FINAL DRAFT

                                               CINEMATOGRAPHY

  Have you ever heard cinematography term? I am strongly sure that everyone familiar with this word.  Cinema has an important place in today’s world. Well, what is cinematography? Cinematography is the art of photography and visual storytelling in a motion picture or television show. Cinematography includes all on-screen visual elements such as  lighting, framing, composition, camera motion, camera angles,lens choices, depth of field, zoom, focus, color, exposure, and filtration. In this essay, I’ll give detailed information about early cinema, the rise of the film industry,filmmaking, cinematographers and some cinematographic techniques.

   Firstly,telling a story on film isn’t just about recording the action. It’s also about how the images are captured. For this reason, cinematography is more than recording the action. Well, before explaining that, I’ll begin with the rise of the film industry. How it was first came up? Actually, no one person invented the cinema. However, in 1891 the Edison Company in the USA demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience were the Lumière brothers in Paris. At first, films were very short, sometimes only a few minutes or less. By 1914, several national film industries were established. Then, films became longer. As more people want to see movies, the industry flourished.Therefore, large studios were established and special cinemas built.With the addition of color to the black and white movies, the cinema industry has improved greatly.

   Secondly,why is cinematography important to filmmaking?  Cinematography supports the overall look and mood of a film. Thus, filmmakers generally choose to spend the majority of their budget on high-quality cinematography to guarantee that the film will look incredible on the big screen. A cinematographer, also known as a Director of Photography, is in charge of the camera and the lighting crew. They’re the person responsible for creating the look, color, lighting, and for framing of every single shot in a film. They have some responsibilities. They choose a visual style for the film, establishes the camera set up for every shot, determines the lighting for every scene,explores the potential of every location,attends rehearsals,elevates the vision of the director.

  For example, Roger Deakins who is a successful cinematographer extracts a new visual style from every script which immerses the audience in the story. He uses references for inspiration. Deakins looks for references with emotional significance rather than stylish visuals. ”Sometimes up here,we’re going to start with these shots and at midday. Then there’s the sun goes down. We can shoot this way.” (Deakins, 2018). He takes advatage of locations. His lens choices place the viewer in the scene with the characters. In my opinion, it enables that characters and audiences set up connection thanks to this technique and then scene become more vivid.

To sum up, the film industry has undergone a great deal of change and development from past to present day.Cinematography should be much more than recording the image. It has some important techniques and requires to a great extent of effort. When creating a film, the duties of the cinematographer are very important. Cinematography determines the look and mood of a film. ”Cinematography is where you’re putting in the audience. In some way that’s more important actually what the frame looks like.” (Deakins,2018)

• 

References:

MasterClass (2019, Oct 22). masterclass.com  https://www.masterclass.com

StudioBinder (2020, March 11) sudiobinder.com  https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-cinematography/

Mitchell (2017, July 5)  https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/cinerama-in-the-uk-the-history-of-3-strip-cinema-in-pictureville-cinema https://blog.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk

You can watch Roger Deakin’s reportage about cinematography style.

Reklam