Thursday, December 09, 2010

What is Cinematography?

By Sarah N Caffrey


Cinematography is the skills learned by cinematographer and/or director that enables them to put together and film scenes, sequences and events to make a movie that will be shown in a Cinema. The director decides what he wants represented in the film, and the both of them work together using techniques in lighting, color, and filters to insure that the movie is as realistic and interesting to the audience as possible.

If you are attending one of the film schools in California, they will teach you the history of cinematography as well as the skills to become one. You should know that the French Inventor, Louis Le Prince produced the first type of cinematography. You should also know that the first paid viewing was in Paris in 1895. From looking at this history, you may actually see some methods that can still be used.

Proper lighting is of the utmost importance in shooting a film. Using the wrong wattage can cause shadows, reflections, white outs and color changes. This used to be manually done with a hand held or mounted light. Today there are computerized and automatic lighting machines that can be used to adjust the lighting to just the right amount.

In the early stages of cinematography, the director and the cinematographer were the same person. Now those are individual positions. The director's perspective of the scenes, lighting and movement in these modern day film has to be focused on what he thinks the public wants to see. From that point or perspective, he has to decide which lighting, filtering and other techniques need to be used to present the proper views.

Anyone who has ever played around with photographs or home movies knows that colors can change. The color changes can depend on the lighting, the distance from the camera and reflections. That is why it is important to have the techniques and skills in the way colors should appear on film.

Atmosphere of a scene or series of scenes is important. The director's vision must match with the atmosphere. For a film to be realistic, everything must match with what the director determines the audience should see. For example, if you are shooting a scene by a river, then you want to make sure the trees, ground, sky and river look like they all belong together.

Some of the most famous cinematographers in history include Gianni Di Venanzo from Italy, Sven Vilhelm Nykvist of Sweden, and Frederick Archibald Young of England. When you take your courses with an online film school, you will learn all about the techniques and methods they developed that help make them famous.




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