Cinematography

imagemaking for cinematographers & directors

theory and practice cinematography

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imagemaking for cinematographers and directors

theory and practice cinematography

blain brown

third edition

Third edition published 2016

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

and by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2016 Blain Brown

The right of Blain Brown to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by

him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act

1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised

in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaf￾ter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or

retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author and publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade- marks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Publisher’s Note: This book has been prepared from camera-ready copy provided by

the author.

Second edition published by Routledge 2015

ISBN: 978-1-138-21258-9 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-94092-5 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-66782-9 (ebk)

v

cinematography: theory and practice

contents

writing with motion 1

Writing with Motion 2

Building a Visual World 2

The Visual Language of Cinematography 3

The Frame as Definition 4

The View of the Lens 6

Color and Light 7

Visual Texture 7

Movement 10

Establishing 10

Point-of-View 10

Detective POV 11

Putting It All Together 11

visual language 13

More Than Just a Picture 14

Design Principles 15

Unity 15

Balance 16

Visual Tension 16

Rhythm 16

Proportion 16

Contrast 17

Texture 17

Directionality 17

The Three-Dimensional Field 17

Depth 18

Overlap 18

Relative Size 18

Vertical Location 19

Left/Right 19

Linear Perspective 20

Foreshortening 20

Chiaroscuro 20

Atmospheric Perspective 20

Forces of Visual Organization 21

The Line 21

The Sinuous Line 21

Compositional Triangles 21

Horizontals, Verticals, and Diagonals 21

The Power of the Edge: the Frame 22

Open and Closed Frame 23

Frame within a Frame 23

Balanced and Unbalanced Frame 24

Positive and Negative Space 25

Movement in the Visual Field 25

The Rule of Thirds 26

Rules of Composition for People 26

Headroom 27

Noseroom 27

Other Guidelines 27

language of the lens 29

The Lens and the Frame 30

Foreground/Midground/Background 30

cinematography: theory and practice

vi

Lens Perspective 31

Wide Lenses and Expansion of Space 31

Deep Focus 32

Compression of Space 34

Manipulating Perspective 36

Selective Focus 38

Image Control at the Lens 40

Filtration 41

Lens Height 42

High Angle 42

Low Angle 43

Dutch Tilt 44

visual storytelling 45

Visual Metaphor 46

Telling Stories with Pictures 46

Lighting as Storytelling 48

Film Noir 48

Light as Visual Metaphor 49

Light and Shadow / Good and Evil 51

Fading Flashbulbs 53

Visual Poetry 55

coverage & continuity 57

What Is Cinematic? 58

A Question of Perception 58

Visual Subtext and Visual Metaphor 59

The Frame 59

Static Frame 59

The Shots: Building Blocks of a Scene 60

Wide Shot 61

Establishing Shots 61

Establishing the Geography 61

Character Shots 62

Full Shot 62

Two Shot 63

Medium Shot 63

Close-ups 63

Over-the-Shoulder 63

Cutaways 64

Reaction Shots 64

Inserts 64

Connecting Shots 65

Pickups 66

Transitional Shots 66

Invisible Technique 66

The Shooting Methods 66

The Master Scene Method 66

Coverage 67

Overlapping or Triple-Take Method 69

In-One 70

Freeform Method 70

Montage 71

Involving The Audience: POV 71

The Fourth Wall and POV 73

Continuity 74

Shooting For Editing 74

contents

vii

Thinking about Continuity 74

Types of Continuity 75

Continuity of Content 75

Continuity of Movement 76

Continuity of Position 76

Continuity of Time 77

The Prime Directive 77

Screen Direction 77

The Action Axis 79

These Are the Rules—But Why? 79

What Establishes the Line? 79

The Purpose of Screen Direction 79

Directional Conventions 80

Exceptions to the Rule 80

Reverse 81

Turnaround 82

Planning Coverage 82

Cuttability 83

The 20% and 30 Degree Rules 83

Other Issues of Continuity 83

Moving Shots 84

Going Through a Door 84

Entering and Exiting Frame 85

Neutral Axis to Exit Frame 85

Three Shots 85

Keep the Nose Out 85

Prop Continuity in Coverage 86

Eye Sweeps 86

Chase Scenes 86

Cutaway Eyeline Continuity 86

Eyelines in Over-the-Shoulder Coverage 87

Eyelines for a Seated Character 87

OTS and Inserts 87

Moving Action 88

Group Shots 88

Introductions 88

The Place & The Geography 89

The Time 91

The Characters 91

Other Editorial Issues In Shooting 91

Jump Cuts 91

The Six Types of Cuts 92

The Content Cut 92

The Action Cut 92

The POV Cut 93

Executing a Subjective POV 95

The Match Cut 95

The Zero Cut 96

color 97

Color Terminology 98

Color Temperature: The Balances 99

Warm and Cool 99

White Balance, Black Balance, and Black Shading 101

Magenta vs. Green 102

The CIE Diagram 103

Gamut 104

Video Color Spaces 104

cinematography: theory and practice

viii

Rec.709 and Rec. 2020 105

DCI P3 105

AMPAS ACES Color Space 105

The Matrix 106

Ten Numbers: ASC-CDL 108

ACES: What It Is, What It Does 109

The Stages 109

ACES Terminology 110

The Transforms 111

Color Balance with Gels and Filters 111

Conversion Gels 112

Light Balancing Gels 112

Color Correction Gels 114

Correcting Off-Color Lights 115

HMI 115

Industrial Lamps 115

Color as a Storytelling Tool 116

cameras & sensors 125

The Digital Signal Path 126

Digital Signal Processor 126

HD, HD+ and UHD 127

HD Recording 127

Post High-def 128

RAW vs. Baked In 130

RAW Camera Signal Path 130

Viewing Stream 131

Definitions 131

Digital Negative 132

Chroma Subsampling 134

Pixels 135

Resolution 135

Photosites 136

Pixels and Photosites Are Not the Same Thing! 136

Digitizing 136

OLPF 137

Digital Sensors 138

CCD 138

CMOS 139

Other Types of Sensors 139

3-Chip 139

Making Color from Black-and-White 139

Bayer Filter 140

Demosaicing/DeBayering 140

Color Interpolation 141

What Color Is Your Sensor? 142

How Many Pixels Is Enough? 142

5K for 4K 143

Shutters 143

Spinning Mirror 143

Rolling Shutter and Global Shutter 143

Sensor Size and Depth-of-Field 144

ISO in Digital Cameras 145

Noise 146

IR and Hot Mirror Filters 147

Bit Rate 148

Bit Depth 149

contents

ix

Frame Rates 149

The Film Look vs. The Video Look 150

Film Cameras 150

measurement 151

The Waveform Monitor 152

External Sync 152

Types of Display 152

Color Bars In Detail 155

Using the PLUGE in Monitor Calibration 156

Monitor Probes 157

Legal and Valid 157

Hue/Phase 158

The Vectorscope 158

Using the Vectorscope On the Set 159

Color Bars On the Vectorscope 159

White Balance/Black Balance 160

Gamut 161

Video Test Cards 161

The Deceptively Simple Neutral Gray Card 161

The Gray Card and Color Balance in Film and Video

163

Why Isn’t 18% Gray Also 50%? 164

Calibration Test Charts 164

DSC Labs Test Charts 164

The One Shot 165

The X-Rite ColorChecker 167

ChromaMatch & ScreenAlign 168

Skin Tone 168

Measuring Image Resolution 169

exposure 171

Exposure Theory 172

What Do We Want Exposure to Do for Us? 172

Controlling Exposure 173

Change the Bucket 174

The Elements of Exposure 174

Light 175

F/Stops 175

Shutter Speed/Frame Rate/Shutter Angle 176

The Response Curve 176

Underexposure 176

Overexposure 176

Correct Exposure 177

Higher Brightness Range in the Scene 178

Two Types of Exposure 178

How Film and Video Are Different 178

We’ll Fix It in Post 179

The Bottom Line 180

Exposure in Shooting RAW Video 180

Video Exposure 180

The Tools of Exposure 181

The Incident Meter 181

The Reflectance Meter 182

A Different World of Exposure 182

Setting Exposure with the Waveform Monitor 183

F/Stops On the Waveform 183

cinematography: theory and practice x

The 18% Solution 184

Exposure Indicators in The Camera 185

Zebras 185

Histogram 185

Traffic Lights and Goal Posts 186

False Color Exposure Display 187

Arri Alexa False Colors 189

Strategies of Exposure 190

Don’t Let It Clip, but Avoid the Noise 191

Texture & Detail 191

The Dilemma 192

Using Light Meters 192

Meter the Key 193

Using the Waveform Monitor 193

Placing Middle Gray 194

Start at the Bottom or Start at the Top 194

Expose to the Right 195

Zebras 196

The Monitor 196

Know Thyself and Know Thy Camera 196

Blackmagic Camera Exposure Advice 197

HDRx 197

linear, gamma, log 199

Dynamic Range 200

Linear Response 200

An Ideal and a Problem 201

Linear as Scene Referred 201

The Classic S-Curve in the Image 201

Film Gamma and Video Gamma 203

Video Gamma 203

The Coincidence 203

Rec.709 204

Studio Swing Levels, Full Range, and Legal Video 204

Gamma Control in Traditional HD 205

Knee Control 205

Black Stretch/Black Gamma 205

Another Approach 206

Hypergamma/Cinegamma/Film Rec 206

Sony Hypergamma terminology 207

Gamma in RAW Video 207

The Inefficiency of Linear 207

Log Encoding 208

Superwhite 208

What You See Is Not What You Get 209

Log and RAW—Two Different Things 209

Proprietary Log Curves 209

Sony S-Log 210

Arri Log C 210

Canon-Log 212

Redcode 212

Red Log 212

18% Gray in Log 212

Variation in Log Curves 213

image control & grading 215

contents

xi

At the DIT Cart 216

What Happens At the Cart Doesn’t Stay At the Cart 217

Color Correction and Color Grading 218

Controllers and Control Surfaces 219

Control Parameters 219

Lift/Shadows 220

Gamma/Midtones 221

Gain/Highlights 221

Curves 221

Log Controls 222

Log Offset Color and Master Controls 222

Exporting and Reusing Grades 224

LUTs And Looks 224

LUT Formats 226

Proper Use of LUTs in Color Correction 226

Viewing LUTs 227

LUTs and Looks: What’s the Difference? 227

Controlling the Image in Front of the Lens 228

Camera Filter Types 228

Diffusion and Effects Filters 228

Contrast Filters 229

Neutral Density Filters 229

Effects Filters and Grads 230

Conversion Filters 232

Camera Lens Filters for Color Correction 232

Warming and Cooling Filters 232

Contrast Control in Black-And-White 234

Polarizers 235

IR Filters 236

the tools of lighting 237

The Tools of Lighting 238

Color Balance 238

Color Rendering Index 238

Daylight/Tungsten Sources 238

LED Lights 239

Remote Phosphor LEDs 239

HMI Units 240

Xenons 245

Tungsten Lights 246

Fresnels 246

Open Face 247

PARs 247

Soft Lights 248

Barger Baglights 250

Color-Correct Fluorescents 250

Other Types of Units 251

SoftSun 251

Cycs, Strips, Nooks, and Broads 252

Chinese Lanterns and Spacelights 252

Self-Contained Crane Rigs 253

Ellipsoidal Reflector Spots 253

Balloon Lights 253

Handheld Units 254

Day Exteriors 254

Controlling Light with Grip Equipment 255

For More Information On Lighting 258

cinematography: theory and practice

xii

lighting basics 259

The Fundamentals of Lighting 260

The [conceptual] Tools of Lighting 260

The Attributes of Light 260

Hard vs. Soft 260

Full Range of Tones 261

Color Control and Color Balance 262

Shape 262

Separation 262

Depth 262

Texture 262

Mood and Tone 263

Exposure and Lighting 263

Some Lighting Terminology 264

Working with Hard Light and Soft Light 266

Hard Light 266

Soft Light 267

Direction 269

Avoiding Flat Front Lighting 269

Light from the Upstage Side 270

Backlight and Kicker 270

Intensity 270

Texture in Lighting 271

Color 271

Lighting Techniques 271

Ambient 271

Classical Lighting 271

Bringing it through the windows 272

Practicals and Motivated Lighting 272

Basic Principles of Lighting 272

Back Cross Keys 272

Ambient Plus Accents 272

Lighting with Practicals 273

Lighting through the Window 273

Available Natural Light 274

Available Light Windows 274

Motivated Light 276

Carrying a Lamp 277

Day Exteriors 278

Fill 280

Silks and Diffusion 280

Open Shade and Garage Door Light 280

Sun As Backlight 282

Magic Hour 283

optics & focus 285

The Physical Basis Of Optics 286

Refraction 286

Focal Length and Angle of View 286

F/Stop 287

Focus 287

Mental Focus 288

Circle of Confusion 290

Depth-of-field 291

How Not to Get More Depth-of-Field 291

Hyperfocal Distance 291

Nodal Points 293

The Rear Nodal Point and Special Effects Shots 294

contents

xiii

Zooms and Depth-of-Field 295

Macrophotography 296

Exposure Compensation in Macrophotography 296

Depth-of-Field in Close-Up Work 297

Calculating Depth-of-Field in Close-Up Work 297

Close-Up Tools 297

Diopters 297

Extension Tubes or Bellows 298

Macro Lenses 298

Snorkels and Innovision 298

Specialized Lenses 299

Lens Extenders and Filter Factors 299

Lens Care 299

Back Focus 300

camera movement 301

Camera Movement in Filmmaking 302

Motivation and Invisible Technique 302

Basic Technique 303

Types Of Moves 304

Pan 304

Tilt 304

Move In / Move Out 305

Zoom 305

Punch-in 306

Moving Shots 306

Tracking 306

Countermove 307

Reveal with Movement 307

Circle Track Moves 307

Crane Moves 307

Rolling Shot 308

Camera Supports for Movement 308

Drones 308

Handheld 309

Stabilizer Rigs 309

Camera Heads 309

The Tripod 313

High-Hat 313

Rocker Plate 314

Tilt Plate 314

The Crab Dolly 314

Dolly Terminology 314

Car Shots 317

Camera Positions for Car Shots 318

Vehicle to Vehicle Shooting 318

Aerial Shots 319

Other Types of Camera Mounts 320

Steadicam 320

Rickshaw, Wheelchair, and Garfield 320

Cable-Cam 321

Crash Cams 321

Splash Boxes 321

Underwater Housings 321

Motion Control 321

set operations 323

cinematography: theory and practice

xiv

Making It Happen 324

The Director of Photography 325

The Cinematographer’s Tools 327

Gaffer Glass 327

Laser Pointer 327

Director’s Viewfinder 327

Digital Still Camera 327

The Shot List 327

Putting the Order Together 328

Reading the Script 328

Talking to the Director 329

Location Scouts and Tech Scouts 330

Coordinating with Other Departments 330

The Team and The Order 331

The Page Turn 331

Tests 332

Camera Crew 332

Operator 332

First AC Duties 333

Second AC 335

Loader 336

DIT 336

DIT Workflow 336

Simple Data Workflow 337

Advanced Workflow 337

Digital Loader/Media Manager 338

Utility 338

Camera Crew Reports, Equipment & Tools 339

Camera Reports 339

Camera Assistant Tools and Supplies 341

AC Prep 342

Camera Prep Checklist 342

The Team 344

Lighting Technicians (Electricians or Sparks) 344

Grips 344

Other Units 346

Set Procedures 348

Block, Light, Rehearse, Shoot 348

The Process 348

Room Tone 351

Set Etiquette 351

Set Safety 354

Lighting, Electrical, and Grip 354

Crane Safety 355

Slating Technique 355

Verbal Slating 356

Tail Slate 356

MOS Slating 356

Slating Multiple Cameras 356

Timecode Slates 356

Jamming the Slate 357

What to Write on the Slate 359

When to Change the Letter 359

The European System of Slating 360

Pickups, Series, and Reshoots 361

VFX 363

Bumping a Slate 363

Insert Slates 363

Finding the Sun 364