Basics of Cinematography

FY BAFTNMP
Semester II
Notes II

1. Basics controls in camera

Available Light: The first and foremost deciding factor for photography or
cinematography is how much light is available. All the other settings will depend
on this.

Aperture: The first control in the order of travel of light from outside to the
sensor is the aperture. It is a round opening that can be adjusted to control the
amount of light that enters the lens. It affects the depth of field.

Shutter Speed: The second control is shutter. As the name suggests, it is a

physical gate that opens and closes at a set speed to control light. It effects the
sharpness of picture if the subject is in motion.

ISO: The final control on image formation is the sensitivity of the sensor or ISO.
This marks how much current flows in the sensor making more or less sensitive
to light. A high ISO will make it easy to click a photo in dark but will also add a
lot of noise to the picture while a low ISO will render sharp clean images but
will need a lot more light to expose the picture.

More details about these already the notes I gave earlier.

2. Principles of composition in photography (How to make your frames look

interesting)

Four Corner Rule – One of the simplest techniques to make sure you only
frame what you need and want is to check all the four corners of your
viewfinder to make sure everything that’s in the frame is where it should be.
If you find an element you don’t like, take measures to either frame it out or
reframe it at a point where it’s pleasing and enhances the picture. Once you
click the picture, everything in it is your responsibility.

Brightest Spot first – Naturally, our eyes always find the brightest spot first
in a picture. So, if the brightest spot is also the subject, it makes it very easy
for the eyes to read the composition. This is not a deal breaker as long as
you know what you are doing and want to make the eye wander a bit.

Sharp focus – Our eyes look for the sharpest spot in the picture. Whatever
point is in sharp focus, our eyes and brain will find it as the subject of your
photo. Of course, it is implied that in a photo your subject should be in sharp
focus, but this can also be used to make the eyes travel along to different
sharp or less sharp spots in the picture.

Wide Angle lenses expand space and Long lenses compress it – When you
use a wide angle lens like 24mm, 18mm or 12mm the distance between
 objects in your frame will appear to be exaggerated. Wide angle lenses can
make small space look bigger. Whereas, long lenses like 85mm, 100mm or
135mm and onwards will compress the space. All the objects in your frame
will appear to be squished over each other. They can make a very long
corridor look very compressed. You can choose lenses based on what kind
of effect your picture needs.

https://petapixel.com/2016/09/14/20-composition-techniques-will-improve-
photos/

The above link covers all the ways of framing a picture to make it look
interesting and impactful.

3. Shot Magnifications and their significance

a) Master Shot/Wide Shot – Usually taken with a wide-angle lens like 18mm
or 24mm (but in a lot of situations, 50mm or 85mm can also be used from a
far distance), this shot is the establishing shot of where the rest of the action
or scene is going to take place. It establishes the geography of the scene
and works as the guideline for maintaining the axis of the scene.

The shot sizes usually work based on how much of people are visible in the
frame

i) Wide – Head to toe

ii) Mid wide (Cowboy) – Head to above the knees
iii) Mid – Right up to the waist line
iv) Mid Close- Cuts between shoulder and elbow
v) Close up – Cuts with a hint of shoulder line or collar bone
vi) Extreme close up – very tight shot of eyes or just a very small portion
 Each of these shot sizes also affect how much of surroundings are in the frame
and therefore the closer you are to the
subject, the less of the surroundings are in
the frame. This is a way to decide if the scene
or shot requires absolute attention to the
actor or his/her relation or interaction with
another actor or his/her surroundings is
important. Cowboy shot was introduced in
westerns to frame the guns that cowboys
wore in their belts. It is a good magnification
for combat or physical interaction between
two or more actors. Mid-close will have the
actor’s hand movements as well which
makes it ideal to keep it personal yet have
some breathing space around for the actor to
use hands and interact with things around.
Close ups are all about expressions and
intimate dialogues. Extreme close ups
underline very specific details about a scene
like watery eyes or twitchy fingers etc.

4. Types of Continuous lighting

i. Tungsten Lights- As the name suggests, these
type of lighting fixtures have a tungsten filament
that heats up to emit light (like a house bulb). They
the most commonly used lights which are
absolutely affordable.
a. They emit light at 3200K (warm)
b. They convert 33% of electricity to light and rest
to heat
c. Thus, they can get dangerously hot and heat up
the room
d. The bulbs very easily available and cheap
e. These can be attached to a dimmer and their
intensity can be adjusted.
f. They available as open face and with Fresnel
lens for focusing light.
g. They are available in sizes as 150w, 250w,
300w, 650w, 1Kw (Baby), 2kw (Solar), 5Kw,
12Kw, 24Kw
h. Most commonly used to simulate warm lighting scenarios but are also
often used to simulate even white light by adjusting white balance in
camera.
HMI (Hydrargyrum Medium-Arc Iodide)- These are very high efficiency
advanced lights that can emit white light at 5600K therefore most commonly
used to simulate daylight and moonlight.
a. They need special ballasts to light up and
run, those ballasts have dimmers though
the range of dimmers is not as wide as
tungsten
b. They convert 66% of electricity into light
and rest into heat therefore are a lot
brighter and don’t heat up as much
c. Slightly expensive and delicate to handle
d. Available in open face and Fresnel’s lens
versions
e. Available in sizes as 400w, 800w, 1.2Kw,
2.4k, 4Kw, 6Kw, 12/16Kw, 18Kw

Kino-Flo Lighting systems- These are very user-friendly lighting fixtures that
don’t heat up at all and can be easily fixed in very small spaces. They are
exactly like tube lights but available in different lengths,
wattages and color temperatures.
a. They need special ballasts to light up and
function
b. Cannot be dimmed
c. Perfectly simulate normal tube lights without
the flicker or green tinge
d. Available in 2ft, 4ft and 8ft lengths with banks
of different sizes like 2bank, 4bank, 8bank,
10bank and so forth.
e. One can customize these fixtures to blend in set design.

LED Lights- The latest technology is LED lights that have thousands of small
LEDs that light up extremely brightly and these can match any of the
conventional lighting systems in terms of brightness and color temperature
consuming very less electricity. These lights can have a range of color
temperatures and have very advanced features like smartphone controls,
preset simulations for fire, lightning or moonlight etc.
5. Camera Movements
a. Pan – Horizontally angling the camera left to right or right to left without
physically moving it (fixed at a pivot point in the center). This camera
movement establishes relationship of things around and works well to
reveal a space where the order of things coming in frame (order of
reveal) has a significance.
b. Tilt – Vertically angling the camera up to down or down to up without
physically moving it (fixed at a pivot point in the center). This movement
establishes height of an object and is primarily used to introduce a
character where the revelation has an element of mystery involved.
c. Dolly In/Out – Dolly is a device where the camera and the camera
operator can sit and the Dolly Operator (Dolly Grip) moves it on a track
moving the camera closer to or away from an object. These movements
add a lot of dynamism in a shot and can be used to emphasize on a
certain object or person in the scene. It simulates the audience
physically moving closer to or away from a certain point in a scene.
d. Truck- When the dolly moves parallel to an actor or left to right/right to
left instead of in/out then it’s called trucking. This is ideal for following
one or more actors or a vehicle moving in the frame.
e. Boom/Pedestral- Dolly has a hydraulic system that can raise the
camera or lower it. This movement can be easily combined with other
movements where the height of the camera has to match another object
of varying height.
f. Zoom- When you use a zoom lens and change the focal length during
the shot, it is called Zooming. The magnification of the shot changes
increasing or decreasing the size of the subject in the frame. It is a very
commonly used camera movement and have been extensively used in
movies. However, certain filmmakers find it unnatural since human eyes
can’t change magnification and therefore refrain from using it. It breaks
away the illusion of a film being real and often may disconnect the
audience. This very effect can also benefit certain scenes.
g. Zolly/Vertigo effect- This effect is achieved by using a zoom lens on a
dolly in/out movement. Dolly In + Zoom out or vice versa results in the
magnification of the subject staying the same while that of the
background changes due to change in focal length (Wide angle
enhances distance while tele lens compresses it). It can disorient the
audience and is thus a powerful tool convey certain states of mind or
ideas to the audience.
h. Handheld- When the camera is put on shoulders and the camera
operator walks around a scene, it is called handheld. It perfectly
simulates the point of view of a person walking through the scene and is
used very commonly in highly dramatized situations.
i. Steadicam/Stablized movements- Steadicam is a specialized rig that
is worn by a camera operator which aligns the center of gravity of the
camera with the operator and stabilizes any jerks or movement with use
of springs. This way the operator can walk over different kinds of terrains
or stairs following an actor while the camera stays steady and smooth
like floating in the air. This allows the flexibility of having shots that are
 spread across a large area going through doors and different kinds of
terrains which is not possible in dolly.
j. Jib/Crane/Technocrane – This apparatus allows the camera to float
over a vast area in very precise movements using a long (extendable in
techno crane) arm balanced by weights. Commonly used in places
where the camera has to be swept over people or has to go from very
low to very high covering a well-defined path.
k. Drones- The latest gadgets to join the camera movement family are
drones that allow the camera to fly across a vast area of land giving
literally the birds eye view. These are perfect to establish landscapes
and follow moving objects. They allow very precise controls letting the
operator change altitude, axis and speed at the same time.
6. Film vs. Digital – Before the digital sensors, movies were shot on film which
were basically strips of celluloid with photosensitive chemicals that would run
at a fixed speed in a camera exposing each frame in the strip. After developing,
the strip will then be chopped and edit and transferred to another film strip which
would run through a projector at the same speed giving a sense of motion to
the audience.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/35_mm_film

People still shoot film but there are differences between shooting film and
shooting on digital:

Film Digital
Expensive to buy stock No such purchase necessary
Non-reusable Reusable
Photosensitive – needs a lot of care Photosensitive only when in use – easy
to manage
Processing takes time and effort No processing necessary
Instant playback not available Can be played back instantly
Replicating is expensive Can be easily replicated and shared
Not portable Extremely portable
Loading and threading is difficult and Anyone can easily change memory
needs expertise cards
ISO and white balance cannot be ISO and white balance can easily be
changed changed to any value
Very high latitude Limited latitude
Can be scanned at very high resolutions Resolution cannot be increased once
shot
Can be safely stored for years Hard drives have risk of getting corrupt
Controlled environment necessary to Can be easily stored in normal
store conditions
Colors and contrast consistent – ready Grading is necessary before can be
for projection without grading projected

7. High key vs. Low Key Lighting – In a three point lighting setup, when the
difference between the key and fill
light is very less i.e. the image is
evenly lit and very bright, it is
called High Key lighting. It is
commonly used to portray very
well-lit happy spaces. If the
difference between key and fill
light is high i.e. the image is very
high contrast with a lot of shadows
and dark areas, it is called low key
lighting. This kind of lighting is used in very dramatic situations or horror or
thriller settings or to portray a gloomy, grave situation.
8. RAW vs Compressed footage (H.264) –
RAW Compressed
Huge file sizes – each frame is Small file sizes because a codec
basically a raw picture with a lot of (H.264) only retains the information
metadata necessary to play the video without
losing visible quality
Information is stored as it falls on the Information is compressed using a
sensor without any manipulation very advanced algorithm to ensure
low file size and max. quality
Ideal for color grading – a lot of Limited scope to work in color
latitude and scope to change correction
Ideal for editing directly in Adobe Cannot be edited directly, needs
Premiere or Avid but may need conversion (new edit systems
conversion on slower computers support direct editing but it is still
glitch)
Cannot be distributed or played back Can be played back on any device
without the camera or editing/grading and can be easily shared on social
system media
Cameras that record RAW – Arri Cameras that record H.264 – All
Alexa, RED, Sony F series, DSLRs, Mirrorless cameras, mobiles
Blackmagic Cinema Cameras, phones, GoPro etc.
Canon c series etc.