Cinematography (from "movement" and
graphein -
γράφειν
"to record"), is the making of
lighting and
camera
choices when recording photographic
images for
the
cinema. It is closely related to the art of
still photography. Many additional
issues arise when both the camera and elements of the scene may be
in motion, though this also greatly increases the possibilities at
the same time.
History
- For more details, see History of
film.
The first
attempt at cinematography can be traced back to the world's first
motion picture film, Roundhay Garden Scene
. It was a sequence directed by Louis Le Prince, French inventor and showman, on October 14
1888 in the garden at Oakwood Grange in Roundhay
, Leeds
, West Yorkshire, England. This
groundbreaking event happened seven years before the
Lumière Brothers'
Sortie de
l'usine Lumière à Lyon made the first paid exhibition on
December 28, 1895 at Le Grand Café, in Paris, France. . This date
is known as the birth of cinema since it was the first time the
cycle of production-distribution-exhibition happened. The European
city soon became the motion picture capital of the world.
Cinematography is an art form unique to motion pictures. Although
the exposing of images on light-sensitive elements dates back to
the late 1600s , motion pictures demanded a new form of photography
and new aesthetic techniques.
In the infancy of motion pictures, the cinematographer was usually
also the director and the person physically handling the camera. As
the art form and technology evolved, a separation between director
and camera operator emerged. With the advent of artificial lighting
and faster (more light sensitive) film stocks, in addition to
technological advancements in optics and various techniques such as
color film and widescreen, the technical aspects of cinematography
necessitated a specialist in that area.
Cinematography was key during the silent movie era - no sound apart
from background music, no dialogue - the films depended on
lighting, acting and set.
In 1919, in Hollywood, the new motion picture capital of the world,
one of the first (and still existing) trade societies was formed:
the
American
Society of Cinematographers (ASC), which stood to recognize the
cinematographer's contribution to the art and science of motion
picture making. Similar trade associations have been established in
other countries, too.
The ASC defines cinematography as
- a creative and interpretive process that culminates in the
authorship of an original work of art rather than the simple
recording of a physical event. Cinematography is not a subcategory
of photography. Rather, photography is but one craft that the
cinematographer uses in addition to other physical, organizational,
managerial, interpretive and image-manipulating techniques to
effect one coherent process.
Aspects of cinematography
Numerous aspects contribute to the art of cinematography. They are
:
Film stock
Cinematography can begin with rolls of film or a digital imaging
sensor. Advancements in film emulsion and grain structure have led
to a wide range of film stocks available to cinematographers. The
selection of a film stock is one of the first decisions they must
make during any film production.
Aside from the film gauge selection —
8 mm
(amateur),
16 mm (semi-professional),
35 mm (professional) and
65 mm
(epic photography, rarely used except in special event venues) —
the cinematographer has a selection of stocks in reversal (which,
when developed, create a positive image) and negative formats along
with a wide range of film speeds (varying sensitivity to light)
from
ISO 50 (slow, least sensitive to
light) to 800 (very fast, extremely sensitive to light) and
differing response to color (low saturation, high saturation) and
contrast (varying levels between pure black (no exposure) and pure
white (complete overexposure)).
Advancements and adjustments to nearly all gauges of film created
the "super" variety wherein the area of the film used to capture a
single frame of an image is expanded, although the physical gauge
of the film remains the same. Super 8 mm, Super 16 mm and Super 35
mm are all formats that utilize more of the overall film area for
the image than their "regular" non-super counterparts.
The larger the film gauge, the higher the overall image resolution
clarity and technical quality.
In the realm of digital imaging, various film stocks are no longer
applicable, but the cameras themselves feature image adjustment
capabilities that go far beyond the abilities of one particular
film stock. The cameras can be adjusted to varying degrees of color
sensitivity, image contrast, light sensitivity and so on. One
camera can achieve all the various looks of different emulsions,
although it is heavily argued as to which method of capturing an
image is the "best" method. It should be mentioned that the digital
method of image adjustments (ISO, contrast etc) are executed by
estimating the same adjustments that would take place if actual
film were in use and are thus vulnerable to the cameras sensor
designers perceptions of various film stocks and image adjustment
parameters. Sensors generally have an optimal ISO rating past which
faster speeds will result in noticeable increases in
image noise, thus compromising the
quality.
The techniques used by the
film
laboratory to
process the
film stock can also offer a considerable variance in the image
produced. By controlling the temperature and varying the duration
in which the film is soaked in the development chemicals and by
skipping certain chemical processes (or partially skipping them),
cinematographers can achieve very different looks from a single
film stock in the laboratory. Some techniques that can be used are
push processing,
bleach bypass and
cross processing.
Filters
Filters, such as diffusion
filters or color-effect filters, are also widely used to enhance
mood or dramatic effects. Most photographic filters are made up of
two pieces of optical glass glued together with some form of image
or light manipulation material between the glass. In the case of
color filters, there is often a translucent color medium pressed
between two planes of optical glass. Color filters work by blocking
out certain color wavelengths of light from reaching the film. With
color film, this works very intuitively wherein a blue filter will
cut down on the passage of red, orange and yellow light and create
a blue tint on the film. In black and white photography, color
filters are used somewhat counter intuitively; for instance a
yellow filter, which cuts down on blue wavelengths of light, can be
used to darken a daylight sky (by eliminating blue light from
hitting the film, thus greatly underexposing the mostly blue sky),
while not biasing most human flesh tone. Certain cinematographers,
such as
Christopher Doyle, are
well known for their innovative use of filters. Filters can be used
in front of the lens or, in some cases, behind the lens for
different effects.
Lens
Focal length
The camera does what a human
eye does. That is,
it creates perspective and spatial relations with the rest of the
world. However, unlike one's eye, a cinematographer can select
different lenses for different purposes. Variation in
focal length is one of the chief benefits of
such an advantage. The focal length of the lens in particular,
determines the angle of view and, therefore, the field of view.
Cinematographers can choose between a range of
wide angle lenses, "normal" lenses and
telephoto lenses, as well as
macro lenses and other special effect lens
systems such as
borescope lenses.
Wide-angle lenses have short focal lengths and make spatial
distances more obvious. A person in the distance is shown as much
smaller while someone in the front will loom large. On the other
hand, telephoto lenses reduce such exaggerations, depicting far-off
objects as seemingly close together and flattening perspective. The
differences between the perspective rendering is actually not due
to the focal length by itself, but by the distance between the
subjects and the camera. Therefore, the use of different focal
lengths in combination with different camera to subject distances
creates these different rendering. Changing the focal length only
while keeping the same camera position doesn't affect perspective
but the angle of view only. A
Zoom lens
allows a camera operator to change their focal length within a shot
or quickly between setups for shots. As
prime
lenses offer greater optical quality and are "faster" (larger
aperture openings, usable in less light) than zoom lenses, they are
often employed in professional cinematography over zoom lenses.
Certain scenes or even types of filmmaking, however, may require
the use of zooms for speed or ease of use, as well as shots
involving a zoom move.
Diaphragm aperture
Like in photography, the control of the exposed image is done in
the lens with the control of the diaphragm aperture. As to properly
expose, the cinematographer needs that all lenses be engraved with
T-Stop, not
f-stop, so that the eventual light loss due to the
glass doesn't affect the exposure control when setting it using the
usual meters. The choice of the aperture also affects image quality
(aberrations) and depth of field (see below).
Depth of field and focus
Focal length and diaphragm aperture affect the
depth of field of a scene — that is, how much
the background, mid-ground and foreground will be rendered in
"acceptable focus" (only one exact plane of the image is in precise
focus) on the film or video target. Depth of field (not to be
confused with
depth of focus) is
determined by the aperture size and the focal distance. A large or
deep depth of field is generated with a very small iris aperture
and focusing on a point in the distance, whereas a shallow depth of
field will be achieved with a large (open) iris aperture and
focusing closer to the lens. Depth of field is also governed by the
format size. 70 mm film has much more depth of field for the same
focal length lens than does 35 mm. 16 mm has even less and most
digital video cameras have less depth of field than 16 mm. But if
one considers the field of view and angle of view, the smaller the
image is, the shorter the focal length should be, as to keep the
same field of view. Then, the smaller the image is, the more depth
of field is obtained, for the same field of view. Therefore, 70mm
as less depth of field than 35mm for a given field of view, 16mm
more than 35mm, and video cameras even more depth of field than
16mm. As videographers try to emulate the look of 35 mm film with
digital cameras, this is one issue of frustration - excessive depth
of field with digital cameras and using additional optical devices
to reduce that depth of field.
In
Citizen Kane,
cinematographer
Gregg Toland used
tighter apertures to create very large depth of field in the
scenes, often rendering every detail of the foreground and
background of the sets in sharp focus. This practice is known as
deep focus.
Deep focus became a
popular cinematographic device from the 1940s onwards in Hollywood
. Today, the trend is for more
shallow focus.
To change the plane of focus from one object or character to
another within a shot is commonly known as a
rack focus.
Aspect ratio and framing
The
aspect ratio of an image is
the ratio of its width to its height. This can be expressed either
as a ratio of 2 integers, such as 4:3, or in a decimal format, such
as 1.33:1 or simply 1.33.
Different ratios provide different aesthetic effects. Standards for
aspect ratio have varied significantly over time.
During the silent era, aspect ratios varied widely, from square
1:1, all the way
up to the extreme widescreen 4:1
Polyvision. However, from the 1910s, silent
motion pictures generally settled on the ratio of 4:3 (1.33). The
introduction of sound-on-film briefly narrowed the aspect ratio, to
allow room for a sound stripe. In 1932 a new standard was
introduced, the
Academy ratio of 1.37,
by means of thickening the
frame
line.
For years, mainstream cinematographers were limited to using the
Academy ratio, but in the 1950s, thanks to the popularity of
Cinerama,
widescreen ratios were introduced in an effort to
pull audiences back into the theater and away from their home
television sets. These new widescreen formats provided
cinematographers a wider frame within which to compose their
images.
Many different proprietary photographic systems were invented and
utilized in the 1950s to create widescreen movies, but one
dominates film today: the
anamorphic
process, which optically squeezes the image to photograph twice the
horizontal area to the same size vertical as standard "spherical"
lenses.
The first commonly used anamorphic format was
CinemaScope, which used a 2.35 aspect ratio,
although it was originally 2.55. CinemaScope was used from 1953 to
1967, but due to technical flaws in the design and its ownership by
Fox, several third-party companies, led by
Panavision's technical improvements in the 1950s,
now dominate the anamorphic cine lens market.
Changes to SMPTE projection standards altered the projected ratio
from 2.35 to 2.39 in 1970, although this did not change anything
regarding the photographic anamorphic standards; all changes in
respect to the aspect ratio of anamorphic 35 mm photography are
specific to camera or projector gate sizes, not the optical
system.
After the
"widescreen wars" of
the 1950s, the motion-picture industry settled into 1.85 as a
standard for theatrical projection in the United States and the
United Kingdom. This is a cropped version of 1.37. Europe and Asia
opted for 1.66 at first, although 1.85 has largely permeated these
markets in recent decades. Certain "epic" or adventure movies
utilized the anamorphic 2.39.
In the 1990s, with the advent of high-definition video, television
engineers created the 1.78 (16:9) ratio as a mathematical
compromise between the theatrical standard of 1.85 and television's
1.33, as it was not practical to produce a traditional CRT
television tube with a width of 1.85. Until that point, nothing had
ever been originated in 1.78. Today, this is a standard for
high-definition video and for widescreen television. Some cinema
films are now shot using HDTV cameras.
Lighting
Light is necessary to create an image exposure on a frame of film
or on a digital target (CCD, etc). The art of lighting for
cinematography goes far beyond basic exposure, however, into the
essence of visual storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably
to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion
picture. The control of light quality, colour, direction and
intensity is a major factor in the art and science of
cinematography.
Camera movement
One aspect of cinematography that strongly separates it from still
photography (aside from having a moving subject) is the ability to
move the camera, which represents the audience's viewpoint or
perspective, during the course of filming. This movement plays a
considerable role in the emotional language of film images and the
audience's emotional reaction to the action on the screen.
Techniques range from the most basic movements of panning
(horizontal shift in viewpoint from a fixed position; like turning
your head side-to-side) and tilting (vertical shift in viewpoint
from a fixed position; like tipping your head back to look at the
sky or down to look at the ground) to dollying (placing the camera
on a moving platform to move it closer or farther from the
subject), tracking (placing the camera on a moving platform to move
it to the left or right), craning (moving the camera in a vertical
position; being able to lift it off the ground as well as swing it
side-to-side from a fixed base position), and combinations of the
above.
Cameras have been mounted to nearly every imaginable form of
transportation.
Most cameras can also be handheld, that is the camera operator
literally holds the camera in their hands and moves from one
position to another while filming the action. Personal stabilizing
platforms came into being in the late 1970s through the invention
of
Garrett Brown, which became known
as the
Steadicam. The Steadicam is a body
harness and stabilization arm that connects to the camera that
allows the operator to move naturally while completely isolating
the movements of their body from the movements of the camera. After
the Steadicam patent expired in the early 1990s, many other
companies began manufacturing their concept of the personal camera
stabilizer.
Special effects
The first special effects in the cinema were created while the film
was being shot. These came to be known as "
in-camera" effects. Later,
optical and
digital effects were developed so that
editors and visual effects artists could more tightly control the
process by manipulating the film in
post-production.
For examples of many in-camera special effects, see the work of
early filmmaker
Georges
Méliès.
Frame rate selection
Motion picture images are presented to an audience at a constant
speed. In the theater, it is 24 frames per second, in NTSC (US)
Television, it is 30 frames per second (29.97 to be exact), in PAL
(Europe) television it is 25 frames per second. This speed of
presentation does not vary.
However, by varying the speed at which the image is captured,
various effects can be created knowing that the faster or slower
recorded image will be played at a constant speed.
For instance,
time-lapse photography is
created by exposing an image at an extremely slow rate. If a
cinematographer sets a camera to expose one frame every minute for
four hours, and then that footage is projected at 24 frames per
second, the event that took four hours to record will now take 10
seconds to present (1 frame per minute for 4 hours equals 240
frames, projected at 24 frames per second equals 10 seconds). This
compresses the event that took place in four hours into just 10
seconds. At this speed, one can present the events of a whole day
(24 hours) in just one minute. The inverse of this, if an image is
captured at speeds above that at which they will be presented, the
effect is to greatly slow down (
slow
motion) the image. If a cinematographer shoots a person diving
into a pool at 96 frames per second, and that image is presented
back at 24 frames per second, it will take 4 times as long to watch
the dive as it did for it to actually happen.
In motion pictures the manipulation of time and space is a
considerable contributing factor to the narrative storytelling
tools.
Film editing plays a much
stronger role in this manipulation, but frame rate selection in the
photography of the original action is also a contributing factor to
altering time.
"Ramping" is a process whereby the capture frame rate of the camera
changes over time. For example, if in the course of 10 seconds of
capture, the capture frame rate is adjusted from 60 frames per
second to 24 frames per second, when played back at the standard
film rate of 24 frames per second, a unique time-manipulation
effect is achieved. For example, someone pushing a door open and
walking out into the street would appear to start off in
slow-motion, but in a few seconds later within
the same shot the person would appear to walk in "realtime" (normal
speed). The opposite speed-ramping is done in
The Matrix when Neo re-enters the Matrix for
the first time to see the Oracle. As he comes out of the warehouse
"load-point", the camera zooms into Neo at normal speed but as it
gets closer to Neo's face time seems to slow down, perhaps visually
accentuating Neo pausing and reflecting a moment, and perhaps
alluding to future manipulation of time itself within the Matrix
later on in the movie.
Role of the cinematographer
In the film industry, the
cinematographer is responsible for
the technical aspects of the images (lighting, lens choices,
composition, exposure, filtration, film selection), but works
closely with the
director to ensure
that the artistic
aesthetics are
supporting the director's vision of the story being told. The
cinematographers are the heads of the camera,
grip and
lighting
crew on a set, and for this reason they are often called
directors of photography or
DPs.
Directors of photography make many creative and interpretive
decisions during the course of their work, from pre-production to
post-production, all of which affect the overall feel and look of
the motion picture. Many of these decisions are similar to what a
photographer needs to note when taking
a picture: the cinematographer controls the film choice itself
(from a range of available stocks with varying sensitivities to
light and color), the selection of lens focal lengths, aperture
exposure and focus.
Cinematography, however, has a temporal aspect (see
persistence of vision), unlike still
photography, which is purely a single still image. It is also
bulkier and more strenuous to deal with movie cameras, and it
involves a more complex array of choices. As such a cinematographer
often needs to work co-operatively with more people than does a
photographer, who could frequently function as a single person. As
a result, the cinematographer's job also includes personnel
management and logistical organization.
Evolution of technology: new definitions
Traditionally the term "cinematography" referred to working with
motion-picture film emulsion, but it is now largely synonymous with
videography and digital video due to the
popularity of
digital
cinematography.
Modern digital
image processing has
also made it possible to radically modify pictures from how they
were originally captured. This has allowed new disciplines to
encroach on some of the choices that were once the
cinematographer's exclusive domain.
References
See also
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