Techniques I Like

Focus Pull/Depth of Field

This cinematography technique is when the camera operator uses the manual focus on the camera to bring emphasis to either the foreground or the background. It’s sometimes used for artistic purposes and to give more aesthetically pleasing shots which provide transitions between scenes. Through my experience of consuming different forms of film media, I’ve found that this technique is most commonly used in documentaries which are shot on hand-held DSLR’s. It still does however have common use within films such as the example below which is from the film ‘Predator’.

I believe this gives the audience a greater understanding of the environment and emotions as they can focus of specific areas of the subject rather than a whole frame. I attempted using this within my preliminary but I ran into problems with lack of knowledge on how to use manual focus effectively. This leads to the focus to pull away from Harold’s shoulder to the phone, but the focus exceeds this meaning that audience cannot get a true picture of what is on the phone. I might use this in my final production to achieve the effects I’ve stated previously but if it’s not necessary, it could be a glaring continuity issue.

Tracking shots

Another Cinematography technique which I like is the Tracking shot. This involves for the camera operator to focus on a particular character or prop for one continuous shot. This can be done through a panning shot or even through Steadicam such as the example from the film ‘Goodfellas’ which is given below

This emphasis allows for the audience to understand what to focus on and to also notice other Mise en Scene features which will be seen in the background. I might attempt to use this within my production as I believe it gives artistic merit to the cinematography. I would prefer to do a Steadicam version but this can be difficult to achieve due to lack of professional equipment and space for the camera operator to move around in.

Chiaroscuro lighting

A lighting technique which I like is Chiaroscuro lighting. This technique originated from renaissance art which has a heavy contrast between light and dark colours. It’s most associated within film with the noir genre. This heavy contrast can create this sense of suspense, mystery and fear which can give a character this type of impression immediately just from lighting.

This can therefore be used effectively within genres such as Thriller as can emphasis the nature of a character and make them seem more tense. I used this within my preliminary with the character Harold being shown with harsh light differences between his face and the shadows. I might also attempt to use this in my production as I believe it’s effective to give an impression of a character so would make the antagonist more obvious.

One-Point perspective

This cinematography technique is most famously used by Stanley throughout his filmography which can be seen in this montage. This is when the camera is even focusing on a camera is completely still keeping the point of interest relatively centralised with sometimes symmetry created in the frame. This can be used in still shots or in tracking shots where the actor is kept completely centralised with the camera being operated through steady-cam and follows them. Wide-angle lenses are also sometimes used to see more of the surroundings. This is most famously used in Kubrick’s 1980 movie ‘The Shining’ where the child is going through the halls on his trike. This is similar to the tracking shot but this one instead contains a centralised focus on a character or prop which does not move.

I believe this give this sense of awareness and tension to the viewer, with even very long and sometimes uneventful shots still maintain the audiences attention due to this interesting cinematography technique. I might attempt to use this within my own media production to show excellent use of cinematography and camera work but also to create the feeling expressed previously. However these shots are very hard to do and are laborious to achieve due to how perfection through smoothness has to be met through-out. Additionally, these shots were typically done using a SnorriCam (a chest-mounted harness) which I do not have access to.

Slit scan editing

This editing technique gets little use today in contemporary editing but I believe it creates a desired effect of making a shot look more creative and psychedelic, which I like. It’s when slits are cut from an image and then these slits are then warped to skew the original image and make it look different. It’s most famously used in sci-fi films such as ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ with the star gate sequence and also the film ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ which used slit scan editing to create the effect of warp drive. This technique can still be done with modern editing software but was more commonly used with tape editing as it was more of a technological feat at the time and looked more impressive.

I believe this unique technique does give this psychedelic and eye catching effect, but it can’t be applied to many films. I will not be using this technique as it would simply look out of place within a non-sci-fi film unless it’s done extremely effectively which I believe I cannot achieve.