Cinematography

 Cinematography Introduction

Cinematography is the art and craft of motion pictures by capturing a story visually. This includes media codes, codes & conventions, mise en scene, technical codes, and different camera angles. A cinematographer handles all the camera angles and lighting. They use different camera angles to display different meanings. For example, a fade out/ fade in indicates a passage of time between scenes. Cinematography is very important to movies because the different camera angles and movements send a message. Most of the messages are invisible. This is called invisibility. 

Background Research

I did my research on cinematography and gained knowledge on how cinematography is used and why it's important to a movie. Telling a narrative on film is just not about catching the action on camera it's how the shots are captured. Cinematography supports the overall look and mood of a movie. In order for the film to come together, the cinematographer has a lot of responsibilities to make sure the filming of the movie goes smooth. The responsibilities are establishes the camera setup for every shot, determines lighting for every scene, and explores the potential of every off-site location. They use camera angles, camera shots, sound, and lighting to send a message. A high angle: is the camera is placed above the character to indicate small, weak, or young, a low angle: is when the camera is placed below the character to indicate that the character is strong or noble. An extremely wide shot: shows a clear view of a character and it's surroundings, wide shot: shows subject/ character from head to toe, medium shot: shows the upper body, close up: shows only the face and shoulder, and extreme closeup: only characters face is visible. These angles and shots supports the film so much because it sends messages to the audience. Some messages are implicit or explicit. Cinematographers also use sounds. Diegetic sound which would be expected to be in the type of move and non-diegetic sounds that are added that only the audience can hear such as a soundtrack. This is what I learned from my research of cinematography. 

Content Application

My teacher had us use our phones and take pictures of our peers using different types of angles and shot types. We then had to put it into a powerpoint presentation. I had to use one picture that I used and two from the internet. That's how we used what we learned to do a hands-on activity.

Reflection

I learned why cinematography is so important to films and how the key parts send messages to the audience. The key parts are sound, lighting, angles, and shots. Also, how the responsibilities of the cinematographer helps the movie come to be.

References

https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/6-what-is-cinematography/

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/film-101-what-is-cinematography-and-what-does-a-cinematographer-do