Want to get into Cinematography

[Eric Reim]

Hi,

I am a sophomore in High Schoolright now and I would like to get into Cinematography, where is a good place to start? What are some good schools? And is there anything else that I should know? Thank you.

[Kevin Zanit]

Hi,

I am a sophomore in High Schoolright now and I would like to get into Cinematography, where is a good place to start? What are some good schools? And is there anything else that I should know? Thank you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

A good place to start would be the search button at the top of the page. This question has been answered many times.

 

Read that, and read these forums and try to learn as much as you can.

[Jon Amerikaner]

Start small. Start with still photography, preferably with an SLR. That will teach you composition and exposure. If you can develop your prints, that's even better. When I was in HS I volunteered at a small independent TV studio where we broadcasted local sports. I did a lot of BS but I eventually started shooting. That led to a job as a TV news cameraman. I then started shooting student films in college. There are lots of opportunities to shoot because most kids want to direct. I'm now on my way to getting an MFA in Cinematography. No matter what, you need to shoot: stills, video, or film. Just keep shooting and you'll get better everyday. And watch a lot of films, especially classics. Get a netflix account, that will keep your cost down, and try to see films you never heard of.

[Andre Lim]

What I did before heading off to film school when I was in high school and some college, I got a job at Hollywood Videos. Sole reason for me applying, I get all the free rentals I want. I think around 11th grade I wanted to be a cameraman, it's always been in the back of my mind, I used to really enjoy filming skate videos with my friends w/ one of those movable heads with a huge LCD screen by Sony, forgot the model. I took some film courses in high school/college and I gotta say I was hooked. After I went to school I'd go to work and you'd be suprised w/ all the stuff you can learn by working at a video store. Just the small but neccessary things like aspect ratio, how production companies handle DVDs and VHS, (I learned it costed the production companies more $ to make VHS) ya, a lot of people knew that but I didn't when I started. At the end of the day, you can check out any 3 movies you want for free. So instead of paying $ for netflix or blockbuster online (which I use now). You can get $ for working + get all the movies you want.

 

What I did was check out the movies that won best cinematography or ones that people highly recommended to me visually. I watched the whole movie through, then I would go to the very complicated lighting shots and think what's the motivation of the lights, why the certain lens, why at this angle etc. I left my lighting questions to the simpler shots like a basic medium shot, OTS, CU. (Main reason is because I did not know a lot about the various lights, gels, and overall process of how to light complex scenes... even now I'm still trying to learn all the light names <_< ). I actually even got some really crappy homemade looking indy movies that found it's way in to the store. You can analyze that and see what you would've done to make that scene more effective.

 

Like jamerikaner said, still photography is a great way of learning. If you can't afford an SLR camera, you can buy a pretty nice digital camera from about $350-$700. I just recently purchashed a Canon Powershot G6 7.1 MP w/ manual controls for about $499 total. It'd be best to get a camera with all manual options where you can practice exposure, depth of field with aperature, white balancing, composition, etc. You really learn a lot about what color works best together {knowing the color wheel is definately a big bonus, what colors compliment each other etc.) in editing your pictures in photoshop. Playing around with de/saturation, contrast, chroma, etc. I had a lot of practice with this using color correction tool on an AVID during my spare time on projects I've shot, by just playing around you can cool down spots of over exposion, I tried blue and it worked well with a blown out yellow. Stuff like that I would've never known unless I just played around with color correction.

 

 

 

Other things you'll start to learn just with a digi or video cameras are small but very important things like:

 

 

- Lighting a blue object with yellow light will not turn out to be the blue you saw with

your eyes. Your eyes automatically "white balance" so-to-say by skin tone, not by the actual light in the room etc. I learned you can actually close your eyes for a certain amount of time in a flourescent lit room open it and everything will appear greenish for a couple seconds. (well, I thought it was cool the first time :P )

 

- Flourescent lights flicker and are usually yellowish green.

 

- Sunlight balance on tungsten will turn orangish, vice versa.

 

- Lower ASA = film speed, (slow is around 100~, normal is around 250-300~, fast is around 400-500~) slower the speed the less light it recieves. It's great info if you use film, it's basically the amount of silver halide crystals that are on the film that obsorbs the light. It gets very techinal, my brain almost blew up while my cinematography teacher was speaking faster than one of those fine print radio ad people, trying explain to the class the first week of film school. Obviously if you use a DV camcorder or DSLR or Point and Shoot camera, there wont be film. The light is captured on a CCD (charged coupled device) chip which gathers the information of light that was captured and puts it either on the DV tape or on your camera/memory card. (Actually several steps before reaching that, but long story short)

 

- Aperture wide open like f/1.8~ (depending on camera and lens) will let in more light with shallow depth of field (ideal for focusing on a subject not wanting background distractions) where as a closed down aperture to say f/5.6 will let in less light but give you a greater depth of field (this is the usual choice for landscape/scenic photography)

 

- Shutter Speed - On a real camera like a 16/35mm there is an actual shutter that is shaped like " D " like half a circle spinning, covering the exposed film for a certain length of time usually ranging from realllllly slow 6-8 seconds (moving objects are very blurry will also let it tons of light since it exposes the film to light for a long amount of time)

* (shots like lights on cars blurred on freeways, dream-like, indicate fast movement)

to 1/4000th of a second or faster so the shutter exposes the film for only 1/4000ths of a second (which captures very sharp still life images on still cameras and some what of a strobe-like effect on a video/film camera but this will require a lot more light since the film is only exposed to light for such a short amount of time.

* (Good for Birds, still shot of a moving car, etc)

 

- Remember 1, 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 etc. These are your f/stops, just remember 1 and 1.4. Basically the every other number is doubled other than 11. Going down 1 stop (higher #) of light will give you half the light where as going up (lower #) will give you double. f-stop is the diameter of the aperture relative to the focal length of the lens. The explaination of the f-stops are quite difficult to understand at first, maybe it's cause I hate math.

 

I've always been told to learn the rules before you break them. Every light, angle, lens, composition should have a meaning. Sure these are opinions, all were handed down to me by my teachers, (which I try to go by on the most part) but realistically, it's up to you on how you want the shot and no one can stop you (atleast in still photography). Also try to visualize what you are trying to shoot before you shoot it like how the lighting looks precisely in your mind. I think that helps a lot.

 

I think that film schools and film programs can only teach you the technical aspect and method and reason, only. No matter how much technical detail of cinematography you know, visual and artistic form is something you are born with or a trait you increase with practice and more practice (sometimes not, I see great tech savvy people who would make great ACs but bad DPs no matter how much they tried); that is something no film school can teach you. Technical knowledge of cinematography is something everyone can learn and understand equally. The artistic style, even if you're lighting a scene that's influenced by a great artist/dp/photographer, it's your vision that's unique in it's own way. Everyone has has an influence, even the best DPs have their influences. To say that someone is coping another man's work, imo, is asinine. Each DP is unique in his method, visually and artistically, which is why it's great to watch and learn from everyone, they all have little bits of information that can help you with all aspects.

 

 

I hope the above paragraphs help you understand the basics although there are tons and tons more which can easily be searched online or done by practice.

 

 

"where is a good place to start?"

Good place to start -

 

- Some basic info on top of the page

 

- Pick up anything you can shoot and practice

 

- Books

 

- Online resources like here or other good place is www.cinematography.net but that's more for intermediate to advanced cinematographers, I still don't understand half the stuff going on at those forums :(

 

- For still photography, magazine photos are a big help. Trying to light the shot the way professional photographers shot, I think helps a lot as far as lighting and exposure goes.

 

 

"What are some good schools?"

 

Good film schools really have a lot of factors invovled in it like -

 

- How much are you willing to pay per year or semester?

 

- Planning on getting getting a well rounded education or get hands-on experience with high end equipment?

 

- Planning on getting a job while going to school or an internship?

 

- Want to spend 4 years and get a BA to possibly a MFA or do you want to try and find work right away?

 

- The cost of buying equipment like light meters, gels, AC/grip tools & equipment etc. are mostly not covered by the school. DV tapes, HD tapes, 16/35mm are also provided or self bought depending on school.

 

- Are you willing get a loan and how much?

 

- Small or large classes?

 

 

It's just too broad of a question when someone asks, "What's a good school?" One could quickly say USC, NYU, AFI, UCLA etc etc, but it really depend on what type of school you're looking for. I wouldn't really take anyone's response too seriously even if it's a notable school because they've never studied at all the schools and so it would be very biased if they went to AFI and said go to AFI cause they have the best teachers etc. Also one school might be strong in one concentration and just suck in the one you're interested in. One person could want a hands-on experience while another wants to get a well rounded eduation, or one person can be richer than another. You can try filmmaker.com and look at L.O.A.F.S guides on the left bar. Alumnis write reviews on their experience at their film schools. Some come in handy and some are just stupid rival film school student trying to talk trash on a school etc. You can spot those easily though.

 

 

P.S. I know the first post was made in december and he might or might not be back to check up but I hope this helps for anyone else that wants to get in to or sitting on the fence about getting in to this profession from a student's point of view who's in the middle of his film school.

[Jon Amerikaner]

Andre where are you going to school? What has your experience like so far?

[Andre Lim]

I go to LA film school and it definately has it's ups and downs. I guess I'll start with the good things.

 

Equipment, teachers, and hands-on experience I think are what drives that school. Getting to watch everything you make in a real theatre.

Meeting people from every where in the world.

Lots of film supplies and equipment very close to the school.

Cinematography classes at Mole Richardson (only 2nd quarter though).

Nice editing/sound mixing rooms, although it's a bit buggy sometimes.

You learn about every aspect of film your first term from production design to producing.

Teachers are very knowledgeable and are working professionals, (no local cable commercials).

Peer/teacher reviews on work you've done.

 

 

Things I don't like :

 

Way too many students.

Students flaking out on shoots they're supposed to work on.

Below average communication between school and students.

Seems like money the school spends go in to the worse places like new painting and carpets.

False promises from Open House to a full student. Open House they showed an HD camera w/ the HD monitor saying we can use both. When the time comes to need to use HD monitor, we are told to downconvert to a normal monitor or you can't take the monitor outside the school since they only have 1, yet 3 hd cameras.

 

Other than all that non sense, I still think it's been fun but hectic. Class hours from day to day are random for the most part. Sleeping was cut down a bit heh, but that only prepares you even more for when you're actually on a real set. I think all of this, more or less, prepares you for post graduation. You're DAT machine can break down, or water starts to leak from the ceiling of one of the sets, actors call you an hour before you're supposed to shoot saying they can't make it. People actually went through that and for the most part overcame it and found other ways of doing it. If everything was all perfect and hand fed to you, it would've been totally different from what actually happens in real life. That shouldn't be an excuse the school should be using on us but it's true. So I guess I can say even the bad experiences turned out good (as far as learning goes) and I never thought I'd learn so much in such a short amount of time.