Plzz teach me Basics of cinematography

[Pratheek Nv]

Plzz teach me Basics of cinematography

[David Mullen ASC]

That's not what a web discussion forum is designed to do - to teach a subject requires designing a course where you go through topics one by one with regular tests to check the level of comprehension.

 

What we can do is answer specific questions on points of confusion. What is a waste of our time is to ask us to define words that you can look up yourself on Wikipedia and other websites. But when you come across something that doesn't quite make sense to you, perhaps one of us can explain it more clearly or cite examples or other places to research.

 

You should at least start with reading some basic cinematography textbooks.

[Leon Liang]

If you don't understand the basics of cinematography, please don't put "Cinematographer" as your occupation. I bet you've been told that before.

[Brian Drysdale]

Student would be the one to use in this case.

 

There are lots of books available on the subject, together with web sites. Apart from these resources there are also workshops and courses.

[Simon Wyss]

Send me $2000, then we talk.

[Carl Looper]

1. Push the run button on a camera.

2. Let go.

3. Look at the results.

4. Repeat.

[Leon Liang]

5. Watch what happens when other people push the run button on a camera.

6. Try to copy them.

7. Stuff up.

8. Claim that you're just being creative.

[Tyler Purcell]

9. Subscribe to American Cinematographer. (online)

10. Take a courses on the basics of cinematography. (hands-on)

11. Read countless books on the art of lighting and lensing.

12. Watch movies and read back issues of American Cinematographer so you can learn what they did.

13. Buy a cheap digital cinema camera and lenses and go play.

14. Ohh and moving to Hollywood, doesn't really make life easier. You'd be another small fish in a big pond.

[Leon Liang]

15. Or:

Send me $2000, then we talk.

[Carl Looper]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with copying simply what others are doing, even if you really appreciate what others are doing. I find it's far more interesting to develop new ideas, rather than just proving the same ones over and over again. Good ideas evolve into formulas because it makes it possible to re-execute the same idea more efficiently the next time around, ie. one just follows the recipe rather than repeating all the R&D that went into creating that recipe in the first place. But in the very act of re-enactment is also the destruction of the idea's original novelty.

 

Of course the novelty of an idea is not as important as the idea itself (a good idea), but without new ideas we risk just boring ourselves to death. Personally I'd much prefer a novel but bad idea than a done-to-death good idea. That doesn't mean I could argue any better that the square wheels on my car are a not a complete pain in the proverbial.

 

C

[Leon Liang]

(deleted)

Edited September 14, 2015 by Leon Liang

[Rakesh Malik]

Study the work of Rennaissance painters and fine art photographers.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Be aware of your reaction both intellectually and emotionally to the lighting and scenes your experience in every day life.

 

E.g. I vividly remember being dumped on a street corner in highschool by a sweet-heart-- it was night, on a stoop with a rather hard and bright white light over-head which cast some hard shadows mixed in with the ugly yellowed sodium vapor of the street lights and the occasional red, yellow, and green of a stop light. It was both sad, and frightening.

 

Another example was the oppressive greenish florescent lights and the off cyan of the hospital bed lamp when my dad finally passed-- in the hallways you were exposed and vulnerable, and although in a bed with a nice little quilt on it, the cyan lamp just made everything look sickly, unappealing, and cold.

 

once you start to think of how lighting effects your mood and what you see and what you remember, everything else is just implementation based on the budget you have-- the "best" and "right" way to do it come with experience, but the cinematography comes from, I think, life, memory, and taste.