Camera Work

Chapter 4

Early days of Camera shots

• Cameras were limited to one shot because the equipment was heavy.

• Early Edison films – the camera was routinely placed at a right angle to the action, as if we were in a theater seated in the front row.

• Filmmakers were more interested in literally capturing the shot, and not interested in the dramatic setting that a camera angle could create.

Weekly Journal – “Silence of the Lambs.”

• While reviewing the Lecture we will also be watching “Silence of the Lambs,” which incorporates the use of Lighting techniques and different camera methods as well.

• Your Journal this week will be to answer the questions on Page 117, using “Silence of the Lambs,” as your film.– Answer all questions on 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, and 4-4.

In some you may need to refer to the textbook.

Enter the Lumiere Brothers

• Auguste and Louis Lumiere were pioneers yet again – they placed the film goer in the space of the film.

Angle

• The angle in which a subject is shot leaves an impression.

• Low Angle Shot – The camera is placed below the subject, and angled upward. They exaggerate the size of a person or a thing. This is used to imply authority, or to grant a character a semblance of gravitas or menace. – They are often unflattering. – They can also be used to confer royalty and divinity.

Low Angle Shot

Joan of Arc – Low Angle Shot

High Angle Shots

• A shot made by placing the camera above the subject – angled downward.

• They tend to be more flattering and humanize a character – make them seem vulnerable.

• Used to manipulate scale and can be used to give a bird’s eye view of a scene.

• Was made famous by director Busby Berkeley – used it in his images of perfectly synchronized dance routines.

High Angle Shots

Eye Level Shots

• These shots imply a connection between the viewer and the characters on screen. The viewer can directly see the character.

• Canted shots – Tilted shots. Used in “Rebel Without a Cause,” are there to portray a message. Although the protagonist, Jimmy, is seeing his mother descend down the stairs at an upside down angle, the images remain tilted.

Distance

• The use of distance in a frame can set the scene, to frame a fight scene between two actors or more.

• The use of long, extremely long and medium shots allow the audience to see their characters and their surroundings.

• Long Shots- A shot that includes the entire person and background or a shot where the subject appears small.

• Medium long Shot – A shot of a person from their knees up or a shot where they subject is slightly smaller than a medium shot.

Long shot

Fight Scenes

• Directors often use long shots to show the hand to hand combat.

• Two Shot – A shot that comprises of two people in the frame.

• Medium Shots – Character is cut off just above the waist. Medium shots allow the viewer to see the subject in their surroundings. It also allows the viewer to get a close up of their expression.

E.T. – Medium Shot

Close Ups and Extreme Close Ups

• These camera shots make us focus solely on what the director wants us to focus on – perhaps a message or a expression from the character. – They take away our options to look elsewhere. – Our view is focused. – We have a view of the characters true feelings.

Off Screen Space

• The space in a scene that the audience cannot see but knows to contain something of importance to the story. – Used in Alfred Hitchcock films.

– *show Psycho scene*

Camera Movement

Early cinema to today

• At first, cameramen just had to make sure they got the shot.

• 1903 – Filmmakers placed a camera on a train car and captured 3-minutes of the Colorado Rockies for The Georgetown Loop.

• This was the first time movement was captured with the camera moving.

Tracking Shot

• The tracking shot – is a moving camera technique in which the shot is produced with a camera that moves smoothly alongside the action.

• There are different ways to accomplish this:– Dolly – Steadicam

Dolly-in Dolly Out

Steadicam – Developed in 1976

Different Shots achieve different results, perspectives

• Crane shot – This is also known as a “boom shot.” This is when the camera is hoisted onto a crane, and then dropped by the crane down to a less dramatic angle. This creates an aeriel view.

• Subjective P.O.V – We can see the world through the character’s eyes. – Example – “Halloween,” the film opens up with us

seeing what the killer sees through his mask.

Shots

• Handheld shots – done with the use of a – you guessed it – handheld camera.

• This was first used in the 1960s French New Wave. – Predominately used by Director Jean Luc Godard. – He used this to achieve ironic effects. – Gives the impression to the viewer that they are

witnessing something “real.” (Done by an amateur and give it more of an authentic feel, versus Hollywood.)

Handheld is a technique

• The technique is to make us believe that everything was captured and then left behind – the authentic owner “disappeared.”- Paranormal Activity. – The Blair Witch Project.

• It can be used to disorient the viewer. Take scenes out of focus.

Basic Camera techniques

• Pan – A lateral camera movement. • Tilt – An upward camera movement.Both serve to “naturalize” the camera point of view.• Zoom In/Out – Used for distance/emphasis.

• Wide Angle Shot – Allows the audience a wider view of something. Establishes a scene.

• Telephoto Shots – Used to represent surveillance and show us what a character sees as they peer through a telescope, or a camera with a telephoto lens.

Telephoto shot

Depth of Field

• Depth of Field – refers to how much foreground, middle ground and background is in focus.

• The larger the range

within the frame between the closest and furthest object, the larger the depth of field.

• Deep Focus – Keeps objects and characters from foreground throughout the background in sharp focus. – Introduced in Wuthering

Heights (1930s)– Citizen Kane.

• Selective Focus – only part of the image has been blurred while another is in sharp focus.

Racking Focus

• This is when the shot moves in and out of focus from the foreground to the background.

• It is considered intrusive (for the viewer)

because the camera is telling us where to look.

Racking focus

Stock, Exposure and effects

• Film Stock – A filter that simulates different colors to emphasis a certain scene or emotion.

• Exposure – This refers to the amount of light that passes through the camera lens onto the film.– Adjusting the exposures can lighten or darken an

image.

Color versus Black and White

• 1930s - The first use of the color process. – The process to produced a film with color was

expensive, unrealistic, and unpredictable. – Early color prints would fade and degrade.

• 1950s – Color became the standard because film stock improved. This was first pushed by Color Televisions. – First Films that used color successfully - “Gone with

the Wind.” (1939);

Color versus Black and White

• Today – if you want to shoot a film in Black and White, the film stock costs as much, if not more than color film. – TODAY when filmmakers try to make a movie

through the use of Black and White stock – they are trying to drive home a point.