Understanding Cinematography: Different Types of Shots in Film, Schemes and Mind Maps of Business Accounting

Download Understanding Cinematography: Different Types of Shots in Film and more Schemes and Mind Maps Business Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! 1 Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film By Timothy Heiderich Produced by  2 What is Cinematography? .................................................................................... 3 The Basics of Cinematography .......................................................................... 4 The Types of Shots and What They Mean .................................................... 6 What Kind of ‘Character’ is My Camera? ...................................................... 11 Shooting a Basic Scene ........................................................................................ 13 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 16 Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film 5 Find unique ways to show everyday things. Observing a scene from the height of your camera operator can get dull; one way to avoid over-reliance on this point of view is to meet your subject on its own terms. If you are filming someone setting down a glass, rather than show the person from the torso up setting the small object on a table, make the glass your subject and position your camera on the table, then watch as a giant drink fills the frame. Your audience will know that because you took the time to focus on this object that it must be important and helps keep the visual element of the story from growing stale. Add depth to a composition. Rather than imagine the scene taking place on a single plane, use the foreground, midground and background to create depth in a scene. For example, a factory worker has entered his boss’s office to ask for a raise. The subject of the scene, the worker, is in the midground, while the large, looming figure of his boss occupies the fore- ground. Behind them, the factory scene hums along with dozens of other workers. You have tied the three key elements of the scene (the worker, the boss, the factory machines) together in one visually rich composition. These are just the simple rules, but they will do a lot for improving the look of your compositions, and will help you to start thinking of the frame as a canvas where you create your images. Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film 6 Your camera is a surrogate for your audience. The way it interacts with the scene dic- tates the way your audience feels they are interacting with the scene. How do you want your audience to feel watching a scene? Do you want them to feel disoriented? De- tached? Should the story feel serene, off-balance, or static? Do you focus on sweeping grandeur or small details? Different shots convey different tones to a scene; answering these questions first will help decide what types of shots to use. Moving from long to close shots is a trade-off between showing informative visuals or intimate emotions. You can’t have more of one without giving up an equal amount of the other. Starting at the extreme long shot, actors are made very small compared to their surroundings, but this is where you establish the scene and its elements. It is also where you can express yourself visually in the patterns in scenery and shadows that you are afforded at this range. At the opposite end is the extreme close-up that puts a character’s emotions front and center. There is less contextual information at this range, but at this proximity to a subject, the emotional intensity can be powerful. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of shots and how they can set the tone for a scene: The Types of Shots and What They Mean Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film 7 Extreme Long Shot: Typically used to show subjects of relatively massive scale. Pic- ture a mountain climber represented as a tiny speck against a vast expanse of snow, the extreme long shot conveying the relative insignificance of the character struggling against their environment. It is a study in scale and majesty. Long Shot: The distance of the camera from its subject also reflects an emotional distance; the audience doesn’t get as emotionally involved in what’s going on as they would if they were closer. In a way, it makes viewers a casual bystander, somewhat aloof to what’s happening. Take a couple arguing, where the details of their argument are lost to the viewer, and only the big blow-ups are able to catch our attention. Some- thing is happening, but we can’t be sure what it is. Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film 10 Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film Bird’s Eye Shot: Similar to the extreme long shot, this starts to get into the abstract realm of shapes and lines. It is an opportunity to be completely divorced from char- acter, and let the shape of a grove of trees, the tangle of a freeway overpass, or the grid of city lights on a clear night dazzle the viewer. Knowing what kinds of information these shots give your audience, think about how each of them fit together to compose your scene. Using wide shots can make your scene feel distant and impersonal or grand and epic in scale. Moving in very close to the action gets your audience invested in the characters and what’s happen- ing to them, but at the cost of disorienting them in visual space. 11 Not being in front of the screen, it’s easy to forget that there is one very important character helping to tell the story -- the camera! As the cinematographer, your job is to decide what kind of ‘character’ your camera is. Does it have an objective or subjective viewpoint of the scene? Is it a passive observer or is it close to the action? Once you start thinking of the camera as its own character, you’ll find this will dictate the shots you use. What does it mean to have an objective or subjective camera? An objective camera is that of a third-party observer, like you watching a scene play out. When picking your shots, ask yourself which character interests you. What do you think is important to pay attention to? Picture a scene of a man leaving his wife and child on a business trip. You can choose to focus on the wife planting a tender parting kiss on the man’s cheek, or the young child’s preoccupation with a toy, or even a neighbor’s cheerful wave. These are all elements in the scene; it’s up to you to decide what you think is important to show. What Kind of ‘Character’ is my Camera? Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film 12 Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film A subjective camera takes the point of view of one of the characters, and you witness the scene through their eyes. How different would it be to see the same scene from above happen as an objective observer versus one of the char- acters? From the subjective point of view of the husband, you see the sadness in the wife’s face and experience the disinterest in the child as the character would. Or you can choose the child’s point of view, meaning you’ll only be vaguely aware of the dialogue of the parting couple while the toy is the focus of the scene. Each is a different perspective on the same event. 15 Cinematography Techniques: The Different Types of Shots in Film Out to a medium to see the action in the scene. Each gunfighter drawing his pistol, then a medium shot of the bad guy as he clutches his chest and falls over. Finally out to a long shot, we see our hero walk off, the body of his vanquished op- ponent lying in the street. The wide shot allows the scene to decompress, letting the audience come up for air after diving deep into the drama that just unfolded. Each new shot pulls us closer into the action: first, a wild west town, then our hero and vil- lain, their guns, push in close to read their emotions, then show the action. Finally, back out to decompress from the scene. This is just one example, and there is an endless variety of ways this same scene can be told using the given shot types. 16 These basic lessons should get you thinking like a cinematographer. Treat your cam- era as another character in the scene, exercise proper framing of subjects, try different camera angles and use the various types of shots to set the tone for your scene. By understanding the language of visual storytelling, you will open up a whole new dimen- sion to your films. 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