Cinematography #2 Angles, Framing and Focus

LT: Analyze how directors create effect through focus and composition in film. SC: Make choices about how to shoot a short film and explain how choices connect to meaning. Analyze cinematographic choices made in a short film.

Cinematography Cinematography = Everything that has to do with cameras and lenses, with film/film stock (and its digital equivalents), exposure and processing of film/digital images. Citizen Kane (Welles)

Main Elements of Cinematography (1) Composition of the frame and mobile framing. (2) Camera, Lens, & Exposure Choices & Techniques

COMPOSITION OF THE FRAME Camera Angles High angle Psycho (Hitchcock)

COMPOSITION OF THE FRAME Camera Angles Straight angle; Straight on Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)

COMPOSITION OF THE FRAME Camera Angles Low angle

Low Angle

COMPOSITION OF THE FRAME Canted framing (a. k. a COMPOSITION OF THE FRAME Canted framing (a.k.a. Dutch angle) Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov) – one of the first films to use Canted angles Canted framing Camera not level / not horizontal Often suggests tension, trouble, distress, etc.

Dutch Angle

Did you know? The term “Dutch angle” originates from the term “Deutsch” which means German. German expressionism used canted angled in many films to denote madness and uneasiness. See Next Slide

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) Dir. Robert Wiene

Framing can become a director’s signature There are other examples of framing, which include using the natural framing occurring in objects. In this case, frame is shot from the trunk of a car. Tarantino’s low angle trunk shot.

CAMERA DISTANCE Camera/Shot Distance or “Type of Shot” extreme long (ELS) long (LS) medium long shot (MLS) medium (MS) medium close-up (MCU) close-up (CU) extreme close-up (ECU)

Extreme long shot (ELS) Shot a considerable distance from subject

Long shot (LS) Shot a distance from subject

Medium long shot (knees or shins to head; a. k. a Medium long shot (knees or shins to head; a.k.a. American shot or knee shot) Framing such than an object four or five feet high would fill most of the screen vertically. Also called plain américain, given its recurrence in the Western genre, where it was important to keep a cowboy's weapon in the image.

Medium shot (MS) a medium shot is a camera angle shot from a medium distance. The dividing line between "long shot" and "medium shot" is fuzzy, as is the line between "medium shot" and "close-up". Modern Times (Chaplin) Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau)

Medium close-up (MCU) A framing in which the scale of the object shown is fairly large; a human figure seen from the chest up would fill most of the screen. Another common shot scale.

Close-up (CU) A framing in which the scale of the object shown is relatively large. In a close-up a person's head, or some other similarly sized object, would fill the frame. Framing scales are not universal, but rather established in relationship with other frames from the same film.

Extreme close-up (ECU) A framing in which the scale of the object shown is very large; most commonly, a small object or a part of the body usually shot with a zoom lens

Tracking vs. Zooming Left: move the camera (track in) short focal length lens Note: Relation of back/foreground, changed angles distortion at edges Right: Camera stationary Change of focal length (i.e., zoom in) Relation of back/foreground closer (telephoto effect of flattening) No distortion at edges Zooming is unnatural to the human eye See next image – Left side represents tracking and right side represents zooming

Zooming Tracking

Focal Distance Shallow Focus Deep Focus A restricted depth of field, which keeps only one plane in sharp focus; the opposite of deep focus. Used to direct the viewer's attention to one element of a scene. Shallow focus is very common in close-up Suggests introspection Deep Focus Deep focus involves staging an event on film such that significant elements occupy widely separated planes in the image.

Camera Techniques Watch the short video below, titled “39 Cents” Camera Techniques Watch the short video below, titled “39 Cents”. The show was created by Saturday Night Live. Watch the video twice. After watching it a second time, analyze how the video uses cinematography to convey a message. Identify the message that is conveyed as well. 39 Cents (11 Oct, 2014)

Sources http://classes.yale.edu/film-analysis/htmfiles/cinematography.htm