Cinematography Research Paper

What were Edwin S. Porter's significant contributions to the development of early narrative film? In what sense did Porter build upon the innovations of contemporaneous filmmakers, and for what purposes?

The documentary Visions of Light was made for the purpose of showing the art of cinematography. Cinematography was defined throughout the film as the making of a motion picture. “I found out that I was unconsciously responding to light.” said by Ernest Dickerson an American film director and cinematographer. Light is thought of to be something so little but means so much in a film. It is used to change the emotion and to tell people where to look.

The director is responsible for overseeing creative aspects of a film. They develop the vision for a film and carry the vision out, deciding how the film should look. The director may also be heavily involved in the writing and editing of the film, as well as managing the script into a sequence of shots, coordinating the actors in the film and supervising musical aspects. The Auteur Theory suggests that films contain certain characteristics or ‘signatures’ that reflect the director’s individual style and give a film its personal and unique stamp. Hayao Miyazaki is one such auteur whose entertaining plots, compelling characters

The image is brighter and sharper in the film. The contrast of the film really affects the mood. Since the contrast is so bright the viewer is bound to stay focused and aware because everything is so catchy and noticeable. Also, the exposure changes throughout the film. At the very beginning the film starts in black and white and changed to color as the story progressed. The filmmaker uses a lot of Long Takes, each shot of Dorothy meeting someone new is pretty lengthy.

When a person watches a movie, and a scene with dim lighting shows up on the screen, that usually makes them feel tense and scared about what is going to happen next. Directors use cinematic techniques to convey feelings or connect with the viewer. In the movies Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton uses flashbacks, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, and high key and low key lighting to show a characters’ thoughts or past, create the mood of a scene, create suspense, and let the viewers know about the characters’ as if they personally knew each other.

Rarely has a film impacted an audience and held the test of time as the film Gone with the Wind. I have always been curious if director, Victor Fleming and producer, David O. Selznick and screenplay writer, Sidney Howard knew what they were creating a masterpiece and how this film would have such an enormous impact on audiences for years to come. Interestingly enough there were some who thought the film should not be made, as Irving Thalberg said to Louis B. Meyer in 1936, “Forget it Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel” (Ten Films that Shook the World).

For instance, in the intro of Edward Scissorhands when Kim was telling her granddaughter the story of Edward, they were in a room filled with warm light from the fireplace. This technique gave the audience the effect to become suspicious and watch more. Just like in The Big Fish when his Edward was telling the story of how he “caught” his wife with the fish swimming in the water. The lighting of the water made the viewer wonder if something good or bad is going to happen. Some of the viewers may not have noticed it but the camera framing plays a big role in establishing the mood.

One of the ways why cinematography made the film was the lighting. To get the feel, the lighting appeared to be fake shadows that were painted on the set. The fake shadows that were painted on the set gave the lighting appeared to be harsh and sharper to set the mood for the audience. If it weren’t for the painted shadows, the movie wouldn’t have been so successful in the horror genre. Since it was a silent movie, if it weren’t for the shadows, you wouldn’t of seen it as a horror film, but as an original film that was trying to be creative.

Light can make a scene look more realistic by creating shadows and highlights. In this scene Alonzo if enraged with anger as he looks for help from the gangsters and thugs he once worked with and protected but those very same individual’s no longer have the same respect for Alonzo. The “King Kong” scene is shot using a low key lighting design. Low–key lighting is often used for intense dramatic scenes which was a perfect fit for this scene. The dark lighting used in these scene

There are various elements that contribute to the significance of a film. Cinematography, is one important element in which the camera is used to capture visual images through a number of other controllable elements such as; camera lens, framing, scale, movement etc. Editing is another fundamental component of film studies in which different shots are put together in a coherent sequence in order to make meaning of a film.

These techniques used effectively create a greater emotional pull. (SLIDE 3) Some camera shots used are extreme long shots, long shots, medium shots and close ups, camera movements such as panning and tilting and many more. These film techniques are extremely beneficial to the making of this documentary as they help the viewer have a higher understanding of the subject, creates an effective outlook and have a more interesting

In films a big concept has always been the use of lights. The use of lights in films helps create a meaning about what the scene is about and at times reveals a little more. In cinematography there is different types of lighting such as: three point lighting, fill light, key light, high key and low key lighting, top or under, lighting and many more. In the times when films were black and white the use of light is not easily visible. The use of black and white still helped portray the meaning behind many of the scenes, whether the scene got lighter or darker.A film that was successful in using white and black was Citizen Kane by Orson Welles. A film that was in color was the Godfather directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The use of lighting reflects within color because it gives the audience more to look at and it becomes very noticeable when the light changes for a specific scene. The use of lighting styles is necessary in films to bring attention to the scene and to be able to produce an interesting film. The director of Citizen Kane had the choice of making the film black and white or color but eventually decided to create it in black and white. In an interview about the film Citizen Kane a critic acknowledged the use of  light and said “Exploiting light and shadow inventively to express meaning and establish a desired atmosphere made Orson Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane’ a significant historical event that impacted both audiences and film genre in many ways.” The

Direct Cinema The term 'direct cinema' was coined by American director Albert Maysles, to describe the style of documentary that he and his contemporaries were making in the 1960s as a result of a lightweight, portable 16mm camera and high quality lightweight audio recorders becoming available. The introduction of these, together with film-stock which was sensitive enough to give a good quality close-up monochrome picture under most lighting conditions (Including hand-held lights) led to a revolution in Documentary filmmaking, allowing film crews to be much more flexible. Gone were the days of bulky, virtually immobile 35mm cameras; now manufacturers improved their 16mm stock and accepted it

The style of edit for this sequence and entire film is continuity editing which produces a logical and straightforward narrative. The sequence begins with an establishing shot of the city road setting, orienting the viewer. The editing follows real-time human experiences, for example, the Tramp enters the paddy wagon then it cuts to him sitting down on the benches with the rest of the convicted, minimizing the perception of breaks between cuts (invisible editing).

Between photography and cinematography there are always similarities. They both have a similar technical base, but the outcome is always different. My photographs explore the hazy boundaries that exist between the two. By adding elements of each, my images become a combination of both truth and fiction.