Camera Techniques in Film Making
What do you think about when watching a film? Do you focus on the characters' good looks or the dialogue? Or do you go behind the scenes and think about what made the film? Maybe, it's even a combination of all three. No matter what comes to mind first, an important part of any good movie will be what you see. A camera and good director or cinematographer is needed to make that possible. Different directors and cinematographers will use different camera techniques to make you focus on what you see. Camera techniques show emphasis in films, because they make you focus more on situations and people. They are especially important in Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream.
One popular camera technique used in films is panning. Camera panning can emphasize emotion in films. According to a writer on camera techniques, "Following the subject's gaze down to the floor may symbolize rejection or desperation and loss. The moves work because they are related to your story" (Stevenson). In the movie Requiemfor a Dream, panning came into play in a particularly important scene. Marion, a main character, was walking down a hallway. She just had sex with someone she didn't like to get some money for drugs. The camera was right in front of her face, and portrayed the emptiness in her eyes. She was glancing towards the floor and looked like she was going to throw up. The camera also followed her face so closely, that you could tell how fast she was walking. The panning portrayed her feelings and actions so well, that it made the scene more interesting. It was a lot better than just seeing a view of someone head-on.
Another good camera technique used in Requiem for a Dream were split screens. The split screens used by Aronofsky were perfectly split in the middle. The screens used maintained a good balance of your attention on both sides. The split screens allowed you to see two characters at once, making it easy to see what each one was doing at the same time. For example, there was a scene where Harry and Marion were talking to each other. Both of their faces and bodies were shown at the same time. Each character's response to each other was shown while they were talking or touching. It emphasized each character’s love for the other, making it feel like you were in the room watching what was taking place.
I was raised on the movie The Sandlot. My my dad played baseball through college and my brother has played since he could hold a bat. My mom, sister, and I also played softball when we were little. One could say that we are a “baseball family.” My dad first introduced this movie to me, and I was attracted to it not only because it is a fun film about baseball, but also because it has an entertaining soundtrack. The music fits well with the storyline and makes you feel like you are playing baseball and hanging out with the boys in the sixties. I also was raised listening to this genre of music and more songs from some of these bands. Throughout this paper, I will critique the main songs in The Sandlot that make it popular, as well as give a short biography of each band.
One way the filmmakers did this is with the on location shots of rubble in many scenes. The characters in these shots are carefully placed to make the rubble stand out behind them. Lighting is carefully placed to illuminate the rubble and make it stand out. However, the carefully planned cinematography also plays into the overall meaning of the film and not just how it looks. The lighting, for example, influences our feelings for certain characters. Susan Wallner is always filmed in light. This is a drastic difference from how we see Hans Mertens. Hans is usually filmed with low light and is very dim. This helps show that Susan is optimistic, while Hans is pessimistic. Another way lighting is used in this film is to create shadows. Shadows are very prevalent in the last sequence of the film. Hans has confronted Bruckner and as the camera cuts back and forth to each of them we see Hans shadow keeps growing bigger and bigger behind Bruckner. We can interpret that as the shadowing is growing bigger so his Bruckner’s fear, because the dialogue coming from Bruckner is getting faster and we can also hear the fear. There are many times in the film where close ups are used to make the storyline more dramatic. One scene that comes to mind that makes use of quick cuts and close ups is in the end of the film: Susan ran in, stopping Hans from killing Bruckner. At this point we
consider to be more modern film techniques. Montage plays a key role in this film, as
Requiem for a Dream in my point of view was exceptional. It was depressing but to be honest that was the point of the movie. When beginning to watch this movie people should make sure their emotions are on neutral because if upset it can make things worse. I really enjoyed how it brought all the elements a film need to create a unique production. I definitely need to see a few more of Aronofsky's films. Overall, the film had a profound impact on me. I honestly learned a lot and even though drugs are not a part of my life I learned that deep within a drug addict there is a reason why they walk the road of self-destruction. I really enjoyed it even though it was depressing, and I would recommend this film to anyone who hasn't
The director Roman Polanski likes to make a lot of scenes in his movies through doorways and windows, and the reason of that is simply because in that way, he creates a bigger sympathy with the audience, they get to see the films from the main characters o...
In a movie, camera angles are also important part. Due to the angles, the view of the scene and
The most obvious effect used in the scene, is the use and movement of both the focal length and point. Although moving the focal point can distract from the film and have it deteriorate very easily, but it is not overly done, you are able to concentrate on very particular details in the frame, instead of trying to absorb the whole frame at one time. Also you feel the dialogue is much more important than the image, you not only hear the dialogue but you listen to it.
There’s a scene where Murdoch uses post-dubbing to play a recording of James and Eve talking while the camera “tracks” James and Eve walking through Glasgow at night (Monaco 201). This gives the audience a sense of action as the characters and the camera moves. At one point Murdoch uses a multiple exposure shot to show a close up of Eve and James while showing a wider angle shot of the traffic in the streets of the city on screen at the same time, instead of jumping from one image to the other. There’s also a lot of wide angle camera shots that show parts of the city at night to give the audience a sense of setting.
Bordwell and Thompson (2008) believe that cinematography is how a shot is filmed. In the selected scene, there are many close-ups on Morpheus’s face and Neo’s face. A close-up means the focus is on their expressions (Lacey, 1988). This suggests that Morpheus and Neo are important characters in the film, which is why so much attention is being given to their expressions, and how they feel. There is a long shot near the beginning, and is used to set the scene (Lacey, 1988). This gives viewers an awareness of the setting. There are extreme close-ups, which are used when showing Morpheus’s hands, and his eyes. Bordwell and Thompson (2008) believe an extreme close-up magnifies and isolates an object. Morpheus has a pill in each of his hands, and an extreme close-up emphasizes that these pills are an important part of the story. In the third extreme close-up of Morp...
In some of the big scenes of this film, the videography made me motion sick. The camera would switch back and forth between characters at an uncomfortable speed; it felt like I was watching a Ping-Pong match between two people; the thing about those scenes is that I felt a part of the action. With that being said, there were many times when I believe the videographer would have been better off zooming out so the viewers could get an understanding of the whole scene.
...successful collaboration of sound, colour, camera positioning and lighting are instrumental in portraying these themes. The techniques used heighten the suspense, drama and mood of each scene and enhance the film in order to convey to the spectator the intended messages.
Citizen Kane was a conundrum. I could not decipher my feelings towards the film. I went in expecting the greatest film of all time, as deemed by most U.S. film critics, however, I felt the film did not live up to the title. On the other hand I had to consider that the film was made in 1941 a far flung from today’s time. The film in itself was an innovation on various aspects of film making. It was keen on both use and demonstration of “new” cinematographic techniques as well as the use of various sound effects to heighten the mood of the film, even the film editing with the screen transitions and cuts was very well tied in the movie. The film was a masterpiece in a technical standpoint, however, I just did not enjoy it.
The first filming technique I encountered was long shot. Long Shot is, “a shot that includes an area within the image that roughly corresponds to the audience’s view of the area within the proscenium arch in the live theater” (Giannetti 523). We start off with the scene where Cole is giving a gift to Kyra’s father. We could see in the long shot that Dr. Malcolm Crowe was in the background watching the conversation between the two characters. The director of the movie did a great job installing low lighting in the film. The scene has low lighting which tells the audience it is dark and there is suspense that is occurring. This long shot, helped transitioned the next aspect of the film which is are focusing on Krya’s father.
Edwin S. Porter contributed the following editing styles and techniques to film. He used a dissolve between every shot just and he frequently had the same action repeated across the dissolves. According to Filmrefrence.com “Edison Company’s new Vitascope projector in Indiana and California, and Porter worked with them as a projectionist in Los Angeles and Indianapolis. Later that year he went to work for Raff & Gammon in New York but left after the Edison Company broke with Raff & Gammon. He then toured with entertainers through the Caribbean as an exhibitor of motion pictures, and in early 1897 he helped build the projector at the Eden Musée”(Filmrefrence.com.2014).
From still photographs to motion pictures, filmmaking has come a long way. According to the periodical, Moving on Up, “[Titanic was] one of the first films to use motion capture to animate back ground crowds,” which provided a new cinematic technique to the filmmaking process (Robertson, 2007). It takes a lot of cinematic techniques besides motion capture to make a film these days. The placement of everything that appears in the framing is called mise en scène. Although there are many elements that create a mise en scene, the overall look is important when establishing a theme. Let’s take a look at the second biggest film ever made, Titanic, and explore its very well-known theme of love. There are three cinematic techniques to include lighting, camera framing, and acting styles, which have established and maintained the major theme of love throughout the entire movie.