The Finished Thing

Cinematography Technology from Daniel Edwards on Vimeo.

Summary

My cinematography piece is now shot, edited, graded and complete. On reflection I am fairly pleased with the finished product, however there are flaws. One is that of the shadows of the crew visible in the background, which should have been, corrected using a backlight and possibly a key positioned a bit more towards the church doors.

 The dolly shots are also quite bumpy, especially on the long tracking shot of the character walking down the aisle towards the altar, a steadier tripod could have been selected or the dolly movement could have been slower to reduce the bumps becoming visible on screen. The shot also loses focus slightly at the end of the take.

 After reviewing the footage I regret using such a high ISO setting. Although I feel everything was exposed to what I desired I feel there is quite a bit of noise in some of the darker areas on the footage, this came apparent when I was editing the footage in colour.

 In terms of composition, I am happy with the selection of shots I managed to get. There are similarities between the shots I got and the ones framed by Alcott. My main focus was to get shots with lines of parallel and the location In chose to film at, helped me do that.

I am also very pleased with the positioning of the lighting on certain shots, especially the tracking shot at the end where the actor was light from behind. 

I also feel I captured the mood of some of the more darker, shadowy shots seen in Alcott’s work. Positioning the lights to only expose certain areas of the frame as well as creating a large contrast between background and foreground.

The settings on the camera also matched the exposure seen in stills taken from the Shining with the windows fully blown out to appear pure white. Although I couldn’t get the beams of light I sought for as the area and time I shot reduced the light coming through the windows. 

 Though I struggled to exactly replicate the window lighting I feel I used the red head lights to expose areas of the face and surrounding appropriately, not just to replicate a look but have meaning.   

 After watching the footage back a few times I would say the contrast of the images is a little too high, the images seen in Alcott films are a bit more de-saturated although this could be down to the age of the film’s. 

In summary I am pleased with the outcome of my film, it has been a challenge as lighting which is often taken for granted in so many films when watched is actually an art itself; a tool for subliminal and metaphorical meaning .

Colour Grading

With my footage shot and edited together the task of colour grading is an important one as it will help to enhance the aesthetics of the film to get a colour scheme that matches the palette of the Alcott look I wish to achieve.

Below are some examples of grading tried.

Cinematography Technology - Grading Tests from Daniel Edwards on Vimeo.

I’m looking for a colour scheme that matches that of the look film stock of Kodak, as described as well as conform to making over exposed areas intentionally quite bright as well as pale and darker areas littered with black shadows. I also want the colours to be rich but not so much it looks unrealistic.

Lighting Plans

As I now know the location I am shooting at and I have researched into some of the lighting techniques I wish to use in my film I have drafted out some lighting plans for the shots in my film. These may change but it will be a good idea to start somewhere and develop the look during the shoot. 

The first shot will be light in two places, the first light will light up across the door and create a dark area on the one side of the characters face whist his shadow will fall onto the other half of the door. The other light will be positioned in the corner to light the doorway the character walks to. A trait seen in some of Alcott's work.

The second lighting plan is for a doll shot that will follow the character to from the door at the back of location right up the altar where the light will be full on his face. The light near the altar, looking down the aisle will be the fill on the characters face while the reds on right hand side will be used as key lights and the natural light at the back will be the back light to add a bit of depth of field to the shot. This will be my example of three point lighting. And the inverse square rule shall be noted, the brightness will go from lighting a large area, background and foreground quite subtly then when he reaches the altar it shall be concentrated on his face. 

The next setup will see the one red positioned to light across the pews of the church, Again using the inverse square rule I hope to make one side of the church light whilst the other dark, which will have subliminal and metaphorical meaning to its positioning.

The lighting positioning in this setup will be where I hope to get my darker more shadowy shots. By getting rid of the fill and just having a key which will light across the room I should be able to get some silhouette effects with very minimal light shining on the characters face.

The final diagram shows that only one light will again be used but this time it shall be used as a back light. The light will spill from the outline of the character walking towards the exit of the church. Again the inverse square rule will have to be noted as the area that it lights will get bigger as he walks further away from the light towards the camera.

Film Stock

With film stock being talked about in recent lectures I found it interesting that the two film stocks widely used, Fuji-film and Kodak have a different look to one another.

Kodak film is a much warmer looking film stock with much more prominent oranges, reds and yellows whilst Fuji-film has a cooler palette with a much more blue and green look to it.

With the program colour the look of film can be replicated and from looking at the technical features on the IMDB of the films Alcott worked on, he would always use Kodak.

From knowing this I shall be able to emulate the look of Kodak film in colour when grading my film. I shall lean to making the warmer colours a lot more vivid and saturated in more warmth than the upgraded original.

 

550d Light Test's

To find the optimum settings for shooting my cinematography film it is useful to understand the how the shutter speed, aperture and ISO figures look in the location I shall be shooting in. The location itself is quite dark, even at the height of daylight, so the settings on the 550d, the camera I shall be shooting with will have to be pushed to get more light into the camera.

Alcott films on the whole are generally a little over exposed, especially window areas where beams of light can be seen coming through so the settings on the camera will need to be toggled to get this effect in the shoot.

Cinematography Technology - Shutter Speeds Test Shoot from Daniel Edwards on Vimeo.

Looking at the tests in natural light, shutter speeds between 1/80 and 1/160 seem best matched with stills from Alcott films, especially the Shining, the walls are visible but not completely light whereas the windows are almost pure white, with little window frame detail. Below 1/80 the image seems quite grainy and image detail is lost and above 1/160 the images seems to be getting to dark and far to shadowy to replicate the look I want.

Cinematography Technology - Aperture Test Shoot from Daniel Edwards on Vimeo.

The aperture seems best set to 5.6 to 8.0. Aperture’s above 8.0 are again like a higher shutter speeds figure very dark and more suited to a much darker look whereas the aperture figures between 5.6 and 8.0 let in an amount of light which looks most suited for my piece.

Cinematography Technology - ISO Test Shoot from Daniel Edwards on Vimeo.

Unlike the shutter speed and aperture, the tests looking at the ISO settings on the camera seems to have a much larger range of acceptable figures. Although it is said you should shoot with as low as ISO possible it images on the 550d with higher ISO figures don’t look to bad. Noise only seems to be visible above figures of 3200. On the other end of the scale, although the lowest ISO, 100, retains the most colour and picture detail, one the image is too dark and shadowy and two the image quality almost seems too good, even the lead and colour on the windows can be seen clearly. I found ISO’s of 800 to 1600 most in keeping with the look I wish to achieve.

Location Shoot

In searching for a location to shoot at I have focused on area, which have a symmetrical composition with the ability to frame shots in parallels. I have looked hotel as well as supermarkets but the best location I have found is a church. The location has a long aisle’s, tall walls, pillars and big long windows. The location is perfectly symmetrical and prefect to replicate composition of stills seen in the work of John Alcott.

Cinematography Technology Location Shoot from Daniel Edwards on Vimeo.

One concern is that of the amount of light inside the building. The church is surrounded by tree’s so much of the light hitting the windows is filtered. This means artificial light will be required to get the right exposure of light aimed at points of interest in the film.

Backlight

I find the lighting in this scene from 2001 very captivating, backlight is used as the main source of lighting and I really like the way the characters crossover with the lights when they study the Monolith.



This something I wish to emulate in one of the shots in my film. The key is to have a very strong source of backlight that could either be crossed over blocked out by the character in the foreground.

The Darker Side

Though from my previous research I have stated that the majority of Alcott’s cinematography is well lighted, there are also many examples of darker and shadowy bits of composition seen throughout his work.

 Barry Lyndon in particular uses candlelight’s as a fill light on characters faces. This is a very soft tone of light used to draw interest to the character whilst the background is dark and shadowy resulting in a strong contrast between background and foreground, easily drawing the eye to the point of interest. 

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

An element of lighting that I’m really keen of Alcott’s is that of a leaking glow of light from the background, which lights the lining of characters faces.

The lighting is not just visually attractive but also very symbolic, almost a metaphor to the slogan “every cloud has a silver lining”. In keeping with the story of Alex in “A Clockwork Orange” as well as in the film “Barry Lyndon”. 

A Location for Light

With a visual style to replicate I must find a location that can cater for the look I wish to achieve. Composition wise, I need a location with parallel walls, and lighting wise I want somewhere with a diffused white light look to it. Therefore I need a location with light scattered evenly. From watching the Big Lebowksi I was drawn to a still in where “the dude” is at the supermarket buying milk.

A location like this would be ideal. Supermarkets have evenly lengthened long aisles with parallel’s looking down the length of the depth of field. Lighting wise, supermarkets have evenly spread light and some also have the tone of colour seen in this still, almost a neon white, florescent, cold look, a look I wish to replicate in my piece. Rather than just relying on practical light there also seems to be a little fill on the character too.

550d Test Footage

With hopefully filming my cinematography assignment within the next couple of weeks its time I started getting some test footage. This test footage below is using the Canon 550d, a camera I have purchased, which I plan to use for my assignment. The camera is a DSLR and is said to not work well in low light condition with the standard 18-55mm lens it comes with however I went out into the night I got some really attractive looking bokeh lighting. This is contrary to the light conditions in which I will be filming in but camera practice is good and will help be acclimatise from shooting with a conventional camcorder like the Panasonic 151 to a DSLR camera, the 550d.



In the day I also filmed some close-up footage, something I will be doing for my film assignment, especially up close and personal in the faces of any characters in my film. This is another test footage task I wish to complete in the near future, so I can get used to using the focus ring whilst moving in, out and around the face of any characters I use.



As you can see from the above footage, the 1080p pictures from the 550d are of incredible quality and detail.

Alcott Lighting

For this blog entry I wanted to take a brief look on some of the lighting seen in the cinematography of John Alcott. Although in my assignment, I wish to emulate some of the diffused white practical light seen in Alcott’s films, I wanted to use some examples of films in where lighting has been used in different ways to express a certain mood in which the scenes take place.

An example of this is seen in “A Clockwork Orange”. One piece of lighting really appeals to me in this film in where Alex and the “droogs” come across a drunken elderly tramp on their way back from some mischief caused earlier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPu83WMl92Y

In the shots taken there is a large powerful backlight behind the “droogs” as they stroll towards their next victim. The shadows projected on to the floor in front of them are long and block the former well light pathway in the subway, symbolic of the moment; as the darkness prevails over the light.

Another great use of light and shadows can be seen in “The Shining”. In the scene where Wendy is on the run from Jack Torrance. She meanders he way up the stairs and reaches the caretaker’s headquarters in the Overlook where she see’s a manifestation of a bear and gentleman in a suit.



An interesting use of light is the way it creates a shadow of the railings in the banister of the stairs, which is projected on to the walls. This might be a metaphor to create a feeling of imprisonment. The bars look like those of a jail cell in where the dead souls of the Overlook are trapped in, and never can escape. Although the doorway itself is open and lit with practical light to possibly symbolize the open passage in which the manifestations of the dead are crossing into the real world.

In terms of continuity the only way the light could be casting shadows is in the middle of the scene which is open space, nowhere, where a light good be positioned naturally, so studio light must have been used to create the shadows of the banisters on all four sides of the walls; adding to the subliminal psychological disturbance of the films purpose.

John Alcott and Composition

With last week and this weeks lecture’s on composition I thought Id take chance to study the composition of one of my proposed cinematographer’s to take stylistic influence from; John Alcott.


In collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, Alcott’s composition of images in the films he has worked on have a common trend.

One trend is that of symmetric image’s. Often featuring shots down the length of tall with the use parallel walls in the frame.



This is, exampled below can be seen throughout Alcott’s film as cinematographer, notably in the Shining with the image framed as said throughout the various corridor scenes in the Overlook Hotel, as well as 2001: A Space Odyssey where it is used in various forms, from the symmetrical alignment of planets as well as to depict the monolith from a low angle’s looking upwards on its imposing presence.

Proposal

For my cinematography assignment I wish to emulate the cinematography of Christopher Doyle. He is most notably known for films including “In the Mood for Love” (2000), “Happy Together” (1997) and “Chungking Express” (1995) all films directed by Wong Kar Wai, however the film I wish to replicate the most visually will be Wong Kar Wai’s 1995 release “Fallen Angels”.

The cinematography in the following link (seen in a lecture in Film Tech 1); is seen throughout the rest of the film, and is the style I want to achieve in my assignment.



The camera is very loose and often canted at an angle. It is also positioned very close to the subject. It is focused on the foreground whilst capturing also capturing what may be happening in the background in focus; using a large depth of field to achieve this.

As well as Christopher Doyle I also wish to use elements seen in the cinematography of John Alcott. Alcott’s most well known as Stanley Kubrick’s cinematographer; working in collaboration on films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “A Clockwork Orange” (1975), and “The Shining” (1980).

Unlike Christopher Doyle, Alcott’s composition is very much stuck to the tripod, filming across the length of parallels. Though in terms of lighting both cinematographers use very diffused bright white light in there films, the colours can often appear very pale; Alcott preferred lighting that appeared natural and which did not draw attention to itself; this is another feature I wish to include in my work unless using colours and positioning of light which is meaningful to its presence; seen in Doyle’s cinematography.

Super 8

I came across this video the other day through a friend. Its Super 8 family footage dated from 1969 which has been telecined using a Canon HV20.

Ive worked with Super 8 before and personally love it. The colours are ever so saturated with such vibrancy which aesthetically makes it so pleasing to the eye.

I also love the fact that so many Super 8 films are shot hand held which gives off this informality; often depicting, like in this example happy family day's out which works really well with the warmth of the colours you get with super 8.

Even the jerky manner of the frame's going through the projector add to the innocence of it all, which all adds to the nostalgia.

It interests me that footage like this only depicts happiness, I dont think Ive ever seen a Super 8 film which has contained dark themes and this is something I will look into. Could the mold be broken, and if so would the juxtaposition of bright saturated colours work with more darker themes.

The Beginning

So, this will be my online blog for cinematography technology. It will be a log of the thoughts and processes that will be of relevance to my assignment which is to create a three to twenty minute film. 

The research I will undertake will look and study existing artifacts and practices I come across in the pre-production planning stages of the assignment; in which I will take ideas, skills and techniques from to help me.

My intention will be to make it a sort of time line that will evolve into my finished film in where all of the posts I have made will be relevant to my film in some sort of way, even if in the smallest of ways. 

The blog will also be a source for any test footage I will film in preparation as well as practice for the final piece.