For cinematography I choose The Long Take: Goodfellas where this particular scene uses a long take stretching over three minutes exposing us to the gangster Henry who wants to take his lady through a alternative entrance from the restaurant as the camera man follows them as they make way in the areas of the restaurant, this shot is an extensive choreographed movie with plenty of extras could have made it difficult to pull off the scene. With a long shot...
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...Quantieshia Brown Capstone Research Paper Ms. Pierce/Mr. Gross 23 March 2011 Lighting: The Way it Affects a Movie Set Lights! Lights! And More Lights! While on a movie set for any show, cinematographers are artists that paint motion pictures with light (Murphy 1). They must know that lighting is their main concern while in production. No matter if there is too much or too little lighting, lighting must always be controlled (Morales). In order to solve the problem of faulty lighting, cinematographers should know when lights should be used, where it should be placed, and who it should be focused on; therefore, they must communicate with the director and the lighting engineer at all times because the lighting sets the mood for the image (Morales). There are many techniques that a cinematographer works with and people wonder how. An example is that most people wonder how cinematographers control their lighting while indoors when the subject is placed by a window. If subject is in front of a window and there is too much sunlight, take some aluminum foil wrapped around a piece of cardboard and turn it towards the subject so the light will reflect on the person face which will act as a key or filled light. If there is another light around, put it a little closer to subject and the reflected light will act as the backlight to make it seem as three-point lighting (“Lighting Tricks and Solutions”). The need for this type of lighting is to make the subject’s face is clear and visible...
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...Mannat Shukla Professor Candace Rose Cinema 100 5 November 2015 Director of Photography, Beniot Delhamme “Cinematography is infinite in its possibilities….much more so than so than music or language” – Conrad Hall Beniot Delhomme, born in 1967, is a French film cinematographer who also works in British and American movies. Delhomme has a great passion for cinematography. His journey in films is nothing short of a great accomplishment. Delhomme has been a DOP (Cinematographer) or over 50 films over the span of 22 years of his career. His some of the most popular work is the cinematography of The Theory of Everything, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Proposition, Cyclo, etc. He has been a DOP of many different...
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...Cabin in the wood 500+words short essay During the film Cabin in the woods there were many distinguished visibility in different rooms throughout the film. The two main ones were the control room and the cabin. In the control room there was high key lighting. In this room the three point lighting system came into effect. The key light was the primary source of light used in room. The fill light was to soften some of the shadows. Also the backlight was to intensify the feeling of death more for the audience. In the room the film directors also used a white light so we could relate to the place more. The film used these lights because they wanted to let the audience know everything was getting better. In the cabin there was low-key lighting. Candles and very dim lights lighted up the cabin very minimally. This is because low-key lighting is generally used to make the audience feel the sense of enigma and mystery. The film directors also used yellow lights in the cabin. The use of high key lighting system and low-key lighting system was used throughout the film to show different moods throughout the film. There were many elements of mis en scene in the film Cabin in the woods. One of the elements of mis en scene was the old cabin. The cabin helped show the main place where the film will be taking place. This also lets the audience know that this is not a normal cabin in the woods. Another mis en scene was the control room. This place gave the audience a hint that this is where...
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...Edward Scissorshands Amado Mcgowan 3/23/14 What if you were physically different from others, how would you feel about your self? Edward Scissorshands is about a man with a physical disability trying to fit in with the real world after years of confinement and loneliness. In Edward Scissorshands Tim Burton uses high key lighting and flashback in order to establish a theme to make the viewer look at a person from the inside instead of outside. In Edward Scissorshands Tim Burton uses High key lighting when Edward and Pam were driving through the neighborhood after Edward first comes out of the mansion for the first time. High key lighting is used in this scene to show Edward expression as he is in aw from the colorful houses and the flowers and plants and many children playing outside this displays a new chapter in Edward’s life to move away from the house. Also in Edward Scissorshands Tim uses flashback when Edward looks at the can opener then the flashback is triggered. In this flashback it shows how Edward used to be and how he came about. His was an inventor and he got the idea from a robot making cookies in his factory and he got the idea to make that robot into a human. Tim Burton also uses flashback when during the whole movie until the end this story is told by Kim to her granddaughter and everything that happened had happen in the past. During the movie I think Burton uses these cinematic techniques to show the viewer a different side visually...
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...Mise en scene is a French term that is defined as the overall point of view of a movie or the "placing on stage". In other words, it refers to the combined experience of what the viewers hear, see and think of when they watch a movie. The mise en scene of a movie catches the attention of the viewers’ moods as much as lighting, props sounds, and smells do. It alerts their emotional response system to a real-life setting, which is conveyed in the movie. Mise en scene has two significant visual components: design and composition. Design creates the look and overall feeling of the lighting, setting(s), decor, and actors. Composition refers to the structure, distribution, equilibrium, and the relationship between the actors and the matter around them and within their environment. The use of these elements within the movie frame provide the audience with the general meaning of the movie scene. Mise en scene also plays an important role in the viewers’ response to a movie. It affects the viewers’ experience of views, sounds, contrast and color. Some aspects of mise en scene can happen on a rare occasion; whether through an act of mother nature or by accident. For example: rain, snow, an actor improvising and ignoring the script, or an actor getting injured. Mise en scene happens in movies because the movie directors planned it before the shooting of the scenes of the movie. Mise en scene can and is sometimes used to distinguish a director’s movie...
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