Learning Cinematography by Cooper Renfrew

Understanding your audience

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:14:05 UTC

Understanding your audience, and the story that you are trying to convey, is the most important thing to remember as a cinematographer.

Consistency

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:20:03 UTC

Consistency is key for helping your viewer understand what is going on. Having inconsistent lighting, shot composition, focal length, etc. can cause confusion for the viewer.

Manipulating the narrative

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:24:22 UTC

These are elements that control the story that you images are telling

Preproduction

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:29:51 UTC

Preproduction is key, as everything you do stems from this phase. Failing to utilize preproduction can cause confusion later, as well as an overspending on budget.

Elements of Preproduction

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:33:33 UTC

Above are some of the examples of elements that are affected by preproduction. This coincides with consistency, as failure to declare what these standards will be throughout production can cause confusion for the viewer later.

Other things you'll need to focus on on this stage include:

Assembling your crew
Figuring out what order to film your movie in.
- If multiple scenes take place in the same location, it would make sense to shoot all of those at the same time so you don't have to keep traveling back to that location.
Discuss with director. The director has a goal and it is your job as a cinematographer to put those ideas into practice.

Questions to ask yourself before the preproduction process is done

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:45:58 UTC

What is the movie about?
Whose story is it? (what is the narrative point of view)
What does this character want?
What's stopping the character from having what she or he wants?

The crew already knows all the information about a story, but it is the cinematographers job to decide when and how to convey that information to the audience.

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:49:21 UTC

Composition

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 00:55:38 UTC

Composition is the placement of people and objects in the frame, to tell your story in the most powerful way possible. This is used through shapes and visual patterns.

Knowing what to show

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 01:01:33 UTC

Often times, not giving the audience certain information is more powerful than showing them. "Breaking the rules" of shot composition can evoke a certain emotional reaction.

For instance, having a character on the right side of the frame looking to the right can create suspence. This makes the character feel trapped as we are not able to see what it is they are looking at, and the dead space to their left causes tension.

Visual Pattern Recognition System

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 01:09:43 UTC

Humans can use their previous knowledge in visual patterns to orient themselves when viewing a motion picture.

For example, humans know that a soda can is a handheld item. We also know that mountains are extremely tall. If we see in a picture that a soda can is shown at the same height as the mountain, our brains will automatically discern that we are close to the soda can and far from the mountains.

Thrown for a loop

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 01:26:49 UTC

Contrary to how much I've talked about consistency, it's ok to break that pattern for a purpose. Maintaining consistency is important so that when you break away from that, it is more impactful.

Elements of composition

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 01:30:03 UTC

Elements of composition include:

Aspect ratio
Rule of thirds
Graphic weight
Kuleshov effect
180 degree rule

These are only some of the many aspects of composition, and if you are unfamiliar with these or want to learn others, click on the picture above for a link with more information.

Camera choice

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:05:14 UTC

When working on a budget, it's important to create reasonable goals. A simple DSLR camera can do a lot, but there are advantages to using a more expensive film camera. Using a more high-end camera can help eliminate certain post-production editing, so if you are using a cheaper camera you may want to allocate more time to post production.

Compression and storage

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:10:34 UTC

The method of recording an image should match the camera's method of creating it. Using improper formatting could prevent you from getting the most out of your camera. That said, recording at too high of a quality can lead to extremely large files.

Compression can be a key factor in saving space, while still managing to maintain a specific look. Compression will reduce some of the quality in a video, but it will make it much more manageable when trying to export or transfer video footage.

The impact of a lens

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:14:56 UTC

The lens is often times the most expensive part of a camera, being even more expensive than the camera body itself. What makes it so important?

Different types of lenses offer vastly different looks. Some lenses only come with one focal length, which is the distance at which a lens can view. This is often a cheaper option than a lens that is able to adjust to multiple focal lengths.

Typically, it is a good idea to keep your lens zoomed out as far as possible to create depth. When you zoom a lens in further, it causes the image to appear flat. This can be used to your advantage as a cinematographer if that is a look that you are going for.

Aperture / F-stop

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:18:15 UTC

One of the best ways to create depth of field is to adjust the aperture. High aperture allows less light into the camera, but it causes more of the frame to be in focus at a time. Low aperture allows lots of light in, but causes images outside of the main focus to drop off and become blurry. Using low aperture can be a great way to draw the viewer away from something to look at something else.

Shutter speed

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:19:58 UTC

The shutter speed is what dictates how long the lens is exposed to light. Leaving the shutter on a higher speed will cause less blur in images, but does not allow much light in. On the other hand, slower speeds let in lots of light, but require a steady hand to keep the image from becoming blurry. Both aspects can be used to a cinematographer's advantage depending on the situation.

Lighting

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:24:54 UTC

Lighting isn't just affected by the settings on the camera. One of the best ways to discern a novice cinematographer from a pro, is how good the lighting is. I could create an entire Padlet just on the effects of lighting, but just understand that it is essential to a good film.

Lighting looks much different on a camera as it does in real life. Using professional lighting equipment to create an illusion of natural light through a window is a good example of this. A good cinematographer understands the theory behind lighting for the camera and will adjust accordingly to evoke a specific emotion from the audience.

Movement of the camera

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:27:12 UTC

Something that film allows us to do that photography can not is making use of camera movement. It adds a completely different dimension to your movie which did not exist before. Lack of camera movement can also be a useful tool, as staying on a still shot for an extended period of time could evoke a certain feeling.

Different ways to use camera movement

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:29:41 UTC

Camera movement can be a great way to show that something in the frame itself is moving. You never want to take the audience out of the movie and have them remember that they are watching something through a camera, so it's important to be careful when it comes to camera movement.

Using quick and jarring movements can create a POV feel, where the viewer is seeing what is happening through someone's eyes.

Another good example of a moving shot would be a steady pan across a city or setting, to help the viewer understand where the story takes place.

Learning from my peers

renfrewcooper3 — 2024-09-21 02:36:54 UTC