Cinematography: The art of creating videos through camera work
Cinematographer [Director of Photography]: The person behind the camera that’s in charge of the technical aspects such as the lighting and the camera itself. [They work along side a team of people]
Shoulder Angle + Low Angle: Creates tension and shows who has more power in the scene
Eye-Level: Gives a childlike view and allows the viewer to immerse themselves in the film
High-Angle: Allows us to see the whole room and looks down on the character which shows how defenceless he is in this situation
| Name of Shot | Description of Shot in Relation to the Subject | Use in Storytelling |
|---|---|---|
| Extreme Close-Up [XCU] | Part of their Face ie: eyes take up the frame | Gets inside of a character |
| Close Up [CU] | Whole face takes up the frame | Reveals character’s emotional state |
| Medium Close-Up [MCU] | Head and Shoulders in frame | Reveals a characters emotional state and shows the background |
| Low Angle Shot [LA]/High angle Shot [HA] | Looks down on the character Looks up on the character | Represents characters status/how much power they have |
| Extreme Long Shot [XLS] | Only scenery visible can’t make out individual people | Used as an establishing shot |
| Medium Shot [MS] | 1 or 2 subjects in frame from waist height sometimes taken from ‘over the shoulder’ of one of the characters [OSS] | Often used as a master shot/2 shot/shot-reverse for conversations |
| Pan/Tilt | Character moves whilst staying in the same place [their eyes are moving] | Mimics a static character looking round a scene |
| Track [On a dolly, Steadicam or handheld] | Camera follows a subject by moving along with them | Intra-diegetic – brings the audience into the scene |
| Name Of Shot | Description of shot in relation to subject | Use In Storytelling |
| Extreme Close-up(XCU) | Part of the face takes up the entire screen. (eyes, mouth e.g.) | Gets inside the head of the character |
| Close-up(CU) | Whole face takes up screen | Reveals characters emotional state. |
| Medium Close-up(MCU) | Head and shoulders in frame | subjects emotions +surroundings. |
| Low Angle LA High angle HA | Waist/knees upwards. | Shows what characters are in power and who are not. Intimidated or intimidator. |
| Extreme Long Shot (XLS) | Only scenery visible, Characters barely or not visible. | Used as an establishing shot. |
| Medium Shot (MS) | One or two characters in frame from waist height or sometimes over the shoulder of one of the characters (OOS) | Often used as a master shot/Two shot/shot-reverse for conversations |
| Pan/ Tilt | camera moves across the horizon/camera moving up and down. | Mimics a static character looking around. |
| Track (on a Dolly, steadicam or handheld | camera follows subject moving along with them | audience is following the action, more involved. |
Cinematography- The art or technique of creating videos. This often involves things like composition, lighting and camera lenses.
Cinematographer- The person in charge of making artistic designs regarding the angle, movement and position of the camera
| Mainstream | Historically Significant | Art Film |
| Deadpool 2(2018,David Leitch) Deadpool 2 is a superhero movie, starring Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin and Julian Dennison, which is known to use the extra-diegetic gaze for comedic purposes. Just from the cast list alone you can see that this film was bound to do well. | A Bug’s Life(1998, John Lasseter) may seem like a mainstream film at first glance but this film was actually the second film to use completely computer generated animation, obviously this shows now due to a fast acceleration in technology which allowed this animation style to become much better but it still hold the test of time fairly well. | The shape of water(2017, Guillermo del Toro) is a film about a lonely janitor who meets and then falls in love with a humanoid amphibious creature. I put this film in the art category because it’s definitely not a film that the masses would enjoy which eliminates it from the mainstream category and I don’t think it was Historically significant either. |
| Love, Simon(2018, Greg Berlanti) is a story based around Simon Spier and how he keeps his sexual orientation a secret from his family. However, when a blackmailer threatens to reveal it, he goes on a roller-coaster journey to come to terms with his identity. I cant see this fil in any other category. | The wizard of Oz(1939, Victor Fleming) is a play/movie which is well known for being the first ever film to use colour, and keeping in mind that basically every film being made and probably to be made will be in colour I think it’s obvious to put this film in the historically significant category. | Battleship Potemkin(1925, Sergei Eisenstein) is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against its officers. A silent film is usually going to be an art film, this film could be argued to be in historically significant but I think it belongs in art film. |
| The Breakfast Club(1985, John Hughes) is about Five high school students, all with different mindsets, who face detainment in their school library on a Saturday morning. As time passes by, their egos fade and they become close buddies. | Toy Story(1995, John Lasseter) is Historically significant because it is literally the first completely computer-animated film, Bugs Life being second. With a 30 million USD budget it was extremely impressive since A bugs life has 15 million USD more and still was debatably visually subordinate. | The seventh samurai(1954, Akira Kurosawa) is based in Japan and follows a veteran samurai, who gathers six samurais to protect a village from the cruel bandits. As the samurais teach the natives how to defend themselves, the village is attacked by a pack of 40 bandits. |
| Submarine(2010, Richard Ayoade) Oliver (Craig Roberts) is a Welsh teen who has some things on his mind. First is losing his virginity before his 16th birthday. He sets out to woo his feisty classmate Jordana (Yasmin Paige). Then Oliver focuses on holding his family together. By the narrative this film is definitely fitting into the category ‘Mainstream’ | Once upon a time in the west(1964, Sergio Leone) Leone changed his approach over his earlier Westerns. Whereas the “Dollars” films were quirky and up-tempo, a celebratory yet tongue-in-cheek parody of the icons of the Wild West, this film is much slower in pace and sombre in theme. Leone’s distinctive style, which is very different from, but very much influenced by, Akira Kurosawa‘s Sanshiro Sugata (1943) | Fitzcarraldo(1982, Werner Herzog) This film is an art film because I feel the target audience is very niche which implies the director was aiming to make a film he was interested in and didn’t care if the masses enjoyed it, I think the film is foreign which would make the audience even more narrow but regardless its been nominated for awards. |
| Manhattan(1979, Woody Allen) Director Woody Allen’s love letter to New York City stars Allen as frustrated television writer Isaac Davis, a twice-divorced malcontent facing middle age alone after his wife, Jill (Meryl Streep), leaves him for a woman. Isaac is dating fresh-faced Tracy (Mariel Hemingway), a high school girl. Tis film just doesn’t sound historically significant or like it fits into the art film category. | AlphaVille(1965, Jean-Luc Godard) Government agent Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) is dispatched on a secret mission to Alphaville, a dystopian metropolis in a distant corner of the galaxy. Caution is hot on the trail of rogue agent Henri Dickson (Akim Tamiroff) and a scientist named Von Braun, the creator of Alpha 60, a computer that uses mind control to rule over residents of Alphaville. Caution is aided in his quest to destroy the despotic computer ruler by Von Braun’s own daughter, Natacha. I put this film in historically significant because it was and still is very loved and is known to be one of the best sci-fi films to be made. But I also get the sense that this film inspired ‘Bladerunner(1982,Scott) |
Storyboard – a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a film or a television production
Performance Arts – happen in real time.
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Representational Arts – depend on the established codes and conventions of language (both pictorial and literary) to convey information about the subject to the observer.
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Recording Arts – provide a more direct path between subject and observer: media not without their own codes but qualitatively more direct than the media of the representational arts.
(Source – ‘How To Read A Film’ by James Monaco)
High Angle Shot – a shot where the camera looks down on the subject from a high angle to make the subject seem vulnerable or powerless.
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Low Angle Shot – a shot from a camera angle positioned low on the vertical axis, looking up to make the subject look strong and powerful.
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Eye-Level Shot – a shot where the camera is positioned directly at a character’s eye level to give the viewer a familiar perspective.
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Bird’s-Eye View – a shot looking directly down on the subject to give an establishing shot of a scene.
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Worm’s-Eye View – a shot that is looking up from the ground, to give the viewer the feeling that they are looking up at the character from way below.
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Dutch Tilt – a camera shot with a tilted perspective to make the viewers feel uneasy.
