cinematography Flashcards
Aspect Ratio
The rectangular dimension of the moving image. All videos have an aspect ratio, even YouTube shorts, it’s just that YouTube shorts are not under the Academy Ration of (1:37:1).
Letterboxing
The solution to the problem above (aspect ratios and screen size). This involves keeping the original aspect ratio of a film, just scaled down on a smaller screen. You can see this on Netflix if you watch shows on an iPad. There, you have the option of keeping the original aspect ratio or zooming in so the film takes up the whole screen. I enjoy keeping the original with black on the borders since it makes the most visual and narrative sense.
Cinematography
Taking the principles of mise-en-scene and camera movement and combining them to create a full film. Now that I know how to do this, I can create a perfect full film in the form of Romeo, Juliet and Scene.
Three-Point Lighting
A lighting scheme that has three different lights: key light, fill light, and backlight
Key Light
The light that aims directly at the main subject.
Low Key Lighting
When less key light is used. This can create a very spooky and dark atmosphere. This is typically used to introduce villains.
Fill Light
the light that is placed opposite to the key light, cutting down on ugly shadows.
High Key Lighting
when a lot of key light is used. This can create a very cheery and bright expression. High Key Lighting can be seen in the typical establishing- shot-of-a-cool-character, where the tone is bright and the character is very separated from the background.
Backlight
The light that shines behind the subject, separating them from the background and creating depth.
Top Lighting
lighting coming from overhead. This really establishes the importance of the thing in light, as it is the lighting most like a spotlight.
Blocking
This is derived from the theater. It means to plan the movement of. I remember my first blocking in Promedy. Good times. It means to plan the movements around the stage or film set. Atelis had blocking, but Romeo, Juliet and Scene will have more.
Reflectors and Lamps
these are the tools used to create lighting effects. On film, they are hidden from the audience, usually behind the camera or behind the set, as they are non-diegetic.
Five types of film stock
Black and white negative, color negative, intermediate stock, black and white print, and color print.
- Negatives are run through a camera and gradually exposed to light. When that happens, the images are reversed. (reds show up and blue, etc).
- When the negatives are processed, they are turned into positives, where the tone is normal.
- Intermediate stocks (internegatives and interpositives) are used during post-production.
Composition
This is the painterly term. If an aspect ratio is a canvas, the arrangement of subjects on the screen is a film’s composition. There is a lot of thought needed to properly compose within a film. If an aspect ratio is a canvas, composition would be the placement within a canvas.
Depth of Field
the area of the image between the foreground and background that remains in focus. This is when a filmmaker chooses to focus on a certain person in a crowd, placing the focus (and narrative emphasis) on this person.
