Is there any greater cliché than to place a camera along the barrel of a gun looking down into the tough squint of testosterone gone wrong?
I always wonder if anyone making an image like this ever feels just a little bit embarrassed.
Transcription Analysis is an easy way to better understand what you are seeing. This episode takes a closer look at the Horse vs.Truck scene in The Horse Whisperer.
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We’re talking about composition over time, and how cinematographer, Roger Deakins, showed us how to do it in the 1994 film, The Shawashank Redemption. Also discussed: the payoff you get with a 90 degree pan, gyrosphere, and heart-shaped edits.
Images & Links
Images from Shawshank Redemption
Roger Deakins
Shawshank Redemption on IMDB
Gyrosphere
Music: intro - Yé-Yé ; outro - Andrew Bird
technorati tags: cinematography photography film production film video lighting podcast Deakins Shawshank Redemption
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Commercial photographer Christopher Lynch talks about trusting his instinct, discovering characters, and shooting people. plus– Robustness.
Links coming soon
Images coming Soon
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Stay tuned to the NBC downloads recently announced to be offered by Amazon's Unbox Service. The gist is this: NBC left iTunes over a disagreement about pricing. Episodes on iTunes go for a couple of bucks each. Apple says NBC wants 5 bucks per episode, but NBC says not quite, but rather, they want "flexibility in … pricing."
Why this is interesting is that it asks a fundamental question about the future of television: At what price convenience? And, who's convenience?
What is it worth to get a file of your favorite show? —a file you can then watch in a variety of ways, times, and places.
If you would download an episode of Heroes for 2 bucks each, would you download it for $5.? … $4.? … $3. … ?
Keep an eye on pricing, because the current episode price of TV at Unbox is also 2 bucks. According to Variety, Apple's idea is that if it were even cheaper — $1! — NBC would make up the difference in volume. And maybe cheapskates like me could watch two shows, without getting screwed over by my cable company. (oh wait, they're the ones selling me internet, too?!)
NBC is naturally affronted at the thought of giving the work of it's writers, actors, directors, lighting guys, etc for a measly dollar, but they are the 4th place network. But they also have The Office and Heroes, favorites among the downloading demographic. You know, those kids who also know full well what BitTorrent is.
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In this episode we take a closer look at a cinematic masterpiece, Spielberg's Jaws. This look reveals the elegance of fundamental blocking, the importance of limiting the pan, and the distinction between darkness and invisibility in the context of fright.
Images & Links:
Images from Jaws
Jaws on IMDB
Watching the Directors podcast (Their Steven Spielberg episode here.)
Fat Free Film podcast
American Cinematographer podcast
Music: intro - Junior Boys ; outro - Infadels
technorati tags: cinematography photography film production film video lighting podcast spielberg jaws
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In this special audio-only edition, we discuss the working philosophy of cinematography legend, Sven Nykvist. In an essay published in the book, Making Pictures, Nykvist discussed his work with Ingmar Bergman, Louis Malle, and Andrei Tarkovsky. But he also lays out an ethos of filmmaking and a way of being for the maker of moving images.
Links:
Making Pictures: A Century of European Cinematography
IMAGO (Federation of European Cinematographers)
Sven Nykvist
Ingmar Bergman
Music: intro - Andrew Bird ; outro - Infadels
technorati tags:
cinematography photography film production film video lighting bergman nykvist
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Photography as entry into a deeper understanding of identity, history, and struggle. Photography as expression, but also as a practice of self actualization. We talk with Matthew Cassel, founder of the project, Picture Balata, about educating the least among us, and the role that images play in a vanishing culture struggling to remain. Picture Balata teaches Palestinian youth of a refugee camp how to express in images, the Palestinian experience.
This is not a political blog, but all messages expressed in images share certain things in common. Clearly, photography as part of a political struggle is a long tradition. All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Images & Links:
Picture Balata
Matthew Cassel
Eugene Richards
Balata Refugee Camp
Music: intro - Andrew Bird ; outro - New Young Pony Club
technorati tags:
cinematography photography film production film video lighting documantary
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Steven Bleicher is an artist and teacher, and the author of Contemporary Color - Theory and Use. He talks with us about the psychology of color, color harmony, disharmony, and a map for finding either. We also discuss the color in the films Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth, as well as the photographs of Sandy Skoglund and Martin Parr.
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Towards a notion of a Cinematography Without Pretense. DP Alan Jacobsen, talks with us about the photographic qualities of realness. We compare the film Caché to Running With Scissors. Alan explains Christian Berger’s reflective light system. Also discussed: vague endings, flashiness, and art departments gone wild.
Images:
Caché
Running with Scissors
Links:
Alan Jacobsen
Christian Berger
Christian Berger's Cine Reflector System
... a review by a gaffer (pdf)
Pics of Berger's Cine Reflector System
Inverse Square Law
Music: intro - Andrew Bird ; outro - New Young Pony Club
technorati tags:
cinematography photography film production film video lighting
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This blog is going multimedia. A podcast component of ImageMethod will be located on another site, here. We haven't figured out how to marry the two sites together yet, so for now, each site will be linked to the other.
The first program is available now and it's a rough test of concept. I interviewed commercial photographer, Lucas Allen. In our chat he talks about his history, methods, and penchant for natural light.
A link to the podcast appears on the right side of this page. Check it out and let us know what you think.
Show Notes: Lucas Allen (Listen)
Photos discussed in the show (click to make big):
The video of David O. Russell freaking out on the set of his movie "I heart Huckabees" is instructive to all of us, regardless of our jobs. While many in the business are understanding of, and apologetic for a director loosing it under the pressure of production, this sort of freak out - the violent sort - cannot be tolerated.
Business hierarchies are such that the boss gets a lot of passes, but David O. Russell has a problem, and David O. Russell should fix it. He deals with his frustration with violent outbursts of anger, as detailed in the LA Times article. Lily Tomlin seems to prefer snotty sarcasm, which is also rude, immature, and unhelpful.
There are two things every member of a team should consider. First, how do we react to another person's freak out, including our reaction to our own emotions stirred by such horrible behavior. Second, how do we deal with our own frustration and anger?
Keeping a grip on our emotions is part of teamwork. All of our actions affect those around us, and to function well as a collaborator we all need critical awareness of ourselves.
Shakespeare wrote, "the better part of valor is discretion," referring to the wisdom of a warrior to sometimes play dead. On or off the film set, rage is the weapon of fools.
In doing a set up, the last light set is the fill light. It's easier to place shadows and to work their quality when they are deep, dark black.
First I set the key to place a shadow where the camera will see it. The shadow's soft/hard quality is dependent on two things: diffusion type and comparative size. When a diffusion like Grid Cloth absorbs the light and then becomes the glowing object scattering light rays toward the scene, that scattered light is quite soft. When the diffusion simply casts a subtle shadow of its fuzzy self, veiling the light, like Hampshire Frost, the result is harder. Comparative size refers to the geographical, or physical, size of the source (after it has hit any diffusion frame or bounce board) compared to the size of the subject. Distance affects comparative size; a 4'x4' frame is big compared to a 10" face when they're close to each other, but backing off the frame makes it smaller fast. The inverse square law applies here, which means little things mean a lot when it comes to distance, size and exposure.
Exposure is roughed in with the incident meter, keeping in mind that everything placed in front of the light - cutters, diffusion or color, will reduce the level. If I want a T4, I start with 4/5.6 or a 5.6, depending on how these lights and this lighting style worked on these actors the day before. Some gaffers like to start with a double scrim in the head so that after the toppers, siders and nets have been set, the level can be restored to key exposure by pulling the wire.
The purpose of the fill light is to add exposure to the shadows. True to that purpose, it's useful to minimize new shadows created by the fill. It is common to set a geographically large source near the camera axis so that its shadow drops to where the camera can't see it. Because geographically large sources require geographically large cutters to control them, time and space should be considered.
To fine tune the exposure and contrast, I spot meter parts of the scene placing the reflective light values in the 7.5 stop range (give or take) that the film on my shoots usually has. It's nice to have the entire latitude — including off-the-curve levels— represented in the picture. The Memory/Average feature on my spot meter insures I never do a calculation involving a number greater than 10.
Although the fill is last to be looked at, I ask for it early. Some fill is usually necessary and, even if it's not used, it never hurts to have it ready. (This is also true if negative fill is preferred; I like to have the flags standing by.)
When the fill is done, and the floor has been checked for errant spills, I begin to ask myself what's next on my list of things to do as the director of photography:
Rodrigo Prieto has been mastering an important look in cinematography over the past several years. Ever since Amores Perros, which he photographed for Alejandro González Iñárritu, in 2000, we've seen a sincere, dispassionate, and modernized version of the Italian Neorealist look.
This was the same approach evident in 8 Mile, although Prieto changed it up for Julie Taymor (Frida), Oliver Stone (Alexander), and Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain).
And now, after 21 Grams (which has similar edginess, but a more stylized look), the same pair of Mexicans brings Babel. To me, the story is forgettable, but the photography is quite remarkable for it's natural and sharp-edged qualities.
Most memorable was the scene in the Japanese disco. A vulnerable and disturbed girl came of age while the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
These are some consecutive frames from a quicktime of the trailer.
To take an image of the warm English twilight and bring it around to match the look of Children of Men, I shifted the colors toward cyan plus a little extra green.
I started with this:
And I shifted to this:
When the two images are side by side (future dystopian look in panels A & C, warm look in panel B) the differences are easier to see. 
Notice especially the differences in the red color of the roof tops and car. Because the color is shifted away from red, that color becomes more muted, and darker. A significant reason this color shift is so effective here is that so much of the frame is made up of neutral colors - tan, beige, and grey.
Both versions can be accepted as normal-looking, but they both give a very different feel.
Only color balance was adjusted in these images. Nothing was done to change contrast or saturation, so these exact effects can be achieved in a film post production process. There's nothing new or fancy going on here; no Digital Intermediate needed.
nb - click pics to make big
These are more examples of the use of limited color palette in Children of Men.
The strategy is the usual approach. Limit the colors that appear in front of the camera. Then, at the DI stage the task is merely to adjust saturation, finer shifts in color, and of course, gamma.
Compositionally, the work is quite classical. The lighting in Children of Men is also usually very conventional, and appropriately so. There are loads of great acting and production design in this film and the cinematography avoids getting in the way.
Anybody see this movie yet? Cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, Production Design by Jim Clay and Geoffrey Kirkland, Directed by Alfonso Cuarón.
They created a nice dystopian, near future look. The pictures on the internet don't quite have the high-contrast gamma and deep blacks that I saw in the theater, but one can see the narrow choices of colors that contribute to the feeling of bleakness - cool, muted, achromatic. This was an excellent example of Digital Intermediate used to its maximum potential
When we're watching video on our phones, we'll know that times have changed. The deal between Verizon and YouTube to get the latter's content onto the former's phones is a pretty big deal. What's going to look good in the age of mobile delivery?
This commercial presents an obvious, but intriguing idea. As usual, sex will lead the way.
Think about this, anybody with a nice phone will be able to make and watch video from anywhere they can get a signal. What will be watched, and what will be made?
What will you make? (You, Person of the Year, you.)
ps - Here's a story from today about Verizon phones and TV shows.
