Setting Up Your Shots

by Jeremy Vineyard

  Split Focus relies on a device called a split-field diopter. A diopter splits the focus on each side of the lens. This allows one side of the lens to be focused on something far in the background, while the other side is focused on something up close.

  Where can I see it?

  The Fury gives us a close-up of a young woman in bed and a nurse watching in the background. In Raising Cain, Split Focus shows a detective in the foreground while Cain sits in the background answering questions. Brian De Palma uses this technique in many of his films.

  Split Focus

  LIGHTING

  What does it look like?

  Lighting has always been one of the principal techniques in the toolbox of filmmaking. Shoot a scene with a harsh toplight and the characters’ faces become drowned in shadows. Shoot a scene with backlight, and you can separate the character visually from the background. Shoot a scene with a fill light, and you can keep the actor’s emotions visible even in dark scenes.

  There are many good books that go into detail on Lighting. It’s an in-depth subject that requires years of training. For your benefit, a few brief examples are included here.

  Where can I see it?

  In The Departed, the film begins with Jack Nicholson’s face hidden in shadows. After an introductory sequence, he steps into the light to reveal his face. Adam Sandler’s face is lit up the first time he plays the harmonium in Punch Drunk Love.

  A fake relationship between the apparent light source (objects in a scene) and the actual light source (movie lights offscreen) can often be seen. In The Electric Horseman, a character dowses a fire and the lights fade. However, it is not the light of the fire that caused the change. It is the unseen change of exterior lights.

  In One From the Heart, as two characters argue, the scene is bathed in harsh red light. Neon Lighting can be seen in Xanadu and 48 Hours. A light source illuminates the characters’ faces from a briefcase in Pulp Fiction. In Lady Snowblood, light is added to a woman’s face just as she dies.

  Lighting

  COLOR

  What does it look like?

  The manipulation of Color, the application of it in the set design, the costumes, the lighting (using filters) is everywhere in cinema. By using and altering Color, you can create a profound effect on the audience.

  Color affects moods, changes audience perceptions, and creates links between scenes, characters, and locations. Color can highlight a specific area of a frame, a specific point in time, or it can have the opposite effect and hide an object within its surroundings.

  Where can I see it?

  In The Village, the Color red is used to represent fear, monsters, and the forbidden “outside world.” In Bambi, a stark change in the color palette of the animation can be seen as Bambi knocks antlers with a young buck. The colors shift from calming yellows and greens to bold blacks and blues to emphasize the action.

  In Oliver Stone’s Alexander, a man stands in a red cloak against white mountains. A stark contrast in color is achieved. In The Ice Storm, the bright orange hooded jacket stands out sharply against the ice-blue forest outside. Yellow-clothed monks stand against green grass in Heaven and Earth. In The Rat Pack, Sammy Davis Jr’s racial isolation is emphasized. Don Cheadle is placed in an all-white room and is dressed in black. In High Plains Drifter, the entire town is painted red.

  In Don Juan, a man in a black suit stands in front of a mountain of white sand. A red kimono contrasts against a lush green background in Madame Butterfly. Flashbacks are bathed in orange in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Tequila Sunrise shows a blistering orange sunset. The characters in Gone With the Wind are baked in a deep orange sunset.

  In West Side Story, a prism of color is seen as Maria dances and spins. In Punch Drunk Love, kaleidoscope-style color patterns appear between scenes. In Mishima, the rocks and trees turn red after a violent event. A soft yellow lamp stands in contrast with the cold blue of winter in La Grande Bouffe. One woman in white stands among a group of mourners in black in The Last Picture Show.

  CHROMA KEYING

  What does it look like?

  Chroma Keying easily replaces a section of a scene with another image. This technique may be used to show a character in a dangerous or impossible situation without the actor ever being there.

  An actor is filmed against a colored wall that is usually completely green or completely blue. Because the wall is a single color, a computer can remove the background by removing that color. The computer can then paste the actor onto a new background. This technique may also be used to replace objects within a scene. In post-production, patches of greenscreen in a scene can be used as areas that need to be replaced.

  Where can I see it?

  In Superman, the scenes of Superman flying were shot against a greenscreen and then composited onto a film image of the sky moving by.

  Chroma Keying

  COLOR SEEP

  What does it look like?

  Color Seep is a technique in which an image’s saturation is changed over time. The saturation of an image determines how much color it has. An oversaturated image will look unnaturally bright and washed out. An image with the saturation removed becomes black and white. This process either gradually removes the saturation from a color image, or gradually adds saturation to a black and white image, ending up in color.

  Where can I see it?

  Watch Platoon. After the final battle, the camera pans over a black and white landscape and gradually fades into color. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid starts out in sepia-toned black and white. After the introduction, the image fades into color. Then at the end of the movie, the image loses its saturation once again.

  JOURNEY THROUGH EYE

  What does it look like?

  Journey Through Eye transitions from the real world into a character’s inner thoughts. The camera moves toward an extreme close-up of a character’s eye and then dissolves to a scene that represents that character’s subconscious. The technique can be reversed — to transition from a character’s subconscious to conscious reality.

  Where can I see it?

  This technique can be seen in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, as Gandalf lies broken after his battle with the Balrog.

  In Contact, the camera pulls through the universe and journeys through Ellie’s eyes. In Highlander, the camera pulls through the eye of Connor MacLeod, transitioning from his past into the present.

  Journey Through Eye

  REAR PROJECTION

  What does it look like?

  Rear Projection is the process of projecting a film image onto a screen behind the actors. If done correctly, the audience sees both the scene in progress and the projected images blended together seamlessly. The effect can be very surreal. Rear Projection gives the impression that a separate universe is happening alongside the real universe, both in the same scene.

  Before audiences became as sophisticated as they are today, actors in older movies often sat in a model car and pretended to drive. Behind them, a Rear Projection showed images of streets and cars moving by. Because this looks fake to our modern eyes, Rear Projection is seldom used anymore for traveling shots, and is most often used as a special effect.

  Where can I see it?

  Rear Projection can be seen in The Wild One, as Brando and his crew ride.

  Rear Projection is used several times in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me to give us the feeling of old movies.

  Rear Projection

  GLOBAL ZOOM

  What does it look like?

  A Global Zoom begins with an establishing shot of an entire planet. The camera then zooms, via a digital effect, toward the planet until it finally reaches the surface. This technique, used in reverse, adds finality to a scene or to the entire film.

  Where can I see it?

  The ‘Burbs uses this technique and its reversal to begin and end the film.

  Global Zoom

  TIME SLICE

  What does it look like?

/>   The Time Slice technique shows a “slice” of life, frozen in time or at extremely slow speeds, from many different angles.

  A series of photographic cameras are set up at varying angles around the subject of interest. All of the cameras are then fired at a programmed speed to capture the subject from several different angles at the desired instant. The still images are spliced together. Finally, a computer creates in-betweens for the images to eliminate jitters.

  Where can I see it?

  The Matrix uses Time Slice several times to show characters doing impossible things like dodging bullets. Time Slice can be seen in Lost in Space, when the spacecraft enters hyperdrive. Commercials and music videos use this technique occasionally.

  Time Slice

  STROBE

  What does it look like?

  Strobe adds pulsating imagery to a scene. Similar to a disco, the lights flash on and off, providing discrete glimpses of the action.

  Where can I see it?

  In Jacob’s Ladder, Strobe intensifies the nightmarish imagery during a bizarre party scene.

  Strobe

  THEMATIC FILTER,

  NEGATIVE

  What does it look like?

  A filter is one of many tools available to a filmmaker for altering a film’s final appearance. Filters are colored sheets or colored panes of glass that change the color of light that passes through. Filters are often placed over lighting equipment to change the color of light being projected, and over camera lenses to change the color of light caught on film. Common uses of filters include: making the sunset look more golden, reducing the reflection of windows, and warming the skin tones of the actors.

  A Thematic Filter filters out an entire range of colors, leaving an image saturated heavily by a single hue. This leftover color range sets the mood for the scene in which it is used.

  A Negative is similar to the Thematic Filter for black and white films. A Negative is simply a reversal of the colors. Shades of black become white and vice versa.

  Where can I see it?

  Negative is used several times towards the end of Godard’s Alphaville. In Natural Born Killers, the color of lime green is used as a common theme throughout the film. Thematic Filters are used in several scenes to filter the light, giving it a distinct lime green appearance.

  IMAGERY

  What does it look like?

  The concept of Imagery in a film can mean many different things. Imagery can be used to emphasize emotional elements of a scene without any dialogue. For example: in a scene where the characters are talking about war, stock footage of violent battles may be intercut with the conversation. This is a good use of Imagery.

  In a more general sense, Imagery represents any collection of images (montage) that affects the audience on a purely emotional level. Images tend to have certain associated meanings. A flower might signify peace or love, and a gun might signify war. Images that contradict their natural meanings can be even more interesting. For example: a beautiful, but poisonous flower.

  Where can I see it?

  All of David Lynch’s films use Imagery extensively. My personal favorite is Lost Highway, but I would recommend watching them all. In Marathon Man, images of a champion marathon runner are used. In Apocalypse Now, the Imagery of rotating helicopter blades is blended with the Imagery of a spinning ceiling fan.

  In Spellbound, Imagery represents a dream sequence that was inspired by the paintings of Salvador Dali. Battleship Potemkin uses Images of sailors hanging from the mast. Jacob’s Ladder has many scenes of nightmarish Imagery. In M, the Imagery of a child’s ball rolling out from the forest signifies her death.

  KINETIC ENERGY

  What does it look like?

  According to physics, Kinetic Energy is the energy of motion. In the realm of filmmaking, Kinetic Energy describes the motion of the camera in a scene. There are an inexhaustible number of ways to move a camera, and each one has a unique impact on an audience. Some examples of Kinetic Energy are: dolly movements, Steadicam sequences, handheld shots, crane moves, and jib paths.

  The shakes that result from handheld camera work add energy to a scene. Steadicams can be used for sequences that require a wide range of movement while maintaining a very smooth image. Mechanical devices such as cranes, jibs, and dollies usually create smooth camera movements that are constrained to the device’s limits.

  An inventive example of Kinetic Energy is to place the camera on a swing, a merry-go-round, a roller coaster, or any object that has its own unique type of movement.

  Where can I see it?

  The camera swings violently back and forth with the motion of an axe in The Shining.

  In Hour of the Wolf, the camera circles quickly around the dinner table. During the dinner conversation the camera fast-pans from close-up A to close-up B, and so on. The Kinetic Energy of swirling confusion is seen in The Lavender Hill Mob, as the characters rush down the spiral stairs of the Eiffel Tower.

  In Straw Dogs, Peckinpah uses a handheld camera to add energy to the action scenes. In Rosemary’s Baby, a handheld camera observes Rosemary as she struggles to escape. Breaking the Waves has a considerable amount of Kinetic Energy. In The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the camera spins quickly as a character searches through a cemetery for gold. Handheld cameras are used during a chase sequence in Planet of the Apes.

  As interesting as it can be, Kinetic Energy is not everything. For much of The Godfather, the camera is very still. This lack of rapid camera movement enhances the film’s drama.

  LENS

  What does it look like?

  When shooting a film, a camera Lens can have a great deal of impact on the mood and quality of the final image. A wide-angle lens sees more of a landscape, but distorts objects that are close to the camera. This distortion can be to the director’s advantage, perhaps if they are looking for a psychedelic mood for their film. An extreme wide-angle lens has much more noticeable distortion. These lenses are sometimes referred to as fisheye lenses.

  The focal length of a lens determines its viewing area. A short focal length indicates a wide-angle lens, while a long focal length indicates a telephoto lens. Lenses with long focal lengths allow the camera to be positioned far away from the subject being filmed. These lenses have the effect of compressing the image depth, making objects in the frame appear closer to each other than they actually are. This compression is often good for stunts, by making the stunt players look much closer to dangerous explosions and car chases than they are.

  Another interesting property of lenses is that they change the perceived speed at which characters move onscreen. Through a telephoto lens actors walking perpendicular to the camera appear to be moving faster. Through a wide-angle lens, actors walking toward the camera appear to be moving faster.

  Where can I see it?

  Kurosawa often preferred to use long Lenses in his films. This resulted in characters being compressed together onscreen. A long lens is used to track past a young boy in The Bicycle Thief. When his father steals a bike out of desperation, the long lens adds more motion to the shot, expressing the boy’s shock at his father’s actions.

  In Le Cercle Rouge, long Lenses are set up in front of a fugitive running. The long lens compresses the criminal’s actions, making him appear to move slower. To contrast this, the men chasing him move across the camera space, making them appear to be moving faster than the criminal, and creating a feeling of desperation.

  MIXED MEDIA

  What does it look like?

  Mixed Media is the result of mixing the traditional film medium (filming live actors, sets, and props) with other media such as animation, drawings, and photographs. Computer-generated imagery and optical printers aside, traditional filmmaking’s constraint is that it can film only what is reality. A camera can’t capture an imaginary image. By using other types of media, filmmakers may accomplish cinematic techniques that are impossible by traditional means.

  Mixed Media can express what may be too expen
sive to re-create in reality. Scenes with extremely complex movement and interaction might be less expensive to animate than to film. Low-budget films may use pictures and drawings to symbolize large-scale sequences.

  Where can I see it?

  In Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Cool World, animated characters interact with their live action counterparts. In Tank Girl, comic book snippets and animation segments are interspersed with live action. In Once Upon a Time in the West, a painting of the ocean is used to signify the railroad tycoon’s unachievable goal of reaching the Pacific Ocean.

  MIXING STOCKS

  What does it look like?

  There are many different types of film that a filmmaker can choose. Each type is called a film stock, and its unique physical characteristics determine how the final image will look. In addition, there are many different formats for film: 8mm (used for home movies before video camcorders), 16mm (used for documentaries, low-budget films), and 35mm (used for most feature films). I also include video, since many directors have experimented with mixing video with filmed images or filming with nothing but video cameras. While other film formats exist that are used for large-screen theaters, these formats are usually too cumbersome for mainstream cinema.