Cinematography

Cinematography

• Spectators have little choice to witness pro-filmic features.
• Spectators vary in the extent to which they register cinematographic processes.
• Acknowledgment of the camera’s material presence may be alienating.
• Mainstream cinema generally withholds evidence of image capture.
• Demystifying the image-making process is achieved by revealing unadvertised and naturalized technical operations.
• The goal is to preserve the self-conscious moment and provide essential terms for evaluating cinematographic strategies.
• Cinematography encompasses decisions during recording and processing of the film image.
• Filmmakers choose between different film stocks to generate contrasting images.
• Manipulations are available during post-production, such as "bleach bypass" to give an antique silver tint.
• Focus is given to major camera properties and operations.

Distance

• Film tends to be a human-centered medium.
• Camera distances are tabulated based on the size of the human figure on screen.
• Extreme long shot offers the most distant perspective.
• The long shot allows the spectator to judge a character's identity.
• The medium long shot frames the subject from below the knee upwards.
• The medium shot frames from the waist up.
• The medium close-up frames from roughly chest height.
• The close-up isolates the head and perhaps neck.
• The extreme close-up breaks up the unity of the face.
• "Close-up" originally referred to a shot with significant background.
• Grasping shot-type definitions in particular periods is essential to assess the evolution of film style.

Considerations of extreme close ups

• Judgements on shot distances should be specific and nuanced rather than absolute.
• One guide asserts this shot lacks dignity and should be restricted to specific forms like medical documentaries.
• The shot of character's eyes may evoke grief, love, religious fervor or brutishness.
• When used on morally questionable figures, its effects vary
• In the film, Force of Evil (1948), cutting from a close-up of a telephone to a characters eyes can be mean panic rather than camera distance.
• The extreme close-up can be playful, as in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966).
• Shot distances can signify differently by director and are relative according to the particular contexts in which they are utilized.

Height, angle and level

• Refers to the degree of elevation in the camera’s positioning.
• Variable effects can be generated by a seemingly identical choice of camera height.
• Camera angles include high, straight-on, and low angles.
• Straight-on angle: neutral and devoid of emphasis.
• High angle diminishes the subject's power, while low angle enhances it.
• Context is needed for interpretation.
• Canted shot (oblique shot, Dutch angle): alters the frame from the horizontal.
• Used in The Third Man (1949) to mark the crisis in noirish postwar Vienna.

Masking

• Skews the film image, or other practices can modify the image’s rectangular format.
• Masked shots block some light via camera lens attachments.
• Frequently used to mimic effects of optical devices like telescopes or microscopes.
• Iris shot: the rectangular image contracts/expands from a circular point (irising-out/irising-in).
• Iris shots' use in contemporary films shows a nostalgic effect.

Movement

• Cinematic movement happens both because of rapid image projection and mobile camera apparatus.
• Camera movement account should distinguish between shifts of entire body vs modification of a peripheral component.
• Pan and tilt shots: rotations in horizontal/vertical planes, achieved via pivoting device, may look unnatural.
• Zoom: achieves mobility without camera repositioning.
• Tracking shots: horizontal camera motions, varied in speed and patterns, show effects.
• Crane shots: vertical plane movements with camera rising/descending via mechanical mount.

Focus

• Horizontal and vertical camera motions can combine for striking effect.
• Handheld equipment offers a hectic, staccato effect, widespread in war/disaster films.
• The Steadicam incorporates a stabilizing mount for handheld intimacy without unsteady locomotion.
• Camera movements affect the image's quality of focus.
• Focal options are: shallow focus(clear foremost plane), deep focus(all planes clear), and racking/pulling focus (redistributes focal sharpness).
• Deep is focus a human film making by mimicking natural vision.
• The significance of deep focus implies unbroken space and time.
• Context is needed to assess meanings or value.