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.
Spike Lee does many fascinating things from a directorial standpoint, which makes his film (dare I say, joint), Do the Right Thing so interesting to watch. Writer, director Lee makes much use of the high and low angle shots. He does this to draw clear contrasts between the two elders of the block, Da Mayor and Mother Sister and to make conflict more apparent.
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 the film ‘Into the Wild’ directed by Sean Penn, there are some scenes in the movie and enable us to understand how it was developed. I found one important scene in the movie, this is the scene in which Chris’ feels that his journey was almost end, the director uses some camera shots, dialogues and some soundtracks for us to see and understand the scene in this movie.
In a movie, camera angles are also important part. Due to the angles, the view of the scene and
...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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
Offering the unique ability to visually and audibly convey a story, films remain a cornerstone in modern society. Combined with a viewer’s desire to escape the everyday parameters of life, and the excitement of enthralling themselves deep into another world, many people enjoy what films stand to offer. With the rising popularity of films across the world, the amount of film makers increases every day. Many technological innovations mark the advancement of film making, but the essential process remains the same. Pre-production accounts for everything taken place before any shooting occurs, followed by the actual production of the film, post-production will then consist of piecing the film together, and finally the film must reach an audience. Each step of this process contributes to the final product, and does so in a unique right. The process of film making will now start chronologically, stemming from the idea of the story, producing that story into a film, editing that footage together, and finally delivering that story to its viewers.