Cinematography – the process of photography in motion picture productions.
Cinematographer – the person in charge of the camera and light crews recording a film. Also known as a DP (Director of Photography)
The difference between a director and cinematographer is that the director is in charge of the overall production, including the actors, while DPs are in charge of assisting to bring the directors vision to life with photography and lighting.
In the passage, when Monaco refers to “the spectrum of the arts” he is describing a framework that categorizes different types of artistic expression based on various factors that define their unique characteristics this spectrum helps us understand the diverse nature of artistic endeavours and how they relate to one another. Monaco explores three broad categories with this spectrum
Performance arts: This category encompasses art forms that occur in real time and involve live performances. examples include theatre, or musical concerts. these arts rely on the immediate presence of performers and their interaction with the audience to convey their message or expression.
Representational arts: representational arts depend on established codes and conventions language both pictorial and literary, to convey information about the subject to the observer, examples include painting sculpture literature and traditional filmmaking, these arts use symbolism, imagery and narrative to communicate their ideas and emotions.
recording arts: the recording arts involve media that provide a more direct connection between the subject and the observer. examples include photography, these arts capture and reproduce aspects of reality, aiming to convey a sense of authenticity and direct experience to the audience
in summary “the spectrum of the arts” refers to the classification of different art forms based on their characteristic and modes of expression. It includes performance arts, representational arts and recording arts, each with its own methods of communication and connection with the audience. Monaco suggests that digital technology is reshaping our perception of authenticity within the new recording arts, leading to new forms of artistic expression and interpretation.
Activity 2 – Shot distances
The first image is example of medium close up, a shot that closes up on the subject creates a sense of intimacy and connection between the subject and audience. This is important in understanding the betrayal Chiron feels as he is abandoned and mistreated by his mother, someone who seems caring and compassionate but turns out to be the opposite. This shot follows a commonly depicted image of a mother holding her son and by zooming in to the finer details the cinamatographer reveals the imperfections of maternal love and how Chiron doesn’t have the connection with his mother that the audience expect.
Additionally the long shot used in the second image further illustrates the relationship between Chiron and his mother and how it depletes over time. The second image, at the end of the movie, positions the camera much further away than the first image, eluding to the fact that Chiron, as an adult, realises the lack of connection his mother allowed them to have as a result of her addiction.
This shot in Moonlight is an example of a long shot, the first shot depicts Juan driving and is the audiences first introduction of his car, which later is inherited to Chiron (2nd shot). Both shots follow the movement of the car and give the audience a sense of story in relation to both Chiron and Juan. The first long shot reveals a typical neighbourhood in which Juan is revealed to oversee a drug selling business, whereas the second shot follows Chiron travelling to go see an old school friend. The contrast between the two shots suggest the differences between Juan and Chiron although the identical shot-style allows the audience to realise that they aren’t too different after all.
The scene in which Kevin beats up Chiron in Moonlight begins with a extreme close up of both characters. Following an intimate scene involving both characters the audience is presented with another intimate shot, but instead of a romantic intimacy, the shot depicts a violent and threatening atmosphere. An extreme close up allows the characters to reveal their inner monologues and emotions without it being misinterpreted as a hateful fight but instead something Kevin was forced into. The regretful, guilty look on Kevin’s face could only be seen by the audience as a result of a close up, this tells the audience that this is important to see in order to understand the dynamic between both characters in the rest of the movie.
Activity 3 – Camera Angles
Both of these shots utilise a Birds Eye View, this creates an impression of vulnerability within Chirons character, firstly when Chiron faces his mother who is an addict and treats him poorly and secondly after Chiron gets beaten up by Kevin and his school bullies. Both scenes collectively depict the loneliness that Chiron feels as a result of the people who are supposed to treat him with love but instead abuse his trust and mistreat him. The purpose of the camera being above Chiron in both shots is that it paints him to be alone, with no one to support him the times when he most needs it.
This is an example of an high angle shot. Referencing the Movies title : Moonlight, the audience is put in the perspective of the moonlight shining down on Kevin and Chiron and witnesses a moving and significant scene in the film. This shot creates the impression of importance within this scene, a huge turning point for Chiron in terms of his sexuality and trust for others, but also in relation to Chiron’s fear of judgment. The way the camera ‘looks down’ apon the two boys as if to reference the fear Chiron holds about others ‘looking down’ on him if he chooses to embrace and tackle his complicated relationship with his own identity and sexuality.
This is an example of a Worms Eye View style shot in Moonlight. During the scene is which Chiron gets beaten up, the camera joins Chiron on the floor and pans up to the bullies who are beating him. In contrast to the scene before, the birdseye/high angle view of Kevin and Chiron on the beach turns to a Wormseye/low angle view on the delinquents who hurt Chiron, predator become prey. The cinematographer does this to validate Chirons fear of being judged and hurt by others, instead of feeling safe with Kevin who he is meant to trust, Chiron gets awoken by reality by Kevin who betrays his trust and beats him up. This provoked the audience to succumb to the reality that society isn’t always accepting to those who aren’t considered typical or who aren’t straight.
Activity 4 – Camera Movement
The scene in which Chiron joins in with the other boys to play starts with a camera movement called trucking. Trucking is when the camera moves along a fixed point allowing the motion of the camera go from left to right etc. This camera movement allows the film to introduce a demographic of characters in a short amount of time, this is important in understanding the pressures Chiron faced as a young kid. The camera positions the audience in the same boat as Chiron; susceptible to judgment and ridicule by other boys and vulnerable to the torment that others put him in in his early life.
By collectively documenting Chirons peers together, this further separates Chiron to be ‘different’ in the eyes of others, this is reinforced by the fact that Chiron leaves the game of football half way through and ever since is the victim to ridicule and torment.
When Chiron goes to visit Kevin at his kitchen job, the cinematographer utilises a camera movement called zoom. This is when the camera steadily closes in to whatever is in the centre of the screen, in this case, an escape. The camera zooming in gives the audience the impression that Chiron wants to leave, he comes to terms with the awkwardness and rawness of seeing Kevin again in adult life and feels as though the best thing to do is run away. By emphasising this fear that Chiron has, the fact that he stays with Kevin and doesn’t leave is considered more important and even brave in Chirons part, this turns out to be significant in Chirons journey to self-acceptance.
By the term the spectrum of the arts, monacco sees different arts in different ways, he sees the arts as if they are on a spectrum, ranging from practical to musical, and then different arts fit into different categories. The spectrum of the arts it’s a way to visualise how different types of art fit into and reflect our society in different ways. For example there is the performance arts, which happen in real time. There is the representational arts which rely on established codes and conventions of language. And there is the recording arts, which form a more direct path between subject and observer. However he also talks about one of the oldest theories of art which is the spectrum of abstraction. The spectrum represents how art imitates reality through a medium, and how different types of arts fit into different mediums. There is practical, with things such as architecture in it, then there is environmental, followed by pictorial with things like painting and graphics in it. Next is dramatic with stage drama in it, followed by narrative with novels and stories fitting into it. Then lastly there is musical which obviously contains music but also partly poetry.
The opening scene of Joker is an example of how composition creates a certain emotion in this movie. The way Arthur is positioned in the centre, illuminated by the lights on his mirror, creates the impression that he is alone and insignificant in a much bigger, threatening society. This, right of the bat, allows the audience to understand Arthur’s battle with being alone and having nobody to care for him.
This scene in Joker amplifies the effect makeup can have on the emotion and atmosphere of a scene. The way Arthur is painted in a ghost-like pale white wash serves the purpose of acting like a clean canvas for the blood splattered on Arthur’s face. This could be interpreted to further understand Arthur’s pre-existing intent to kill and the Directors choice to paint Arthur as a clearly unstable, psychotic individual.
Costume plays a crucial part in differentiating between characters in Joker, the way ‘regular’ citizens such as the men Arthur killed on the subway are dressed in contrast to how Arthur chooses to dress in the resolution of the movie tells the audience a lot about Arthur’s atypical mind and his intent to embrace his ‘different’ personality. Whilst the men on the subway wear regular suits and tie, Arthur wear a brightly coloured red and yellow suit in order to suggest a more amusing, less mundane expectation of a person. This eludes to the fact that Arthur is treated as an outcast by others and has always been considered a black sheep.
The scene in which Arthur imagines himself appearing on the tonight show with Murray utilises lighting and its effect on how an audience perceives a scene. The use of overhead lighting could be interpreted as a heaven-like representation of who Arthur aspires himself to be. The fact that this appeared only in Arthur’s imagination tells the audience that Arthur may only reach heaven or be perceived as ‘good’ in his dreams, this is important for the audience in deciding on Arthur’s morals and better judgment further on in the film.
Colour grading in the Joker contributes heavily to the emotions portrayed throughout the movie, whilst the movie is predominantly colour graded with a blue toned or green toned wash, eluding to a mundane, depressed world, this scene has a yellow tint and as a result feels lighter, happier. This could be interpreted to how Arthur finally feels some hope for happiness in a world that has given him nothing but pain and injustice. This being one of few yellow coloured scenes in the film is important to understand how Arthur rarely feels this way and as a reproduction falls in a psychotic and depressive killing rampage.
This scene is an example of how Set design can be used in order to suggest emotion and patterns in the ending on Joker. The way the curtains surround Arthur in blue eludes to the fact that the underlying sadness Arthur feels is present throughout the whole movie, even when living out Arthur’s dream of being a guest on the Murray show. The way Arthur is lit up by the lightbulbs on the mirror pays homage to the opening scene of Joker in a cyclical technique and tells the audience that, despite Arthur’s new found interest in killing and the arguably successful fact that he is on the Murray show, he still feels isolated and alone like he did in the beginning due to the fact that he has no one to love him and care for him. This fact is further illuminated but how Arthur is standing in the dark behind a curtain, this could be interpreted to reference how Arthur has always been in the shadows, never receiving help from others and even covered up by a curtain so as not to upset the more wealthy who don’t help those in need in society as a whole.
What does James Monaco think the spectrum of the arts is.
Reading a film is subjective to everyone who watches it. Some may “read the film” differently to someone else and pinpoint areas of the film that other wouldn’t class as reading it. I believe reading a film is understanding and analysing what you see on screen, as well as acknowledging the films elements, themes and ideas presented that makes up the film’s language.
The writer of the book ‘how to read a film’, James Monaco, has a section in his book called the nature of the arts. In this section he mentions an idea called the spectrum of the arts. I believe the spectrum of the arts is the shape, form, colour, texture, and space. An example of shape is when Monaco explains that you can use shape and geometry to trigger emotions. The brain can give abstract meaning to different shapes such as in the field of animation, villainous and evil characters are shown frequently with sharp, rigid and pointy features like noses, fingernails etc as it brings out a sense of fear and intimidation in the brain.
Form is what a viewer perceives in a film. This includes its elements that bring the film to life such as its colour and camerawork and music. The various film techniques used add form to the film as an art piece. For example, Colours are used to identify prominent settings in the film, such as in iconic 1939 film, The wizard of Oz. In the film the location of Kansas was in black and white but when they arrived in Oz the film exploded with colour and became a very bright movie.
Texture is the quality and nature of shots and is the most important factor of the spectrum of the arts. I believe this as without texture your shots will feel like a dull group of geometric shapes. Lighting and colour can be manipulated using digital effects; however, texture cannot be manipulated and is unique because of that. This is because texture shows the personality of the location. Showing factors like age and condition.
I believe James Monaco came to his conclusion that the spectrum of the arts is a combination of all the important film techniques that make the film unique and an art form. Texture doesn’t work at its best without lighting and colour and vice versa. Without this combination of art, the film would be left empty and lifeless.
By Josh Wright.
Monaco describes a ‘spectrum of the arts’ to mean a differentiation between different art forms and effect it has on the viewer. The spectrum includes performance arts (which happen in real time), representational arts (to convey information to the observer) and recording arts (which provide a more direct path between subject and observer).
An example of performing arts is theatre, Monaco seperated this type of art from into the ‘pictorial-dramatic-narrative’ section of the spectrum, this is because theatre creates a ‘real time’ image in order to convey a story and experience to the viewer. Monaco also describe art to be a human endeavour that is more of an attitude than activity.
An example of representational art is literature, Monaco depicts how representational art establishes the conventions of language, this is important in understanding how representational art, such as novels and poetry falls between the ‘dramatic-narrative’ subsection of the spectrum.
The last type of art form Monaco explores in the recording arts, an example of this could be music. Music has an emotional and narrative effect on the listener as much as it does any other type of art form. To thoroughly understand Music as a type of recording arts, Monaco depicts music to be in the musical section of the spectrum of arts.