Role 1:

Cinematographers are in charge of the camera as they film each scene, making sure the lighting isn’t too bright/dark, everything is in focus when necessary and that everything is in frame when it needs to be. They use a variety of camera angles and movements in order to make the directors vision become a reality. A cinematographer that I’ll be taking inspiration from is Linus Sandgren who worked on ‘La La Land’ with director Damien Chazelle. He mostly used naturalistic lighting with a boosted colour palette in order to keep the film looking as real as possible, however, in order to manipulate how each scene feels he used some artificial lighting, using contrasting colours in order to enhance what was happening on screen whilst still keeping the scene somewhat dark, allowing the lights to enhance the scene rather than take over.

“If you don’t have a contrasting colour, you can get a little too muddy with smaller lights or practical’s” – Sandgen

“Practicals are more there to give set decoration and a little more glow to a scene, and then from there you work in a little more lighting, but I don’t like too much light” – Sandgen

“You get a little less anonymous around award season, but for the majority of the time, you can be quite happily anonymous,”

“Although, I do get the person walk up to me now and say, ‘Wow, I follow all your movies!’ I’m always shocked.”

 “They’re all embedded deep in my subconscious. … I have a pretty good memory for films. … I can see something 20 years ago like I saw it yesterday. … So I could be an idiot savant.”

 “My main job was making tea and sweeping around the place, but that’s the way to learn. You start at the bottom.”

“I concentrated on sound for the first part of my career, then I did a transitional thing where I was working quite a lot with Peter Weir’s films as like a junior editor. Then I would be the sound supervisor or sound designer on his films, then eventually I became his editor.”

“Sound is an incredible way to control people’s emotions and pace and rhythm,”

“It’s amazing what you can do subtly and subliminally. … I have an enormous sound library in my picture-editing [software] Avid that I draw on continuously as I’m cutting.”

“Chris does make very complicated films and I think my job in the whole process is to try to keep it as understandable as you can, because there’s nothing worse than a film where the audience gets lost to the point of being disappointed.”

“The secret that we were always trying to do with Chris’ films, ‘Inception,’ ‘Interstellar,’ and ‘The Prestige,’ was being faithful to Chris’s original idea … but never getting into a point where you’d be sitting there as an audience member feeling that you’ve been left out.”

Making the cut with the editor of ‘The Dark Knight,’ ‘Inception,’ ‘Dunkirk’ and ‘1917’

The Shining (1980) is a great example of cinematography because of the use of symmetry and one point perspective. For example the many corridor scenes. These demonstrate how even with all the alternate paths in the doors, there is only one way to go. This contributes to the implication of the hotel itself being alive, as if the characters being in the jaws of the beast and the only way forward is down the gullet.

An inspiring practitioner of cinematography is John Alcott who worked on The Shining (1980) with the director Stanley Kubrick

John Alcott, was an English cinematographer known for his four collaborations with director Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), for which he took over as lighting cameraman from Geoffrey Unsworth in mid-shoot, A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), the film for which he won his Oscar, and The Shining (1980).

sound

Sound can help create an atmosphere in the film with the use of non diegetic sound and diegetic sound. By using these different types of sound in different scenes it can change the meaning and the story behind the scene. This shows the importance of sound and how it is needed in a film and with the sound being good it can change the meaning of the film. The sound team are split into sound designers, Foley artists and sound mixers. The sound designers are responsible for all aspects of a films audio track from dialogue and sound effects recording to the re recording of the final track, the Foley artists who are in post production and add in many different subtle sounds such as footsteps and doors shutting which might not be picked up in recording. The sound mixers are responsible for recording all sound on set during filmmaking. This requires them to make the choice and deployment of microphones. A sound designer who in my opinion uses sound to convey meaning well is Ben Burtt who has worked on many films as the sound designer such as Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Wall E, ET and much more Ben Burtt shows his talent as a sound designer by using these sounds for sci fi films. He can test what sounds are possible to create by combining a multitude of different sounds to create specific sounds. In an interview he refers to being a sound designer as “being a librarian” as there is so many different sounds he creates and referring to having an “encyclopaedia of sound”. This interview took place when he was the sound designer for Star Wars which has a vast variety of sounds that do not exist.

Cinematographer – The cinematographer’s role occurs during the production phase of the film and are responsible for the set up and use of any necessary equipment needed for the capturing of the image. The cinematographer will need to work closely with the director in order to fully recreate the directors ideas for the film. The cinematographer is responsible for the shots, colouring and angle of the film

My inspiration for the role of cinematographer is Andrew Lesnie who is most known for his work on The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy and its Prequel The Hobbit, Andrew Lesnie has also worked on The Lovely Bones (2011) as well as Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011). He also received the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002. Andrew Lesnie often used wide angle shots in The Lord Of The Rings to show the vastness of the world as well as long tracking shots when the action has been built up, for example when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are tracking down Merry and Pippin.

Wide angles are a common feature in Andrew Lesnie’s cinematography and this is shown in The Lovely Bones (2011) when Susie is running across the field.

Cinematography:

Linus Sandgren is a Swedish cinematographer who has worked on many films such as ‘La La Land’ and ‘No Time To Die’. He’s best known for his work with director Damien Chazelle, having won a handful of Grammy’s due to his incredible work on ‘La La Land’.

Sandgren’s work on ‘La La Land’ uses a variety of different lights, often using contrasting colours in order to enhance what’s happening on screen. “If you don’t have a contrasting colour, you can get a little too muddy with smaller lights or practical’s. Cyan’s kind of nice to counter with some reds, for instance”. He did research into what the director wanted before choosing a camera to help achieve the saturation and old Hollywood style that the director wanted. Sandgren also made sure to make everything as realistic as possible, filming most of the film in real locations rather than using a green screen,

La La Land Linus Sandgren

A cinematographer, also known as a Director of Photography, is in charge of the camera and the lighting crew. They’re the person responsible for creating the look, colour, lighting, and for framing of every single shot in a film. The cinematographer may also act as the camera operator on more low-budget productions, they work very closely with the director in order to achieve their visuals.  My inspiration is John Alcott, who closely worked with the director Stanley Kubrick, being the cinematographer for 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon (which he won an Oscar for) and The Shining. Three films worked on by Alcott were ranked between 1950–1997 in the top 20 of ‘Best Shot,’ voted by the American Society of Cinematographers suggesting his great skill. He believes ‘how to use angles, set-ups, lights, and camera as a means to tell the story’ implying the importance of cinematography and how it is used to create meaning. 

ROLE 1- EDITOR

In charge of cutting, deleting, and assembling the raw footage of the film to create the final product. Also responsible for enhancing important narrative aspects through when shots and scenes are cut. It is an important role as, if done wrong, the audience can easily become bored. I want to take inspiration from unique and creative editors, who preferably have connections to animation as that is something I am very interested in. Because of all of these factors, I chose to look at the work of Andrew Weisblum, an American film and visual effects editor, who has often worked alongside Wes Anderson in his live action and animated films. Andrew Weisblum himself is credited for editing a total of nineteen films, with two more in development, including Fantastic Mr. Fox, Black Swan (which he won an academy award for), and Isle of Dogs. He describes his and Anderson’s editing style as “precise and detailed”, and uses storyboards and animatics to plan certain parts of the film. He also has a background in visual effects, as well as traditional film, and uses these skills often, like editing backgrounds and certain details while cutting and assembling the film, making his process more organised and fitting into his creative vision better and elevate the story.

ROLE 2- ANIMATOR

Responsible for adding in moving images either alongside or instead of live action footage. I am leaning more towards 2D animation, meaning the majority of my work will be hand drawn. It is a rather slow and tedious process but worth it for the unique visuals. Because I am most interested in 2D animation, and I am mostly taking inspiration from other 2D animators. Most specifically the work of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio whose work includes, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo. All of these films took a lot of time and people to make but I am hoping of creating some animated shorts inspired by their art style as well as the types of stories they tell. Their style is described as “whimsical and joyful” as many of their films are suited for children, and they use a variety of animation methods to create beautiful and memorable scenes, including watercolour and acrylic paintings for backgrounds. Storyboards are also used to plan out ideas and scenes and to make actually animating the project significantly easier. Ghibli’s style is very fluid and loose allowing big action filled scenes to feel dynamic and visually appealing, and smaller quiet scenes to be calm and natural looking. 

Sources-

https://www.postmagazine.com/Publications/Post-Magazine/2021/September-October-2021/-I-The-French-Dispatch-I-Editor-Andrew-Weisblum-.aspx

https://bigthink.com/high-culture/studio-ghibli/