Table Of Content
cinematography
theory and practice
imagemaking for cinematographers & directors
second edition
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cinematography
theory and practice
imagemaking for cinematographers and directors
second edition
blain brown
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Blain.
Cinematography : theory and practice : image making for cinematographers and directors / Blain Brown.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-240-81209-0
1. Cinematography. I. Title.
TR850.B7598 2012
778.5--dc22 2011010755
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
For information on all Focal Press publications
visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com
11 12 13 14 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the China
contents
Introduction xiii
The Scope of this Book xiv
Titles and Terminology xiv
writing with motion 1
Writing with Motion 2
Building a Visual World 2
The [Conceptual] Tools of Cinematography 4
The Frame 4
The Lens 6
Light and Color 8
Texture 9
Movement 10
Establishing 10
Point-of-View 10
Putting It All Together 11
shooting methods 13
What Is Cinematic? 14
A Question of Perception 14
Visual Subtext and Visual Metaphor 14
The Frame 15
Static Frame 15
Cinema as a Language 16
The Shots: Building Blocks of a Scene 17
Establishing the Geography 18
Character Shots 20
Invisible Technique 27
The Shooting Methods 27
The Master Scene Method 27
Coverage 28
Overlapping or Triple-Take Method 29
In-One 30
Freeform Method 30
Montage 32
Involving The Audience: POV 33
visual language 37
More Than Just a Picture 38
Design Principles 39
The Three-Dimensional Field 41
Forces Of Visual Organization 45
Movement in the Visual Field 51
The Rule of Thirds 51
Miscellaneous Rules of Composition 51
Basic Composition Rules for People 52
language of the lens 53
The Lens and the Frame 54
Foreground/Midground/Background 54
Lens Perspective 54
Deep Focus 56
Selective Focus 61
Image Control at the Lens 63
Lens Height 64
Dutch Tilt 66
cinematography
v
visual storytelling 67
Visual Metaphor 68
Telling Stories with Pictures 68
Lighting As Storytelling 69
Film Noir 69
Light As Visual Metaphor 70
Light and Shadow / Good and Evil 71
Fading Flashbulbs 72
Visual Poetry 75
cinematic continuity 77
Shooting For Editing 78
Thinking about Continuity 78
Types of continuity 78
The Prime Directive 81
Screen Direction 81
Turnaround 85
Cheating the Turnaround 87
Planning Coverage 87
Cuttability 88
The 20% and 30 Degree Rules 88
Other Issues In Continuity 89
Introductions 95
Other Editorial Issues In Shooting 96
Jump Cuts 96
The Six Types Of Cuts 98
The Content Cut 98
The Action Cut 98
The POV Cut 99
The Match Cut 100
The Conceptual Cut 101
The Zero Cut 102
lighting basics 103
The Fundamentals of Lighting 104
What are the Goals of Good Lighting? 104
Exposure and Lighting 107
Some Lighting Terminology 108
Aspects Of Light 110
Hard Light and Soft Light 110
Direction 113
Intensity 114
Texture 115
Color 115
Basic Lighting Techniques 116
Back Cross Keys 116
Ambient Plus Accents 117
Lighting with Practicals 117
Lighting through the Window 118
Available Natural Light 118
Motivated Light 120
Day Exteriors 124
Fill 124
Silks and Diffusion 124
Open Shade and Garage Door Light 124
Sun as Backlight 125
Lighting For High Def Video 126
vi
lighting sources 129
The Tools of Lighting 130
Daylight Sources 130
HMI Units 130
Xenons 135
LED Lights 136
Tungsten Lights 136
Fresnels 136
PARs 138
HMI PARs 140
Soft Lights 140
Barger Baglights 141
Color-Correct Fluorescents 142
Other Types of Units 142
Softsun 142
Cycs, Strips, Nooks and Broads 143
Chinese Lanterns and Spacelights 143
Self-Contained Crane Rigs 144
Ellipsoidal Reflector Spots 144
Balloon Lights 145
Handheld Units 145
Day Exteriors 145
Controlling Light with Grip Equipment 145
For More Information On Lighting 146
HD cinematography 147
High Def and Standard Def 148
Analog and Digital Video 148
Analog 148
Digital Video 149
Types of Video Sensors 150
Three-Chip vs Bayer Filter Sensors 150
Digital Video 151
Standard Def 151
High Def 151
Shooting Formats 152
2K, 4K and Higher Resolution Formats 152
Digital Compression 152
RAW 154
Monitoring On the set 155
The Waveform Monitor and Vectorscope 156
Waveform Monitors 156
The Vectorscope 156
Video Latitude 157
Clipping 158
Video Noise and Grain 159
The Digital Intermediate (DI) 159
The Video Signal 160
Interlace Video 160
Progressive Video 160
NTSC and ATSC 160
Colorspace 161
SDI 162
Setting Up A Color Monitor 162
Monitor Setup Procedure 162
Camera White Balance 164
cinematography
vii
Digital Video Encoding 165
Is It Broadcast Quality? 166
Do It in the Camera or in Post? 166
The Decision Matrix 167
10 Things to Remember When Shooting HD 167
Timecode and Edgecode 168
Video Frame Rate 168
Drop-Frame and Non-Drop-Frame 168
29.97 Video 169
How Drop Frame Solves the Problem 170
To Drop or Not to Drop? 170
Timecode Slating 170
Tapeless Production 171
Metadata 171
Tapeless Workflows 171
Digital File Types 172
Container Files: Quicktime and MXF 172
Compression and Codecs 173
Intra-frame versus Interframe Compression 173
Bit Depth 173
MPEG 174
Other Codecs 176
The Curve 177
Controlling the HD Image 179
Gain/ISO 180
Gamma 180
Black Gamma/Black Stretch 180
Knee 180
Color Saturation 180
Matrix 180
Color Balance 180
exposure 181
Exposure: the Easy Way 182
What Do We Want Exposure to Do for Us? 182
Controlling Exposure 182
The Four Elements of Exposure 183
The Bottom Line 185
How Film and Video Are Different 185
Two Types of Exposure 185
Light As Energy 186
F/Stops 186
Exposure, ISO, and Lighting Relationships 186
Inverse Square Law and Cosine Law 187
ISO/ASA 187
Light and Film 188
The Latent Image 189
Chemical Processing 189
Color Negative 190
Film’s Response to Light 190
Densitometry 191
The Log E Axis 193
Brightness Perception 194
Contrast 194
“Correct” Exposure 197
Higher Brightness Range in the Scene 198
Determining Exposure 198
viii
Video Exposure 198
The Tools 199
The Incident Meter 199
The Reflectance Meter 200
The Zone System 200
Zones in a Scene 203
The Gray Scale 203
Why 18%? 203
Place and Fall 205
Reading Exposure with Ultraviolet 207
Exposure and the Camera 207
Shutter Speed versus Shutter Angle 208
camera movement 209
Motivation and Invisible Technique 210
Basic Technique 211
Types Of Moves 212
Pan 212
Tilt 212
Move In / Move Out 212
Zoom 213
Punch-in 214
Moving Shots 214
Tracking 214
Countermove 214
Reveal 214
Circle Track Moves 215
Crane Moves 215
Rolling Shot 216
Camera Mounting 216
Handheld 216
Camera Head 216
Fluid Head 216
Geared Head 216
Remote Head 216
Underslung Heads 216
Dutch Head 217
The Tripod 217
High-Hat 217
Rocker Plate 217
Tilt Plate 218
The Crab Dolly 218
Dolly Terminology 218
Dance Floor 219
Extension Plate 219
Low Mode 219
Front Porch 220
Side Boards 220
Risers 220
Steering Bar or Push Bar 220
Cranes 220
Crane/Jib Arm 221
Crane Operation 221
Non-booming Platforms 222
Camera on a Ladder 222
Remote on Cranes 222
Technocrane 222
Cranes on Top of Cranes 222
Car Shots 223
cinematography
ix
