Goya

I have heard of Francisco Goya and have seen some work but after looking at more of his pictures today , i would like to see more, i think some of his stuff is great, and a definite influence for cinematography as well as his thematic work which is as important today as it was in his day

Pictures

These are some of the shots on our projects that i filmed, the group decided to get shots so you will know whos are who.

Some floor plans from the shoot

I have not included the botanical gardens, because of the many locations and the only source used as the sun

just click on the picture to make them bigger.




this is the basement floor plan, which is shown at the end of the film




and this is the attic floor plan shown at the beggining.

there pretty shoddy but i thought i'll include so you know where a lighting has been directed

William Turner

J. M. W. Turner a good english painter. who uses colour as the guiding in developing form instead of line but created nice sea effects, i wonder if the film master and commander has these ast hier influence.

Van Gogh

If he was a cinematographer, that would of been awesome.


I would like to see interiors shot like this.
"the potato easters"



Cafe terrance at night

Cinematography project report

This is a report on of the work we did on our cinematogrpahy project.

We had three location we used on our project

1st the botanical gardens

2nd the attic room

3rd the basement

each had various challenges and different lighting situations that we had to deal with.

for example the botanical gardens, filming there in high noon at summer, gave us alot of light, almost too much, and we had to use two neutral desnisty filters to stop down the lighting coming into the lens, we did not want to relay on shutter, because we wanted a nice motion and not a digital styled one like 1000/1 sec shutter. we stayed at 100/1 sec. our aperture was at 2.8 because we wanted to have selective focus and not make it too deep and also not to stop down to much and allow lens diffraction to happen within the lens, which could result in loss of resolution and even added grainyness. We set the white balance to sunlight and we slightly adjusted for difference in lighting, i think by the end of the shoot we bumped up the shutter to 250/ 1 sec shadows was not too much of a problem on the shoot and when ever we changed location in the gardens you could see from the highlights where the source was coming through, but it did not give us shadow cover. I feel like the scene in the garden are maybe a bit warmish in tone, this maybe be due to the white balnce filter on camera or from atmosphereic effect , it felt a bit hasy on the day.


in the attic location, we had one skylight window in the room that gave us sunlight and we kept with that , without any suplemental lighting. the props in the room alloud us to keep with the red theme. and that contrast with the white made a mood that would stand in contrast with the rest of the film. for her break down, we shut the blinds on the skylight and set up to dedo's set to 3200 Kelvins and manuely white balnced them, I thought 3200k would give a warm tone similar to tungsten. we then set them with red filters and placed them up either side of the wall with pictures, to fill up the frame with even flat red, the resulted in a flat tone that was interesting and gave us more lighting options later on in the next location. i think a problem was that light was still coming throguh dimly past the skylight blind. the fell on our actress. we intercut this with shot from earlier filming that was a close up of the actress applaying make up badly. that had a light red fill and a harder side light on one side for effect.


In the basement location i wanted to create a contrast to the upstairs location and keep things interested. we applied two dedos and a 400 kino flow again we set the dedos to 3200k and the kino was dimly lit only applying the lightest of fills to the actress and wall, a dedo with red fliter placed behind the camera provided a front key, and another dedo with red filter was applied as a sidelight to the wall, we wanted to use coookies to provide a dingy gothic lair look and to add more dimentionality in the scene, we first tried putting them on the kino and brightening it up, but the light was to diffused and did not do anything, we the moved our on the spot cookie, made out of cardboard, to to dedo's where they work more effectifly, we applied it to our key and it created an interesting effect. then camera was using similar camera settings 100/1 sec 2.8 aperture. allthough i think our actress in the for front could of been underexposed i think it still created a really interesting effect and dimensionality in the scene, and we can still see the acting and emotion presented by the actress.

we used both tripod and hand held, we used tripod for most shots to add an element of formality, but we moved to hand held for shot when the character state of mind is fragmented, i think it created a nice effect at time, that is'nt subjective handheld, like a camera man is there but represented the pycological state of the character. the film was shot over two days, very quickly i feel like more planning should of gone into the lighting and shots, and that crew mentality in filming could of been improved, as we could of finished in a day. but i don't think it was to bad considering the quickness that we filmed it in.

Seven Questions

Does the lighting scheme feel ‘naturalistic’ or not? Is this the case for both interiors and exteriors?

I feel that the lighting could be hyper real, an eggagerated verision of natural. the highlights are harsh and bright, while the flouresent lighting is used for dramatice effect in the interiors, whilst in the exteriors the bright highlights allow for a noirish closed view or the world.

What variety of movement is utilised in the chase sequences – tracks, hand‐held, Steadicam? How is this
range used in the cutting? Which focal lengths seem to be most commonly used?

I don't think the film used hand cam, but more track movements, to give a differnt feel to the film. like were watching them. some scenes especially diolque seems to have used a wide angle lens, maybe a 20mm but the action scenes, Especially the last sequence used a long lens, which gives a different perspective.

“The film's world is shadowy, decaying and intentionally dated. At the same time Somerset and Mills' slow
voyage from claustrophobic murk into blinding light makes for a vivid dramatic metaphor”. Do you agree?

Yes, the lighting help set the worl were in and the location as well as atmosphere, the change provide a great contrast for the film and it's ending.

David Watkin Cinematographer

I happy to Write about Cinematographer David Watkin who i think is a great film maker. he lighting on Chariots of fire and Memphis belles is great, Soft lighting an diffused pictorial style. using bounce, and fill. but making great uses of location work. as well as using a interesting way to film a night with fay lights tired onto a cherry picker above the action.

La Haine Questions part 2

Consider 
the 
use 
of 
focus to 
shift
 emphasise 
between
 characters 
and 
to
 establish 
look/point 
of 
view. 
What 
are

the 
particular
 technical 
difficulties 
involved 
in 
this 
technique? 
How 
successful 
is
 it?


Technical difficulties involved, especially on 35mm would be getting the focus pulling and the time/blocking of action right. as well as the Steadicam use, which i feel that the film used. this requires technical expertise as well as creative expression. I think it is very successful and creates a good style to tell the story telling the mood of France in the 90's as well as these characters stories.

How 
would
 you 
describe 
the 
lighting
 style
 throughout?


I would describe it as mixed, realism, low key, there are many settings throughout the film, set at night and day, but i would say out side using diffusion and low contrast, inside is more low key and side lighting maybe even in some scenes.

The
 film 
'bears 
the 
mark 
of
 American
 Culture'. 
In 
what
 ways
 is 
this 
true?

I guess that quote can be up for much discussion. but the culture of the these Paris street has similarities with Americans. Hip hop. the clothing, the dance, and the media, as well as the variety of different cultures and the "ghettos" the exists in the big cities.

Many
 of
 the
 'end 
credits' 
appear 
at 
the
 start 
of
 the 
film,
 over 
the 
documentary/news 
footage.
 Why?


Because this is really happening. in the streets of Paris in 1995 and the director feels strongly about it. but also to have impact as well.

"The 
film's
 ending 
is
 more 
or 
less
 predictable
 and 
inevitable,
 but 
effective 
all 
the 
same.
The 
film 
is 
not 
about 
its

ending.
 It 
is 
not 
about
 the 
landing, 
but
 about
 the 
fall". 
Discuss.

It in the power of Film making, how time works and what the audience accepts , and it about the impact of the story and about the way it's told, not just in the narrative arc, but the way it's told

La Haine Questions

Why was the film in Black and White?

There could be various answer to this question, one could be that the with the budget of the film the filmmakers had to film in black and white or it could be because of aesthetic reasons, the black and white looks nice.
I think it could be because of the film Subject and content itself. the film is not a comedy its a drama taken right from the streets of Paris, based on truth. the synopsis for the film

"Injured by a police inspector during an interrogation, Abdel is at a hospital, almost dead. In the suburbs where he lives, some riots happened during the night, and one policeman lost his gun. One of Abdel's friends, Vinz, finds it. Vinz and his two pals, Said and Hubert, have nothing to do so they try to kill time. Vinz swears that if Abdel dies, he will shoot a policeman..."

this is a film about anger Emotions that are "black and white" Not of colour, the film could even be of mourning because of there friend in hospital. and out of respect they film black and white.

and it can even be filmed in black and white because of race, which is one of the big themes of the film. and filming in black and white causes us to see the world differently.

The
 film 
makes 
extensive 
use 
of 
long 
takes 
and 
camera 
movement
‐
primarily 
steadicam
 ‐
to 
take 
us 
into,

around 
and
 through 
action. 
At 
other 
times 
the 
camera
 is
 static, 
the
 framing
 formal 
with 
composition 
in
 depth.

How
 is 
the 
use 
of
 these 
strategies 
related 
to 
the
 drama
 of 
individual 
scenes/sequences
 and
 to
 the 
characters?

How
 would
 the 
meaning 
be
altered 
if 
Kassovitz
 and
 Pierre 
Aim 
had
 adopted 
a 
hand‐held
style?

I think because the film is set in one day following the actions of our characters, i think that the filmmakers might be trying to adopt a rhythm 


and certain scenes require movements, from the actors and the camera, and some scenes would require stillness. the filmmakers are trying to tell a story through the camera that reflects the characters, and the theme of the film.

Rembrandt

Rembrandt, The Dutch artists work is a big influences on cinematography, and is one of the artists i like.

I think his art work uses low contrast, low key Chiaroscuro effect. and a orange dawn lighting effect is seen throughout the selection of pictures here,

Although the quality of the scans in regard to the original picture is dubious, but they are the closest i can find.

In regards to films various cinematographer would have been influence by him, one i can think of is the french cinematographer

Bruno Delbonnel who worked on Amelie and A Very Long Engagement as well as the Harry potter film half blooded prince

also another Cinematographer, Iranian-French Darius Khondji, Also working on Jeunet film's Aliens Resurrection and Delicatessen. As well as the film Seven.

Cinematography Influence

A series of cinematographers that i like and influence on the cinematography project I'm doing.

The first is By Robert Richardson

Who worked on Shutter Island a film by Martin Scorsese, as well as the aviator and Tarantino's film Inglorious Basterds.

These are some excerpts from a interview which he did.

Scorsese’s goal was to place viewers directly in Teddy’s shoes, and he wanted to convey the character’s fluctuating mental state with a variety of visual cues, primarily utilizing color and lighting. “The lighting, color and texture all contribute to the blurring of reality and hallucination, raising the question of what is subjective vs. objective,” says Richardson. “Marty plays with this blurring of lines throughout the film, I think with great prowess. The film is a journey within one man’s mind, and what you see could be real or imagined.”

You can definitely see this in the film with the uses of composition but also with the use a lighting and effects, as well as the film used, which gives different texture

The film’s color palette alternates between a slightly desaturated look, used for the present day, and the saturated look of 1950s-era Kodachrome, used mainly for Teddy’s memories and hallucinations. Scorsese’s initial inspiration for tapping the Kodachrome look was director/cinematographer George Stevens’ 16mm Kodachrome footage of the liberation of the concentration camp at Dachau

George Stevens an American film director. The main character is a war veteran who saw a concentration camp

Rob Legato methodically analyzed the inherent characteristics of Kodachrome, using a vast library from the 1950s, and created a look-up table that enabled us to achieve something similar in the digital intermediate. The extraordinary vibrancy of color became the key to Teddy’s dream states.”

Look up tables are used on colour correction to apply a even look or a specific "look" through out the whole film.